Preview: S3 Graphics DeltaChrome S8 Nitro

by Derek Wilson on 3/9/2004 3:44 AM EST
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  • colinm - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link

    S3 needs to get good drivers for their other products before they even try to put a new product on the market. I bought a S3 Savage about the time the TNT was released and S3 still hasn't made solid drivers for it, much less ANY product released since then. S3 is a joke, don't be fooled for a moment. Don't buy their hardware no matter how much potential it has expecting them to eventually fix the driver issues because it will NOT happen.
  • bldkc - Tuesday, April 6, 2004 - link

    I agree, it's a POS. As a mechanical engineer I have guys coming in to see me every day with their "upgraded", or "more efficient" designs. All I know is it has to meet my specs. I will not vary my specs if there is someone else who will meet them.
    I tell them what I want, but they show up with something that doesn't meet my needs. Sound like the S3 with the Deltachrome? The point is that just because it does some things well does not mean it isn't a POS. Heck, my daughter's Reader Rabbit games would have this thing on it's knees.
  • kamper - Saturday, March 13, 2004 - link

    also a spell checker wouldn't hurt too much would it? It's not "impliment" and it definitely isn't "impilment"
  • kamper - Saturday, March 13, 2004 - link

    as cliffa3 points out, you guys really need to hire someone with an english degree. Here's another one that had me scratching my head for a while:
    "Another option S3 has open to is will be to use..." wtf? (2nd last paragraph, last page)
  • aka1nas - Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - link

    Well it obviously needs driver work, but, as long as they get it marketable and don't price it too high then they can make enough of their money back on it to keep them in the game. I think some of the problem with the graphics card market is that the few new players that try to enter the market either don't have the capital or fortitude to try to stay in for the long-term. Even if the deltachrome doesn't make a profit for S3, they can still quite possibly defray much of the cost of developing it and apply the experience in hardware design and drivers that they have gained and make a great second generation product. It takes time and a lot of coordination to get people to work effectively and efficiently at such a complicated project.
  • LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - link

    S3 seems to have one continuous problem: They aim too low.

    I'm not saying they should go for top-end, but if you want to market a 3D vid card these days, then look at the current models you want to compete with --and then design a card that will beat their successor (in this case, the Radeon 9600XT/GeforceFX 5700). S3's cards, when released, are always cards we might have been interested in six months ago, but in the current market are either too pricey, or still not stable enough, guaranteeing that at the point S3 gets their drivers just right, the card is 8-10 months out of date, and only a good deal if priced in the $99 range, assuming they actually support the GPU for awhile with driver updates.
  • Serp86 - Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - link

    yeah. it definately got potential, but it needs mature drivers.

    Kinda like the radeon 8500....(although it was high end, and performed good at release, if it was released with mature drivers it would have been the turning stone for ati, not the 9700Pro.)
  • Marsumane - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    This is actually great news. If they actually get this card working to the level of a 9600 pro, then we could definately see some more sort lowering of the prices. This could prove to be very good for us consumers that like to buy sub $200 cards. It seems to have good potential, and I cant wait to see its final performance/price.
  • AgaBooga - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    From the results, I think it needs more driver work
  • Idoxash - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    "wow, another POS"

    I guess if nothing can out beat ATI and nVidia in speed it's a POS? There are many aspects of a video card then just speed alone. For example: From wut I read many months ago when S3 first talked about this new GFX card of theirs they stated it uses something like 7 watts of power. If that is the case then you have a GFX card that does dang good in speed and uses far, far, less power then any other GFX card.

    In either way they should turn this into a intergrated chip as well for notebooks and mini-mobos. Be a nice gfx chip to have alone with a low energy consuming C3.

    --Idoxash
  • cliffa3 - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    noone read over this one before posting...

    page 1 - companies can surive...survive
    page 3 - addes screen height,...added
    page 10 - This game is definitely one of the hot games to make sure are stable and running smoothly.

    not sure what needs to be done w/the one on page 10...i didn't even read the whole article, i just caught those in skimming.
  • shady06 - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    wow, another POS
  • joeld - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    Notice how the card rocked in UT2003 but nothing else - reminds me of the diamond viper 2 (savage2000 core from s3) that I had back in the day - driver optimized for Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 and nothing else...
  • araczynski - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    ...err "but that" rather then "back that"...
  • araczynski - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    didn't notice the card was from S3 :) back that only reaffirms my original though, they'll stay int he on-board market, where they've done well in the recent past, i'm guessing this solution is an attempt at rising to the mid-upper performance tier in on-board solutions.
  • JAGedlion - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    I hope they put this in their mini-itx mobos, it would increase their funcionality many times fold
  • drteserect - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    Having owned both a Virge and Savage 8 motherboards, I realize that S3 has not always been a startup, but it has been out of the competitive fray for so long it is essentially a startup. My suggestion also applies the company that is behind the Volari.
  • Idoxash - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    "The only hope I see for a new graphics chip company would be to set up an open source environment for their driver software. The development leads of ATI and NVidia are immense, but possibly the collective genuis of people who like to play with such tasks would give a startup some sort of chance."

    You say this like S3 is a new starup company? If that's the case you are very wrong. S3 is very old and has been making gfx chips for many, many years. If I misunderstood wut you sed then I'm sorry.

    In either way they should open up their drivers. That probly help them out a lot because they had plenty of time to tweak and fix their drivers before this release and the drivers are still crap over.

    --Idoxash
  • drteserect - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    The only hope I see for a new graphics chip company would be to set up an open source environment for their driver software. The development leads of ATI and NVidia are immense, but possibly the collective genuis of people who like to play with such tasks would give a startup some sort of chance.
  • araczynski - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    agreed, too little too late, perhaps the "on-board" market will have more room for these guys...
  • Cybercat - Tuesday, March 9, 2004 - link

    Time is an issue. Even if they are able to fix all the IQ issues and OGL performance problems, if they release it too late, their performance will be below what ATI and NVIDIA will be offering, and they'll fizzle out. If they can get it out before the big boys bring out their new stuff, and they price it cheap enough, they'll have a product that can potentially take a bit of the FX5200/R9200 portion of the market, which would be good because those cards don't perform well for their price IMO. It will be nice to root for someone other than ATI and NVIDIA for a change.

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