#17, Step 8: Repeat
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grantmeaname
(#19)
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ssidbroadcast |
"super gaming performance" ? That's puffery if I ever saw it…
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TheEmrys |
Wow. S3. I had an S3 card once. It was a Trident and it had 1 meg of ram. SVGA. I wish them well, but I hope they have somethine besides video cards to fund them.
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MattMojo |
Every S3 card (integrated and discrete) I have ever come across has had crappy drivers and usually bad stability.
I'll pass. Mojo |
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ludi |
Somewhere in my workshop, buried deep under the detritus of my audio hobby, I think I still have a Virge/DX lying around. I pulled that out of an old Pentium at some point, and I do believe that was the last and latest S3 card I ever owned.
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Hattig |
Feel the powarrr!!!
I'm still miffed at buying a Diamond S3 Savage based card 9 years ago. |
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crabjokeman |
I wonder what the power usage is and what process they're using.
Tiny, whiny fan? Go to jail and DO NOT Pass Go. |
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Kurotetsu |
I guess this card makes sense if it really does outperform the 3450 and the 8400. It might've been a good idea to ditch the VGA port and add a second DVI port? Then throw in a DVI->VGA adapter or two for people who need them? Reading the forums I notice that dual LCD setups are becoming more popular in the workplace, this could've been a nice solution for that (and something the 3450 and 8400 don't already have).
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Step 1: S3 introduces a new graphics card. The name is similar to one they've previously made, but you've never seen that card before because no-one wants to produce and sell one. Specs seem similar too, with a couple of minor tweaks. As usual, it's supposed to be a mid-level card that won't "take on the big boys" but is supposed to have mainstream performance.
Step 2: Hardware review sites get a prototype board. They either experience a number of driver glitches, or performance that is vanilla enough that no-one is all that excited.
Step 4:Joe Gamer reads the review, and buys a tried-and-true midrange solution from ATI or nVidia that doesn't have the driver issues S3 was famous for in cards that actually made it out the door.
Step 5: S3 has teething troubles with the GPU, or the drivers, or production, delaying the chip's release until its performance is at the low-end, yet keeping the same release price, which is now $20 above others' low-end cards.
Step 6: The lackluster performance of the GPU relegates it to boards made by one dinky little vendor nobody has heard of and doesn't trust, with nonexistent support. S3 has to lower their prices on the GPU to get any sales at all.
Step 7: S3 doesn't profit.