Speaking of IDF, it should be mentioned that the first fully functional copies of DeltaChrome, S3’s and Via’s upcoming DX9 graphics card, was shown to the press.
TT-Hardware has an image of the card. Especially attractive is the minimal cooling solution and the card’s overall smallish size.
Look at the picture here.
Read more about DeltaChrome at S3’s rather amateurish website.
An interesting note regarding these new DirectX9 cards from XGI and S3/VIA is that they both share an architecture similar to what nVidia and ATi have to offer, for better and worse. A thing they do have in common is that they, along with ATi, have chosen to go with a pipeline that pumps out full precision pixel shaders and thus skipped the lower precision modes that nVidia has implemented in its FX series. This might have an influence on upcoming games.
