***Matrox Parhelia....It's Coming......

[RaynorWolfcastle]

<<


<< could drop by the HQ to see what's going on... they're about 10 mins away from my house >>



Somehow I doubt their going to tell just anyone that walks in their front door about an unannounced graphics core.
Especially since Matrox has in the past been extremely quiet about future graphics cores. >>



hu·mor Pronunciation Key (hymr)
n.
The quality that makes something laughable or amusing; funniness: could not see the humor of the situation.
That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement: a writer skilled at crafting humor.
The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd. See Synonyms at wit1.



-Ice

 

[Martin]

I'm gonna bookmark this thread so I can bump it three months from now when their 10. It should be announced within a month, maybe two. is up.

 

[rickn]

<< Well the G800 wasnt wholly a rumour as it was being designed at one point, and was even listed in their drivers at one point in time. >>



Rand, them Matrox dudes are kinda evil, they probably just did that to spook people

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

What we've needed for a long time is this tada, especially when the bitboys threads were around

 

[Rand]

<< I'm gonna bookmark this thread so I can bump it three months from now when their 10. It should be announced within a month, maybe two. is up. >>



For the sake of competition I hope to see Electric Amish back here in 2 months gloating about how he/she? was correct.

 

[SuperSix]

Parhelia AKA "Sun Dogs"

 

[Pariah]

"Rand, them Matrox dudes are kinda evil, they probably just did that to spook people"

John Carmack commented in one of his .plan updates a long time ago about seeing a G800 demo in person adn being very impressed, so it must have reached actual silicon. The way some people treat Carmack's word as gospel, that should be proof enough it did actually exist at one point. He also commented that he thought it would have a big impact. Proving even God is wrong occasionally.

 

[Sunner]

Someone on Ace's mentioned an interesting idea.

What if this mysterious card used BitBoys XBA?
Poking fun at BB aside, if Im not mistaken, XBA is working, they just never managed go get a product using it out the door, but that doesn't mean Matrox can't license it.

And it wouldn't be the first time BB licenses technology to other companies, remember where EMBM came from.

Of course this would be vapor + vapor sorta but still, it's an interesting idea.

 

[wfbberzerker]

hmm.... why doesnt the article mention any new features such as vertex/pixel shaders and the like? the only next-gen feature i see is programmable t&l...

 

[Electric Amish]

<<

<< I'm gonna bookmark this thread so I can bump it three months from now when their 10. It should be announced within a month, maybe two. is up. >>



For the sake of competition I hope to see Electric Amish back here in 2 months gloating about how he/she? was correct. >>



Oh, I will be here....



<< hmm.... why doesnt the article mention any new features such as vertex/pixel shaders and the like? the only next-gen feature i see is programmable t&l... >>



This IS NOT an official announcement. This is info garnered (in some way??) by one of the webmasters at Matroxusers. I'm sure not every detail is obvious. There will be more info.

amish

 

[jeffrey]

cough... G800 all over again ....cough

 

[Rand]

<<

This is info garnered (in some way??) by one of the webmasters at Matroxusers. I'm sure not every detail is obvious. There will be more info.

amish >>



I'm not sure that any details are obvious, when you really look at it everything he says can be summed up in:

Very fast, faster then anything presently available or near release
Lots of memory
New memory design
Programmable shaders

All those claims are basically the claims that we see for any new card, besides the programmable shaders part and that's clearly a necessary factor for any card thoat hopes to pass itself off as 'high end'.
He hasnt given us any details at all, or any specifics.. he's pretty much passed on verbatim what is hyped of any new and upcoming card.
I sincerely doubt anything can be truly guessed at with any accuracy from what he said.

 

[zippy]

<< Can someone tell me when/where Matrox decided to hire the same spokespeople as the Bitzboyz? MUAHAHAHAHA!

*cough* V A P O R W A R E *cough*

I think we'll all believe in a killer 3D card from Matrox when they release it (in stores, as in when I place my order, it'll be shipped from a reputable vendor with tracking information from FedEx). I'll believe it when this incredible bandwidth shows its power in things that I actually use: Quake3, Unreal Tournament, etc.

I have an open mind to competition, so when are they going to show this card off? This year, next year? How about after Duke4 or Team Fortress2 gets released?

vash >>

What spokespeople? Do you see matrox coming out and saying ANYTHING about Parhelia? Did they say ANYTHING about the G800? No, G800 was a rumor, and Parhelia is a rumor. The G800 was, IN FACT (rickn ), real - however, they chopped it down and ended up with a G550. They were taking too long developing it so they canned it.

vash, aparently you never used the G400 series of video cards. Well, it was the king of 3d for a good amount of time over the TNT2 Ultra before the GeForce came out.

According to matroxUSERS (not in any way affiliated with matrox co) it will be announced in 1-2 months - c'mon buddy you can read.

MATROX NEVER ANNOUNCED THE G800 OR IN ANY WAY HINTED THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE RELEASED...OTHER PEOPLE MADE THOSE RUMORS. Yes, John Carmack did use it and did comment on it in one of his .plan updates, so that is a pretty good indcation that it did make silicon, but not public. Please folks, get this straight.

Also, some people mentioned poor driver support. Aparently these same people never used the G400 series. Yes, the G200 series had big time driver issues for awhile, but the G400 was solid. The drivers were very solid when they were released and performance improved with each successive driver release (and they came out fairly often).

Dispelling matrox myths one at a time...

 

[vash]

<< vash, aparently you never used the G400 series of video cards. Well, it was the king of 3d for a good amount of time over the TNT2 Ultra before the GeForce came out. >>

Uhm, I bought G200, G400 and G400Max cards and still use the G200 in my Linux machine -- I know something about Matrox cards because I've used them. What I do know is that the G400 was not the king of 3D over any 3D card at the time (lets go get some TNT2u benches, or Voodoo3 3500 benches, shall we?)! Matrox is king of 2D and they will probably own that crown for a while, but they'll never hold a torch to 3D until they release something just spectactular. And if we are looking at recent timelines, the G800/whatever the name of the new Matrox card will be, has to be pretty recent to beat out the speed king of the GF4.

It takes a number of months to R&D, fab silicon and release the card. If Matrox hasn't released the card by now, or within the next months, they are a cycle behind (ihmo) in making 3D silicon. Heck, look at ATI (another vid card company up north) and look at how long it took them to catch up to Nvidia. ATI's latest hardware is pretty close to what was the latest, but it doesn't hold up NOW against the GF4.

I am more than willing to buy a non-Nvidia card for 3D gaming, but I will not give up my GF2 or Ti500 until a "real" card can be purchased from Matrox's own online store that SMOKES my Ti500.

vash

 

[zippy]

<<

<< vash, aparently you never used the G400 series of video cards. Well, it was the king of 3d for a good amount of time over the TNT2 Ultra before the GeForce came out. >>

Uhm, I bought G200, G400 and G400Max cards and still use the G200 in my Linux machine -- I know something about Matrox cards because I've used them. What I do know is that the G400 was not the king of 3D over any 3D card at the time (lets go get some TNT2u benches, or Voodoo3 3500 benches, shall we?)! >>


G400 preview at AT with evaluation boards and prerelease drivers
G400 MAX review at Tom's Hardware w/ release drivers (poor Q2 performance for a few driver releases) - clearly superior at higher resolutions, 32bit, and with faster, more powerful processors (note speed difference between P3 550 and K6-3 400)

Enjoy.

 

[Rand]

<< What I do know is that the G400 was not the king of 3D over any 3D card at the time (lets go get some TNT2u benches, or Voodoo3 3500 benches, shall we?)! Matrox is king of 2D and they will probably own that crown for a while, but they'll never hold a torch to 3D until they release something just spectactular. >>



I wouldnt say they were the 'king' per-say as I don't believe they ever had a clear cut performance lead, but the G400 Max generally did compete very well against the then top of the line nVidia TNT2 Ultra, and 3dfx Voodoo3 3500.
Not to mention they launched a very effective maketing campaign based off of their support for EMBM.



<< Also, some people mentioned poor driver support. Aparently these same people never used the G400 series. Yes, the G200 series had big time driver issues for awhile, but the G400 was solid. The drivers were very solid when they were released and performance improved with each successive driver release (and they came out fairly often). >>



Matter of opinion, personally I always viewed the G400 drivers as being slightly above average.
DirectX performance was there from the start, but they had some issues with their OpenGL ICD for the G400 initially. System compatibility was reasonably good, though there were some minor issues with the Super Socket7 platform.
DualHead support, and Windows application drivers were excellent. Game compatibility was pretty good, though for awhile compatibility with older games was rather iffy.

 

[Electric Amish]

<< It takes a number of months to R&D, fab silicon and release the card. If matrox hasn't released the card by now, or within the next months, they are a cycle behind (ihmo) in making 3D silicon. Heck, look at ATI (another vid card company up north) and look at how long it took them to catch up to Nvidia. ATI's latest hardware is pretty close to what was the latest, but it doesn't hold up NOW against the GF4. >>



FWIW- The Matrox generation to generation development cycle is 3 years. Unlike nvidia they don't just bump up the MHz and re-release cards every 6 months.

amish

 

[jeffrey]

"FWIW- The Matrox generation to generation development cycle is 3 years. Unlike nvidia they don't just bump up the MHz and re-release cards every 6 months."


And that's a bad thing? If nvidia followed Matrox's development cycle we'd be choosing between G400's and TNT2's. Thank you nvidia for actually offering progress.

 

[Czar]

hehe I want, I want, I want.

When the G400 first came out it didnt seem that good because the drivers were pretty bad, just look how the G400 came out about 1-2 months after it was released. Matrox was still having some driver devlopling problems after the horrible G200, but now I can surely say that Matrox has the best driver developing department of all the card makers.

Still after all those years there isnt a single card out there that can compete with the G400 in terms of what i want in a card, decent 3d, excelent 2d and excelent drivers. Both ATI and nVidia have excelent 3d, ATI has good 2d, nVidia has bad 2d, ATI has bad drivers and nVidia has good drivers.

 

[zippy]

<< hehe I want, I want, I want.

When the G400 first came out it didnt seem that good because the drivers were pretty bad, just look how the G400 came out about 1-2 months after it was released. Matrox was still having some driver devlopling problems after the horrible G200, but now I can surely say that Matrox has the best driver developing department of all the card makers.

Still after all those years there isnt a single card out there that can compete with the G400 in terms of what i want in a card, decent 3d, excelent 2d and excelent drivers. Both ATI and nVidia have excelent 3d, ATI has good 2d, nVidia has bad 2d, ATI has bad drivers and nVidia has good drivers. >>

Agreed. You forgot one thing in the G400...great dualhead.

 

[Czar]

hehe, more than great dual head, the best dual head ever, ati and nvidia has had years to try to reach matrox and they are berely there

 

[Electric Amish]

<< hehe, more than great dual head, the best dual head ever, ati and nvidia has had years to try to reach matrox and they are berely there >>



...and they had to steal engineers from Matrox to get there

amish

 

[paulzebo]

I'm sorry but I'll have to wait until this thing actually reaches the shelves in quantity. Matrox has had plenty of good ideas and products in the past.......... BUT....they failed to deliver on time or in quantity. And that's why I have NVIDIA in my unit. Remember the G400? It was only about 3 months from when the reviewers had the card until the public got it. They had the same issue with the G200. Amish, it's great to have big ideas and great prefab boards, but implimentation of the distibution/manufactoring plan are more critical to me than what Matrox currently offers. Plus NVIDIA by size has far better driver support. Be careful Amish, You're out omongst the English.

 

[Mingon]

If it is edram based as the bandwidth suggests then would the card have the need for 64 / 128 mb of memory?(except for textures i suppose) and if it does have both edram and normal memory would you not expect a strange figure e.g 64 + 12 or 128mb + 12

 

[ElFenix]

<< hmm.... why doesnt the article mention any new features such as vertex/pixel shaders and the like? the only next-gen feature i see is programmable t&l... >>

programmable t&l = pixel and vertex shaders, last i checked. just like in that other thread, i could be wrong, but i don't think i am.