New XGI chips

Maybe they just have the decimal place in the wrong spot? Typo?

 

From a kremlologic view, that doesn't sound too promising.

 

I don't want to sound nit-picky, and I understand what you're saying, but I still have to disagree.

Think of it this way:

The V2 "single" solution was 1 PixelFX2 chip, plus two TexelFX2 chips. That set of 3 chips "equals" the function of the Rage single chip wrt 3D. The V2 SLI is not a different concept than the RAge FuryXX. The entire functionality was duplicated. "Dual Rage Fury" chips = "Dual sets of V2 chipsets."

Agreed about the V1. It is my opinion that even from your point of view, you have to give props to the V2-SLI as being the first consumer product to push the concept.

 

Seems more or less a 9600 pro for me... I'm interested in the "SLI" performance though

 

They do mention compression based algorithms, so I think it is reasonable to assume that they use Z-buffer and color compression like the latest ATi and nVidia cards. So, they do have some bandwidth saving techniques.[/b]

 

V5: entry level DX9 only but beats the *** out of FX 5200

V8: mainstream DX9, similar to top FX cards

Duo: around R9800Pro in DX9 or even better but I bet we not gonna see this before 2004 - which is too late (I'd really sorry)

 

Clockspeeds:

V5/8 Dual: 350MHz Mem: DDR:375+MHz or DDR2:500MHz
V5/8 Ultra: 350MHz Mem: DDR:375+MHz or DDR2:500MHz
V5/8 Non-Ultra: 300MHz Mem: DDR:325MHz or DDR2:450MHz

XP5: 250MHz RAM: Mem: DDR:250MHz

It also seems like they have dual DVI-support.

 

What do they mean by Triple-view (from the comparison pdf) for the Mobile XP5 part? Any idea?

Nevermind, just found it.

 

Wow, all this sounds very promising and beyond my expectations (and to think I was one of the rare few to think they could make a high end card). Can't wait to know more about it

 

Seems to me that the Volare V 3 , is a refresh of the xabre 600. The V 5 and the V 8 are based on the Xabre II. SiS said way back in Feb?, on their xabre roadmap that the xabre II would come in two flavours, one with 4 pipes and one with 8 pipes.

What is surprising is the dual chip config. This could have real potential with PCI express coming.

I wouldn't be surprised to see all the single chip cards released very quickly. Releasing the V 3 by itself would be a mistake. The dual chip solutions... who knows when.

Their drivers better be good and have a real control panel, if XGI is going to compete.

Being an Xabre 400 owner I can say that the drivers were pretty good, but since XGI came into the picture, support and updates for the xabre have disappeared.

Slaterat

 

We all remember that the original Xabre was advertised as 4x2 and turned out to be 2x4, right? Not to mention I think this was the same chip that lower texture quality to raise framerates....

 

That is right in the range for the peak speed of AGP 8x. There is most likely a bridge chip connecting the two that speaks AGP 8x. A core communicates with the bridge at AGP 8x speeds, and from there data can go to either the host or the other chip.

 

It looks like we may have a contender, at least for the enthusiast parts. Reading between the lines of the pdf, it seems the mainstream v5 and v5 ultra aren't meant for hardcore gaming. Could be ok for casual gamers, though. The Volari Duo V8 is the most intriguing part. I'm wondering about the price tag: 2 gpu's and it needs separate memory for each gpu. That could get expensive...

The V-drive's an interesting tidbit: "V-Driveâ„¢ ratchets up processing power in perfectly timed response to computational demands, effortlessly delivering full frame graphics with flawless execution." Combine that with the integrated thermal diode and it appears these cards support built-in automatic overclocking.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

 

How do you mean?

 

Will they win the CHEATING TO DEATH 2003 DRIVER CONTEST ?
for now nvidia is in pole, but....

 

To me, the mention of "using only HALF the number of transistors of the competitive equivalent" sounds similar to Trident's XP4. In addition, this part is aimed at the mobile space, which is Trident's traditional area of straight. As XGI now owns Trident, I bet this part is an update of the XP4.

See http://www.xgitech.com/products/products_v3.htm

 

That last sentence suggests, to me at least, that the chips are working on alternate frames.

 

Which means theoretically almost twice the speed

 

didn't the drawing of independent frames cause probs for the Fury MAXX, where some people said it felt there was a delay to the graphics? something to do with processing 4 frames at a time? I can't remmember the details, anyone else remmember this?

 

That was a load of bunk. It was a toms hardware induced "gotcha" to an architecture they hadn't even really tried yet.

I had a MAXX in my system for quite some time... there was NO problem with "frame latency" or whatever they were calling it at the time.