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The Return of S3

Posted by michael on from the not-dead-yet dept.

flynn_nrg writes "Just saw this article on ExtremeTech about S3's new graphics card. S3 is back on the scene with its first new GPU architecture in five years. Rather than take aim at the high-end, S3 has set its sights on the midrange price/performance category, which is currently dominated by ATI's Radeon 9600 XT and nVidia's GeForce FX 5700, both of which are under $200. Today S3 unveils the DeltaChrome S8 GPU, which represents the midrange of its upcoming line of DeltaChrome GPUs."

8 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. S3 hasn't been cool... by pw700z · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...since VESA local bus (VLB) video died. Now THOSE were the days. Even AMD was really, really cool in a mainstream sort of way - anyone remember the 486DX2-80MHz? Or the 120MHz which was faster than the Pentiums at the time? A DX4 120 + a fast S3 VLB video kicked serious butt, at least in 2D and text modes.

  2. Give us drivers... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...and we will buy. I mean that. Provide either Open Source drivers for X, or the full specs required to implement them, and you will sell hundreds of thousands of cards to those of us who are more interested in non-proprietary kernel modules than raw performance.

    Right now, I have an NVidia card in my workstation and I hate it. Why? Because I have to choose between using the OpenGL renderer and staying true to my beliefs about software freedom. This basically means that I paid extra for a card that I can only halfway use.

    S3, take heed. Give us a product that we can use and we'll support you. Do it. It's the right thing.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    1. Re:Give us drivers... by JanneM · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No "freedom tax". It is a somewhat lower performance card, with a lower price tag.

      This may come as a bit of a chock, I know, but there are some of us out there actually _not_ willing to have the bleeding edge in graphics performance at great cost (in money, noise and power draw). My main machine is currently a laptop with an NVIDIA GF4 420 GO with 32Mb memory. It can handle anything I throw at it with no problems. True, I do not play the latest "QuakerDoom 40,000 - Bloody Dismemberement" - if gaming was the primary focus for me, I'd have a Windows partition (or, preferably, a PS/2).

      Oh, and about "the right thing": you are right - they are a hardware company. Their business is selling hardware to people. Drivers are a cost, not a source of revenue. Anything they do is geared towards driving hardware sales and lowering the cost of providing said hardware. If releasing drivers or specs for Linux will increase sales more than it costs them to do the release, it is a net win.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  3. Re:Wow by toddestan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Prices are already pretty reasonable. Unless you play cutting edge games, a $75 video card will do everything you want.

    Heck, even if you play cutting edge games, even that $75 card will serve you well unless you absolutely must have 1600x1200 resolution with 32bit color and 435FPS.

  4. Driver Issues by miracle69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So they're releasing a card with serious driver issues, where the top of the line model is expected to compete in the mid-price range market.

    Wouldn't this be the perfect situation to open the source and getting the community to squeeze every last bit of performance outta their chip? It helps them save money on paying people to code the driver, and it gets the most outta their hardware. IN addition, it would also give them a healthy community that would reccommend this solution to friends/family that aren't into the bleeding-edge gaming machines.

    --
    Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
  5. Re:But wait! by Peridriga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe their not aiming for the high-end market.

    Imagine how many video cards are purchased off the shelf at computer stores. Then imagine how many video cards are purchased in new computer sales. I would imagine more video cards are moved by unit in new/refurb(card replaced) sales than individual sales for LOW/MID range cards.

    Now I know people purchase high-end cards from stores (I did) but, to sell mid-range cards you usually don't sell to the consumer you sell to the manfacturer.

    I would rather spend 'x' amount of money to produce a cheaper and comparable card to the current market norm and get a contract providing Dell w/ cards for their mid-range systems then spending '3x' the amount of money making the "newest and the greatest" card then having to spend another '2x' just marketing the damn thing to a niche market..

    I'd rather sell mid-range and more units.

  6. Re:Why buy mid-range? by Peridriga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do people buy used cars?
    Why do people buy refurb'd computers?
    Why do people goto yard sales?
    Why do people goto dollar stores?

    Maybe the secretary down the hall doesn't need a Radeon 9800?
    Maybe I don't want my kid to use 'this' PC for gaming and only for school work?

    There is a market for mid-range cards...

    Don't just assume everyone wants to buy the best of everything. (Why isn't Mercedes-Benz the largest car manufacturer in the world?)

  7. Re:Wow by bonehead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    $200 to me seems like WAY to much to pay for a graphics card

    Especially in a day and age where a hundred bucks more can buy you an entire PC.