Preview: S3 Graphics DeltaChrome S8 Nitro
by Derek Wilson on March 9, 2004 3:44 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
So can S3 Graphics make it in the DirectX 9.0 market segment? Honestly, time will have to tell as we've only been able to catch a small glimpse of what exactly is on the horizon for this card. The performance of the DeltaChrome S8 Nitro was not poor, but S3 still has a ways to go to make it a solid, marketable product in todays climate.
If the image quality issues we noted in this article can be worked out (along with OpenGL performance), and if S3 is able to provide full and complete DX9 support without compromising on image quality in any game, they will have a very nice higher end budget card on their hands (especially since the budget cards from ATI and NVIDIA tend to skimp on the support in some cases). The card could also be marketed on the lower end of the midrange market, but what it all comes down to is price. If this card costs the same as an ATI 9600 Pro or an NVIDIA 5700Ultra, it would most likely not be worth it (unless S3's driver team finds some sort of performance breakthroughs heretofore unheard of).
The other problem is that NVIDIA and ATI are getting ready to bring their second generation DX9 parts to market. Both camps will have improved performance and levels of support, as well as products that hit the entire gambit of price ranges. The longer it takes S3 Graphics to push out the DeltaChrome S8 and S8 Nitro products, the tougher their situation will become (unless they are very willing to sacrifice on retail pricing).
The value add aspects of the hardware could also be fairly attractive, and we would like to see things like saved settings associated with applications (like NVIDIA does) make their way into this cards featureset as well.
Another option S3 has open to is will be to use an S8 Nitro-like core for integrated graphics on VIA boards (since VIA owns S3, it is very likely that this will happen: Savage chips are currently used). If S3 can offer better speed and feature/API support than Intel's Extreme Graphics, it is very likely that VIA could help to put a dent in the Intel integrated graphics juggernaut. If there is one thing that has always been extremely lacking it is integrated graphics quality.
What it all comes down to is that the DeltaChrome does have potential. It may be a bit to early to tell exactly where that could take us, but more competition in the graphics market place is good for everyone. Here's to hoping that S3 can fix their current issues and bring a solid competitor to market in a timely manner.
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cliffa3 - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
noone read over this one before posting...page 1 - companies can surive...survive
page 3 - addes screen height,...added
page 10 - This game is definitely one of the hot games to make sure are stable and running smoothly.
not sure what needs to be done w/the one on page 10...i didn't even read the whole article, i just caught those in skimming.
shady06 - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
wow, another POSjoeld - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
Notice how the card rocked in UT2003 but nothing else - reminds me of the diamond viper 2 (savage2000 core from s3) that I had back in the day - driver optimized for Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 and nothing else...araczynski - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
...err "but that" rather then "back that"...araczynski - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
didn't notice the card was from S3 :) back that only reaffirms my original though, they'll stay int he on-board market, where they've done well in the recent past, i'm guessing this solution is an attempt at rising to the mid-upper performance tier in on-board solutions.JAGedlion - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
I hope they put this in their mini-itx mobos, it would increase their funcionality many times folddrteserect - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
Having owned both a Virge and Savage 8 motherboards, I realize that S3 has not always been a startup, but it has been out of the competitive fray for so long it is essentially a startup. My suggestion also applies the company that is behind the Volari.Idoxash - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
"The only hope I see for a new graphics chip company would be to set up an open source environment for their driver software. The development leads of ATI and NVidia are immense, but possibly the collective genuis of people who like to play with such tasks would give a startup some sort of chance."You say this like S3 is a new starup company? If that's the case you are very wrong. S3 is very old and has been making gfx chips for many, many years. If I misunderstood wut you sed then I'm sorry.
In either way they should open up their drivers. That probly help them out a lot because they had plenty of time to tweak and fix their drivers before this release and the drivers are still crap over.
--Idoxash
drteserect - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
The only hope I see for a new graphics chip company would be to set up an open source environment for their driver software. The development leads of ATI and NVidia are immense, but possibly the collective genuis of people who like to play with such tasks would give a startup some sort of chance.araczynski - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
agreed, too little too late, perhaps the "on-board" market will have more room for these guys...