Here my New Matrox Collection

Hey All here at VA

Here seven Matrox Graphics Cards I bought if a friendly guy from Ebay Ireland for just 45 euros, all cards are tested and working as well

That be these beauties:

Matrox Millennium G400 Dual Head AGP 32MB 128Bit SGR Rev.B 4399

Matrox Millennium G400 Dual Head AGP 32MB 128Bit SGR Rev.B 1800

Matrox Millennium G450 Dual Head AGP 16MB 64Bit DDR SGR Rev.A 4500

Matrox Millennium G550 Dual Head AGP 32MB 64Bit DDR SGR Rev.A 4102

Matrox Parhelia AGP 256MB 256Bit DDR Rev.A 5103

Matrox Parhelia LX P650 AGP 64MB 128Bit DDR Rev.B 4505

Matrox Parhelia LX P750 AGP 64MB 128Bit DDR Rev.B 0905

Each PCB Date is written with the week first then the year, same as with 3dfx.

But hey for 45 euros these seven beauties, pretty damn rare find for 2020, Matrox is my most loved non 3dfx brand and I find that Toucan & Parhelia also deserve more love too.

These are fun cards to have and to play you classic games on even the P65 & P75 are good enough for classic gamers and what they add is the ultra crispy image quality one of Matrox's infamous advantages over everything else.

I will add separate shots per card but the photos I have here now are of the cards after I unpacked them, Enjoy my friends and stay safe

Here the two photo's for now:

My Favorite is the Parhelia AGP 256MB DDR with the Universal AGP Connector, this model mostly comes with an AGP x8 Connector, looks like I got lucky with this beauty

Matrox Parhelia AGP 256MB 256Bit DDR Rev.A 5103


Here the other cards up close:

Matrox Parhelia LX P750 AGP 64MB 128Bit DDR Rev.B 0905

Matrox Parhelia LX P650 AGP 64MB 128Bit DDR Rev.B 4505

Matrox Millennium G550 Dual Head AGP 32MB 64Bit DDR SGR Rev.A 4102


Matrox Millennium G450 Dual Head AGP 16MB 64Bit DDR SGR Rev.A 4500

These two G400's look as if they are refurbished G400 MAX cards and downclocked to G400 clock speeds, not really sure tho, I have two and one has a different VESA connector than the other as it looks like.

Matrox Millennium G400 Dual Head AGP 32MB 128Bit SGR Rev.B 4399


Matrox Millennium G400 Dual Head AGP 32MB 128Bit SGR Rev.B 1800

For those that want the entire Driver archive for the Parhelia & Parhelia LX Cards here you are, as I have made an archive of these hard to find drivers the gaming drivers date from 2002 to 2003 just for those wondering:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2lkvq52je13…rchive.zip?dl=0

And here a zip with all the Matrox Tech Demo's for the G200, G400 & Parhelia series:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/swxps5xepvl2…mo%27s.zip?dl=0

dr.zeissler you might find these very helpful


Here the test system I used to test my Parhelia AGP 256MB DDR:

Sveta 2002

AMD AthlonXP 2200+ Thoroughbred-A, 1 Core @ 1.8Ghz

EPox EP-8K7A+ AMD 761 Chipset with Via 686B SB

2x 1GB PC-2700 Kingston @ PC-2100 266Mhz DDR

Matrox Parhelia AGP 256MB 256Bit DDR Rev.A 5103

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro

Mitsubishi Electronics LS-120 F200 Super Floppy Drive

1x Seagate Barracuda V 80GB 7200 RPM Main disk

1x Seagate Barracuda V 120GB 7200 RPM Game Disk

Belkin 5 port NEC USB 2.0 PCI Card

3-Com 3C905C-TX-M PCI Ethernet Adapter 10/100Mbit

LH HD-DVD Drive 16x / 40x

BTO Plusdeck 2c Cassette Tape Convertor/Player/Recorder Drive

Antec True Power 550 Watt PSU

Addtronics 6896A Entry Level Server Tower

Compaq S710 17" Blackshade CRT from 2001

Reso @ 1024x768x32 ! 85Hz | 0.22.5 Dot Pitch

1995 Roland E-14 Keyboard

Win2K Pro + SP4 & RU1 for SP4

Matrox Parhelia Gaming Drivers, November 2003 for Win2K/XP


Here some pics of the Parhelia Reef Demo 1.1 in action:

it seems the Parhelia prefers WinXP Pro + SP3, as it has lots of stability issues when it comes to Win2K Pro +SP4.
So my next goal is to install WinXP Pro + SP3 on the test system and go from there.

But that is understandable!

Just use the AGP model I am using.

These have 256Bit DDR there are 128MB & 256MB models, the one I have is a 256MB model.
The PCI-E ones are not the ones I can advise no, same for the Parhelia PCI-X version these are quite a tad slower than the Parhelia AGP's, the Parhelia APV-e PCI-E uses a P512 GPU but 128MB 128Bit DDR and the Parhelia PCI-X 256MB uses 64Bit DDR the card you are using.

The AGP x4/x8 models with 128MB & 256MB both have 256Biit memory interface these are the cards you seek for retro gaming

The model I have is this one:

Parhelia AGP 256MB 256Bit DDR
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/parhelia-256-mb.c98

The Parhelia APV-e has 128MB 128Bit DDR, basically a Parhelia LX for PCI-Express, but using the Parhelia 512 GPU instead.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/parhelia-apve.c1298

The one you used is this one and these only have 64Bit memory interface

Matrox Parhelia PCI-X 256MB 64Bit DDR
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/parhelia-pci.c95

If you use the version I use you will be mind blown of it's performance it beats blows with the ATi Radeon 8500 AGP 128MB DDR
Parhelia has a lot of variants before you start thinking of using one make sure you use the models with 256Bit memory interface, these will make you games run super fast with superb image fidelity.

Here a list of all the Parhelia's Tech Power-Up has listed and this is without the Parhelia-LX chips
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/matrox-parhelia-512.g29

This should help you select the right card if you ever plan on getting a Parhelia again, just make sure you get the cards with the 256Bit DDR memory interface, then you're fine

Also use WinXP Pro + SP3, it's the best OS for these cards.

Quote from dr.zeissler

I am totally disappointed from the Parhelia PCI-X.

1. It crashes my LAN after a view minutes (NV6200too, R9250 not)

2. It's SLOWWWWWWW compared to NV6200/R9250

3. The NV6200 displays Reefdemo with twice as much frames and that with 64!!!Bit memory interface.

I love my Mystiquw/Millenium upt to G400...but Parehlia (no Win9x driver either) is a bad card.

Sorry

Display More

You used the wrong one card type, check my previous post for the proper details, get an AGP version of the Parhelia the 128MB or 256MB both have 25Biot DDR the one you have has indeedly 64Bit DDR, tghat is obviously the issue.

My Parhelia AGP 256MB 256Bit DDR beats the Radeon 8500 AGP 128Bit DDR Several times, but it's obvious you had a poor performance yes.

It's never about need , need is a cheap BS excuse lmao, you don't need all them 3dfx cards just get a GeForce 6800 GT or a Radeon X800 XT and emulate glide and presto I mean I can say that as well

Need that's just bs man, if it's all and only about what one really needs
None of us would be posting here, wasting tons of coin in old hardware, we all would of moved on and done things we really need... which is isn't the case, and to reply to your so called boring question why I need a Parhelia AGP 256MB. thing is I don't I bought it purely out of interest.

I'd always apply to Win2K Pro & WinXP Pro, thee are far more reliable, capable and stable than any Win9X or WinMe OS for workloads I use my systems for, plus they offer great Dual CPU Support as well, you can wait a long time for 98SE or me doing that I can assure you and yea there is NT 4.0 + SP6 but that doesn't run everything like 2K pro + SP4 & XP pro + SP3 can do so there is always a good enough reason not to use NT anyway.

All in all I can easily run 98 SE based games in compatibility mode, it's called a better alternative and it works just as fine.
have a nice day and stay safe

GrandAdmiralThrawn Well said there though, even I did add in my post as well.

As for that fugly word named as need sheesh why do people still use that horrible word
It's only purpose would be if it's tied to a fitting sentence that would make sense, but yea I'll leave it at that.

Here a nice review by Beyond3D of the Matrox Parhelia AGP 128MB 256Bot DDR from 2002
https://www.beyond3d.com/content/reviews/43/1

Quote from dr.zeissler

I tested it. It's DX8.1 not DX9 so FarCry is not looking good. It's looking really bad, no waterreflection and lightning broken. So wrong card for that. NV-Techdemo Chameleon is working, effects seem to be OK, trasition between the effects is slow, so chameleon sometimes not visible for 1-2 seconds. Card seems to be slow in UE1 (Rune/Unreal) Did not expect that, have to investigate, should be much much faster in thesen.

More testing to come...

you're doing it wrong ...again...
Why on Earth are you using a Parhelia LX P650 in games...this is not even made for games to begin with it has 64MB 128Bit DDR , it's a castrated Parhelia and it's not made for games... at all!
So it's obvious the performance is terrible with it I didn't need to research that, it's just something I have always known

Like I said use the Parhelia AGP 128MB or 256MB these are the ONLY parhelia's with a 256Bit DDR VRAM interface, do not use the PCI variants do not use the Parhelia LX variants.

Also if people are asking me why I need things I will ignore you for the rest of my entire life, such retarded questions just need to end lol.

Parhelia P512 does have S3TC support the P650 & P750 don't because as said these are not gaming cards lol, so that it dosn't have it doesn't make it a bad card, it's just not made for those workloads.

Parhelia AGP 128MB & 256MB 256Bit DDR have the best image quality I ever seen on any retro graphics card in games these are amazing you should seek out V.F Pi Pa Parhelia thread many others from VA did a ton of good research in there:
Pi, Pa, Parhelia

Here my 8th Matrox graphics card:

Matrox Millennium G400 MAX AGP 32MB 128Bit SGR Rev.B 4399

Quote from dr.zeissler

I'll go for a real perhelia AGP or PCIe with 128MB or even better 256MB VRAM. I'll keep you informed.

Parhelia AGP 128MB & 256MB are the Only Parhelia's that have the 256Bit memory bus the PCI-E version uses 64Bit DDR it's trash tbh.

Gota G550 AGP with D-Sub VGA + DVI-I here, dowside these cards use 32MB 64Bit DDR, 128Bit DDR would of given the proper justice they deserved, sadly that is not the case.

Matrox Millennium G550 Dual Head AGP 32MB 64Bit DDR SGR Rev.A 4102