XGI Volari, new video card company
A friend found this on toms hardware last night, its pretty interesting.
The Volari V8 is the flagship model of the lineup. This 256bit chip is manufactured on a 130-nanometer process and offers full DirectX 9 support. The design sports eight-pixel rendering pipelines with a total of four pixel shader 2.0 units as well as two vertex shader 2.0 units. All in all, the chip has about 80 million transistors, which is roughly equivalent with NVIDIA's NV 36 chips. It supports both GDDR and GDDR-2 memory modules (max. 256MB), accessed through a memory interface XGI quaintly calls BroadBahn. This interface subdivides the memory into four channels of 128bit each, giving it an internal bit-width of 512bit. Since the modules are only addressed using a 32bit bus, the actual resulting memory bus bandwidth is 128bit.
Volari V8 single chip solutions:
Volari V8 Ultra: 8 pixel pipes, Core frequency: 350MHz, memory frequency: 375MHz with DDR, 500MHz with DDR2
Volari V8: 8 pixel pipes, core frequency: 300MHz, memory frequency: 325MHz with DDR, 450MHz with DDR2
The image output is handled by an internal 400MHz RAMDAC. A second display can also be used, thanks to the external video bridge chip SIS301 MV, which is also responsible for the TV output. XGI has developed its own pixel-based interpolation method for video playback. This is handled by the Cypher Video Processor built into the graphics chip. XGI claims that its method greatly improves the image quality of interlaced film material compared to the popular bob and weave methods.
*Images removed cause they don't work anymore and I think they are making the thread load slow*
The card actually dosnt do that bad in benchies, although it couldnt be tested on all the games THW throws at it, the drivers ARE beta and belive it or not, for a company just comming on the market with a flagship like this id keep and eye on them
The Volari V8 is the flagship model of the lineup. This 256bit chip is manufactured on a 130-nanometer process and offers full DirectX 9 support. The design sports eight-pixel rendering pipelines with a total of four pixel shader 2.0 units as well as two vertex shader 2.0 units. All in all, the chip has about 80 million transistors, which is roughly equivalent with NVIDIA's NV 36 chips. It supports both GDDR and GDDR-2 memory modules (max. 256MB), accessed through a memory interface XGI quaintly calls BroadBahn. This interface subdivides the memory into four channels of 128bit each, giving it an internal bit-width of 512bit. Since the modules are only addressed using a 32bit bus, the actual resulting memory bus bandwidth is 128bit.
Volari V8 single chip solutions:
Volari V8 Ultra: 8 pixel pipes, Core frequency: 350MHz, memory frequency: 375MHz with DDR, 500MHz with DDR2
Volari V8: 8 pixel pipes, core frequency: 300MHz, memory frequency: 325MHz with DDR, 450MHz with DDR2
The image output is handled by an internal 400MHz RAMDAC. A second display can also be used, thanks to the external video bridge chip SIS301 MV, which is also responsible for the TV output. XGI has developed its own pixel-based interpolation method for video playback. This is handled by the Cypher Video Processor built into the graphics chip. XGI claims that its method greatly improves the image quality of interlaced film material compared to the popular bob and weave methods.
*Images removed cause they don't work anymore and I think they are making the thread load slow*
The card actually dosnt do that bad in benchies, although it couldnt be tested on all the games THW throws at it, the drivers ARE beta and belive it or not, for a company just comming on the market with a flagship like this id keep and eye on them
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Comments
Their financial situation appears to be sound. It must be to adhere to the projections they've been displaying. Additionally, it's good to see a large producer of cards behind them; Powercolor.
Their cards look wonderous. Black PCB, copper sinks.
The technology is sound. And it's interesting to see a dual GPU part back on the market. It makes me curious to see if this will be a trend. Instead of bigger, better, faster for single GPUs, it could be slightly bigger, slightly better, much faster when combining GPUs.
Considering the beta status of their drivers, it's nothing short of remarkable that it's playing with the big boys; ATI and nVidia. Coming in the running with the 9800 XT and the 5950 Ultra. Considering the projected pricepoint of $300...Not too shabby.
I'm impressed.
SiS-spinoff or not, it's still impressive to see a brand new spin-off company develop something with that much video horsepower in 7 months and be able to bring it to market within 12.
As long as the drivers are stable and are routinely updated, I see no reason why not to consider an XGI-based video card in the future.
I agree that the XGI cards are going to be forces to be reckoned with and from the looks of things they could end up stealing the thunder from ATI as well as Nvidia if they are able to offer performance of at least 80% of a 9800pro for just over half the cost of the 9800pro 256Mb version.
2 of the original founders of visual technology.
It would be nice to see a 3rd contender in the 3D graphics ring to bring much-needed competition with a high-end product able to offer supreme performance at a realistic price rating. XGI just may be able to do that.
Unless these cards turn out at least decent to compared to ATI's mid-level card, I probably won't buy from them
Heck, if they serve up a good upper end card that's well implemented and not 2 weeks salary to buy I might consider replacing my 5900U with one and selling the ASUS.