S3 Graphics Officially Introduces Chrome 540 GTX, The World's Most Connected HD Card

[btarunr]

S3 Graphics today announced the latest addition to its power-efficient Chrome 500 Series graphics processor family, with the unveiling of an 850MHz clocked GDDR3 based Chrome 540 GTX. Today's users can convert an ordinary PC into a Hi-Def entertainment powerhouse for Dual-Stream Blu-ray and HD videos, using the newly defined DisplayPort digital interface, HDMI and Dual-Link DVI for seamless connectivity to the latest digital monitors and HDTVs.

Today's multimedia enthusiasts require extra GPU horsepower to perform high-quality HD video decoding, image post-processing, and stunning color enhancement when displaying the latest HD content on Blu-ray or streaming video-on-demand. With the Chrome 540 GTX, you now have the power to bring every movie experience to life, and enjoy bonus footage through Picture-in-Picture, all while enjoying 8 channels of high fidelity audio with the S3 Graphics built-in Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound processor.



DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.0 applications on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms can be effectively run using the Chrome 540 GTX programmable shader cores to speed up 3D games, non-gaming rendering applications, and other visual processing functions using the built-in GPGPU engine.

Add-in cards featuring the Chrome 540 GTX, bundled free with WinDVD8 for Blu-ray playback, are now available on S3 Graphics GStore online retail outlet.

"S3 Graphics has continued to introduce new visualization technologies to the market by adding another feature-rich product to our growing portfolio of key graphics and display processors," said Dr. Ken Weng, GM for S3 Graphics. "Our new Chrome 540 GTX card brings features usually found only in enthusiast grade products to mainstream users, making the latest innovative technologies available to all."

Hi-Def Like Never Before
The S3 Graphics Chrome 540 GTX gives multimedia users the perfect balance of DirectX 10.1 / OpenGL 3.0 graphics performance, high-quality Picture-in-Picture Blu-ray playback, and a high-speed, high-throughput 64-bit GDDR3 memory bus interface running at 850 MHz. Display connections use the latest VESA DisplayPort standard, HDMI, dual-link DVI-I, and an optional CRT interface using a DVI-to-CRT dongle for the latest high resolution display support.

The Chrome 540 GTX incorporates a high performance ChromotionHD 2.0 video processor unit (VPU), advanced filtering, and clear-image post-processing to perform ultra smooth decoding of MPEG-4/AVC (H.264), MPEG-2, and VC-1 for Blu-ray and HD video. To further enhance operation for home theatre and CE applications that demand cool-and-quiet operation, the Chrome 540 GTX features PowerWise technology for Green Computing to "Reduce the Heat" without compromising performance, features, or quality.

More information on the S3 Graphics Chrome 540 GTX may be found on the S3 Graphics website here.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DOM]

540 GTX lol there trying to seem there faster then NVIDIA

 

[ktr]

lol, 50% of it is blank PCB

 

[PCpraiser100]

Wow what a waste of PCB. Maybe they were too embarrassed that it would look like a weak card. Despite that it is...

 

[boogerlad]

waste of pcb.

 

[komag]

wow, blank PCB but pack with all features....

 

[Mussels]

wow. what a waste of what could have been a great half-height card.

 

[Assimilator]

wow. what a waste of what could have been a great half-height card.

Was thinking exactly the same thing, with all the connectivity that card's got. S3 has to know their primary market is HTPCs, so I can't understand why they'd do something like this.

Also the link to the card's page is incorrect, this one works.

 

[r9]

Maybe there are layers used in the middle connecting stuff

 

[theorw]

Lol!!!What is this???A couple of capacitors and a 4cm fan????
Looks like a toy...I wonder if it really does what it promises...???

 

[DrPepper]

The interesting thing about this card is despite looking empty it still beats my 3450 in everything which requires a rather large passive cooler and is much more complex than this thing.

 

[newtekie1]

Reminds me of:

 

[craigwhiteside]

Reminds me of:

LoL,

Epic

 

[Solaris17]

Reminds me of:

wtf is that?

 

[DrPepper]

wtf is that?

Apparently it gets rid of the squeel that some gpu's make its very expensive for the lack of stuff on it.

 

[KainXS]

its not that bad, its not like that his card thing that does virtually nothing, it does do htpc apps good, thats what its made for and its probably worth the money unlike my old fx5200 that i bashed on a rock last week(fun) that thing had a pcb full of crap.

 

[btarunr]

wtf is that?

PCI-E compliant paperweight. Encourages addon-card vendors to make the switch.

 

[kysg]

this is so hilarious, I laughed when I saw that HIS card, I instantly thought paperweight FTW,

 

[ktr]

Some body photoshop'd the card to make it look good:

 

[mtosev]

I loled @ picture.

 

[Mistral]

I guess it's cheaper for S3 to leave the PCB as is instead of cut it. What this card actually needs is silent cooling...

 

[steelkane]

What does it matter what it looks like, as long as it works, looks wouldn't bother me any. for this type of card

 

[Error 404]

I think I'll wait for the XFX Superclocked version, that should be much faster.

If you want it smaller, cut it down DIY style!
However, if this costs less than say, a 9500 GT (with the same features), then I'd buy it for a HTPC.
=O
It outperforms the 4350! Amazing!

Not bad for such a low powered card; could easily have a passive HS as well.

 

[ShadowFold]

I think it would be good to see S3 spar off with the sub 100$ NV and ATi cards in gaming. It would be great to have a 3rd competitor!

 

[DrPepper]

I think it would be good to see S3 spar off with the sub 100$ NV and ATi cards in gaming. It would be great to have a 3rd competitor!

Then ati and nvidia would just use destroyer pricing to murder them.