3dfx Archive - Print Page

3dfx Archive
http://www.falconfly.de/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl This & That >> This & That >> The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs http://www.falconfly.de/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1122721257 Message started by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 30.07.05 at 13:00:57

Title: The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 30.07.05 at 13:00:57

In this topic we are going to discuss S3's API that's S3 MeTaL.

S3 made other great things also, Texture Compression and TransForm & Lighting aka T&L.

The S3 Savage4 was the first to bear S3TC and the S3 Savage2000 was the first to bear S3TL, T&L originated from S3 and not nVidia aka NV.

NV kinda stole everybody's designs, it still hurt's my eyes to see them still around, I liked 3dfx, S3, ATi and Matrox more than ever and even nowadays I would choose for ATi, Matrox or S3 maybe XGi if they improve, because they are the Underdogs still do'n thier jig.

Oh not to forget S3 MeTaL that API looks frikk'n great with Unreal Tournament 1999, man it's a shame that S3 MeTaL didn't get further. I still Play UT 1999 with my S3 Savage 2000 with the S3 MeTaL API, it looks way better than D3D or OpenGL, 3dfx Glide has it;s speciallity also, but if you like 32Bit Texture compression in UT 1999 S3's MeTaL is the way to go.

The bad news is that UT GOTYE 1999 is the only game that supports S3 MeTaL, Unreal 1 support's S3 MeTaL also with patch 2.26.

well here's my Card and it's boxed

Diamond Multimedia VIPER II Z200 AGP x4 32MB + S/Video -out & Composite TV-Out:
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/Other-Grapics-cards/DSC00589.thumb.jpg

The card:
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/Other-Grapics-cards/DSC00592.thumb.jpg

Box front:
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/Other-Grapics-cards/DSC00593.thumb.jpg

Box angled:
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/Other-Grapics-cards/DSC00597.thumb.jpg

Diamond Multimedia VIPER II Z200 AGP 32MB
Based on the S3 SAVAGE 2000 GPU.
128Bit Core @ 150Mhz
128Bit SDRAM @ 150Mhz
Single Pass Quad Texture Engine, the first ever btw.

here a comparison of the then current cards left & S3' SAVAGE 2000 right:

here the Block Chart of the Savage 2000 GPU:

here the tech specs:

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by j-dogg on 06.08.05 at 20:34:18

That's what I saw today. I saw that same card and had no freaking clue what it was. I thought it was a diamond rip-off of a GF2 32mb.

How do they compare to the likes of a GF2 GTS?

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 08.08.05 at 18:16:16

well they both have T&L and S3TC maybe it's just a seller way to trick others, obvious I would of seen the difference right away, hehe the cards look totally different and thier structure is also alot different.

Diamond ViperII Z200 AGP x4 32MB:

Hercules 3D Prohphet2 GTS 32MB DDR:

Hercules 3D Prohphet2 GTS 64MB DDR:

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by LuxKiller65 on 25.09.05 at 18:34:50

Savage chips, I really like them all!
Such a shame really that NVidia killed everybody: 3dfx, S3, and Matrox and the Xabre chip that almost nobody has heard of and so on...

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by voodoo5500 on 25.09.05 at 19:50:26

Well, it seems like S3 is going to try and regain some market share:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/s3-interview.html

IMHO it will be extremely difficult for S3 or any one else for that matter, but the market does need more competition.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 26.09.05 at 12:43:39

hehe I do have a feeling that S3 is gonna change the world of graphics, and after reading the entire artice , this was a very intersting point:

X-bit labs:

"Tell us a little bit about your Destination Generation products that should sport Shader Model 4.0 capability. When did you start the development? Is it more challenging to design a chip with unified pixel and vertex processors? What manufacturing technology will you use in late 2006 when the Destination products are supposed to arrive?"

Nadeem Mohammad:

"This architecture for this new generation has been in development quite a while, originally as part of our advance research group. This was well before any engagement in Microsoft on the DirectX 10 specification. I can not comment on any of the features or specification of this product family. I will say that I am personally very excited about this design – it will have features and capabilities which I have dreamed about since my first work on graphics processors back in 1987! 2006 year is going to be a milestone year for the entire graphics industry."

So Next year is gonna give us maybe some more room for choice :) I really hope that S3 makes it to thigh Enthousiast level, that would be great.

Nadeem Mohammad:

"As you can see from our demonstration our 90nm Chrome20 series products are alive and kicking, we do not anticipate any problems due to the process, clocks are hitting targets, power consumption is well within expectations, yields are acceptable – we’re in good shape."

here S3's Chrome 20 Prototype board:

Click Thmbnails to Enlarge!

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/s3-interview/chrome20_board0_sm.jpg
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/s3-interview/chrome20_board1_sm.jpg

Man it looks sweet ;D

So at least that is the good news :P

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 30.09.05 at 01:04:22

Heheheh! KEWL! 8)

Looks kinda like a blue Radeon 9700 Pro... ::)

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 30.09.05 at 01:54:58

yeah the layout surely does, though it does have a PCI-Express Connector, it would outrun a Radeon X800SE and GeForce 6800LE with ease :)

Anyway it's just another advatage to see S3 coming back to buisness again and also a greater advantage for the Main stream people, let's hope that S3 will make it to the High End sector also, because ATi and nVidia are the only one around in that area, to have S3 in that group would make that group more interesting also, then there is more choice instead of the old two.

Thanx to S3 we have S3TC and it's still being used which is cool :)

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by LuxKiller65 on 30.09.05 at 08:22:21

The cooler is exactly an Oorb, but whit black instead of orange. Hum, since such a cooler was effective up to GeForce 3 cards more or less, I suppose the chip mustn't get too hot...

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by NitroX infinity on 30.09.05 at 11:20:20

It's a prototype, could be running below specs, thus not needing a big cooler.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by LuxKiller65 on 30.09.05 at 17:41:18

Sure, plus in the interview the guy says this card needs half the power than today's GeForces, very intriguing...

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 30.09.05 at 23:23:21

yeps S3 still has the best low power GFX card around, very nice for low noise and power sufficiant systems :)

I just really hope S3 will make it to the quallities of Ati & NV, the more choices the better, so then the lower the prices @ the retail markets.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Geri on 12.10.05 at 00:59:16

S3 Savage 2000 (extreme edition) vs. Geri

1. round
-Power on
-Install the newest drivers
-Restart
-Windows hangs at boot
S3 vs. Geri: 1:0

2. round
-install old drivers
-restart
-windows start
-dxdiag
-no correct z buffering
S3 vs. Geri: 2:0

3. round
-starting games in windows 98
(jetboat superchamps, tonny hawk)
games running good
S3 vs. Geri: 2:1

4. round
-starting games in WinXP
tonny hawk: blue death
unreal tournament: wrong colors with metal, opengl dont start, d3d dont start
S3 vs. Geri: 3:1

The winner is: s3! Congratulations!

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 12.10.05 at 02:05:12

which drive did you use?
I used the Diamond ViperII S3TL drivers 1.09 under Win98SE, no corruptions what so ever.

strange that you get errors and so on.
is you S3 SAVAGE 2000 a 32MB model or 64MB model?

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Geri on 12.10.05 at 20:05:53

dont remember, i think i used the latest 3 drivers for testing.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 12.10.05 at 23:22:13

@Obi_wan - could you let me know ;): -

1. What brand Savage 2000 board you are using? ???
2. What BIOS version does it have? ???
3. What is the set-up of your machine? (O.S., RAM, Mainboard brand [chipset, etc...], HDD, sound, other cards) ???

Hmm so the Diamond Viper II v1.09 drivers work...cant seem to Google them though? ???

I own an Innovision Savage 2000 64MB and EVERY driver I tried just got 'stuck' at a black screen before Win 98 boots!!! :'(

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 13.10.05 at 12:56:13

I've got the Diamond Viper II Z200 AGP x4 32MB Rev.A 0200 week 02 year 2000 Jumper version.

My Viper II's bios: 1.06C

my old system setup:

Grandinko 1200:

AMD K7 Athlon Thunderbird B 1200Mhz 200Mhz FSB, 256KB L2, S462
ABiT KT7 Raid Rev 1.1 VIA Apollo KT133
2x Nanja 128MB PC-133 & 1x 256MB Nanja 256MB PC-133
Diamond Viper II Z200 AGP x4 32MB Rev.A 0200
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Surround 1024 4.1
1x Maxtor Diamond Max9+ 30GB 7200rpm 2MB cache
Intel Pro 100 Server Desktop Adapter 10/100Mbit Fast Ethernet card + WOL capabillity

Jumper version refers to, that you you need the Jumpers to enable & disable AGP x2/x4 modes ;)

Jumpers on all 3 jumper locations enables AGP x4 & Jumpers removed from all 3 jumper locations Disables AGP x4 setting to AGP x2 setting.

here is where i found the correct S3TL drivers:
http://www.dansdata.com/viper2.htm

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 13.10.05 at 17:47:20

Seems the links from Dan's site to the drivers are down! :'(

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 13.10.05 at 17:51:30

hmm yeah, I'll try and search my room for those drivers, I do have them on CD-Rom somewhere, I remembered that I backed them up on CD-R :)

When I have found them I will mail them to you imedietly

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 14.10.05 at 18:49:17

Thanx - I sent you a P.M. with my address... ;)

...by the way, does anyone know where I can get a S3FLASH version that supports the Savage 2000? ???

Or failing that, a similar GFX BIOS backup proggy that does the same? ???

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 14.10.05 at 19:59:35

hmm I dunno about that, it should exsist though.

this wierd site has lots of drivers and stuff for all S3 chipsets including the Savage 4 & Savage 2000 series
http://www.s3g.net/

oei here the latest Diamond Viper II Z200 bios Paul!!!

: Bios - Diamond Multimedia Viper II v3.1c.09
http://s3g.dyndns.org/bbs/zboard.php?id=bios&no=65

Maybe Frank.Bao or Edmundoab could help with a translation ;)

also you could ude Bablefish ofcourse

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by LuxKiller65 on 14.10.05 at 20:29:09

Man, the Savage2000 even had hardware T&L!

:o

But if I remember correctly, this was "broken" and wasn't usable at all. Am I right?

Also, since it's a Savage topic, could anybody tell me if this list is right?

From the less powerful to the most powerful:

S3 Savage3D
S3 Savage4 LT
S3 Savage4 GT
S3 Savage4 Pro
S3 Savage4 Pro+
S3 Savage4 Xtreme
S3 Savage 2000

Were there any other Savage 3D GPUs? What about a Savage4 Ultra?

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 14.10.05 at 22:03:58

wrote on 14.10.05 at 20:29:09:

yes that's exactly right, I used to to have a S3 Savage 4 Extreme from Diamond Muultimedia :D great S3TC that's for sure.

it was named :
Diamond Stealth III S540 eXtreme! AGP x4 32MB :P

though there was no Savage 4 Ultra chip, actually the Savage 2000 was a great improvement compared to the Savage 4 eXtreme, but technically the Savage 2000 could do a quad texture format in a single pass, the Savage4 eXtreme had to do that in two seperate passes, onwhich was alot slower.

both cards did have 128 Bit GPU's and 128 Bit mem interface.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 15.10.05 at 01:18:53

@LuxKiller65 - from what I read the Savage 2000 was one of the first two TnL cards (the other was Geforce 1). ;D

The TnL was INDEED broken - but was fixed in later drivers...apparently! ::) :P

...now if I could only get mine to F*****G WORK! >:(

@Obi_wan - thanks for the links mate! ;)

Problem is that the Inno3D Savage 2000 that I have seems to use a non-standard Flash ROM, as S3FLASH won't read / write to it? ??? :o

Details are as follows :): -

FLASH ROM TYPE
============
PMC Flash
M1A9K
0215
Pm39LV512R-90JC

BIOS MESSAGE
===========
Savage 2000 Bios v1.0 0201-5934
Copyright Inno3D Multimedia

I have emboldened the flash type for easy reading... ;D

...and as you can see, the BIOS corresponds to one of the Viper II release BIOS files. 8)

Although S3FLASH won't let me make a backup OR flash the new BIOS file! >:(

What flash type does your Viper II use? ???

==EDIT==

Slightly unrelated...but this Chaintech GeForce uses the same Flash chip as my Savage 2000... :o

http://www.dcomputer.com/proinfo/faq/VGA%5CCHAINTECH%20G480%20DDR%2064MB-1.PDF

How unusual...or maybe not...WTF? ???

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 15.10.05 at 02:42:33

good question well I never have flashed mine since I was a Quake3 freak at that time Quake3 really worked like a charm with those T&L drivers, it's bios didn't need recovery at all. 8)

Anyways I still have my trust Viper II OEM in my Mom's PC and Boxed next to my RA2 Voodoo5 PC :) the AthlonXP 2700+ aka Sveta.

But norries on that site, it's nogt english but that site did have the most resources I could find about the Viper II Z200 and other Savage 2000 cards.

I do remember the Savage 2000 board carrying this beautifull Blue S3 SAVAGE 2000 logo:

that board had everything you needed for your Savage 2K really everything was there, now I can't seem to find that honorable board anmore ;(

oh I also came across this nice site too :
http://usuarios.lycos.es/todohardware/savage2k.htm

Also has a bios section ;)

and also all the specs you need of the S3 Savage 2000 GPU:

Feature List

High-Performance 3D Acceleration

* Fully integrated Transform and Lighting Engine (S3TL™)
* 8 source OpenGL compliant hardware lighting
* Floating point triangle setup engine
* Complete CPU load balancing capability
* Fully OpenGL compliant, DX7 ready

Complete 3D Rendering Features

* Sustained 2 multi-textured pixels/clock performance
* Single-pass Quad-Texture™ engine
* Up to 200MHz engine clock speeds
* 700M texels/s fill rate with dual/quad textures
* Programmable blending of multiple textures
* Hardware bump mapping
* S3 texture compression (S3TC™)
* True color rendering
* Full scene anti-aliasing
* Anisotropic filtering
* 8-bit stencil buffer
* 16/24/32-bit Z-buffer
* Specular lighting and diffuse shading
* Enhanced alpha blending modes
* Range-based, vertex and table fog

High Quality Video Support Including DVD/DTV

* High quality multi-tap up/down scalar
* Third generation motion compensation design for hardware-accelerated DVD playback
* Subpicture blending and highlights
* Fully compliant VIP 2.0 for all HDTV resolutions
* Support for Microsoft DirectDraw7 HVA Interface
* Multiple video windows for video conferencing
* Streams Processor™ display up to 1600x1200
* De-interlacing for display of interlaced content
* Fully programmable hue, saturation, contrast, brightness, and gamma controls
* Multiple HDTV configurations supported via DMA host port bus mastering
* Digital port for lossless data connection to high quality NTSC/PAL TV encoders

High Speed Memory Bus

* Up to 200 MHz memory speeds
* Up to 64 MByte frame buffer
* 128-bit memory interface supporting up to 3.2 GB/s memory bandwidth
* 1Mx16, 2Mx32 or 4Mx16 SDRAMs
* 512Kx32 or 1Mx32 SGRAMs with block write support

Enhanced 2D Acceleration Features

* Highly optimized 128-bit 2D graphics engine
* Full featured with acceleration for BitBLT, rectangle fill, line draw, polygon fill, panning/scrolling and hardware cursor
* 8, 16, 24, and 32 bpp mode acceleration

Flat Panel Desktop Monitor Support

* DVI compliant
* 12/24-bit digital interface to flat panel encoders
* Auto-expansion and centering for VGA text and graphics modes
* Support for all resolutions up to 1280x1024

Full Software Support

* Windows 98/95 display drivers
* Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 display drivers
* Windows 3.x and OS/2 3.0/4.0 (Warp )
* Linux display drivers
* Direct3D, DirectDraw and DirectShow
* OpenGL ICD for Windows 9x and Windows NT
* Comprehensive SDK, utilities and ISV tools
* ISV and bundling programs

Additional Features

* 350 MHz RAMDAC with gamma correction enables display resolutions up to 2048x1536
* I²C serial bus and DDC monitor communications
* ACPI D0-D3 states and PCI power management
* Parallel flash memory support
* Full AGP 4x/2x, including sideband addressing and execute mode
* PCI 2.2 bus support including bus mastering
* 100% PC’99 compliant
* 31x31mm PBGA with 409 balls

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 15.10.05 at 02:57:02

Quote:

oh I also came across this nice site too :
http://usuarios.lycos.es/todohardware/savage2k.htm

BIOS setcion seems to be for mainboards and not GFX...oh well! :P

WHOA! Lots of Specs...but all I really need is the flash chip type of your card! ::)

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 15.10.05 at 05:06:12

how do I find that out? the Bios chip that is, there is a bios sticker on it, I wasn't planned to remove that though hehe

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by LuxKiller65 on 15.10.05 at 16:38:04

How does a naked Savage2000 GPU look?

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 15.10.05 at 18:36:46

the S3 Savage 2000 GPU looks like this:

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by LuxKiller65 on 15.10.05 at 19:52:25

Oh, nice, I thought that was the "advertising" GPU and not the real one !

^^

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 15.10.05 at 21:39:21

it is the Savage 2000 GPU but some colour was added for the press indeed. 8)

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 15.10.05 at 23:35:47

@Obi_Wan - umm...yeah, it is the BIOS chip on the board! ::)

Mine has no sticker so I could read the flash type. ;D

If you don't want to remove the sticker though, then someone else will have to look at their card! :-/

HALLO ANYONE? ??? DOES ANYONE HAVE HIGH RES PICS OF A DIAMOND VIPER II FLASHROM...or at least the flash type info? ???

(Yes, I'm just SHOUTING to get attention...LOL! And no offence meant people!) ::)

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 16.10.05 at 02:33:16

why use the caps, without the caps it's still readible .

anyway I rather keep the stickers placed sorry, maybe there are others willing to remove thiers, but on the other side it is up to them to remove them ofcourse.

I can have a look in my mom's PC she also has a Viper II AGP but without Jumpers! so must be a later Revision and PCB date.

I will check that one's bios chip later this week.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 18.10.05 at 20:44:49

@Obi_wan - Did you check yet? ???

P.S. Sorry for the shouting! :-[

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 18.10.05 at 21:22:10

hmm seems to be the same as mine lol, anyway no difference a shame indeed I thought at first that it would have a newer bios because it has no jumpers on the board but oh well, I can't help on this part I'm afraid.

norries about the capps.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by LuxKiller65 on 18.10.05 at 22:01:58

That was Capstain America!

;D

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 18.10.05 at 23:05:06

good news yee haaa grand pa!!!! ;D ;D ;D

VIPER2 WIN9X/2K/NT 11.6MB VIPER2 Z200 W9X-2K-NT4.exe
http://www.dmmdownload.com/support/old/library/graphics/viper/VIPER2%20Z200%20W9X-2K-NT4.exe

The latest Diamond Viper II drivers the Savage 2000 from Diamond:

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 20.10.05 at 17:29:15

Quote:

hmm seems to be the same as mine lol

Whatcha' mean? Is there a sticker on the other card like your Viper II, or is the flash chip the same type as mine? ???

Hmm...thanks for the drivers link, but I already tried them! :P

So maybe it's the mainboard I'm running the card in? ::)

What mainboards are your Viper II cards running in (Brand and Model). ???

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 20.10.05 at 21:41:55

MSI MS-6119 BX2 Ver 1.1my old PentiumII MMX 350 system

and I also tested it in my ASUS A7V333-R Rev. 1.04

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by paulpsomiadis on 21.10.05 at 17:21:48

Strange? ???

I'm running my Savage 2K on a BX system too... :P

PCCHIPS P6BX-A+ mainboard with a 433MHz Celly. :)

And I STILL can't get the card to work? ???

D@mn weird I tell ya'! :o

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 21.10.05 at 17:30:49

yeah sure is kinda wacko
my mom's Savage 2K runs on an intel 850 system for like 3 years and these drivers work fine on that system. The Operating system is WinXP Pro NL + SP2

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000.
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 06.11.05 at 12:53:56

S3 lives on!

with S3 Chrome 20 series S25 and S27 :D

here the specs of thier fastest card the S3 Chrome S27:

Chrome S27 Highlight Features

PCI Express™

The Chrome S27 employs a native PCI Express high speed serial link implementation. Dynamic support for 16x, 8x, 4x, and 1x lane configurations enables up to 8.0 GB/s transfers between host system and graphics subsystem.

Full DirectX™ 9.0 Support

Support for Dual graphic card implementations enabling performance increases for applications such as 3D gaming.

HDTV Hi-Def™ Experience

Get more value from your HDTV using the integrated Hi-Def, HDTV encoder technology, which supports all 18 ATSC DTV standards, including 1080p. In HDTV Hi-Def mode, the Chrome S27 brings the theater experience into your home for all your PC media, video games explode to life before your eyes in vivid detail, and Hi-Def corporate presentations will set new standards.

Chromotion™ 3.0 Programmable Video Engine

The Chrome S27 includes the advanced Chromotion3.0 programmable video engine that is fully compatible with Microsoft DirectX-VA media acceleration. Its powerful programmable video effects can be applied to almost all video codecs, including Windows Media Video 9 (WMV9), MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. Post-processing filters enhance video from poor, low bit rate source materials. Real-time rendering capabilities bring video effect processing to mainstream home video enthusiasts, who can now exercise as much ArtisticLicense™ as advanced video artists.

Class Leading Core and Memory Clock rates

The Chrome S27 leads the industry with 700MHz core and memory clocks, thanks to the advanced 90nm manufacturing process.

Advanced 90nm Manufacturing Process

Manufactured using world leading 90nm technology from Fujitsu, the S3 Graphics Chrome S27 leverages high speed transistor technology to achieve leading performance per watt operation.

DeepColor™ Precision

DeepColor 10-bit-per-color component rendering precision allows for 1024 shades of pure color or grayscale, compared to only 256 shades available using standard 32-bit display modes.

Vertex Shader 2.0+ and Pixel Shader 2.0+

• DirectX 9.0 VS/PS 2.0 + hardware – 8 PS and 4 VS
• 128-bit (4xFP32) vertex precision and 96-bit (4xFP24) pixel precision per clock
• Up to 16 concurrent texture map references per pass
• Shadow Volume acceleration with two-sided stencil
• Non-power of 2 textures
• High accuracy floating point render targets for cinematic quality image rendering
• High quality advanced 16x anisotropic filtering
• High quality rotated grid full screen anti-aliasing with 4x super-sampling up to 1600x1200
• Volume and cube maps for photo-realistic reflections
• Programmable per pixel gamma correction
• High Performance Fast Tri-Linear filtering

Crisp Rendering

• Zero latency – ultra fast zero cycle clear
• Optimized Z-buffer write and read
• Triangle mask optimization
• Fast Clear technology

Full Precision Pixel Pipeline

• Full floating point precision ALU for single clock execution per pipeline for PS 2.0+ operations.
• Programmable cache for engine speed and efficiency
• Unified superwide pipeline for seamless 2D/3D/Video context switching
• Optimized advanced shading dependency read pipelines
• Programmable render target blending
• Programmable depth shader
• Microsoft Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) support
• Real time post processing
• ArtisticLicense real-time video effects

GDDR1 / GDDR2 / GDDR3 Memory Interface

• 32/64/128-bit ( ChromeS27 ) memory bus
• 32/64/128/256 MB frame buffer w/ GDDR1/GDDR3
• 32/64/128/256/512 MB frame buffer w/ GDDR2
• Peak memory bandwidth to 22.4 GB/s @ 700MHz (max –GDDR3)
• Peak memory bandwidth up to 16 GB/s @ 500MHz (max – GDDR1/GDDR2)
• Dynamic CKE controlled power management
• Support for "termination free" low cost board designs

Integrated Hi-Def HDTV & Standard TV Encoder

• Comprehensive support for all 18 ATSC DTV standards
• Component (YPbPr) output
• 4:4:4 conversion with 10 bit DAC resolution
• ChromoVision™ full screen video on secondary HDTV / TV
• Full desktop view in HDTV mode
• All NTSC/PAL standard TV output formats (S-video, composite)
• Macrovision compliant
• Flicker filter with programmable coefficients
• Vertical over/under-scan compensation
• Adaptive aperture correction
• Non-linear scaling: for panorama 16:9 viewing on HDTV
• ChromoColor™ , including full range RGB to YUV color space conversion with Hue , Saturation, Brightness, and
Contrast adjustment
• Smooth vertical overscan compensation with programmable contraction factors

Duo-Rotate™

• Hardware acceleration for display rotation for desktop and TabletPC (90°, 180°, 270°)
• Displays can be independently rotated
• Rotation acceleration for 3D ,2D & media playback
• Full operation of geometry, lighting and texture effects

High Performance 400MHz 10-bit CRT DAC

• 1+ billion colors (Giga-Palette)
• 2048x1536 QXGA (3.1M) display resolution capable
• Excellent INL/DNL characteristics (+/- 1 LSB)
• Dual mode compatible (HDTV/CRT, DVI/CRT, TV/CRT or LVDS/CRT)
• High precision Gamma control

Here a diagram of the S3 Chrome S27 GPU:

With MultiChrome technology you can make a Dual S27 setup like ATi's CrossFire & nVidia's SLI idea.

The performance of 1 S27 is the same as 1 GeForce 6600GT / Ati Radeon X700XT :) which isn't bad, in MultiChrome setup the performance would lay around that of an ATi Radeon X800XT Platinum Edition / nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra, and that for a total of 260 US Dollars, I find that very attractive.

here more info of it's performance:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27438

Way to Go S3! Welcome Back!

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs
Post by TM30 on 06.11.05 at 22:23:10

nice but S3 comes to late i think... everyone already has a 6600 or something like this, 6600 is out there over one year, and NOW S3 has something comparable...

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 06.11.05 at 22:53:17

well fro the asian countires it's still very acceptable, they also support Multi GPU sepups from 2 to more cards so like 4 S27's ahve the equal performance as 2 6800Ultra 512's. but still cheaper than one 6800Ultra 512.

4 S3 Chrome 27's will be like 512 Euro's, and 2 6800 Ultra 512's will be still 900 a 1000 euro's so you get the same performance of 4 S3 S27's and it's alot cheaper also, that what clients are asking and looking for, I think S3 is playing thier cards very smart, the also use lot's lesser power than conventional cards, about 30 watt per card and that is very low for a High-Mainstream gamer card.

I am willing to give S3 a go some time next year.

the most cards sold are the low end and Mainstream cards, Ultra High end arn't sold much in total, clients rather have some thing which is cheap but still fast enough to runj thier apps, I have learnt that in the Computer Store where I help out regulairy.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs
Post by TM30 on 07.11.05 at 01:47:22

can you tell me a mainboard with 4 PCIe Slots?

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 07.11.05 at 13:30:57

haha yes infact I can do that ;)

if you check this topic http://www.falconfly-central.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=offtopic;action=display;num=1129899195

http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/4380/quadpcimobo5fe.th.jpg

That's an nForce4 SLI mobo with 4x PCI-E x16, when all are in use they run @ PCI-E x8 mode, S3's S27 can opperate on any chipset based mobo, it will function with
MultiChrome on all SLI & Crossfrie boards and that board has 4 PCI-x16 slots,there by with the propper driver from S3 and the latest nForce drivers from nVidia all PCI-Express slots can communicate as one device and as for all S3 S27's also ;), there will also be AMD sollutions for this also.

Anyway That mobi is anexample of a 4way PCI-Express x8 sollution.

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs
Post by FalconFly on 07.11.05 at 16:50:57

I've read though that during their initial tests with their SLI currently stops scaling beyond 3 Cards.

2 will increase it from ~70% (Games) upto 100% (some Benchmarks)

Adding the 3rd Card still improves performance, but already far less, with a 4th Card no improvements were achieved anymore.
Since the Cards seem to do their SLI entirely in the Driver and their Code is fresh, lots of room for improvements & tweaks though ;)

Title: Re: The S3 SAVAGE 2000 & The Latest S3 Designs
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 08.11.05 at 00:24:06

exactly, the Driver is actually the main engine that propells the Accelerators for about 50% of the whole process.

Drivers also must support 4 units, if that isn't the issue it's indeed a not good working sollution. The Hardware it's self perfect , well just about the Hardware has been designed by Humans and Humans can make mistakes, but I think that it's not a hardware problem , morely a Software Driver problem, But 4 cards can be made possible.