S3 Jumps On GPGPU Bandwagon

arcticstoat writes "It's sometimes easy to forget that the PC graphics market isn't owned by ATI and Nvidia, and the company that first gave us 3D acceleration, S3, is very much still around. So much so, in fact, that it's now even developed its own GPGPU technology. S3 claims that its Chrome 400 chips can accelerate gaming physics, HD video transcoding/encoding and photo enhancement. To demonstrate the latter, S3 has released a free download called S3FotoPro, which enhances color clarity and reduces haze in photos. However, the company hasn't yet revealed whether it plans to support OpenCL in the future." The Tech Report also points out that this could allow S3's parent company, VIA, to compete with Intel and AMD in graphics processing technology.

not the first time we hear that S3 can compete...

[squisher]

This is definitely not the first time in recent years that we hear S3 can compete with ATI and Nvidia again. As much as I'd like to see that, I certainly won't believe it until I see some decent independent benchmarks.

what

[Brian Gordon]

How is enhancing photos the business of a video card? That can be done in software at a perfectly acceptable speed without hardware acceleration.

Who is VIA anyway?

[Anonymous Coward]

All I know about VIA is all my past bad experiences with their chipsets, slow CPU's (but low power, I guess) and other garbage. About 5 years ago I swore off VIA completely. It's weird, I have always thought the same bad things about S3 and I didn't even know they were VIA till now. Now all I need to hear is that VIA owns or is owned by Goldstar and/or Acer and the circle of crap will be complete.

But does it run Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I'm not trying to be funny (or annoying, if you prefer).

I'm seriously asking.

so far, S3 has the worst performance and support for Linux. At least VIA is beguining to open their drivers:
http://linux.via.com.tw/support/downloadFiles.action

For me at least, even if S3 starts a video revolution, I will stick to NVidia, ATI and even Intel until I hear about decent Linux performance.

(Sorry about the link not being clickable. It seems that ACs can't post in HTML, and I don't need an account just yet)

Re:Easy to forget

[binarylarry]

Yep, Intel has like 60% market share.

And they have the worse performance.

Sounds like a perfect take over target for good old Microsoft, if I ever saw one.