S3's Chrome 500 graphics processors handle Blu-ray, HD video

Movin' on up in the world, are we S3? Just a month after the VIA-owned S3 Graphics returned to the scene with its Chrome 400 line of discrete graphics cards comes this, the predictably named Chrome 500 series. The new line is capable of handling Blu-ray / streaming HD video playback and provides support for DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0 applications. You'll also find a built-in Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound processor, GPGPU (General Purpose GPU) technology, ChromotionHD (which offloads video processing from the CPU) and compatibility with DisplayPort / HDMI / DVI (with HDCP). The first off the blocks is the 512MB Chrome 530 GT (pictured), and the bargain-bin-styled $44.95 should work wonders given the economy.

[shawnmos @ Nov 21st 2008 9:39AM]

Ah, S3. One of the few companies that makes crappier video cards than Intel.

[no_one @ Nov 21st 2008 10:06AM]

Please, Intel's cards ruined the laptop 3D gaming. S3 was at least pioneer in 3D acceleration and this card would smoke any GPU from Intel. Notice S3 fully supports OpenGL 3.0, could Intel do that? Nope.

[Valicore @ Nov 21st 2008 10:52AM]

Apparently they're crappy now, but I remember when I was a kid they were the sh*t for video cards.

[Beastage @ Nov 21st 2008 11:49AM]

And perhaps you can explain why Intel should bother with integrated gaming graphics?

[Matthew C @ Nov 21st 2008 9:17PM]

The only reason I would consider a video card "crappy" is due to bad hardware. It really all depend on what you are looking for. Intel cards work fine if you're not gaming or running other gpu-intensive apps. Same with these cards - For an HTPC that needed notheing more than to play hd videos over hdmi, this card is PERFECT. Just coz it doesnt play crysis doesnt make it crappy.

[tom @ Nov 21st 2008 9:44AM]

Intel video cards isn't that bad if you don't play CRYSIS, DOOM or HD videos. My laptop has intel x3100, good enough for me.

but S3 does make crappy cards, HIGHLY RECOMMEND to stay away from it. I don't care how cheap you are, PLEASE PAY that a little more for an ati or nvidia card for a headache free experience

[Mikey @ Nov 21st 2008 10:12AM]

In the way of graphics Doom is not that demanding...

[Valicore @ Nov 21st 2008 10:51AM]

Doom? WTF? Most smartphones can play Doom. It's not exactly graphics intensive...

[ZaxCG2 @ Nov 21st 2008 10:55AM]

Maybe a few years ago Doom (3) was demanding, but my piece of crap custom desktop can even run it.

[thethirdmoose @ Nov 21st 2008 9:46AM]

I guess this is good for media centers at least... looks relatively small/quiet.

[tom @ Nov 21st 2008 9:51AM]

take a minute to browse their support website. Been there done that, nothing but headaches for me.
http://www.s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/

[Rollins @ Nov 21st 2008 9:47AM]

Might not be bad for HTPC applications. Could stand to be slightly cheaper though; at its price, it's still running into budget AMD solutions.

[Precurse @ Nov 21st 2008 10:09AM]

Except AMD's lower end stuff doesn't have audio processing built in. This will take 7.1 and multiplex it in with your video signal... It's aimed towards people who want to output their movies to a receiver setup likely. You don't see HDMI out until you start spending AT LEAST 2x more, and they still don't do ANY audio processing..

[EdMercer @ Nov 21st 2008 11:58AM]

Actually, that is exactly what I have from AMD, digital audio thru the HDMI-out of my onboard HD3200. All of it on an 80-dollars motherboard.

[Precurse @ Nov 21st 2008 2:30PM]

I know, I have 2 780G motherboards =)

He was referring to 'video cards' ... The low end AMD 'video cards' that sell for $90-100 that have HDMI out have NO audio processing.

[Alex @ Nov 21st 2008 9:50AM]

Is there any company that makes worse cards than S3??? Buying one of their cards is a waste of time: they don't even work for 10-year-old games, let alone anything that requires a video card nowadays. S3 video card = no video card. They just don't work.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 21st 2008 9:50AM]

Can you not buy and AMD or Nvidia for the same price. You can here in the UK. In fact just looked and you can get an Nvidia 9400gt and ATI 4350. They're not hardcore gamer cards but they're better than these probably. Good look trying to sell these.

[Brian @ Nov 21st 2008 9:50AM]

That's a great price for a, basically, dedicated HD video decoder. I wouldn't mind putting one of these in one of my older boxes.

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 21st 2008 10:05AM]

...Don't say it...

[loocas @ Nov 21st 2008 1:31PM]

Cry...sis?

[egotman @ Nov 21st 2008 10:11AM]

Here's to hoping that the LINUX S3 drivers will be updated at some (near) future point. Assuming $45 is just the MSRP, this could just make for cheap HD Mythbox based on last gen gear.

[jeremyturnley @ Nov 21st 2008 10:18AM]

Bah. A Radeon 4350 card will be faster in all regards, and has better driver support on all platforms for the same price.

[scape @ Nov 21st 2008 10:31AM]

I heard it also has huge audio out issues regarding hd formats...

[bob sakamano @ Nov 21st 2008 10:43AM]

when did chrome bechome the cholor of chool?

[rH @ Nov 21st 2008 10:44AM]

S3? are they still alive?

[Ray @ Nov 21st 2008 10:53AM]

Wow, a lot of comments on hating S3. I welcome the increase in competition.

I can understand the price point comparisons made here, but in terms of heat output and noise, how does this card stack up against ATI and NVIDIA?

[ZaxCG2 @ Nov 21st 2008 10:54AM]

GREAT! BUT DOES IT PLAY CRY-*sacked with a bag of bricks*

[JerkyChew @ Nov 21st 2008 11:40AM]

From their website it looks like it's Windows only, which means no MythTV support. Nvidia VDPAU for the win!

[wickedpheonix @ Nov 21st 2008 11:44AM]

Wow - this is actually pretty interesting. A card (note: NOT meant for gaming obviously, even though it has DX10.1 support) that throws in HD video processing AND audio processing and seamlessly (read: not ATI's solutions) transfers over a single cable, and $45 at that - would definitely see this going into a small form-factor HTPC box for me if I were building one today.

[kadajawi @ Nov 21st 2008 12:05PM]

Hm, looks interesting for an HTPC. But why that fan? HTPC components need to be silent.

[funkedelic_bob @ Nov 21st 2008 12:59PM]

So basically what I'm getting from the comments is that this card would really only be good for a computer running as a DVR (HTPC (Windows Media Center))? Which is all I'm looking for btw.

So if this is only for a HTPC would their be any benefit of going with a better, more expensive, card with NVIDIA or ATI?

The integrated audio processing through HDMI is nice....

[Deejay @ Nov 21st 2008 1:01PM]

before saying bad things about S3... try it first... did you know that S3 is has a good history but gone bad...

Nvidia now are also having problems with their chipsets....

Look at this...
one of the pioneers on Videocards before nvidia or ati arrives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Graphics

[corey.coughlin @ Nov 21st 2008 2:40PM]

Actually, VIA/S3 has recently been boosting their open source efforts to get linux support going, so that's a pretty good sign. According to this article, they released a whole bunch of documentation, and that always helps. If they keep this up, they may become the leading linux video solution:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=via_nov_20&num=1

[cb88 @ Nov 22nd 2008 12:24AM]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Njg3Mg

phoronix is da bomb sry engadget :-)

[Ganesh @ Nov 22nd 2008 3:19AM]

I posted this in the morning in the S3 Tech Support website.. no responses as yet. Maybe someone here will have more info, or Engadget can contact these guys and get the answers for some of the generic questions in here.


I am in the process of 'upgrading' my 3 year old Dell PC (3 GHz P4 with HT) to a HTPC by adding a video card. I have no plans of playing games of any sort on it, and my plan is to mainly decode video streams from the hard disk for display on my 1920x1200 monitor.

I was initially planning to go for the ATI HD 3450 when I stumbled upon the Chrome 530 release from S3 Graphics, which appears to be a good deal in the same range.

I come from a tech background (work for a image / video processing company in the Bay Area myself). I have perused the press release ( the usual marketing talk :) ), as well as the extra information on the 500 series. I also looked at the ChromationHD 2.0 white paper (which seems to be from 2007 and applicable to the 400 series). I have some doubts about the 500 series:

1. Is there a plan to release an updated version of ChromationHD which can support 1080p at 60fps? The current version seems to be able to do only 30fps at 1080p.

2. Does the H264 decode engine in the Chrome series (400 or 500) support VLD of streams encoded by CAVLC only or CABAC too?

I have a camcorder which compresses HD video using CABAC instead of CAVLC in order to achieve better compression efficiency. The problem is that even decently powerful PCs are not able to keep up with the CABAC decode when the H264 stream is decoded in a software only mode, particularly at higher frame rates. The main reason I am looking to add a video card is to accelerate the CABAC decode in hardware so that the playback of the camcorder streams is smooth.

3. Are the Chrome 500 series drivers available for XP or Linux? I have no plans to upgrade to Vista (Don't want to pull down my already aging PC further!), and it is imperative that support be there for my present OS or the OS to which I plan to shift later. The only drivers I see for the 530 on the S3 website are for Vista.

4. As a HTPC solution, is S3Graphics thinking of any model with a passively cooled solution instead of the present one with a fan?

5. Is the PCI-Express 2.0 connection on Chrome 530 backwards compatible with the PCI-Express x 16 slot on my Intel 945G motherboard? ( I guess many people take this for granted, but I would just like to confirm! )

Whew! So many questions.. Anyways, thanks in advance for taking out some of your time in order to answer some (or all) of my queries!

[Troy @ Nov 25th 2008 8:20AM]

This card would be fantastic for HTPC use. Dont count on this to be your gaming solution. They are using acceleram wich is similar to nvidia's turbocache. i would buy it if i were building an HTPC