S3 Dual-GPU Card Competes with ATI Eyefinity
VIA Technologies plans to offer an alternative to AMD's ATI Eyefinity technology.
VIA Technologies said that it's sporting a few products at the Digital Signage Expo 2010 trade show held next week at the Las Vegas Convention Center. One of the products mentioned is the company's upcoming S3 Graphics Chrome 5400E x2, a dual-GPU graphics card aimed to take on AMD's ATI Eyefinity technology.
"The S3 Graphics 5400E x2 is a highly integrated and flexible video card that features dual graphics and multimedia processors," the company said. "Boasting extreme hardware acceleration of the latest HD video codecs, the S3 Graphics 5400E x2 uses S3 Graphics' PanoChrome technology to provide up to four independent HD video streams at resolutions of 1080p on up to eight displays, employing a variety of display modes and configurations."
The company's press release provided a few more details, indicating that the card provides built-in Genlock support for synchronized source timing, and support for Span, Extended, and Clone view configurations. The hardware-accelerated HD video codecs include H.264, VC-1 and WMV-HD. Unfortunately, there's no real hardware-based info such as its core clock speed and on-board memory amount.
VIA said that it will offer a taste of the dual-GPU graphics card during the show, and will eventually provide samples to ODM customers in the USA sometime Q2 2010 or later. More information about what VIA is bringing to the trade show next week can be seen here.
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But can it run ------?
Somehow, I don't think this will run games quite as well as AMD's eyefinity.
This is good for the consumer. We need more players in the GPU market.
yeah, if its anything like S3's old products, WoW will prolly bring the card to its knees begging for mercy.
Now I can play dungeon hack on 4 displays! YAY
This will be interesting.
It's certainly not a Larabee statement and it probably means nothing to enthusiasts or gamers, however it may offer an alternative to the super-multitasker and office jocks.
Suspected performance aside, this is the first inkling we've heard of another graphics contender since the demise of Larrabee. (Not forgetting that Intel said they were discontinuing development of the "graphics card", they left the table open for speculation on the Larrabee technology outside of the "card" we were waiting for.) I would imagine we could see a return of Larrabee as well as a resurgence of VIA and possibly others. Lets not forget how very little the high-end graphics market actually accounts for ATI/Nvidia market penetration. Imagine having 4 teams on the field instead of just 2...
Lets get this competition going, bring it on!
I kind of wish VIA were more important in the CPU and the GPU business.
I kind of wish VIA were more important in the CPU and the GPU business.
the more the merrier
Somehow, I don't think this will run games quite as well as AMD's eyefinity.
Agreed, but it would be cool to have another player in the market.
Somehow, I don't think this will run games quite as well as AMD's eyefinity.
They probably are aiming at the productivity sector. You know, everything BUT gaming.
and the classic... "But can it run Crysis?"
LOLLLLLL... sorry couldn't help it...
S3 and Via were good in the PII/K6-2 days but that was a long time ago. They're bottom feeders in the general MB market and I only use boards with their chips to replace one in an old system when I can't get anything else.
VC-1 and WMV-HD are the exact same thing.
VC-1 is the underlying codec. WMV-HD is a branding name used by Microsoft on HD resolution .wmv files that use the VC-1 codec.
and the classic... "But can it run Crysis?"LOLLLLLL... sorry couldn't help it...
No more Crysis please
Competition is good news. How powerful is the gpu? Show us some benchmarks.
I didn't even know S3 was still alive, let alone making GPUs
It may not be a fantastic option for gamers, but if they're quiet and not overpriced I'll consider buying one for my HTPC!
Before I consider it a worthwhile card, I'd have to know what sort of power it has on it. I know, it's not made for gaming... But will it be able to cut it for decoding H.264 and handling HDCP? THAT, I think, will be the main question that many of their prospective customers will be thinking. Obviously, gamers aren't their market; AMD's pretty much got that market locked up tight, with even Nvidia barely competing.
However, if they can make a card that is inexpensive, handles tons of displays, AND can handle full high-def decoding, they'll have themselves a market. Even better if it makes do with passive cooling. If it did all that, anything under, say, $150US would make it drool-inducing.
'course, I'll grant that S3 will likely fail to deliver on those daydreams; making good non-gamer cards seems to be almost exclusively Matrox's forté, with S3 mostly producing half-arsed stuff. But I guess we'll see.
I bet they'll game just as well as Matrox cards. =)
Sad to see that though they try, there's not a damned thing Via makes worth buying...
benchmark when possible?
Well, since no one has mentioned it before...
Can it run Crysis?
VIvA La VIA!
VIA, we've been burned before, ...
Come on VIA, we're waiting for a comeback from you and more players on the Video/Chipset/Processor industry.
Cheers!
I bet they'll game just as well as Matrox cards. =)Sad to see that though they try, there's not a damned thing Via makes worth buying...
I dunno, I would love a few of their Artigo PicoITX kits to run some of my servers on. Would be much lower wattage and work well since most don't need huge CPU power, least not for what I do with them.
well i doubt it wil run games very well , i'd be really impressed if it ran games even as good as a single GF 9600 gt or Radeon 3850-3870 (the 9600 gt really falls between these two cards performance) if S3 could pull that off not 0only would it look like a vaible HTPC option but might also work as a budget gamer card provided it supports at least DX 10 tech
Well their Chrome 550 GTX has DX 10.1 support, performs better then a Radeon 4350 (not great but is aimed at HTPC) and uses very low CPU resources when decoding HD video, VC-1 decoding, had DisplayPort, HDMI and DVI ports built in. Their cards aren't great gamer cards but for HTPCs they are damned good and low priced too.
Well their Chrome 550 GTX has DX 10.1 support,
And where can it be bought at?
I welcome competition, but, if it's anything like the products I've seen sporting the S3 logo, we can't expect much when it comes to gaming. We'll just have to wait and see.
I am actually looking forward to seeing this card and they are on the right path to making decent gpus that can compete in the low end and hopefully midrange with in the year or so. They do try their best unlike Intel in the past while SiS is a total joke. Trident is still around
but only making gpus for HD TVs. Matrox has it's niche but needs to come down in price. Nvidia needs to go ahead and go for the 28nm process instead of the 40nm which is more problems than it is worth even for ATI. Intel well you could do better but no one really wants you to monopolize this segment of the industry.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Complete on 4 screens side by side... Joy!
I am actually looking forward to seeing this card and they are on the right path to making decent gpus that can compete in the low end and hopefully midrange with in the year or so. They do try their best unlike Intel in the past while SiS is a total joke. Trident is still around but only making gpus for HD TVs. Matrox has it's niche but needs to come down in price. Nvidia needs to go ahead and go for the 28nm process instead of the 40nm which is more problems than it is worth even for ATI. Intel well you could do better but no one really wants you to monopolize this segment of the industry.
I do miss Matrox competing in the consumer market. Their 2D stuff was top notch...
I am no electrical engineer, but why would a 28nm process be better than a 40nm process? If 40 is too much trouble than it's worth, how much more trouble with a nearly 33% die shrink be any better?