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S3 Graphics Releases Chrome 500 Series DirectX 10.1 GPU

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:26 am
by Apoptosis
S3 Graphics Launches Next Generation Chrome 500 Series DirectX™ 10.1 / OpenGL 3.0 GPU Product Line

With first add-in cards available now, S3 Graphics Chrome 500 series brings up to 30% performance boost to 3D graphics and Blu-ray™ playback
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Fremont, California, 20 November 2008 - S3 Graphics today announced its next generation Chrome 500 graphics processors, building upon the success of a product family based on the most power-efficient GPU architecture on the market. Today's users will now be able to enjoy the latest Blu-ray™ playback, streaming HD video, DirectX® 10.1, and OpenGL 3.0 applications on Microsoft® Windows® and Linux platforms.

Today's PC users are demanding more application processing power than ever before as HD video and graphics accelerate the user experience. With the Chrome 500 Series, you can enjoy Hi-Def™ Blu-ray movies and watch bonus features with Picture-in-Picture while enjoying 8 channels of high fidelity audio with the S3 Graphics' built-in Dolby® 7.1 digital surround sound processor. DirectX, OpenGL, and GPGPU applications can be efficiently processed with programmable shader cores to speed-up 3D and non-gaming functions.

Add-in cards featuring the first graphics accelerators from the new Chrome 500 series, the Chrome 530 GT, are available now on S3 Graphics GStore online retail outlet.

"S3 Graphics has built upon the success of the Chrome 400 Series with another GPU line that fulfills user demand of a superior visual experience and product that extends beyond just graphics," said Dr. Ken Weng, GM for S3 Graphics. "Our latest Chrome 500 supports features that surpass those found in higher end products, like high quality HD video support. This truly is a power-efficient multimedia / multi-application processor that delivers."

S3 Graphics Chrome 500 Series Highlights

Microsoft DirectX 10.1+ / OpenGL 3.0 Support: Chrome 500 supports the latest DirectX 10.1+ and OpenGL 3.0 graphics requirements to support the latest applications. Real-life 3D rendering and increased visual quality through improved Anti-aliasing (AA), Image/Texture improvements, higher precision formats, and programmable lighting effects allow users to experience the next level of 3D graphics.

GPGPU (General Purpose GPU) Technology: Utilizing an array of S3 stream processors, the Chrome GPUs can accelerate parallel data workloads and perform work on thousands of concurrent threads to achieve Gigaflops (GFLOPS) of high-throughput computations. Applications that can utilize S3 GPGPU technologies include image processing, video transcoding, game physics, and many more.

ChromotionHD™ Video Technology: Designed to offload video processing from the CPU and save overall system power, the ChromotionHD™ engine supports the latest HD standards including H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS, for a stunning movie experience and dual-stream, Picture-in-Picture (PiP) Blu-ray playback.

Advanced Display and Audio Integration: Chrome 500 Series processors incorporate DisplayPort with HDCP, HDMI with HDCP, dual-link DVI with HDCP, and dual-channel LVDS transmitters for complete connectivity to a full range of digital monitors and panels. Integrated Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound and HD Audio controllers are supported natively in the GPU.

PCI Express®2.0: Chrome 500 Series GPUs support the latest high throughput PCI Express 2.0 bus technology for bandwidth intensive applications and games. The faster connection speed also allows users to take advantage of additional S3 Graphics technologies such as AcceleRAM™ which leverages system memory for image data storage, and MultiChrome™ Multi-GPU technology to unleash almost twice the 3D rendering performance on games.

S3 Graphics PowerWise™ Technology: Sophisticated algorithms and power control mechanisms will allow Chrome 500 Series GPUs to deliver the optimal balance between performance and power on-the-fly, to meet performance and application requirements for power efficient graphics intensive computing on thin and light notebook PCs and small form factor desktop PCs.

For more details about S3 Graphics Chrome 500 series processors please visit:
http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/d ... /index.jsp

S3 Graphics Chrome 530 GT Graphics Card
The first product introduced to the market in the Chrome 500 Series, the S3 Graphics Chrome 530 GT takes Blu-ray viewing to new heights with an upgraded video core capable of dual-stream, PiP Blu-ray playback at lower power and clock speeds.

Equipped with HDCP capable DVI-I and HDMI ports, the Chrome 530 GT supports DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0 applications and consumes under 25W of power, making it ideal as the graphics of choice for HTPC (home theatre PCs), DIY enthusiasts, and existing PC users looking for the best bang for the buck upgrade.

The Chrome 530 GT add-in card is available now for just $44.95 on the GStore online retail outlet. Find out more about this product on the S3 Graphics website at:
http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/d ... /index.jsp


About S3 Graphics
S3 Graphics is a leading provider of innovative graphics visualization technologies for the notebook and desktop markets. As a quality supplier to the OEM and retail markets, S3 Graphics powers consumer, corporate and multimedia platforms to bring best-in-class energy efficiency, graphics/video performance, and visual features to the user. Our long-term commitment to customers is to bring reliability, quality, performance and state-of-the-art features to the forefront of PC applications. http://www.s3graphics.com

Re: S3 Graphics Releases Chrome 500 Series DirectX 10.1 GPU

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:34 pm
by jakmal
Just posted this on the ChromeZone forums. Am not sure whether people here would be able to help me out, but what goes.. here are my queries about this:

I am in the process of 'upgrading' my 3 year old Dell PC (3 GHz P4 with HT) to a HTPC by adding a video card. I have no plans of playing games of any sort on it, and my plan is to mainly decode video streams from the hard disk for display on my 1920x1200 monitor.

I was initially planning to go for the ATI HD 3450 when I stumbled upon the Chrome 530 release from S3 Graphics, which appears to be a good deal in the same range.

Here are some questions about the Chrome 500 series:

1. When will ChromationHD which can support 1080p at 60fps? The current version seems to be able to do only 30fps at 1080p.

2. Does the H264 decode engine in the Chrome series (400 or 500) support VLD of streams encoded by CAVLC only or CABAC too?

I have a camcorder which compresses HD video using CABAC instead of CAVLC in order to achieve better compression efficiency. The problem is that even decently powerful PCs are not able to keep up with the CABAC decode when the H264 stream is decoded in a software only mode, particularly at higher frame rates. The main reason I am looking to add a video card is to accelerate the CABAC decode in hardware so that the playback of the camcorder streams is smooth.

3. Are the Chrome 500 series drivers available for XP or Linux?

4. As a HTPC solution, is S3Graphics thinking of any model with a passively cooled solution instead of the present one with a fan?

5. Is the PCI-Express 2.0 connection on Chrome 530 backwards compatible with the PCI-Express x 16 slot on my Intel 945G motherboard? ( I guess many people take this for granted, but I would just like to confirm! )

6. Finally, is it possible to purchase the card in person somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area instead of going through the online outlet?

Thanks for taking out some of your time in order to answer some (or all) of my queries!

Re: S3 Graphics Releases Chrome 500 Series DirectX 10.1 GPU

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:42 pm
by DMB2000uk
I hope you can get more answers over at the chromezone as you have asked quite a few specific questions that only VIA are going to know the answers to, so I doubt anyone here will be able to help.

I can however confirm 5, in that yes this card is backwards compatible (all PCIe 2 cards/slots are backwards compatible with v1).

Dan

Re: S3 Graphics Releases Chrome 500 Series DirectX 10.1 GPU

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:32 am
by DX
How is it that S3 is still in business?

Re: S3 Graphics Releases Chrome 500 Series DirectX 10.1 GPU

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:10 am
by Apoptosis
DX wrote:How is it that S3 is still in business?
funded by Via :)