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Published: 30 November 1999

CeBIT 2002 - SIS 3336 AGP 8X GPU

This is a good move by SiS. The more advanced gpu they will offer is a full DX8.1 engine with pixel shader, full set of bumpmapping as well as MPEG acceleration and dual display, two features which SiS has implemented across its previous products. 3 speeds are offered.

Traditionally SiS cards have a lower pricepoint than Nvidia so the positioning of these 3 GPU's versus the GeForce4MX will be intresting indeed, as GeForce4 is DX8 not DX8.1.

The SiS solutions are more advanced on paper and yet cheaper. Wether they will beat Nvidia in the long run remainds to be seen. The SiS 315 (TnL enabled GPU) has not been recevied well, hope things change with these new chips.

PC Partner ATI A3 Based Mainboard for Intel and AMD.

While searching for some legacy mainboard information I stumbled on the datasheets for PC Partner's ATI A3 Based Socket A and Socket 370 Based DDR based mainboards.

AGP Graphic On Chip (RADEON 7000 Core)

- Integrated 128-bit 3D/2D Graphics Engines.

- Hardware Motion Compensation and IDCT Hardware MPEG2 Decode (DVD).

- 4 to 64MB Frame Buffer Shared with System Memory.

- Integrated 24-bit 300MHz RAMDAC.

- Support Dual Display - CRT/TV.

- Integrated TV Encorder, Macrovision for Support Composite, S-Video Out(Via Cable Adapter)

- Pal & NTSC Support.

- Resolution up to 2048 x 1600 x 32bpp.

- DirectX & OpenGL API Support.

Source: PC Partner website

While both these boards offer run of the mill feature sets with legacy and non legacy controllers and ports,including only 1GB DDR266 SDRAM and ATA100, the built in video core needs mention:

Included in the Northbridge is an ATI Raedon 7000 (RV100 core) graphics chip which sports a 300MHZ RAMDAC and iDCT/MPEG-2 Acceleration and Hydravision technology.

Even though the Raedon core uses reserved allocated system memory for frame buffer and texture memory and z-buffer, it is more than suited for any task including 3D gaming. 300MHZ DAC is quite high for an integrated solution, and this represents much better quality for the consumer as well as a much more attractive solution for OEMs to include in their systems, comapred to current solutions with intergated video such as Intel 815EG, VIA P4M/KL/KM series.

Combine the option of either Intel Socket 370 or AMD Socket, Micro ATX and the Raedon 7000 core and you can see that a perfect low cost Multimedia/DVD micro system can be built without skimping on video quality. At the moment nForce and A3 offer the highest quality intregrated video from proven add-in board technology comapred to some others such as Via's combination Savage4 2D/Savage 2000 3D solution.

ATI do not have any producing south bridges at the moment, and will be relying on thrird parties for these. At the moment the preffered supplier seems to be ALi, however any can be used.

PC Partner are a more budget brand of mainboard and will be intresting to see their street price, considering nForce based mainboards were and still are expensive.

Details

Published: 30 November 1999

Our event coverage of AMD's Australian market launch event for Athlon 64, Athlon 64-FX and Athlon 64 Mobile processors and platforms.

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