S3 Graphics Chrome 400 Series Graphics Processors

it seems that Via has been slammed away from Intel's platform. How many core logic chipset vendors except Via itself do you think will license S3G's graphics core? I'm a bit doubt about this.

hope, more third party evaluation of this new video card will come up in the next couple of days:!

 

It's just great to see the S3 guys still around, and not just saturate the whole market with NV and AMD. I truly wish them best of luck and success.

 

bench
http://diy.yesky.com/vga/473/7828973_11.shtml

3dmark06 movie
http://diy.yesky.com/vga/392/7832392.shtml

 

Interesting.
So basically they are at the same level as AMDs and nVidias low end offerings. Video decoding seems to be functional.
Contacts and pricing will determine if they can get a foothold. I assume that both the established players will try to ensure that no foothold is gained.

 

Is this SP similar to ATi's SP? I have little idea about the architecture inside...

FPS on Chrome430 is just as bad as its competitive product. I wonder whether HD performance of Chrome430 will win out in this market...especially comparing with some IGP chipsets delivered recently or will be delivered soon, as far as what I'm concerned about

 

Just a couple things here. I use to be an S3 user many years back and figured it might be fun to play with these cards a bit. I know theyre lower end but I have fun swapping hardware out and playing with lesser known options on the market.

Anyways they came in friday and for whatever reason, multichrome does not work under vista (i can enable it but i have yet to find a game it works with), and the multichrome.dll is not even mentioned in the driver inf nor is it useable under windows xp.

A couple of questions as a result, I use to have a press contact at S3 and it seems he no longer works there ( this was several years back), I was hoping someone can point me to a contact there?

Secondly these do support multichrome from what i gather, it looks like its just not ready for primetime. HOWEVER, they did demo multichrome on chrome 400 series cards in that racing sim, which makes me question what the problem is? I get all kinds of screen corruption with multichrome enabled, to the point it is unuseable. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

I meant to say the multichrome.dll is not mentioned in the xp driver. It is however available as an option to enable under vista but created screen corruption in every game i have tried. Both cards work well on their own just not in a multichrome configuration...

 

can you give more details? Like card specs and few FPS's?

 

Anyone have any updates on the underlying architecture?

Lotsa news items about them being sold last week, but still no in depth reviews, and little information other than the usual PR stuff from S3.

Would be nice to see another way of 'doing DX10' and also check out their video/HD features as another comparison to AMD & nV.

 

I really hope they can gain some market share along with Via. Competition is always good, especially when the little guys come up out of nowhere.

 

Forgive me if someone has posted this already with all the long, confusing links already posted here:

Some actual game performance of S3 430GT vs competition

It's pretty impressive, and handily beats out it's Nvidia and ATi competitors in almost all tests. Hmmmm maybe I'll be considering a Via based system with S3 Graphics next time around. Low power and still maintaining performance

Edit: BTW sorry for the double post >_<

 

The translated page is kinda nightmare to read through...except for the comparison charts!!

The 3D performance of chrome 430GT is just comparible to 8400GT(G86?) and HD3450 if not better than, and just within my expectations. So it's undoubltedly an entry-level descrete card. And the question again comes to the drivers issue. As a new comer product, S3 yet has a long way to optimize its drivers, to make it compatible with XP/Vista, and compatible with hottest 3d games as well. Oh, they has SLI/Cf like technology called MULTI-CHROME, it's really a tough issue to make it work smoothly, Let's wait for it!

And I read some articles review its hardwired video engine technology(chromotion?), but not very detailed review. It seems Chromotion HD 2.0 is claimed to has integrated H.264 and VC-1, so I wanna see how it compares with AVIVO UVD and NV's PureVideo HD(8500gt). But I hadn't find any article detailedly discribe this part. I'm a little disappointed about that!!

Why there is no English media gives a review on this card????

 

Maybe because VIA simply not have enough cash to pay for such kind of review

 

I know a little bit about this, Via has a ugly financial report in the last couple of years. I think it should has been struggling quite hard to transit from a logic chipset design company to a cpu company...although it claims itself as a company to provide a plaftform, but I think up till now, its cpu subsindary does best among all of its subsindaries. As for its gpu company-s3 graphics, it's a bit hard to catch up with NV & AMD/ATi in 3d performance, i think.

Back to the main topic, chrome 430gt has been on sale in its Gstore since Mid-march, which targets the US market. and it has partner in Euro help delivering this product, and I also found that it sells chrome 430gt in China! I've just visit the GStore but find out that the original version of 430gt is out of sale, but there are whitebox version available now, which is priced at $56.95. Not bad, but it could be more attractive if priced at a lower price. $49.99 for example.

It has been on sale for nearly a month...How can there be NO DETAILED REVIEW...omg, is there any s3 fan got a piece of card??

Besides its graphics engine archiecture, I'm interested in its video decoding performance(you know it's entry-level card features HD decoding).
http://www.s3graphics.com/en/technology/chromotion-hd/ , this webpage reveals some info on its video engine.
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?type=expert&aid=328, the article in this webpage introduces NV's PureVideo HD technology and gives a block diagram plotting its H.264 decoding process.

Both chrome430gt and 8400gs are targeting to hard decode part/full of MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264. H.264 for example, chrome 430gt video engien, which called Chromotion HD 2.0 seems to have integrated VLD and inverse transformation process, while 8400gs hasn't integrated these two steps. So chrome 430gt should defeat 8400gs in this pespective. What I'm not sure is that whether VLD process of 430gt support both CABAC and CAVLC.

Since NV's 8500&8600 upgrades its PureVideo HD technology and supports both CABAC/CAVLC in its integrated Bitstream processing module and inverse trasformation. I'm confused how s3's chomotion HD 2.0 technology is comparing with the video engine in 8500&8600?? So a detailed test is right necessary here^^

If anybody can endow me a piece of chrome430gt and a 8400/8500, I would be quite happy to test it for you

 

China seems to be a big market for Chrome products. I think some Chinese models from Dell and HP actually ship with S3 graphics of some kind, so I think they'll try to make sure their "currently successful" market is satiated with their products before they try to make another bid versus ATi, Nvidia, and Intel here in the US. I really want to see more computers with Via processors myself and they need to get Isaiah in dual core form out.

 

Dual core Isaiah? according my experience, that wouldn't appear within 2 years. I'm curious about how Isaiah can win out Atom's in the comming seasons. It was claimed that Isaiah is pin-compatible with current C7-M ULV and 2-4x higher in performance. It really has a chance to gain global attentions in technical perspective. However, a successful product is not always determined by technical factors. As to dual-core isaiah, what market space it wanna in, this is a question they should decide with carefulness.

Back to the graphics card marketing issues, China is definitely a big market. As far as i know, in the low-end market which consumes quite much of the total shipment units is satiated with products from Intel, NV and AMD/ATi, and S3 is losing its market share. Obviously the only vendor supplies S3 IGP cores is Via, and Via is nearly beaten away from the chipset market. If Via can have a good performance in UMPC market, then it can help increase the shipment of S3 IGP cores. If not, not much progress can be expected in IGP segments. And for descrete cards, S3 is now acturally aiming at entry-level market(<$60). It may be correct to back into the descrete market starting from there, but it has to beat with competitive parts from NV&AMD(8400gs, hd3450...), even the upcoming IGP chipsets like 780G & MCP78.

If it can deliver a DX10.1 chip Q3/Q4 of last year, their situation can be different and may win some OEMs. Entry-level discrete card is becoming less attractive to OEMs nowadays, as 780G&MCP78 etc. IGP chipsets stepping into the market. So it becomes harder to win OEM market.
And furthur more, given that Via is now weak in PC chipset market, I'm curious whether S3 will provide hybrid-CHROME just as NV's hybrid-SLI, and if they want, how could they handle this problem!
Last but far from least, S3 did really bad in TTM(Time-To-Market)...wow, they should really work harder on that, or they will just disappear from the market!

S3 guys! You do have oppotunities but pls work harder!!!

 

Seems that way...

Man, I am really disappointed in the Western graphics press. According to S3's website, the Chrome 430 GT was launched in the US market on March 20th. That was almost a month ago and still no good coverage of the Chrome 400 series. A quick look at the "press" links on their websites show coverage of their DX 9 part back in 2006!

Am I the only one that is pretty excited about this little card? Yeah it isn't high end, but it is a DX10.1 part that outperforms both NVidia and ATI's offerings at the price point. From the tiny amount of info I've found, it seems their drivers are doing pretty well in most games as well... which is a huge improvement over past Via offerings. I'd really like to learn more about this product. Someone please pick one up and give it a thorough write up!

 

Go, go, S3!

^o^ As I mentioned before, I hope this helps them fund their next card. I'd really like to know if this architecture could scale up like NVidia's and AMD's. Unfortunately, until they get better funding, I don't see that as likely to happen.

Here is their embedded version of 4300:
http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/chrome_4300e/

 

Availability on these isn't that great.