Creative Launches 3DLabs VP500SE VPU Powered Gaming Cards

[David G.]

What I want here is impresions and speculations as I've observed a paradox in the new offering :

-the cards are sold for 180$ but have only 128 Bit 64 Mb DDR Memory .

What do you think about the performance of such a solution ?

Here are some details :



3Dlabs VP500SE visual processing unit
128-bit memory interface
64MB DDR memory
370MHz RAMDAC
AGP 2X/4X with sideband support
Analog VGA / SuperVGA monitor connector
DVI-A / DVI-D connector for flat panel displays
Supports dual-head operation for displays

The original VP960 ( i think ) card was giving results a little highyer than 8500 in 3DMark2001SE having no optimisations for such gaming software .

How much do you think they've improved the situation considering the fact that they've made not only new drivers but also , the VPU was modified ?


Here's the link .

PS. They say it's a "Digital Camera Optimised Video Card" ... hehe ...

 

[Lezmaka]

Sure doesn't seem like they're marketing it as a gaming card...

 

[David G.]

Well ... they've been talking about a non-professional implementation of the VP10 VPU and here it is ...

That's why I've said gaming and they've also compared it with gaming cards.

Anyway ... this "digital camera" stuff is really funny ...

 

[BoardBonobo]

It sounds more like they are aiming for Matrox's old market, DTP and graphics editing. It'll be interesting to see how well it copes in games though it is DX8.1 only.

 

[PrzemKo]

funny or not, 3x faster image stitching can be very useful (if you're working with a bunch of large images).

 

[mczak]

Re: Creative Launches 3DLabs VP500SE VPU Powered Gaming Card

What I want here is impresions and speculations as I've observed a paradox in the new offering :

-the cards are sold for 180$ but have only 128 Bit 64 Mb DDR Memory .

the link even says 150$?

What do you think about the performance of such a solution ?

Hard to say without knowing how cut-down it is. Even assuming it is basically the same chip, it could be clocked lower.
Could be a nice competitor to the Parhelia or Parhelia-LX based cards (significantly cheaper than the former, possibly significantly faster than the latter, but without triple-head).

Analog VGA / SuperVGA monitor connector
DVI-A / DVI-D connector for flat panel displays

What problem do they have with the connector designations? The former is called just VGA (and I don't think anyone would believe it actually only supports VGA resolution...), the latter is DVI-I...

 

[Dave Baumann]

It a P9, except this has the first revisions of 'Slipstream' enabled so its not going to perform entirely like half a P10.

 

[gkar1]

Bah, and i was getting excited when i read the topic.
Even if they introduced the card to perform in the midrange segment, it would have been a good thing for consumers. Making those 9500 and 9600 Pro's come down a bit in price. Nevertheless I'm still interested on seeing benches and image quality comparisons. My old voodoo3 in my spare rig is aching for retirement.