No interesting features and very slow. Only for various tests or to suffer while playing games. Although suffering ia an authentic part of late 90s 3D experience.

They are Okish, not obscure. ATI eventually also produced solid drivers and S3 was still rocking Virge, so drivers are rather moot point.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

No interesting features and very slow. Only for various tests or to suffer while playing games. Although suffering ia an authentic part of late 90s 3D experience.

The performance scales pretty well with faster CPUs. The 8MB version is quite a bit faster than the 4MB, and the drivers are pretty solid. Definitely better than crap like the Virge 🤣.

The 8MB version is quite a bit faster the 4MB, and the drivers are pretty solid.

It can't play even GLQuake at 640x480 smoothly, so it's kinda irrelevant.

I think Parhelia is a bit more interesting. Just got a G650, I know it's the bottom of the lineup but it's the first I saw in 2 years of collecting.

Mine plays glquake perfectly smooth. But so-so image quality. Interesting card for early opengl, from a developer's perspective especially.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

It can't play even GLQuake at 640x480 smoothly, so it's kinda irrelevant.

so......like all 1997 3d hardware then? 🙄

elod wrote:

I think Parhelia is a bit more interesting. Just got a G650, I know it's the bottom of the lineup but it's the first I saw in 2 years of collecting.

Do you mean P650 or something slipped under my radar?

The Serpent Rider wrote:

The 8MB version is quite a bit faster the 4MB, and the drivers are pretty solid.

It can't play even GLQuake at 640x480 smoothly, so it's kinda irrelevant.

Er, yes it can. It can run Quake III Arena ok-ish with low to medium settings @ 640x480. Like I said, it seems to scale pretty well with faster CPUs!

elod wrote:

I think Parhelia is a bit more interesting. Just got a G650, I know it's the bottom of the lineup but it's the first I saw in 2 years of collecting.

Bit of a jump from a 1997 Permedia 2 to a 2002 Parhelia! 😜

I haven't ever used any Matrox stuff though. I'll have to get a G4xx card to try out!

I wish I could give thoughts on the Permedia2. I really wish that. I have one but it doesn't work. 🙁

stamasd wrote:

I wish I could give thoughts on the Permedia2. I really wish that. I have one but it doesn't work. 🙁

Aw... 🙁

Nice poem btw! xD

Putas wrote:

Do you mean P650 or something slipped under my radar?

No, obviously P650.

They're alright... IIRC they came with some IBM Intellistations. They were entry level workstation class cards.

Faster than the matrox g100 office card that came out the year after. But rougher image quality.

vvbee wrote:

Faster than the matrox g100 office card that came out the year after. But rougher image quality.

Can't say I see any issues with image quality. Pooks good, and the drivers hold up quite nicely.

It looks ok, until you compare it against something that looks better. It's a heavy-dithering card. Higher-precision 3d geometry than the g100 though, but the g100 in that sense may be more like the '96 mystique.

I have 2 of these cards. I read some bad reviews about them online, so I have been considering throwing them away to have bit more space.
One of them is Compaq ELSA gloria+ and it has some kind of empty memory slot and the other one seems to be made by STB systems in 1998.

Baoran wrote:

I have 2 of these cards. I read some bad reviews about them online, so I have been considering throwing them away to have bit more space.
One of them is Compaq ELSA gloria+ and it has some kind of empty memory slot and the other one seems to be made by STB systems in 1998.

Permedia2.jpg

We don't need more e-waste!! 😒
Sell on eBay instead!"

As a Voodoo 1 class chip it holds up much better than people give it credit for. It has solid DirectX and OpenGL drivers (no Voodoo-esque headaches of the right driver for the right game). Performance is solid, and scales well with faster CPUs (no Voodoo 1 nonsense of refusing to work). And it has great 2D support onboard.

Give them a try before doing anything. You may be surprised.