S3 Chrome 500

[Paul_B]

On my daily browsing of Engdaget.com I noticed a new graphics card from S3 which claims to do HD calculations on board rather than takling from the CPU. It also has HDMI and DVI out. Wondered what people thought of this as a HTPC graphics card?

http://www.s3graphics.com/en/pressroom/p...-530GT.jsp

[pBS]

hmmm, they lead with this..brings up to 30% performance boost to 3D graphics and Blu-ray™ playback ???!
then have a chart that suspiciously leaves out 1080p:

Code:

[b] 1080       1920       16:9       60i, 30p, 24p[/b] hello, 60P?
720     1280     16:9     60i, 30p, 24p
480     704     16:9 and 4:3     60p, 60i, 30p, 24p
480     640     4:3     60p, 60i, 30p, 24p

but seriously if they actually work then both the 400 and 500 series will do bluray and has a nice set of control panels to boot.. i saw a couple of charts putting some above ati 3470! in 3dmark speeds..

so at 25 watts and all the acceleration you'll need, looks like a bargain at 39$
built-in hdmi w/audio doesn't hurt either..lol
if it works i'd certainly recommend one for htpc use, i bet their drivers are simpler/more stable and if they work fine, it'll be a nice low power alternative for little $$$
wondering if they are supported by cyberlink pdvd8,etc..but it should be,all S3 can do is follow the set standards, as noone will follow theirs if they try to set one..lol
so i expect a nicely implemmented dxva setup, tho they don't mention which one...?
[dxva1 or dxva2 or both? i want both dammit!] [for xp[1] and vista[2]]