[OwN]TooL learns more about S2K

1on1 on map Q3test2

They put me on a P3-600 system with a Savage2000 card. They even managed to get a Logitech 3-button first mouse for me. Judging by the fps counter in the top right corner, my framerates hovered near the 100fps mark throughout the entire game on my 640x480 fastest settings. We agreed to play on map2 (the rail level) with a 20 minute time limit and a fraglimit of 20. [OwN]Config was also there watching the event and [OwN]MoDMaN was there in spirit, or so Dustin tells me.

I knew I was in for a challenge because my opponent, Dustin "[OwN]DustmaN" Matia was playing on his own work system, identical to the system I was using. I warmed up for about five minutes before we started the match. Soon into the match I realized that we should have played on Q3tourney. My rail aim never settled down and Dustin slapped me around the map, winning handily 20 to 10. Homeboy has skills, but I think I can take him on my own system. ;)

DustmaN and I had a little bet and I lost, so for this article I am now "[OwN]TooL." The S3 guys are coming up to the GX offices for the rematch probably sometime after Comdex. If I can't win with home field advantage, I'll deserve to be called "TooL." (No offense to all the tools out there.)

Savage2000 clock speeds

The biggest news of the night was probably the Savage2000's 125/155MHz core/memory clock speed. I spoke with S3's PR man Paul Crossley at the beginning of the evening, and he told me that, indeed, all the Savage2000 machines were clocked at 125/155MHz. When asked about active cooling (currently the Savage2000 runs without a fan), we were told that the quality of the yields matter more than cooling.

While the official S3 line for the Savage2000 clock speed is 125/155MHz, from talking to all the S3 tech guys, I got the feeling that the 125MHz number is still very soft. That's why I stated the Savage2000 was "underclocked" in my Preliminary Savage2000 benchmarks news blurb. The Viper II will most likely ship at 125/155, but 125MHz is only the minimum speed possible. Apparently, stable speeds in the 135MHz range are well within reach right now, and even higher speeds will be possible depending on how much yields improve.

We heard that the original Savage4 chip could only do 125MHz, but last moment yield improvements pushed the chip up to 166MHz. While we can't count on the Savage2000 chip to also post similar drastic improvements, the S3 people I spoke to were confident that higher speed Savage2000 chips will hit the market. Someone even mentioned special "project" chips, but a marketing guy put the hush on before I could get more information.