S3 Graphics Announces Chrome 400 Series with DirectX 10.1 Support

[malware]

S3 Graphics today announced the S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series discrete graphics processors, designed to provide the latest gaming experience for energy-efficient desktop systems and portable notebook PCs coupled with outstanding HD content playback at the highest performance-per-watt ratio ever.


Using proven low power 65nm process technology, S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series processors will support the latest Microsoft DirectX 10.1 game engine and the PCI Express 2.0 bus technology, bringing superb performance and improved 3D gaming image and texture rendering in a remarkably power-efficient, low heat package.

Ultra thin and light notebooks and small form factor desktop PCs will now be able to take full advantage of the latest graphics with a discrete DirectX 10.1 capable graphics solution. These products, requiring extreme power-efficiency and rigidly low thermal specifications, will now be able to boast full HD video support and the latest in display connectivity.

Using the breakthrough ChromotionHD 2.0 fully programmable video architecture for true HD quality 1080p playback for Blu-ray and HD-DVD content, the Chrome 400 Series graphics processor will offer a state-of-the-art cinematic experience while remaining cool under the hood. The ChromotionHD engine will support the latest HD standards including H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS.

"S3 Graphics has developed a product that will deliver incredible, high quality 1080p HD playback for Home Media Centers, Desktop PCs and Ultra Thin and Light Notebook PCs without creating the unwanted noise and heat often associated with high performance components," said Dr. Ken Weng, GM of S3 Graphics. “The feature-rich capabilities in the Chrome 400 Series will provide the end-user with a broad spectrum of new visual capabilities in a leading performance-per-watt product.”

The first GPUs of the S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series will be available in late February 2008.

About the S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series Graphics Processors
The 64-bit S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series GPUs are based on cutting edge Fujitsu 65nm process technology incorporating the following key features:

• DirectX 10.1 Support: An S3 proprietary unified shader architecture supports the latest additions to DirectX 10.1 allowing realistic 3D rendering and increased visual acuity through improved Anti-aliasing (AA), Image/Texture improvements, higher precision formats, and programmable lighting effects. These improvements will allow users to experience life-like rendering and image quality in supported DirectX 10.1 applications.
  
  
• ChromotionHD Video Technology: Featuring a fully programmable video architecture with true HD quality 1080p playback for Blu-ray and HD-DVD content, the ChromotionHD engine supports the latest HD standards including H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS, for a stunning movie experience. The video engine is also highly optimized with the decoding and post processing display pipeline that allows simultaneous acceleration of single and multiple video streams in HD format with vibrant colors and picture clarity.
  
  
• S3 Graphics PowerWise Technology: Sophisticated algorithms and power control mechanisms will allow Chrome 400 Series GPUs to deliver the optimal balance between performance and power on-the-fly, to meet performance and application requirements for power efficient graphics computing on thin and light notebook PCs and small form factor (SFF) PCs. Additional benefits allow users to increase time-between-charges by extending battery life and superior performance-per-watt operation, giving users a true mobile graphics platform for the latest 3D and HD video technologies. Enabling PowerWise on consumer desktops will provide an ideal platform for silent, fanless solutions in HD multimedia home systems. In the corporate market, PowerWise will reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO), minimizing electricity usage and cooling costs.
  
  
• PCI Express 2.0: Chrome 400 Series GPUs support the latest advances to the PC component interconnect by offering users the ability to boost the graphics performance of their current systems with the high throughput PCI Express 2.0 bus technology. The faster connection speed also allows users to take advantage of additional S3 Graphics technologies such as AcceleRAM which leverages system memory for image data storage, and MultiChrome Multi-GPU technology to unleash higher 3D rendering performance.
  
  
• Advanced Display Connectivity: Integrated digital display support with HDCP content protection will allow users to connect to a multitude of monitors, displays, and consumer electronic (CE) devices for HD content viewing across a secure display path. Built-in HDMI transmitters with HD Audio controllers allow seamless HDMI connectivity, without requiring external cable connectors for audio inputs into the GPU. Display interfaces include HDMI, dual-link DVI, DisplayPort, HDTV, and VGA. Supporting the latest display technologies ensures S3 Graphics can deliver an optimal viewing experience to the user for 3D and HD video.

More information on the S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series may be found on the S3 Graphics website at: http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/chrome_400/


Source: S3 Graphics

[DanTheBanjoman]

Nice, previous generation was quite well with features. And MultiChrome scaled well. A shame the cards on their own couldn't hold their own too well in the mid end market. Though they did win some benches against 6600's.

[Silverel]

64-bit memory...

Not a contender for the big boys from what I gather...

[mdm-adph]

God, I'd love to have other options for video cards besides just ATI and Nvidia...

[suraswami]

Damn they are still alive. I thought they are long dead.

[Morgoth]

yes but this is not an high end card

[Morgoth]

i have a s3 grapics card lol

[btarunr]

The Chrome S27 was highly unoptimised but did come into the GeForce 6600 niche. I hope this at least comes close to a 8600.

This is a lesson for AMD to learn, of how a much smaller company is staying afloat. The S3 cards did have a nice sale in some of its target markets in Asia and here we are listening to AMD selling out. Learn from VIA. I'd like them to focus on making low-profile cards for HTPC and Chromotion 2.0 to rival UVD...not a technical hurdle, using shaders to decode video.

[happita]

I had an S3 Savage graphics card back in the days of the dawning of Geforce 3 Ti series. Granted I never used it because I later got a Geforce4 MX440 and was all about "Geforce is awesome because the name is so sweet!!!"...
That was back in my noobie days

[AddSub]

On paper, hardware-wise, whenever XGI, S3, or SiS decide to release a new GPU, it looks great. But in reality the drivers for such GPUs are always anywhere from terrible to horrible.

[btarunr]

This GPU looks to be aimed more towards the HTPC than the gaming rig. So it might not be very hard for it to compete with a Radeon HD3650, etc.

[magibeg]

As long as they're cheap it will do well. The power consumption of the S3 cards is crazy low. What it comes down to is purpose, they would probably go alright in a laptop or HTPC.

[Easy Rhino]

s3's vision...

Our Vision
To create world-class graphics cores for discrete and integrated applications in the mobile and desktop PC markets.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by AddSub

On paper, hardware-wise, whenever XGI, S3, or SiS decide to release a new GPU, it looks great. But in reality the drivers for such GPUs are always anywhere from terrible to horrible.

are you kidding Via has had the most stable drivers i have ever used

[cool_recep]

Originally Posted by happita

I had an S3 Savage graphics card back in the days of the dawning of Geforce 3 Ti series. Granted I never used it because I later got a Geforce4 MX440 and was all about "Geforce is awesome because the name is so sweet!!!"...
That was back in my noobie days

You are sooooo right....

In my nooobie days...when Geforce 2 came out...The name was great....Those times...ATI Rage 3D was released i think..but the name was too uninspired

[cdawall]

i want to see onboard multichrome

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by cdawall

are you kidding Via has had the most stable drivers i have ever used

varies. I've got a via gigabit PCI card here, that either works slow as hell on some drivers (15MB/s capped) where on others it gets ~70MB/s - but constantly locks up.

Via arent that great, but they arent that poor - they're very midrange on drivers.


oh and as for performance per watt - 200 FPS in solitaire using 10W of power. yaaaaaay.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by Mussels

varies. I've got a via gigabit PCI card here, that either works slow as hell on some drivers (15MB/s capped) where on others it gets ~70MB/s - but constantly locks up.

Via arent that great, but they arent that poor - they're very midrange on drivers.


oh and as for performance per watt - 200 FPS in solitaire using 10W of power. yaaaaaay.

i have 2X via mobos (vt8237 SB) one uses onboard S3 unichrome and i have never had a lockup all the usb/lan/raid works great i have never had an issue and get 75mb/s on the wired network (on wifi now so cant post a pic)

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by cdawall

i have 2X via mobos (vt8237 SB) one uses onboard S3 unichrome and i have never had a lockup all the usb/lan/raid works great i have never had an issue and get 75mb/s on the wired network (on wifi now so cant post a pic)

thats my point. they CAN work great - its about 80% of them in my experience.
15% or so have erratic problems (like my lan card) the other 5% are utter crap (had some asrock/via boards that loved erasing/corrupting the IDE drives...)

[candle_86]

S3 cards are used by alot more than you'd think, anyone with a VIA chipset IGP has an S3 video card as long as they are using the IGP


And VIA have gone down in driver optimizations these days, compared to the KT333 days and prior VIA sucks with drivers.

[largon]

Originally Posted by Silverel

64-bit memory...

If it's fast GDDR5 then a mere 64bit bus would provide memory bandwidth equal to that on a 8800GS (~40GB/s)...

[btarunr]

But does it have GDDR5? The website would be screaming about it if it did. Plus it uses AcceleRAM technology, something like NVidia TC / ATI HM:



^That isn't for the Chrome 400 though.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by Mussels

thats my point. they CAN work great - its about 80% of them in my experience.
15% or so have erratic problems (like my lan card) the other 5% are utter crap (had some asrock/via boards that loved erasing/corrupting the IDE drives...)

o i see what your saying