MORE THAN 10 MONTHS ago, S3 began its PC graphics comeback with DeltaChrome. Decked out with DirectX 9 support, 24-bit pixel shaders, and component HDTV output, DeltaChrome looked pretty sweet. Unfortunately, immature drivers and stiff competition conspired to ruin the eight-pipe S8's coming out party. S3 had difficulty attracting board makers to sell cards based on its GPU, especially in North America. Over time, S3 improved its drivers and released the DeltaChrome S8 Nitro with higher clock speeds and more competitive performance, but the card still couldn't keep up with ATI and NVIDIA's updated mid-range lineups.

Despite not taking the mid-range graphics market by storm, the DeltaChrome S8 Nitro proved that S3 could produce a solid DirectX 9-class graphics part with competitive capabilities. With that newfound legitimacy, S3 has set out to tackle the value market with a four-pipe version of the DeltaChrome dubbed the S4. The DeltaChrome S4 brings S3's DirectX 9-class shaders and component HDTV output to lower price points, but is the DeltaChrome S4 fast enough to take on ATI and NVIDIA's low-end offerings? We've compared a DeltaChrome S4 Pro with a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra and Radeon 9550 to find out.