S3 Graphics Chrome 440 GTX 256 MB

Introduction

S3 Graphics is a graphics chips company in California which was founded in 1989. Over the years they produced numerous chipsets like the legendary S3 Trio and S3 Savage GPUs. They were bought by VIA in 2004 and their graphics knowledge was integrated into VIA's IGP chipsets. Their recent line of discrete GPUs is called the "Chrome 400" Series which features DirectX 10.1, Blu-Ray/HD-DVD decoding and HDMI+HDCP support.

Two Chrome 400 products are available at this time: the Chrome 430 GT and the faster Chrome 440 GTX. Both use the same 65 nm graphics chip, but the 440 GTX uses GDDR3 and higher clocks. Both cards are targeted at the entry-level segment, with possible uses in office systems or Home Theater PCs. Even though gaming is supported, don't expect anything beyond basic resolutions at medium detail settings.

	S3 430 GT	S3 440 GTX	Radeon HD 3850	Radeon HD 3870	GeForce 9600 GT	GeForce 8800 GT	GeForce 9800 GT	Radeon HD 4850
Shader units	32	32	320	320	64	112	112	800
ROPs	4	4	16	16	16	16	16	16
GPU	Chrome 400	Chrome 400	RV670	RV670	G94	G92	G92	RV770
Transistors	Unknown	Unknown	666M	666M	505M	754M	754M	956M
Memory Size	256 MB	256 MB	256 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB
Memory Bus Width	64 bit	64 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit
Core Clock	625 MHz	800 MHz	670 MHz	777 MHz	650 MHz	600 MHz	600 MHz	625 MHz
Memory Clock	500 MHz	800 MHz	828 MHz	1126 MHz	900 MHz	900 MHz	900 MHz	993 MHz
Price	$54	$69	$99	$125	$90	$140	$160	$170