S3 Graphics? Who are they?

[xChaoSx]

Hi, i've been building my own computer since the early 90's, and not until now i've heard some people mention S3 in the news. Its always been either ATI or Nvidia...is S3 just not available in Canada? What do they exactly do? Where do they sell them and to whom?

thanks,

 

[cleeve]

S3 used to be big in the early 90s. They came out with one of the first 3d chipsets (the S3 Verge I think it was called), but it wasn't that good. They have lost market share ever since, filling in the bottom rung cheapo stuff.

Rare in both the US and Canada, but they're still around.

 

[Blacken]

Hmm, I heard S3 was going to try and make a comback a while ago also. When did you hear this in the news?

 

[Fulgrymm]

They make thirdparty versions of ATI cards now. IIRC, they have an AGP Radeon X1950XTX available.

 

[xChaoSx]

Just random stuff and them being mentioned.

ex.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36233

Nothing big, and ive never seen them listed in stores for sale or mentioned to much..was curious, thanks for the info

 

[jaguarskx]

S3 has a joint venture with VIA Technologies. The mostly make IGPs (integrated graphics processors) for laptops nowadays. They also make budget video cards called Chrome series.

 

[Crashman]

Hi, i've been building my own computer since the early 90's, and not until now i've heard some people mention S3 in the news.

No, it's more likely you've been building PC's since the early 2000's. S3 was far more popular than ATI in the 90's and existed long before nVidia.

There's nothing left of S3, their late-90's products were some of the biggest marketing failures on the market, their last cards the worst gaming cards on the market. Some lesser companies survived only because they didn't pretend to be game card makers.

So VIA bought S3's technology to use in their own integrated-video chipsets. After all, if onboard graphics suck, they might as well REALLY suck.

A few later developments allowed VIA to produce a discrete graphics card that rivaled the worst models from ATI and nVidia, and a few people bought them because they were cheap.

 

[Crashman]

They make thirdparty versions of ATI cards now.

No they don't. You're thinking of the new Diamond Multimedia, which shares only its name with the former company. S3 produced graphics chips and QUIT because its products were so far behind the company thought it would do better to go in a different direction.

S3 made the Diamond Rio MP3 player and quit graphics, saying that MP3 players were the wave of the future. Stupidity. I told them so. I said Chinese MP3 players would proliferate and a company like S3 could never keep its competitive advantage.

I was right. After the Diamond Rio excitement died down, S3 sold its rights to D&M Holdings (Dennon/Marrantz), and poof, it's gone.

VIA bought S3 graphics from mothballs.

 

[alexs3d2]

S3 Graphics has indeed had a long and troubled history, but they did manage to survive one way or the other :? It is really very ironic that the company died after moving into "new" markets, while the graphics part, which was howt S3 was all about survived and kept the name. I think it has to do with some really important patents they had, which intel wanted and signed a 10-year cross license agreement with them. When S3 saw no future in its graphics operations, VIA jumped in securing its cross-license with Intel. That's pretty much the reason the company never really became VIA Graphics...

And they are slowly coming back... They have just recently launched a new website for users/fans on http://chromezone.s3graphics.com. They will be launching DX10 products in the near future.

 

[slim142]

S3 was a great videocard maker in the 90's

Some of their great products: S3 Savage 16, Savage Pro, Savage 3D, Savage 4... Most of their Savage line was perfect for a cheap decent videocard.

After 2000, they went down to where nobody really wants to go (hell) I just sold a S3 Savage 4 like 2 months ago, it was from my old IBM PC it could run need for speed IV and V hehe the most awesome thing is that it had a DVI port :O

 

[Blacken]

Too bad other companies can't keep up, it'd help drive the prices down and speed competition up (as if there isn't enough just between ati and nv). Matrox is OS orientated and Intel isn't even a player. They never will be in the gaming industry even with this Vista gfx plan they're running.

 

[xChaoSx]

Hi, i've been building my own computer since the early 90's, and not until now i've heard some people mention S3 in the news.

No, it's more likely you've been building PC's since the early 2000's. S3 was far more popular than ATI in the 90's and existed long before nVidia.


Actually my family has been building our own computers since our 286, then 386, 486, P2, P3 and then our AMD's. I didnt pay much attention back then but i remember the graphic cards and i always used 3dfx cards until they got bought out. I also remember ATI's 3d Rage and them being an underdog. I might remember the S3 if i saw the packaging. I was quite young, but that doesnt mean that i was building them in the 2000's. When speaking of ATI And Nvidia i meant more recently being the major brands. Back then the Voodoo's were top notch from what i remember.

 

[mpjesse]

Hi, i've been building my own computer since the early 90's, and not until now i've heard some people mention S3 in the news.

No, it's more likely you've been building PC's since the early 2000's. S3 was far more popular than ATI in the 90's and existed long before nVidia.


Actually my family has been building our own computers since our 286, then 386, 486, P2, P3 and then our AMD's. I didnt pay much attention back then but i remember the graphic cards and i always used 3dfx cards until they got bought out. I also remember ATI's 3d Rage and them being an underdog. I might remember the S3 if i saw the packaging. I was quite young, but that doesnt mean that i was building them in the 2000's. When speaking of ATI And Nvidia i meant more recently being the major brands. Back then the Voodoo's were top notch from what i remember.

How could you have not heard of S3 in the 90's? As Crashman said, they were bigger than ATI and rivaled nVidia and 3DFX. Pretty much every OEM back then used S3 in their base desktop offerings.

Not only that, they're still around! Which is amazing.

 

[xChaoSx]

How could you have not heard of S3 in the 90's? As Crashman said, they were bigger than ATI and rivaled nVidia and 3DFX. Pretty much every OEM back then used S3 in their base desktop offerings.

Not only that, they're still around! Which is amazing.

I was quite young in the early 90's but mid 90's all i remember is 3dfx, Diamond, ATI and Matrox. I might have to see the packaging to spark my memory. I remember upgrading from 2 to 4 to 12 to 16mb, then finally getting my 32mb ATI card. After that i bought my 128mb Radeon PRO.

 

[yipsl]

I had S3 cards back then, even had a Virge. It was a really poor performing 3D card, but it handled Daggerfall well enough (because the game didn't get any true 3D support). I ended up getting rid of the Virge and got a Diamond 2D card with a Diamond Monster for the dedicated Voodoo 3D card. Those were the days!

Regarding the use and abuse of old brands, I didn't know the new Diamond had nothing in common with the old. That's sort of like the European company that bought the rights to Commodore for a gaming PC! Still have the C64 in a box in the closet.

What I'll miss are the ATI All in Wonder cards, and I can't wait for the DX10 AMD/ATI cards to arrive, but this time around, I need a dedicated TV card. What was AMD thinking?

 

[Slobogob]

I was actually considering to buy one instead of a Geforce 6600 because the performance was roughly the same. Their cards support the S3 version of SLI too (which is crap, but they can be hooked).
I liked what they offered. I hope they offer a competitive dx10 budget product.

 

[bazza]

yup in the mid 90s the most popular GFX cards were S3, esp the Trio64 range

other popular cards were the ati mach range

these were the fastest affordable 2D cards at the time with 512-4M RAM costing the same price as a 7600GT