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Matrox P650?

S

Scottw

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 8, 2001
Messages
170
Going to change my current video card for something else because I noticed that it has some exploded capacitors on it (gigabyte 8500LE).

I do a lot of video editing and some image editing and wanted something that could give me a good image on a dell 2001FP at 1600x1200.

Does anyone have a Matrox P650? What do you think of it?
I do play games occasionally and am not sure If I want to spend $155 USD on a card like that.


Or any other suggestions would be good. With exclusion of ATI based cards. I have had enough of them for a while...
 
I believe that the P650 is sort of like a Parhelia with the gaming capabilities chopped off (which is why it costs half as much as a parhelia). I built a workstation computer for a friend with a parhelia in it and the card was sweet. It has wondeful 2d quality and for a video editing rig a Parhelia/P650/P550 is a great choice. If you want to game, though, you're out of luck with the 650. Even the 300+$ Parhelia isn't much of a gaming card.

If you really need to game on this system, I believe that one nVidia vendor just released a 5700 based card with dual DVI outputs on it which should suit you well. Sorry that I can't remember which vendor it was though, a little googling should solve that easily enough though.
 
Originally posted by Alyosha
If you really need to game on this system, I believe that one nVidia vendor just released a 5700 based card with dual DVI outputs on it which should suit you well. Sorry that I can't remember which vendor it was though, a little googling should solve that easily enough though.
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Thanks for the information.

There is a XFX 5700 ULTRA VIVO that I may get but it is $180 and has a fan on the heatsink.

I may wait for to see if the p650 or parhelia shows up on newegg refurbs again and get one of those.
 
If you're in the Chicago area I've got a Parhelia retail card lying around I'm not using. I've been meaning to eBay it but haven't gotten around to it yet. PM me if you're interested.
Also, I can vouch for them working nicely on an AMD MPX chipset w/ dual procs. Well, at least on an MSI K7D anyway.

If I remember right the P750 has half the pipes and mem bandwidth of the Parhelia, and may be downclocked a bit. The 650 is similar to the 750 but downclocked a lot in order to make do with a passive heatsink. So basically the Parhelia's at least twice as powerful as the P650, and probably more.
 
just a question... I don't do video editing but people where I work do, they use maya or something and they are using a basic geforce 4mx 400 card, my question is would a regular card such as, say a geforce fx 5600 be better or worse for such a thing?
what is special about the these other cards or is it the the software capabilities?
 
Originally posted by Gruntled Employee
just a question... I don't do video editing but people where I work do, they use maya or something and they are using a basic geforce 4mx 400 card, my question is would a regular card such as, say a geforce fx 5600 be better or worse for such a thing?
what is special about the these other cards or is it the the software capabilities?
Click to expand...

I think maya is a 3d rendering program, so that could benefit from a faster video card.

Where as when doing video editing video cards don't have much effect. Some video cards such as from matrox do something like this:
Matrox offers the unique ability to preview video compositions full-screen on a video monitor for DCC applications. Now you can catch flaws, maintain the proper aspect ratio and check for exact color temperature by viewing your compositions on a video monitor.
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There are also pc add-on cards that allow for realtime editing and effects, but those are a whole different subject.
 
The P650/750 are litterally 1/2 a Parhelia. 1/2 the pipelines. 1/2 the bandwith. 1/2 the the 3D performance (P750 being marginally faster than P650).
The P650/750 is built on the P-LX (codename sundog) chip.

2D (which includes video editing) are much closer in speed between the models.

Matrox has a direct product comparison posted:
http://matrox.com/mga/products/comp_chart/gseries_pseries_parhelia.cfm

If you have any intention of 3D gaming, P650/750 won't cut it too well. Parhelia does a respectable job, and surround gaming on triple monitors rox ;)

Matrox is well known for use in video editing rigs. Nobody else offers the features of their cards for this use. This and multi-display (as in 8 or 10 monitors) are their real main market.

One other thing to note, is that Matrox is just now quietly releasing a revised Parhelia 8x (not yet seen on their on-line shop, but spotted at other vendors). The new Parhelia 8x chip (the original is 4x) includes hardware level fixes in FAA and a banding problem, along with a slight clock speed increase.
Still not a top framerate counter in games, but a great card none the less. I still have one of the first Parhelias made (a pre-production sample) as my card in my main rig, and I have no intention of giving it up.
 
I would suggest to avoid matrox and get a ati all in wonder 9600 or 9800.
 
Originally posted by Shane
I would suggest to avoid matrox and get a ati all in wonder 9600 or 9800.
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If gaming is your ONLY consideration, then this would be correct. However, the original post specifically mentions video editing and image editing, which means that a gaming card is not top priority.

The best card you can buy for video and image editing would be a Matrox of some flavor. No other company can compete with them for the ultimate 2D crown, and probably no other company really cares to right now. The market probably isn't big enough to warrant someone else trying to butt in...
 
No dont avoid matrox, for REAL video editing, grab yourself a decent matrox card, specially if you spend hours infront of the monitor, and a good video editing card. AIW are only really meant for home use compare it to a professional prodcut and you will think so too ^^
 
Those Alby NV cards are pretty damned decent last I recall... But I'm kinda biased to Albatron anyway :D
 
Originally posted by Albuquerque
If gaming is your ONLY consideration, then this would be correct. However, the original post specifically mentions video editing and image editing, which means that a gaming card is not top priority.

The best card you can buy for video and image editing would be a Matrox of some flavor. No other company can compete with them for the ultimate 2D crown, and probably no other company really cares to right now. The market probably isn't big enough to warrant someone else trying to butt in...
Click to expand...

That would all be great, except he has an LCD, so I would assume he is going to hook it up via DVI. As long as the DVI transmitter is fast enough to handle 60Hz @1600x1200 it doesn't matter if you use ATi, nVidia, or Matrox. nVidia has by far the fastest 2D acceleration of the bunch. Not being a fan boy here, but in Windows, an nVidia card is very fast. Just get a reputable brand (Asus, MSI) any flavor of 5900 and I think you will be happy. Unless you need Dual DVI, but you didn't mention that.
 
Originally posted by olaf2821
That would all be great, except he has an LCD, so I would assume he is going to hook it up via DVI. As long as the DVI transmitter is fast enough to handle 60Hz @1600x1200 it doesn't matter if you use ATi, nVidia, or Matrox.
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Not true. In theory, this is how it should be, but it reality it's not the way it is. A lot of things happen before the transmitter that greatly affect image quality.

nVidia has by far the fastest 2D acceleration of the bunch. Not being a fan boy here, but in Windows, an nVidia card is very fast. Just get a reputable brand (Asus, MSI) any flavor of 5900 and I think you will be happy. Unless you need Dual DVI, but you didn't mention that.
Click to expand...
Not even close. Matrox has been the fasted in 2d for 25 years. Others have gotten closer in recent years, but the fastest Matrox card is still measurable faster than the fastest nV in 2D. Anyone who has used all the different cards will know for a fact that Matrox is the undisputed king of 2D and NLE.
 
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