Introduction

The latest on DeltaChrome

S3’s DeltaChrome has been prepped to offer consumers a third alternative to the ATI/NVIDIA duopoly that has dominated the 3D graphics market for the past several years. Originally DeltaChrome was intended to service the value, mainstream, and high-end markets, but product delays and market conditions have forced S3 to cancel their high-end product, the F1 and F1 Pole Position.

S3 S8 Nitro (top) S8 (bottom)

Another shot of the DeltaChrome cards

If you recall our previous DeltaChrome stories, DeltaChrome is S3’s first foray into desktop graphics since their Savage 2000 graphics controller debuted over four years ago. We won’t go into too many of the details, as we’ve posted three articles on the DeltaChrome architecture and its mobile origins, but DeltaChrome is a true DX9 product, supporting 2.0 pixel and vertex shaders as well as other key features such as floating point data format support, 128-bit vertex precision and 96-bit pixel precision.

Like ATI’s high-end offerings and the RADEON 9500 PRO, DeltaChrome’s S8 family sports an eight pixel pipeline configuration, with one texture unit per pixel pipeline. This feature in particular made the RADEON 9500 PRO a tough card to follow for ATI, as its eight pipe configuration allowed it to blaze by the RADEON 9600 PRO in most benchmarks. S3’s S8 also shares another feature with the RADEON 9500 PRO: both cards share a 128-bit memory interface, although in the case of DeltaChrome S8 the controller accesses data in 128-bit chunks, which is not quite as efficient as ATI’s split design.

S8 Nitro takes on ATI and NVIDIA offerings

Note the size differences

S3 has two DeltaChrome S8 variants, S3 S8 and S3 S8 Nitro, with the Nitro part running at higher clock speeds for the core and memory. S3 has increased the S8 Nitro’s clock frequencies since our last article, Nitro will now ship at 325MHz core and memory (an increase of 10MHz), while S3 is still aiming for 300MHz core and memory for the S8.

Building on S3’s roots in 2D and video performance, the DeltaChrome is quite capable in these areas as well. Not only does card boast integrated HDTV encoding, DeltaChrome’s pixel shaders can access video signals such as MPEG 2/4, Windows Media 9, etc. where the shaders can apply post-processing effects like neon edges, sharpen, and emboss. S3 even has a de-blocking filter for cleaning up internet webcasts. S3 also signed a deal with Intervideo, whose popular WinDVD software also supports the technology once patched.

Price and availability

S3 had hoped to have both boards available at the beginning of this year, but manufacturing delays have prevented them from bringing S8 to market. Now S3 plans to have S8 and S8 Nitro cards hit retail soon in Europe, where S3 has a board partnership with Club3D. In fact, boards can already be ordered. Asia will follow shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, S3 hasn’t given us a firm date on when we can expect S8 to hit North American shores other than the beginning of the second half of this year, but with the ATI and NVIDIA manufacturing exclusives broken, S3’s chances of snagging a board partner or two aren’t as difficult as they would have been 12 months ago. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if S3 could snag a board partner or two, provided consumer interest and the price/performance ratio is there.

As far as pricing is concerned, S3 hasn’t nailed down final prices, but we’ve been told that the S8 should be priced in the $136-$149 range, while the S8 Nitro should retail for $169. This places these boards squarely against the RADEON 9600/9600 XT from ATI and the 5700 and 5700 Ultra from NVIDIA.