540 GTX

[Wreckage]

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009...nto-70-chrome-540-gtx/

Not bad really.

 

[alcoholbob]

The important question, does it support 8 channel PCM.

 

[error8]

What the hell, half of that PCB has nothing on it! It's a very complex card.

 

[Arkaign]

Well probably piss for gaming, but if it can do home theatre /BDHD work reliably well, this could be a game-changer.

 

[lavaheadache]

probably much better than any crummy hd4870 :roll:.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
The important question, does it support 8 channel PCM.

http://www.s3graphics.com/en/p...hrome_540gtx/index.jsp

while enjoying 8 channels of high fidelity audio with the S3 Graphics built-in Dolby® 7.1 digital surround sound processor.

 

[alcoholbob]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: Astrallite
The important question, does it support 8 channel PCM.

http://www.s3graphics.com/en/p...hrome_540gtx/index.jsp

while enjoying 8 channels of high fidelity audio with the S3 Graphics built-in Dolby® 7.1 digital surround sound processor.

8 channel PCM is uncompressed audio, we're talking about 36,700kb/s bandwidth here, not the 640kb/s of Dolby Digital.

 

[allies]

I wonder if it does Dolby TrueHD and Dolby DTS HD... that would seal the deal for me...

 

[alcoholbob]

There's no indication of internal decoding or pass-through, if it had the capability it would be flashing right under the title with exclamation marks. Too bad it looked like a nice low powered video processor.

 

[dguy6789]

For a card like that, I would prefer they put a larger/better heatsink on it and have it run fanless.

 

[angry hampster]

WTF is displayport, and why do we need it and HDMI on one card?

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
WTF is displayport, and why do we need it and HDMI on one card?

Let me google that for you.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
WTF is displayport, and why do we need it and HDMI on one card?

Wiki DisplayPort

Google is your friend.

My Dell 2709W has a displayport input so I might mess around with it eventually.

Two questions though:

1) Why the hell didn't they make it a LP card? All that wasted silicone for no good reason...
2) WTF with the "GTX" nomenclature? I mean, that's close to intruding into nVidia's trademark space. And what a pure crap card for a GTX name...

 

[alcoholbob]

Make people think its the flagship successor to the GTX295

 

[akugami]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: angry hampster
WTF is displayport, and why do we need it and HDMI on one card?

Wiki DisplayPort

Google is your friend.

My Dell 2709W has a displayport input so I might mess around with it eventually.

Two questions though:

1) Why the hell didn't they make it a LP card? All that wasted silicone for no good reason...
2) WTF with the "GTX" nomenclature? I mean, that's close to intruding into nVidia's trademark space. And what a pure crap card for a GTX name...

I think #1 is probably what I was thinking first time I saw that card. If the bracket real estate for low profile cards is at a premium just design an adapter port that can take multiple display adapters for it. Need HDMI? Just plug in the adapter dongle thingy. Need Displayport? Plug in the proper adapter dongle thingy. DVI? Same thing.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
Make people think its the flagship successor to the GTX295

That's a pretty blatant ripoff of a competitor's naming scheme. GTX 260 + GTX 280 = GTX 540 :laugh:.

 

[DaveSimmons]

not that seeing a 9800 card in 2008 wasn't confusing

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
not that seeing a 9800 card in 2008 wasn't confusing

ATI has a 5800 on the way.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Astrallite
Make people think its the flagship successor to the GTX295

That's a pretty blatant ripoff of a competitor's naming scheme. GTX 260 + GTX 280 = GTX 540 :laugh:.

ATI and NV both had SE, LE, XT, and GT suffixes on their cards. No-one owns the suffix names.

 

[Nathelion]

Yeah the GS/GT/GTX/GSO/GTO/insert your random combination of letters here thing has been around pretty much as long as there's been a graphics card industry

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
There's no indication of internal decoding or pass-through, if it had the capability it would be flashing right under the title with exclamation marks. Too bad it looked like a nice low powered video processor.

Actually, S3's cards are the only ones on the market with a proper Protected Audio Path, and therefore should offer the best digital sound available.

Unfortunately, current Blu-Ray software doesn't recognize this and downsamples on every card anyway.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Nathelion
Yeah the GS/GT/GTX/GSO/GTO/insert your random combination of letters here thing has been around pretty much as long as there's been a graphics card industry

They don't usually copy a competitor's current model naming scheme so obviously, however.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Well it won't be the first graphics card with DVI, HDMI, and Dispalyport, but as far as I can tell it will be the cheapest.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814131125

Honestly though, looks like crap. As others have said:

1. Why not give it a bigger HS and no fan?
2. Why not make it low profile?
3. Why commit copyright infringement in naming it? Why tempt fate?

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: aka1nas

Originally posted by: Astrallite
Make people think its the flagship successor to the GTX295

That's a pretty blatant ripoff of a competitor's naming scheme. GTX 260 + GTX 280 = GTX 540 :laugh:.

It didn't stop XFX from using the XXX designation on some of their cards. I'm pretty sure the pr0n industry had that one tied up years ago.

 

[Wreckage]

It comes with a copy of WinDVD 8. So add another $99 for a BD drive and you are ready to start watching movies for under $200.