Parhelia 650?

[Canuckgd]

Well, after much deliberation, I think I'm going to go get myself a Parhelia 650 (Matrox) video card. Anyone using this card with CMBO, and if so, have you seen any problems? Will this card depict fog?

Thanks

Glenn

[Schrullenhaft]

I haven't used any cards in the Matrox Parhelia line, but if the previous videocards are any indication, you should be OK with CM. The previous series (G500 & G400 series) produced fog and alpha-blending effects without problem. Their performance wasn't very high, but it is sufficient (though they weren't doing much filtering or any anti-aliasing).

The Parhelias on the other hand offer anti-aliasing and higher filter effects, so they have the potential to generate images of the same quality as other popular 3D gaming cards. Though at the same time they also can have the potential for other driver issues with CM that I haven't seen with the earlier generation of Matrox videocards. Unfortunately their performance is not quite up to par for gaming compared to the rest of the videocard field, especially on the basis of price. Where the benefits of a Matrox videocard come in are the excellent 2D display quality, color fidelity and multi-monitor support.

Anyway... what I offer here is a historical perspective of previous Matrox products' compatibility with CM. Hopefully someone here has actually used a Parhelia with CM to give you the complete details.

[Canuckgd]

Thank you Schrullenhaft. This helps a lot! My main usage of the computer is for photo-editing in Photoshop, thus the reason I was thinking of the Matrox line of cards. Gaming is limited to Battlefront (CMBB, CMBO) at this point so if the card will work with them, I'm happy. I know what you mean about the potential for driver issues though (have had enough of driver issues to last me a lifetime at this point - mostly with ATI), so if anyone out there has used the Parhelia specifically, that too would help.

Many thanks again .

Glenn

[Canuckgd]

By the by, if I were to go to the G550 (I'm very tempted - excellent price and outstanding 2D graphics, from what I've been told), AND I get fog, etc., in CMAK, etc., then that would be the best of all worlds. Battlefront are about the only games I have now, and I'm running a P4 3.0 GHz, 800 FSB unit with a gig of RAM, so do you (or anyone) think the G550 would slow game play down noticeably given the rest of the unit specs?

Thanks!

Glenn

[junk2drive]

Another suggestion depending on your budget, buy a used computer just for CM. That way if a big scenario takes a while to calculate, you can do photo work on the other while you wait.

[Redwolf]

My G-400s do fog for CM.

I never found a way to reliably measure framerate in CM but when I switched to a Radeon 8500LE I didn't feel an improvement for CM performance-wise. Very hard to say.

[Canuckgd]

Thanks guys! Sounds good. Yes, at some point I will need a second machine, I'm quite sure. Hopefully next year. One will be strictly for games (probably NVidia based video) while the other (likely this one) strictly for my photography business and general computing stuff, and will have the Matrox card. I am going to price a G550 this morning. After giving some thought to the 650, it sounds like the 550 will do everything I need (and very well), and we know it runs CMAK, etc. properly, so that's all I'm looking for at the moment. Plus, it's less expensive.

Many thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback.

Glenn

[Canuckgd]

Oops. I was just at the Matrox website comparing the various cards. Looks like the G440 & G550 only support DirectX 6, and the P650 goes to 8.1. It might be tough finding DX 8 anymore, and DX 6 will be long gone, so I'm thinking I might be stuck here. The version of DX I have on now is 9.1c. The specs for CMBB (which are those of CMAK, except for the RAM needed) does call for Directx, although I don't remember seeing what version. Am I SOL, or is it likely the card ships with the required version of DX, and does anyone know what version of DX CMBO through CMAK requires? If I go to the P650 as mentioned, I start to worry about driver issues once again (as mentioned - I've had it up to here with driver problems ).

Thanks - appreciate the help once again.

Glenn

[Redwolf]

Originally posted by Canuckgd:

Oops. I was just at the Matrox website comparing the various cards. Looks like the G440 & G550 only support DirectX 6, and the P650 goes to 8.1. It might be tough finding DX 8 anymore, and DX 6 will be long gone, so I'm thinking I might be stuck here. The version of DX I have on now is 9.1c.

You are confused by stupid marketing shortcutting of terms.

Of course you can install DirectX 9.x (the software) on a computer using this graphics card.

What they mean if they say "card <x> supports DirectX <y>" is that there is hardware acceleration for 3D features found in that newer DirectX.

So, you can run that newer DirectX. Only when you run a game which is actually using API feature that are costly to implement in software then you will either have drastically reduced performance or the game might outright refuse to run.

In practice there are few games actually not running when hardware acceleration for a specific feature is missing. They will either look worse from turning off that feature, or they just run anyway, using that feature's software implementation. A bigass CPU helps a lot in the latter case.

The specs for CMBB (which are those of CMAK, except for the RAM needed) does call for Directx, although I don't remember seeing what version.

CM1 is mostly DirectX 5.x.

No information has been leaked about what CMX will do, but I expect it to come out heavy on basic 3D performance (polygons, texture and hopefully lightning) and not do any of what newer card support, in particular shaders (shaders help e.g. with moving water, and with faces, both of which are not really required for CM).

[Canuckgd]

Thanks Redwolf! You've been a big help, as usual. I've ordered the G550 and will install DX9 at the shop. This will help with my photo-editing as well.

Appreciate the advice.

Glenn