So where is the DeltaChrome it is close to November and still no release date set.

Hi!

First, sorry 4 bad english. I've 2 s3 card, a Viper II Z200, and a Savage3D. I see a pics with video de-blocking...This cards do this...An xvid video without chrominance,luminance and dering, is a fully dvd quality , without any pixel! :) A bad thing, is a problem with a Viper II card. Is a card without active cooling. A picture was always frozen, when i want to play any games with directx or opengl... :((( IMHO, the gpu has gone:( Or this is a driver problem? If you have any idea, please send me an e-mail.
Oh, DeltaChrome. I hope, the S3 come back in the video card business. He was made a good cards, without good drivers...
& my e-mail : wwenigma@freestart.hu

By!

Yup, I think the big question mark is driver support. Will they be able to get their act together? I hope they can pull it off. I don't buy high-end cards anyway, so this thing is aimed squarely at the price range of video cards that I am generally interested in.

Also, does anyone else find it interesting that VIA/S3 is making a big push into the 3D video market, and having a rough go of it in the chipset market, just as nVidia is doing almost exactly the reverse?

seems nice although

Hmm, so much complains for Linux drivers... it shows those slashdot ags are around here..

Adi

The site for the tweaked drivers is: http://jgc.homeip.net/

I'd recommend setting eClk to 125MHz and mClk to 141MHz

I had an S3 Savage4 8MB that sucked with default drivers, but then I got better, tweaked, drivers that were rock-stable and enabled me to play newer games like BF1942 and WC3 at acceptable framerates.

Although it looks to me that S3 are being too humble with the DC chip, and that with beefier features (wider bus [why not embed it in the GPU?], higher clock speeds [slap a fan on that biatch, see how fast it goes], better AA support ['Dithered Sample AA' mmm...]) it could possibly cause quite a stir in the top-end market.

Damage,

Next time you visit some hardware company, please ask them about their free/open source software (F/OSS) support policy (e.g., do they provide complete specifications to those who want to write F/OSS drivers for their hardware?).

For some of us, the single most important factor determining whether we buy a piece of hardware or not, is whether the hardware in question offers the freedom from vendor domination (through proprietary drivers) that only F/OSS drivers can do.

Otherwise, thank you for a very interesting and informative report!

If there are no XFree86 drivers for it. I will not buy it. "Microsoft won't give then hooks into ClearType rendering" Get a clue S3...

At last! More competition to keep the top 2 bastards honest.
(Top 3 if you count that HeadCasting firm also making discrete 3D cards).

It certainly sounds like it could be a good midrangeish product with some new features. When will we be able to pass filters thru our graphics cards in Photoshop?

The parent company designing the Kyro chips abandoned the consumer market, didn't they? More room for S3/VIA. I think there's room for 3 strong players in 3D.

Kurlon @ #68, if you care to try and benchmark, I for one would certainly be entertained to see the results.

As far as drivers go, I'm only aware of Win9x drivers for it - the final drivers that Diamond released are over at http://ftp.uma.es/Drivers/TVIDEO/DIAMOND/EDGE3D/ For some reason, nVidia no longer appear to offer drivers for download for the mighty NV1...

HTH!

We have a number of S3 cards at work. Man they blow chunks! They are the slowest of the slow, and were even in their days.

Their Linux support is woeful. I've tried to get XFree running on a few of them, and I think one out of eight actually work with the XFree driver - about 4 work with the vesa driver ( very, very, very slowly ) and the rest don't even run in vesa mode. For Christ's sake!

Also, as an owner of a Radeon 64MB DDR, I have been on the receiving end if their S3 Texture Compression patent. The XFree86 DRI developers have begged S3 to allow them to include support for it in the Radeon driver - apparent the algorithm itself is simple and well-known in the industry. S3 have not responded at all to anyone.

S3 aren't even concerned with 'extra features like OpenGL'. There are plently of OpenGL games that will suffer from this cost cutting - not to mention that, once again, the chip will most likely not run ANYTHING accelerated under Linux. Why would you buy an S3 again? Surely you can find a cheap 'yesterdays' Radeon that will do a better job.

Linux drivers?

Okay - misremembered some of the phrasing.

From http://firingsquad.gamers.com/features/nvidiahistory/page2.asp

When the NV1 was produced, many of the 3D standards we now take for granted had not yet been decided. Since polygons had not yet become the standard for 3D gaming, NVIDIA chose to implement Quadratic Texture Maps, not polygons, as its graphics primitive. Whereas today's 3D cards must use many small polygons to replicate smoothness, the NV1 used the curved sides of polygons. This allowed the NV1 to display smoother looking 3D models with fewer calculations. Textures were stored in system RAM and pulled over the PCI or VESA Local Bus as needed - exactly what AGP promised a few years later

I knew Quadrasomethings were involved. :-)

The Xbox game Wreckless allows you to play with emboss in real time.
And you're right, it's pretty worthless.

the paradise video chip has:

Paradise 1987
PVC4 38307C
F84 150

A sticker on the back has:

WD HI RES 4 F001
61-003002-01
made in hong kong

The bios chip has a sticker on it with these numbers on it:

62-003066-800

And printed on the pcb above the paradise chip is:

WDC 1988
which stands for western digital

#29, I have a video card even older than that. It is some old western digial ISA paradise video card. I looked on the FCC site, but could not find this one.

hong kong
Hi Res 4/4WPP
61-003002-rev P1
FCC ID: DBMZEPHI-RESGRPH

Just curious what this card is, and I would be happy if anyone can find any data on it. It came out of an old 386 dell box.

Well, i think what we see here is a bit of VIA's ability to focus and bring forth stuff. In that regard VIA is incredible, they may not always be the best, they may have fiascos, but they always have products out. And usually pretty ok or good ones too. They are fast and often react well to the market. This is only good for the consumer with yet another contestent.

#44
odd thing, used the NV1 graphics chip, which lost out as it based everything off quadrangles Well, if i remember correctly it was really NURBS based and not quadrangles.

DRIVERS DRIVERS DRIVERS DRIVERS!!!!!

If S3 makes drivers like it used to, the Deltachrome series will fail in a flaming car wreck :)

Here's to hoping we don't see a Savage 2000 repeat, or even worse, a Trident XP4 or Xabre "soft" renderer.

55, ee times I think had it. Are bit boys still not in jail? lol. But wouldn't it be a laugh if this latest is true? i'd love to see them wallop on nvidia. lol

AG #51, I beleive it was Virtua Fighter

I heard that about the Bit Boyz gpu too. I'll believe it when....

Copenhagen IC Developer's Conference 18 Sep 03
(announcement)
"Bit Boyz unveiled new graphics chip "DX9 compliant" at IC morning conference. To be in "full production" and available on Hercules boards, "initially". Q1 04.

I hope this thing pans out to be a good mid-range performer. I'm still concerned about their drivers, but only time will tell about that. With ATI in no hurry to rush out their next-gen part, this seems like the perfect time to introduce a new competitor. Good times!

#44, I was testing video games when the Diamond EDGE 3D came out. I remember being blown away on how well it could render the ONE game it came with, some fighting game I dont remember. Good memories.

Hasn't VIA been 'pitching' Delta Chrome almost as long as Bitboys and their own little fiasco? Hell it's been over a year anyway......another couple of months and everybody elses 'next gen' will be out.................
OK, I just figured it out (dumb me) .............
When this thing gets ready to see the light of day on store shelves it will be delayed (yet again) because there will no longer be a market for it and they will have to re-design (again).

I don't know about you, but I prefer my rhinos embossed
LMAO Damage.

All the drivers stuff is all very well - my Radeon DDR bought a couple of years back turned out to be a nearly useless purchase because of driver issues - but does anyone know how cards with bad drivers actually sold? So long as they have some good points, I'm guessing they could well sell pretty well - particularly in the mainstream and value segments, where if the buyer is informed at all (and isn't buying on box flashiness) it's probably by a computer magazine. (Hell, a mag I read still has a GF4MX under Graphics Card in their Best Buys section...)

I can't help but think this new chip must be A Good Thing, even if drivers turn out to be terrible and it ultimately bombs. It's almost been taken for granted that graphics, like CPUs, is a two-party system. For some reason it seems to me competition between three (or more?!) players will be better for consumers than the stone-paper-scissors that has been ATI/nVidia so far...

indeego @ #33 - heh. I wonder if I still have that Diamond EDGE 3D card around - odd thing, used the NV1 graphics chip, which lost out as it based everything off quadrangles, and alas the everyone else in the industry (and crucially, Microsoft's then-new DirectX) opted for triangles. You think coders have it bad NOW special-casing the nVidia chips? ;-)

Interestingly, that card (a PCI thing) also had sound built-in ... and the sound part wasn't at all bad - a very distant precursor to the audio in the nForces?

For the curious, there's a pic of the card over at http://firingsquad.gamers.com/media/article_image.asp?fs_article_id...

eeeeeenteresting. With only 2x edge AA, though, my main concern would be ragged edges in games.

card looks bling bling