S3 releases the "highest-clocked GPU"

[_xxx_]

Now why did ya all miss this?

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/11/03/s3_chrome_s20_launch/

S3 Graphics today formally launched the Chrome S20, its fourth-generation DirectX 9.0 graphics chip, running at what it claimed is the "highest frequency of any GPU currently available".

That honour goes to the Chrome S27, which runs at 700MHz

EDIT: got to love the "fourth gen DX9 chip" bit

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

im eager to see how these stack up against comparable nvidia/ati units. low power/heat sounds good...but how 'tough' are they?

 

[_xxx_]

im eager to see how these stack up against comparable nvidia/ati units. low power/heat sounds good...but how 'tough' are they?

Anyway, it says "fanless design", which sounds nice so far for low-power apps.

 

[Hellbinder]

http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/s3_chrome/index.shtml

Its about the same speed as the 6600 and it supports "multichrome".

The Chromes have a pretty decent Dx9 featureset.

 

[Megadrive1988]

who does S3 think they are, ATI

 

[KimB]

Looks to me like idle power is good, but 3D power consumption is quite poor. So if you plan on gaming on your laptop, this chip will actually shorten the battery life.

And besides, S3's always had shitty drivers.

 

[Hellbinder]

Looks to me like idle power is good, but 3D power consumption is quite poor. So if you plan on gaming on your laptop, this chip will actually shorten the battery life.

And besides, S3's always had shitty drivers.

Give them a break man. I think the drivers for the Chomes have been pretty solid and user friendly.

 

[swaaye]

zeckensack had some good and bad things to say about S3 in a recent thread. If they can just support their cards after release, instead of how they used to abandon things, then maybe they're worth considering.

 

[Pete]

Interesting that they seem to have decoupled texture units from pixel pipes, according to TR:

the S20 series GPUs combine four vertex shaders, eight pixel shaders, and four texture units per GPU.

Maybe Scott('s source) meant ROPs, though.

 

[Mintmaster]

So it looks like without AA or AF, the S27 @ 700/700 core/mem is able to beat the NV43 @ 300/300. S3 should be proud!

Well, if they can make a profit, then good for them. But it'll be very tough/impossible for S3 to beat the X700 at that speed, which is already below $100.

 

[Zaphod]

It doesn't sound all that bad... I honestly hope they get it out the door soon and that they're able to be competitive with it. The market needs a third actor, even if they're only competing up to the lower midrange segment.

 

[Arun]

Hmm, isn't that 700/350 compared to 300/300? Or am I confused here?

Uttar

 

[Ardrid]

Hmm, isn't that 700/350 compared to 300/300? Or am I confused here?

Uttar

300/550 compared to 700/700

or

300/275 compared to 700/350

 

[Mintmaster]

Hmm, isn't that 700/350 compared to 300/300? Or am I confused here?

Uttar

I see. My bad. I didn't think S3 would launch their highest speed chip with such low speed memory, but I guess I'm wrong. Even the X1300Pro is 800MHz.

Still, the plain X700 also has that speed memory, so I think S3 should aim at this graphics card as opposed to the vanilla 6600. The S27 is, after all, PS2.0.

 

[Pete]

Hmm, isn't that 700/350 compared to 300/300? Or am I confused here?

If you're confused, I'm stoned. I seriously thought they were including 700MHz GDDR3 with this $100 part (all that talk of 512MB GTXs...). That explains their targetting 6600, then, but hopefully someone will try to pair it with faster RAM.

 

[BrynS]

700MHz (1400MHz) 128-bit GDDR-3 RAM, yielding 22.4GB/s of bandwidth, is obviously cheap enough to make a $100 part viable for S3, as both Tech Report and Hexus are reporting the S27 variant as having 700MHz memory instead of 350MHz. The S27 will have slightly more bandwidth than the 9800Pro, which is equipped with 340MHz/680MHz 256-bit GDDR-1.

 

[KimB]

That just doesn't seem right.

 

[Moloch]

I think in order to claim you have the fastest clocked gpu you need atleast 16 PP...
And even having the highest clocked gpu is a silly thing to boast about if a lower clocked gpu can smash it to bits.

 

[KimB]

Clock speed is a silly thing to boast about regardless. And it always has been.

 

[Moloch]

Clock speed is a silly thing to boast about regardless. And it always has been.

:smile:
It was great when amd beat intel to 1 ghz and intel had to resort to the P4 to complete, with initially performed poorly, infact untill most of the apps for SSE2...
Intel go their revenge though with hyperthreading...
and we know how the rest played out...