S3 Graphics Is Working On New Linux Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: S3 Graphics Is Working On New Linux Driver

Yesterday we shared that S3 Graphics launched their Chrome 500 Series graphics cards, with the initial model being a sub-$50 USD OpenGL 3.0 capable solution. It's no power workhorse, but in the press release they shared: "Today's users will now be able to enjoy the latest Blu-ray playback, streaming HD video, DirectX 10.1, and OpenGL 3.0 applications on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms." As we shared in the article yesterday, the last Linux driver from S3 Graphics was released last year and it's riddled with limitations...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=Njg3Mg

[Eragon]

Nice! I don't use an S3 card (and likely never will, I like to play games.), but it's good to see they will work on linux with full 3d (hear: compiz/games) support! I am glad that it'll be closed source, because I don't think an open-source project would be able to deliver an opengl 3.0 driver by mid-december.

This is still all in the same week that VIA released 490 pages of hardware specs, and adobe relaesed a linux-only 64-bit flash player, right??

[Zhick]

S3 might be a good choice for a netbook in combination with a Via Nano then in the future. I'd like to get something not so intel-ish since I fear they are building up to much of a monopoly.
Then again I'm right now way too drunk... and the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 looks like a very sweet netbook with already pretty good drivers...

[DeepDayze]

Nice to see yet another graphics company take the linux plunge. S3's a rather small company, yet if they deliver on their promises in a big way then that'll be a great thing too. Granted that their GPU's are not real powerhouses they'd be useful in low-cost notebooks and netbooks or even low-end desktop graphics cards.

I still have an old S3 ViRGE in my junk parts box...not a bad card in its time, and X had a driver for it albeit just a 2D driver.

[superppl]

If their cards are cheap, it should work well in a workstation. No need for crappy onboard graphics would you have a subpar gpu with excellent drivers!

[Redeeman]

If their cards are cheap, it should work well in a workstation. No need for crappy onboard graphics would you have a subpar gpu with excellent drivers!
except the intel onboard isnt really crappy..

[TechMage89]

Have you ever tried to play games on Windows Vista with a GMA950? I think some ten-year old cards beat it in terms of performance.

[xav1r]

But from reviews around the web this card is so-and-so at most.

[Redeeman]

Have you ever tried to play games on Windows Vista with a GMA950? I think some ten-year old cards beat it in terms of performance.
why, and why the hell should i give a flying fuck about a piece of garbage software? also do keep in mind that GMA 950 is several generations old, and FAR slower than more recent intel offerings.

[DeepDayze]

why, and why the hell should i give a flying fuck about a piece of garbage software? also do keep in mind that GMA 950 is several generations old, and FAR slower than more recent intel offerings.

Whoa, relax!

The poster is just making a comparison here.

I agree Vista is total garbage though...

[zbiggy]

Phoronix: S3 Graphics Is Working On New Linux Driver

Yesterday we shared that S3 Graphics launched their Chrome 500 Series graphics cards, with the initial model being a sub-$50 USD OpenGL 3.0 capable solution. It's no power workhorse, but in the press release they shared: "Today's users will now be able to enjoy the latest Blu-ray playback, streaming HD video, DirectX 10.1, and OpenGL 3.0 applications on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms." As we shared in the article yesterday, the last Linux driver from S3 Graphics was released last year and it's riddled with limitations...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=Njg3Mg

Driver appeared for Chrome 400:
http://s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/chrome_400/#Linux_x86

New driver release for Chrome 20:
http://s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/chrome_PCIe/#Linux_x86

[Eragon]

Driver appeared for Chrome 400:
http://s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/chrome_400/#Linux_x86

New driver release for Chrome 20:
http://s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/chrome_PCIe/#Linux_x86

- Only up to opengl 1.5 support

- No 64-bit support

- Only mpeg2 video acceleration

- Compiz doesn't work

Some of the known issues are:

- Graphics corruption with Unreal Tournament 2004

- Xserver fails to start on OpenSuse 11.0

On top of all this, only old OS's are supported, latest supported version of ubuntu is 7.10!

But it's a start, let's hope for the S3 users the driver keeps improving. :)

[tuke81]

Err you looked chrome 20 drivers, for chrome 400 series are supported up to ubuntu 8.04, no X86_64 still though.
http://drivers.s3graphics.com/en/download/drivers/chrome4x-Linux/RN_Linux_EN.txt
But this not looking any good:
Video: Video playback is not supported in this release
But it a good start and it cannot be any worse than fglrx, or can it :D

Has anyone got these cards, I hope to see some kind of test with it in phoronix, maybe againts nvidia 8400gs, HD2400 and newest integrated intel. I Don't know where to get these card here in Europe anyway...

[Dieter]

>> the last Linux driver from S3 Graphics was released last year

>> Driver appeared for Chrome 400

Which of the several drivers are we talking about?

- proprietary binary
- Unichrome
- Openchrome
- "new Via FLOSS driver"

> Only mpeg2 video acceleration

Openchrome is FLOSS and claims Xv and XvMC support.
ATI and Nvidia have no FLOSS video decoding support at all.

How well does Openchrome actually work? Which PCIe cards
are recommended for Openchrome/Xv/XvMC/mpeg2 applications?
Does tv-out work? Any gotches? (no gaming required)

[tuke81]

Has anyone tried these drivers yet(do anyone even have these cards)?
Openchrome is FLOSS and claims Xv and XvMC support.
ATI and Nvidia have no FLOSS video decoding support at all.

How well does Openchrome actually work? Which PCIe cards
are recommended for Openchrome/Xv/XvMC/mpeg2 applications?
Does tv-out work? Any gotches? (no gaming required)
Well openchrome is for VIA:s igp:s not S3 PCIe cards, so these new proprietary beta drivers are supposed to give 3D/2D support for S3 cards. Later on these drivers should give video acceleration(not only mpeg2 but HD video acceleration also(something equal for nvidia:s vdpau)) and full opengl3 support for S3 chrome 400 and 500 series.

[bugmenot]

If they don't provide open source drivers, they will not have *any* success on the linux platform. Providing good working closed source drivers is hard work (see fglrx) and if you want something that 'just works' you buy nvidia. They had the chance to make a great start only with free drivers, but they did not look at open source at all. It's a pity. I think even the closed source driver are not needed, because not one single linux user will try these graphics cards.

Look at the oss side, S3!

[Dieter]

tuke81> Well openchrome is for VIA:s igp:s not S3 PCIe cards,

IGP? I assume you mean AGP? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agp
So the openchrome driver doesn't support any PCI or PCIe cards?
I don't have any AGP slots, just PCI and PCIe.

tuke81> not only mpeg2 but HD video acceleration also

My HD (720p, 1080i) video is mpeg2. I need HD mpeg2 accel.
Accel of other codecs like mpeg4, H.264, etc. would be nice but
I can live without it for now.

bugmenot> If they don't provide open source drivers, they will not
bugmenot> have *any* success on the linux platform.

Not to mention the *BSDs, Plan-9, Opensolaris, etc. And non-x86
platforms regardless of OS.

[RobbieAB]

IGP? I assume you mean AGP? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agp
So the openchrome driver doesn't support any PCI or PCIe cards?
I don't have any AGP slots, just PCI and PCIe.

IGP is Intergrated Graphics Processor (or some such, it's intergrated graphics anyway)

Which comms protocol and bus it uses is up to the chipset. It can be any of PCIe, AGP, or PCI.

[Dieter]

> IGP is Intergrated Graphics Processor (or some such, it's intergrated graphics anyway)

Ah, Integrated Graphics Processor, aka onboard. Problem with that is
I'd have to buy an entire new computer. :-(

So no one puts these chips on expansion cards?

[Svartalf]

So no one puts these chips on expansion cards?

Typically, no. They're also pretty much all crippled in some way to lower transistor counts, etc.

[artsci2]

.....
I still have an old S3 ViRGE in my junk parts box...not a bad card in its time, and X had a driver for it albeit just a 2D driver.

My first working dual screen setup was on S3 virge hardware. It was 2 PCI 16Mb cards.

Are the S3 drivers all open source?

[curaga]

Nope, the new ones from S3 Graphics are not.

[artsci2]

Nope, the new ones from S3 Graphics are not.

That killsw any chance for me to switch over to an S3 card....