Preview: S3 Graphics DeltaChrome S8 Nitro
by Derek Wilson on March 9, 2004 3:44 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Software Features and Drivers
Recently there has been a push to expand the value add of a graphics card to include nifty software features that either provide some sort of timesaving function or offer extended eye candy. S3 is not behind the curve on this one, as they pile plenty of features into their driver. Currently located under the advanced settings in Display Properties, S3 offers goes above and beyond the normal color, gamma, info menues and offers things like their Chromotion video options.
Using pixel shaders, S3 has built in functionality to apply realtime filters to video overlays. This sort of thing can be implimented on any architecture that supports pixel shaders, but building this feature into the driver is kind of cool. They even include some filters to do such things as depixilization (which they call deblocking), though we aren't going to do a full exploration of this feature until we take a look at these cards from a multimedia perspective. Those who enjoy ATI's pixel shader eye candy will probably like this feature as well.
The other really interesting feature is the driver based screen rotation setting.
This feature is designed for those who want to turn their LCD panels on their sides and get some added screen height, or for tablet PC users who want to be able to pick the angle at which they view their tablet. We have seen this kind of functionality demoed in a tablet PC that used Analog Devices MEMS accelerometers to determine the proper screen angle (this tablet used an NVIDIA card). S3 Graphics gives us a nice interface with which to manage our screen angle. As far as the quality of each card's impilmentation of rotated screen functionality, we will have to wait for in depth coverage as we are still researching the details of implimentation on platforms other than S3 Graphics.
In getting back to the basics, we can't ignore the most used panels of the advanced settings menu: the DirectX and OpenGL settings. First, we'll take a look at the DirectX settings.
This is where we can change the antialiasing and anisotropic fitering levels if we wish. The settings pictured here are the settings we used when testing without AA and AF enabled.
We see here that there are significantly fewer options available for OpenGL. This is due to the fact that S3 has spent most of their time with the DirectX side of things and is currently in the process of refining its OpenGL support. We are told that current internal drivers offer such things as antialiasing under OpenGL (as well as improved performance). As a result of our available options, none of our OpenGL game tests will include antialiasing.
The last thing to mention is that in playing around with all our driver options, we did experience a couple crashes of the advanced settings windows while playing with options. Again, this is prerelease software and this kind of thing is to be expected. These issues should disappear as launch time approaches.
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colinm - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
S3 needs to get good drivers for their other products before they even try to put a new product on the market. I bought a S3 Savage about the time the TNT was released and S3 still hasn't made solid drivers for it, much less ANY product released since then. S3 is a joke, don't be fooled for a moment. Don't buy their hardware no matter how much potential it has expecting them to eventually fix the driver issues because it will NOT happen.bldkc - Tuesday, April 6, 2004 - link
I agree, it's a POS. As a mechanical engineer I have guys coming in to see me every day with their "upgraded", or "more efficient" designs. All I know is it has to meet my specs. I will not vary my specs if there is someone else who will meet them.I tell them what I want, but they show up with something that doesn't meet my needs. Sound like the S3 with the Deltachrome? The point is that just because it does some things well does not mean it isn't a POS. Heck, my daughter's Reader Rabbit games would have this thing on it's knees.
kamper - Saturday, March 13, 2004 - link
also a spell checker wouldn't hurt too much would it? It's not "impliment" and it definitely isn't "impilment"kamper - Saturday, March 13, 2004 - link
as cliffa3 points out, you guys really need to hire someone with an english degree. Here's another one that had me scratching my head for a while:"Another option S3 has open to is will be to use..." wtf? (2nd last paragraph, last page)
aka1nas - Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - link
Well it obviously needs driver work, but, as long as they get it marketable and don't price it too high then they can make enough of their money back on it to keep them in the game. I think some of the problem with the graphics card market is that the few new players that try to enter the market either don't have the capital or fortitude to try to stay in for the long-term. Even if the deltachrome doesn't make a profit for S3, they can still quite possibly defray much of the cost of developing it and apply the experience in hardware design and drivers that they have gained and make a great second generation product. It takes time and a lot of coordination to get people to work effectively and efficiently at such a complicated project.LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - link
S3 seems to have one continuous problem: They aim too low.I'm not saying they should go for top-end, but if you want to market a 3D vid card these days, then look at the current models you want to compete with --and then design a card that will beat their successor (in this case, the Radeon 9600XT/GeforceFX 5700). S3's cards, when released, are always cards we might have been interested in six months ago, but in the current market are either too pricey, or still not stable enough, guaranteeing that at the point S3 gets their drivers just right, the card is 8-10 months out of date, and only a good deal if priced in the $99 range, assuming they actually support the GPU for awhile with driver updates.
Serp86 - Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - link
yeah. it definately got potential, but it needs mature drivers.Kinda like the radeon 8500....(although it was high end, and performed good at release, if it was released with mature drivers it would have been the turning stone for ati, not the 9700Pro.)
Marsumane - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
This is actually great news. If they actually get this card working to the level of a 9600 pro, then we could definately see some more sort lowering of the prices. This could prove to be very good for us consumers that like to buy sub $200 cards. It seems to have good potential, and I cant wait to see its final performance/price.AgaBooga - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
From the results, I think it needs more driver workIdoxash - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link
"wow, another POS"I guess if nothing can out beat ATI and nVidia in speed it's a POS? There are many aspects of a video card then just speed alone. For example: From wut I read many months ago when S3 first talked about this new GFX card of theirs they stated it uses something like 7 watts of power. If that is the case then you have a GFX card that does dang good in speed and uses far, far, less power then any other GFX card.
In either way they should turn this into a intergrated chip as well for notebooks and mini-mobos. Be a nice gfx chip to have alone with a low energy consuming C3.
--Idoxash