VIA Brings Enhanced Windows 7 Desktop to Life with Power Efficient DX10.1 Chipset

[btarunr]

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA VN1000 digital media chipset for next generation desktop and all-in-one PCs, offering a world-class HD multimedia entertainment platform compatible with the advanced desktop features of Microsoft Windows 7.

The VIA VN1000 is the most power efficient DX10.1 digital media chipset available today, making it the perfect solution for next generation small form factor and all-in-one Windows 7 PCs that focus on entertainment, multimedia and touch screen capabilities. The DirectX 10.1 hardware environment provided by the VIA Chrome 520 IGP means Windows 7 users can enjoy a more fluid and visually enhanced desktop experience as well as the latest gaming titles.



The VIA VN1000 digital media chipset features the ChromotionHD 2.0 video processor to guarantee smooth playback of the latest Blu-ray titles with superb hardware acceleration of the most demanding H.264, WM9 and VC1 codecs over the latest display technologies, including Display Port and HDMI.

"The VIA VN1000 leverages our optimized VIA Nano 3000 Series processors, creating the most balanced, power-efficient, multimedia-focused desktop platform on the market today," said Richard Brown, VP International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "Supporting the latest system memory, graphics and entertainment standards, the VIA VN1000 takes the VIA processor platform to new heights of power-efficient visual sophistication."

At the core of the VIA VN1000 lies a DirectX 10.1 graphics engine, a necessary requirement for users who want to enjoy the enhanced features of the Windows 7 desktop environment. The DirectX 10.1 engine means that Windows 7 can employ Microsoft's advanced Windows Desktop Driver Model 1.1, bringing significant gains in system memory efficiency, overall desktop responsiveness and an improved visual experience compared to WDDM 1.0.
VIA VN1000 Product Highlights

Paired with the new VIA VT8261 south bridge, the VIA VN1000 represents the most power-efficient DX10.1 compliant digital media chipset on the market, consuming up to 12 watts for both north and south bridges, making it a perfect choice for Windows 7 based mini desktop and all-in-one desktop PCs designs.

Offering a feature-rich specification with significant emphasis on graphics and HD video playback, the VIA VN1000 features the VIA Chrome 520 IGP, combining a DirectX 10.1 graphics engine, with support for Shader Model 4, OpenGL 3.0 graphics and OpenCL 1.0 for next-generation GPGPU applications.

The high-performance ChromotionHD 2.0 video processor offers advanced filtering and cutting edge post-processing to perform ultra smooth decoding of MPEG-4/AVC, H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS video for Blu-ray content. The home theatre experience also encompasses support for the latest connectivity standards, including dual channel support for Display Port, HDMI, DVP, VGA and LVDS/TMDS.

The VIA VN1000 supports DDR3 system memory at speeds of up to 1066MHz, one x8 lane and four x1 lane PCI Express II expansion slots, up to five PCI slots and a VIA Vinyl HD 8 channel audio codec. An IDE controller, support for up to four S-ATA II drives, SD/MMS/MMC card reader support and 12 USB 2.0 ports are supplemented with support for PS/2, SPI, GPIO and LPC technologies.

The VIA VN1000 Digital Media IGP Chipset is fully compatible with all VIA Nano, VIA C7, VIA C7-M and VIA Eden processors and supports all Microsoft Windows platforms and popular Linux distributions.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[JIM2003]

as well as the latest gaming titles.

Im sure!

 

[Bull Dog]

Well if you enjoy watching them move at 2-3 FPS, then heck yes!

 

[L|NK|N]

Good job VIA! At this rate you will have a DirectX 11 card out before NVIDIA!

 

[Fourstaff]

Ignoring the boast, how good this chip?

 

[Phxprovost]

Ignoring the boast, how good this chip?

from the looks of it, better then the chips being paired with current gen atoms if you dont go the ion route....but other then that idk

 

[Completely Bonkers]

"as well as the latest gaming titles" incl. minesweeper and solitaire

 

[WarEagleAU]

Looks like they are trying to bring game playability to the netbooks. I like this.

 

[skylamer]

crysis fps ?

 

[DaC]

12W including CPU or motherboard alone ?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Motherboard alone sadly, so it's not going into any netbooks any time soon

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Finally, VIA unleashes their technology potential!

And this is why VIA cancelled their marriage with nVidia. Why buy an IGP from nVidia when they can make one of their own, more powerfull and equally power efficient?

A Nano 3000 CPU + Chrome 500 IGP should give Intel's CULV + GMA4500 a run for its money, and even the Congo platform (Athlon Neo + HD3200).
The increased CPU and GPU power should also be good for putting ION to a corner.

As for all the irony regarding the low fps, I've been playing lots of games with my Ahtlon Neo L310 and a Radeon HD3200. Lots of great and good looking games.

 

[Polaris573]

I was just wondering the other day what VIA was up to. I'm glad they've released something noteworthy.

 

[DaC]

Motherboard alone sadly, so it's not going into any netbooks any time soon

And how much for the CPU ?
Because my atom 230 based netbook is about 9W and will TOP Around 16W total according to linux...
And I guess this would equal a ion with atom 330 in processing power, right ?

around 20W total would be great.

 

[AltecV1]

but can it play crysis ?

 

[DrunkenMafia]

I would love to be able to buy a 10in netbook that I could game on, even if its only basic games like bf2 or something. Been looking for one for ages but not luck.

If it works this could be great

 

[ShinyG]

It's actually refreshing to see VIA back in the game, I kinda missed them in a weird geeky way!
If this is on par with the offers from nVidia, AMD and Intel, this can only mean one thing: better competition and lower prices! Yay, consumer wins!

 

[Roph]

Ignoring the boast, how good this chip?

If I remember correctly, comparable to the Raden 4300 series. When ran at low resolutions and settings, many modern games could be fine. Think of it as possibly past gen console graphics / resolution? Dunno.

Source games should run pretty well on it; source would run on your toaster if you could port it.

If it's anything like the Chrome 4xx series though, the drivers need some more effort put into them.

[edit] Here's W1zz's review of the 440 GTX showing crysis performance, though keep in mind he's running it on the highest DX9 settings.

 

[p_o_s_pc]

its nice to see Via with something new.. I like how low power everything they released is.

 

[DaJMasta]

If I remember correctly, comparable to the Raden 4300 series. When ran at low resolutions and settings, many modern games could be fine. Think of it as possibly past gen console graphics / resolution? Dunno.

Source games should run pretty well on it; source would run on your toaster if you could port it.

If it's anything like the Chrome 4xx series though, the drivers need some more effort put into them.

[edit] Here's W1zz's review of the 440 GTX showing crysis performance, though keep in mind he's running it on the highest DX9 settings.

The discrete 5x0 series cards were competitive with the 4350 and in the case of the GTX version was slightly faster, but this is not the discrete version. In the end I think this and a nano 3000 will be between a netbook and a intel culv/gma4500 or amd neo platform setup in terms of performance. Drivers will almost undoubtably be less mature than both other platforms, though it may be comparable to GMA drivers.


It's really nice to see that VIA is still trying to be a contender, but they need to get their hardware into some netbooks and nettops to show what it can do. Numbers and press releases are fine and good, but people won't start buying them until they're available somewhere.

Case in point, I wanted to buy a discrete 5x0 series Chrome card for some testing and overclocking, but can't for the life of me find one for sale anywhere. Not newegg, not ebay, not even the S3 store (which actually has NO products in stock). They may have once been in stock, but they can't compete now if they're not even available. There are at least a select few nano netbook options, but event they are fairly scarce now.

 

[Polarman]

Not bad. I use to have VIA chipset mobo's.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

The discrete 5x0 series cards were competitive with the 4350 and in the case of the GTX version was slightly faster, but this is not the discrete version. In the end I think this and a nano 3000 will be between a netbook and a intel culv/gma4500 or amd neo platform setup in terms of performance.

It's definitely superior to the Congo Platform (Neo + HD3200).

The Congo uses low clocked versions of the old Athlon 64 X2 (Brisbane 65nm) and a low-clocked HD3200 (40sp @ 380MHz). The Chrome 520 has 32 shaders clocked at about 700 - 900MHz (they use core-independent clocked shaders, like nVidia GPUs).
And it's definitely faster than a single-channel ION, thanks to that 128bit DDR3 controller.


Gaming and multimedia-wise, this should be faster than any UMPC or netbook out there.

 

[DaJMasta]

It's definitely superior to the Congo Platform (Neo + HD3200).

The Congo uses low clocked versions of the old Athlon 64 X2 (Brisbane 65nm) and a low-clocked HD3200 (40sp @ 380MHz). The Chrome 520 has 32 shaders clocked at about 700 - 900MHz (they use core-independent clocked shaders, like nVidia GPUs).
And it's definitely faster than a single-channel ION, thanks to that 128bit DDR3 controller.


Gaming and multimedia-wise, this should be faster than any UMPC or netbook out there.

But as you certainly know not all shaders are created equal and the same goes for CPU architectures. I also don't really know where you found the numbers for the shader clocks, they may very well be running faster than the core speed, but the discrete chrome 530 gt is clocked at 625MHz so I'd expect the core speed to be lower than that in an IGP. You've also got the shared memory bus (despite it being dual channel DDR3.... potentially as it supports from single channel ddr2 to dual channel ddr3), so it's not going to have anywhere near the bandwidth of this discrete card, which in gaming situations looses out to the lowest end discrete cards from it's competitors.
http://forums.s3chromezone.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=591

I know it's conjecture to say that the discrete version is slower than it's discrete competitors so the integrated version would follow in suit, but I don't think it's entirely inaccurate. The ION has the strongest GPU of them with a 9400M class IGP, while AMD's HD3200 integrated probably looses out (but a slightly upclocked 4200 may be plenty to beat it). That being said, we're considering platforms, and the Nano is an Atom competitor, not a CULV/Neo competitor. While it is computationally faster clock for clock than an atom (some benchmarks say by a fair amount, most say by a little) the Neo and CULV chips are based of of *real* desktop architectures.... so they will be much more computationally capable and number crunching is what you need for multimedia.

In other words, no clear winner comes out on top for these platforms, intel and AMD's options can duke it out for overall computational power while the ION takes the cake for graphics horsepower. Still if they can get a decent price, good availability, and decent drivers VIA will at least be a competitor this time around.

Also I thought the ION could do DDR3 (and could do dual channel) but it wasn't being implemented much in the marketplace.

 

[AsRock]

12W including CPU or motherboard alone ?

Would of thought it be CPU only.

And how much for the CPU ?
Because my atom 230 based netbook is about 9W and will TOP Around 16W total according to linux...
And I guess this would equal a ion with atom 330 in processing power, right ?

around 20W total would be great.

Well didn't use a old P4 chipset for there chips which bumped the watts up around 30-50w CPU+ mobo.

but can it play crysis ?

Who cares like really the game was not all that when it came out never mind now.

 

[Imsochobo]

Motherboard alone sadly, so it's not going into any netbooks any time soon

a EEE uses 40W

A dualcore 2 ghz core 2 with a hd 3450 or a nvidia accelerator uses less than 60.

I dont see the "12W being a issue"