Today I finally got a Matrox Parhelia 512 in my collection. I ran a couple of benchmarks on my Athlon MP 2200+ system with 2GB of RAM and running on Windows 2000.
Matrox G400 - 1999, drivers 5.96 with 3D support:
3DMark 2000: 2921
3DMark 2001: 1183
Quake 3 1280x1024: 14 fps
Matrox Millenium P750 (Parhelia LX) - 2003, drivers 2.13 (BSOD in DX9), drivers 1.13 (ok):
3DMark 2000: 4549
3DMark 2001: 4421
Quake 3 1280x1024: 50 fps
Matrox Parhelia 512 128MB, 2003, drivers 1.13:
3DMark 2000: 8248
3DMark 2001: 6732
Quake 3 1280x1024: 94 fps
Radeon 9600 XT - 2003, drivers Catalyst 5.13:
3DMark 2000: 9542
3DMark 2001: 9533
Quake 3 1280x1024: 143 fps
Some notes:
- The Parhelia LX is basically "half" a Parhelia 512 but is easily available
- The most recent "new branch" Parhelia drivers give ma a BSOD under 3DMark 2001
- A simple Radeon 9600 (non pro/XT) is probably what matches a full Parhelia 512 the best, with proper DX9 support
- I had to set AGP Aperture Size to a minimum of 128MB in my BIOS for the P750 to be happy under 3DMark 2001, otherwise it would give me a "not enough video memory error"
- I didn't test my Matrox G550, it has basically the same performance as the G400
Still, it is a fun card to have and I'll keep it in that system.
Searching a Nexgen Nx586 with FPU, PM me if you have one. I have some Athlon MP systems and cookies.