S3 Re-Enters The Graphics Market Swinging
SimGuy
Ottawa, Canada
S3 Re-Enters The Graphics Market Swinging
DeltaChrome is back in all 3 graphics categories with viable solutions...
THE TURBULENT graphics market has seen tremendous action in the last 12 months, including some antics from Nvidia that make Soap Operas dull. Weekly some new story exploded across the web, whether related to benchmarks, auctions, or deleting the clothes textures from "Dawn" while running it on ATI hardware. Makes for interesting copy anyhow. While all this was going on, some companies were diligently working on new graphics architecture under the scandal-ridden radar.
Today details should start appearing all over the web on S3's newest entry into the 3D graphics desktop market, the DeltaChrome chip. I had an opportunity to check out the performance of a pre-release card, and was impressed with the overall concept. Rather than chasing dubious benchmark scores, S3 decided to create an architecture that was compliant with Dx9 without tricks, and threw in a bunch of other features. Add to that a core that was designed for mobile applications that draws 5 watts max, and you have a cool running chip that does not require supplemental power. While S3 is not going after the 'bleeding-edge' at this early stage, they do have products throughout the rest of the market spectrum.
As you can see, things really get interesting in the mainstream and value categories. If S3 can come through on the driver side, ATI and Nvidia are going to be hard pressed to compete with half the number of pipelines. This comprises such a large portion of the market and in some ways acts as a 'clearing house' for lower binned chips, at a lower cost.
Where S3 has focused a large portion of its attention is on the aspects of computing that have been largely ignored by the big 3D vendors. This includes video processing and 2D performance. DeltaChrome includes hardware acceleration for the 'Best Appearance' default under Windows XP, and takes a minimum performance hit for font anti-aliasing and all the goodies in Windows XP. The video processing unit, Chromotion, is one of the more unique features and allows for realtime application of filters to video streams. For anyone who has waited for a filter to process on an editing program, this is a godsend. Add to that hardware rotation, native HDTV output, and 10 bit colour accuracy and you have to wonder if ATI and Nvidia are hearing footsteps.
Until the DeltaChrome hits shelves with retail frequencies and retail drivers, final performance numbers will be unknown. If S3 can deliver with clean drivers and avoids texture swapping scandals, then the consumer wins with one more viable choice on the market.
Source: S3Graphics.com & The Inquirer
DeltaChrome is back in all 3 graphics categories with viable solutions...
THE TURBULENT graphics market has seen tremendous action in the last 12 months, including some antics from Nvidia that make Soap Operas dull. Weekly some new story exploded across the web, whether related to benchmarks, auctions, or deleting the clothes textures from "Dawn" while running it on ATI hardware. Makes for interesting copy anyhow. While all this was going on, some companies were diligently working on new graphics architecture under the scandal-ridden radar.
Today details should start appearing all over the web on S3's newest entry into the 3D graphics desktop market, the DeltaChrome chip. I had an opportunity to check out the performance of a pre-release card, and was impressed with the overall concept. Rather than chasing dubious benchmark scores, S3 decided to create an architecture that was compliant with Dx9 without tricks, and threw in a bunch of other features. Add to that a core that was designed for mobile applications that draws 5 watts max, and you have a cool running chip that does not require supplemental power. While S3 is not going after the 'bleeding-edge' at this early stage, they do have products throughout the rest of the market spectrum.
As you can see, things really get interesting in the mainstream and value categories. If S3 can come through on the driver side, ATI and Nvidia are going to be hard pressed to compete with half the number of pipelines. This comprises such a large portion of the market and in some ways acts as a 'clearing house' for lower binned chips, at a lower cost.
Where S3 has focused a large portion of its attention is on the aspects of computing that have been largely ignored by the big 3D vendors. This includes video processing and 2D performance. DeltaChrome includes hardware acceleration for the 'Best Appearance' default under Windows XP, and takes a minimum performance hit for font anti-aliasing and all the goodies in Windows XP. The video processing unit, Chromotion, is one of the more unique features and allows for realtime application of filters to video streams. For anyone who has waited for a filter to process on an editing program, this is a godsend. Add to that hardware rotation, native HDTV output, and 10 bit colour accuracy and you have to wonder if ATI and Nvidia are hearing footsteps.
Until the DeltaChrome hits shelves with retail frequencies and retail drivers, final performance numbers will be unknown. If S3 can deliver with clean drivers and avoids texture swapping scandals, then the consumer wins with one more viable choice on the market.
Source: S3Graphics.com & The Inquirer
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Comments
This is almost as funny as the Volari-whatchamacallit-thingy that SiS has got going. Hehe... SiS, and S3... making graphics chips. ROFL!
I'd just like to point out that my Radeon 8500 has about the same amount of memory bandwidth as the FX5800, 9800 and this S3 card...
I swear, either SiS and S3 are smoking something, or they're just plain insane. Unless these new chips/cards are good enough to turn the entire graphics industry on their collective ear, It'll be a damn cold day in hell before I buy a graphics card with a chip made by SiS OR S3.
~Cyrix
I've also got a good amount of experience with SiS graphics, as a lot of our DNC machines are older Pentium systems that have SiS PCI graphics cards. I can't even call them graphics accelerators, because they're not- they're graphics DEcelerators.
SiS and S3 are some of a very select few companies (Apple being the other one that comes to mind off the top of my head) that have absolutely zero credibility as far as I'm concerned. Basically, I'll believe it when I see it.
But what are office machines used for? Office work perhaps? How many office machines actually need an nVidia or ATI super-mega-fps graphics card? Not many.
The graphics on an office machine will be nearly 100% 2D Windows & Office-based. Where is the need to play 3D games or whatever in the office? There is none.
So when you look at in perspective, the graphics on office machines are not a joke, they do what they were intended for.
For a games enthusiast on the other hand, that's a different matter. Yes the performance would be a joke.
But further to the office scenario, the article SimGuy posted mentioned that these new cards will have good performance with the Windows XP 'Best Appearance' settings and doing Anti-aliased fonts. That's not the sort of thing nVidia/ATI ever go spouting is it? It's office/2D kind of work.
It's not designed for the likes you you or me Geeky, but I reckon the market it's intended for will do rather well out of it.
Games credibility? No. But Office credibility? Yes. Look at things in perspective, and they're quite credible.
~Cyrix
~Cyrix
One of the major reasons it failed was due to a lack of a T&L unit which made it start to suck on any of the games coming out at the time.
NS
MTGoat, competition is certianly a good thing, but I have a very hard time believing that SiS or S3 can deliver anything even remotely competitive. However, we'll have to see...
Nobody believed the the ATI Radeon 9700/9800 Pro would whup Nvidia's @ss either......
Yes, competition is good. Just look at the chipset division of SIS. Don't laugh. They may not be the big inovators or trendsetters of the chipset market but since they have gotten into it they have gained a halfway respectable foothold in that market. Just about every major mobo mfgr has boards with their chipsets in both Intel and AMD platforms! I think that in itself is evidence enough that they are providing viable solutions for a portion of the marketplace. While not neccessarily being threatend by them you know that VIA and Nvidia are keeping an eye over their shoulder on them. And it was only 2 years ago when they put Ali into the dust.
Why would a value user give 2 ****s about what chipset is powering their system. As long as it works for e-mail, word processing & internet use (with the occasional MP3 player), an SiS powered computer will fill that market segment without a problem.
I think all of us as enthusiasts get too caught up in the latest and greatest, when we really have to take a look at how much we impact the market: neglegible.
The money is in the OEM market, selling to dumb computer users. That's where SiS sells most of its chipsets. The OEM systems.
If S3 delivers with this product, it will most likely start selling the DeltaChrome as an OEM product or integrated it into systems (ie. business machines, low-end gaming systems or laptops). If S3 does sell the cards in retail, they will have to be priced accordingly.
~Cyrix
I'm all for SiS moving back in.
NS