Matrox Parhelia - is it worth it to spring for 256 mb?

[nenforcer]

No, unfortunately your DFI Lanparty Pro 875 only supports AGP cards and will not run a PCI-EXPRESS video card.

It is not cost effective to try and purchase a Matrox card any longer. I would recommend a Geforce 6600 / 7800 AGP on eBay if you can find one or a new Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 AGP for the best AGP performance.

 

[BFG10K]

I've checked the OP's post date three times, but I'm still no closer to explaining this time rift.

 

[IcePickFreak]

And just for the record, the matrox parhelia cards suck for workstations as well. Last place I worked at initially had them and they were dog slow in autocad with a moderately complex drawing. Fire up any 3D cad package and it would lag with a single simple piece on the screen to the point it would faster to hand draw it. Heck, you could hand draw it in the time your waiting between commands.

 

[FallenHero]

/looks at OP post date
/looks at calender
/confused

 

[utahraptor]

Thank you for all of these suggestions. What I don't understand is how these cards that are not 512 bit can approach the performance of the Matrox card. Am I missing something fundamental?

 

[evolucion8]

If you're serious, OP, forget about anything Matrox. Either grab a used Radeon X1950Pro or a Radeon HD3850 (most powerful AGP card ever made). Remember to make sure that you buy an AGP one, as they're also available with a PCI-e connector (provided you need the AGP one in the first place!). Though you'd need a somewhat beefy PSU for either of those - say a good brand 400W one.

If you're joking - you got me!

HD 4670 is the most powerful AGP solution currently in the market. But with such weak CPU, something faster than a 9800XT will be wasted.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Thank you for all of these suggestions. What I don't understand is how these cards that are not 512 bit can approach the performance of the Matrox card. Am I missing something fundamental?

Because what 'bit' it is doesn't matter that much. Architecture of the GPU is what makes the biggest difference. That Matrox card is dinosaur. Forget it ever existed. Erase it from your memory. Others have listed cards for you to consider.

 

[v8envy]

Let me suggest a site to you: gpureview.com

You can pull up GPUs and look at specs. Number of bits matters, but it is only part of the equation. Think of it as a highway. A 4 lane highway with a 5 mph speed limit will have fewer cars able to traverse it than a 2 lane highway with a 55 mph speed limit.

The parhelia had great memory bandwidth for the day using DDR - 17.6GB/sec. Compare that to a modern mainstream card with a 128 bit memory interface using DDR5 (the 5770) which gets 76.8 GB/sec. That's a huge difference! A card at the same pricepoint, the 5850, gets 128 GB/sec.

I don't think your 9800 is your performance limiting factor. Moreover, the Radeon should be a much faster card for gaming. Take the $350 you'd have spent on a museum piece and consider getting a more modern PC. Technology marches on, and even expensive, top end hardware from more than half a decade ago has a hard time competing with today's entry level hardware, never mind midrange and enthusiast offerings.