Video Card: Matrox Parhelia Review :: The Card

This is the first graphics card with 512-bit technology and 256-bit DDR memory bandwidth. The GPU architecture has nothing to do with the old G400 core. It is brand new. We tested the retail box version with 128MB of DDR. There will be two versions of this card both will have 128MB DDR as:

1. Retail version: 220 MHz Core and 275 MHz memory clock
2. OEM version: 200MHz Core and 250 MHz memory clock

	Matrox	NVIDIA	ATI
	Parhelia-512	GeForce 4 TI4600	Radeon 8500
Number of Transistors	80 Million	63 Million	60 Million
GPU Bus	512-Bit	256-Bit	256-Bit
Memory Bus	256-Bit DDR	128-Bit DDR	128-Bit DDR
GPU Clock	220MHz	300MHz	275MHz
Memory Clock	275MHz	325MHz	275MHz
AGP Bus	1x/2x/4x/8x	1x/2x/4x	1x/2x/4x
DirectX Support	8.0 - 9.0 (*)	8.0	8.1
Pixel Shader version	1.3	1.3	1.4
Vertex Shader Version	2.0	1.1	1.1
Maximum Displays	3	2	2
Maximum Resolution on Dual Displays	2048x1536@32	1600x1200@32	1600x1200@32

* - Pixel Shader supports DirectX 9.0 but Vertex Shader doesn't.

When we physically check the card, it is not bigger than the Radeon or NVIDIA cards. But the amount of components and the connection density is higher.

There were 8 memory chips on the board in a BGA package. Four of them were vertically lined up each side of the GPU and the other four diagonally placed over the GPU. This shape has to be designed to maintain an equal length between the memory chips and the GPU. The cooler and heatsink design was not artistic or aggressively designed as the GeForce 4 TI cards. The memory chips were not covered by a heatsink, although it should be enough because Parhelia's memory frequency is not as high as its competitors.

The regulation circuitry was high quality and the filters on the card were more than any of the other graphics cards on the market. That is why the price of the card is very high. That money is buying better signal quality, and undistorted view up to 2048x1536@32 bits on two monitors, or 1600x1200@32 bits on three monitors.

Two Chrontel CH7301A-T transmitters manage two DVI outputs for two digital LCD monitors. DVI to VGA adapters for three monitors and TV Output were included in the package. You may notice that one component on the card is missing. There was just a sticker on that location where that component supposed to be with the model number PH-A128R written on it. We don't know what that component will be, it could be for hardware video encoding.

The package was very simple: drivers, documentation CD, and a manual were included. Two cables and an adapter included in the package to support numerous display variations such as VGA - VGA - LCD or VGA - VGA - VGA or VGA - TV etc. I was at least expecting DVD software as other high-end cards come with a bunch of games and applications. There was not very much on the CD.