Daily News Brief: S3 Graphics Launches New Videocard

Posted 03/21/08 at 05:05:07PM | by

Old Company Releases New Videocard

VIA owned S3 Graphics has officially launched the Chrome 430 GT, a sub-$60 entry level videocard now available from the company's GStore. The newest card in S3's Chrome lineup and the first in the 400 series, the low profile 430 GT includes DirectX 10.1 support, dual-link DVI (DVI-D/DVI-I), 1080p support, and ChromotionHD 2.0 hardware decoding for high definition content. Built on a 65nm process, the HTPC friendly part sports 256MB GDDR2 clocked at 500MHz on a 64-bit memory interface, with the core clock chugging along at 625MHz. And if S3's claims hold true, casual gamers will find the new card faster than AMD's HD 3450 and NVIDIA's 8400GS.

SlySoft Stomps on BD+

SlySoft's newly updated AnyDVD 6.4.0.0 purports to completely remove BD+ protection from Blu-ray DVDS, according to the changelog, resulting in "increased compatibility with titles released by Twentieth Century Fox." In related news, SlySoft's offering a 20 percent discount with coupon code easter, or find a hidden Easter egg on the site and get a 25 percent discount.

Verizon Big Winner in Airwaves Auction

With the exception of Alaska, Verizon Wireless won the regional licenses in the coveted C-block covering each of the remaining 49 states, the FCC announced today. AT&T and Verizon bid a combined $16 billion of the record setting $19.6 billion pledged in the auction, making the two biggest mobile phone carriers even bigger. Google, who placed a package bid early in the auction to ensure that the open access provision would be put in place, was not among the winners. Read more here.

Big Game Comes to Small Screen

Guitar Hero has swept a nation of gamers with dreams of living like a rock star in their living room, and now the popular title will attempt to lure handheld gamers too. Activision today announced it will release a new version, Guitar Hero: On Tour, for the Nintendo DS. The newest iteration will sport a plug- in accessory and mock guitar-pick for tapping notes on the touch screen. Expect to go On Tour this summer.

AMD to Cut Videocard Prices

For the second time in recent months, AMD is expected to cut prices on their Radeon HD 3800 line. Last month AMD slashed pricing from $249 to $189 for the HD 3870 and dropped the HD 3850 from $199 to $169, both in response to NVIDIA's 9600GT launch. This time around, AMD's feeling the pressure from partners, who themselves are having a tough time competing with the 9600GT's $150ish price point. As a result, the HD 3870 is expected to start selling for around $160, and the HD 3850 for as low as $140.

AMD Adds Videocard to Lineup

Come April or May, DigiTimes says to expect a new Radeon videocard, the HD 3830. The mid range part will be built around the 55nm RV670 core. Look for a 128-bit memory interface, 320 stream processing units, 16 texture filter units and ROPs each, and up to 256MB of onboard memory. Pricing will come in lower than $129, putting it on level with NVIDIA's 8600GTS. More here.

Doctors Eye Up iPhone

Apple's trendy gadget has caught the attention of medical circles, as doctors look to replace the traditional X-ray and clipboard method. In its place, the iPhone could allow doctors to manipulate various X-rays and CT scans with hand gestures, a task previously unthinkable for most smartphones that lacked sufficient memory and image-processing capabilities. A lack of native applications remains a roadblock, but Epocrates, the developer of a massive drug-interaction database, is working directly with Apple to develop a new iPhone-native version. Get your R_xfor more information here.

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why does amd have 55nm cores while cpus have 45nm?

Submitted by dovid t on Sat, 2008-03-22 10:30.

shouldn't there be a bottleneck on the video card? and why don't the nvidia people just buy a core 2 duo and stick it on their gpu instead of their own? it seems kind of weird.

The CPU and GPU process size

Submitted by PC_destroyer on Sat, 2008-03-22 12:41.

The CPU and GPU process size have nothing to do with eachother. You could have 45nm Core 2 Quads running 8800 Ultra which is 90nm with no problem. It's the speed of the card itself. Not the process size.

Also, the Radeon HD 3450 is 55nm and can be run with an 90nm Athlon in an HTPC, for example, just fine.

No, there isn't a bottle

Submitted by TurkeyOfChaos on Sun, 2008-03-23 22:38.

No, there isn't a bottle neck due to the smaller manufacturing process. What really matters is the speed of the proc itself. There is a huge difference between GPU and CPU procs mainly due to how they handle different things. GPU's are specially designed with massive parallel processing in mind while CPU's typically don't have to deal with those same sort of tasks (less threads and what not).

Also, the manufacturing size itself doesn't denote anything, efficiency and speed of the proc both matter by far more. However, the smaller sizes tend to consume less power at idle. So, if one were to stick a core 2 duo or even a core 2 quad into a graphics card one would probably experience a slowdown in performance from the card because neither of those processors are designed with graphics work in mind.

The reason why NVIDIA uses a larger process is because they have a harder time changing process sizes due to overhead. It just recently changed to 65nm and it will probably be a while before we see graphics cards for NVIDIA in the 45nm range. However, because AMD is both manufacturing CPUs and GPUs it is easier for them to change sizes as they can share equipment between their former ATI branch and their AMD CPU manufacturing.