S3 Graphics Chrome 500 Series Graphics Processors

The latest addition to the S3 Graphics Chrome Series brings break-through performance boosts to DirectX® 10.1 graphics, Blu-ray™ playback, and GPGPU functionality, while continuing technology leadership in low power, high performance designs.

Easily upgrade your existing PC at home or work to bring your computer back-to-life! No power supply upgrade needed. No extra power connector required.

Architected from the beginning with the user in mind, the Chrome 500 Series continues to build upon the proven Chrome Series Family architecture. With a scalable architecture built for image realism and DirectX 10.1 applications, users can now experience life-like visuals with High-Def rendering utilizing 10-bit color to represent over a billion colors on the latest digital panels.

The next generation ChromotionHD™ 2.0 video engine can decode the latest high bitrate Blu-ray™ titles while supporting dual-stream, picture-in-picture (PiP) for bonus features and film commentaries. Digital display connectivity to complement the highly efficient video processor is enhanced with support of the newly introduced DisplayPort™ along with HDMI, dual-link DVI, and LVDS for mobile products. The GPU combines audio support through HDMI with Dolby® 7.1 digital surround sound and HD Audio supported by Microsoft’s in-the-box drivers. 

Designs requiring extreme power-efficiency and rigidly low thermal specifications will now be able to take advantage of the latest DirectX®10.1 graphics engine and PCI Express®2.0 bus technology for desktop, mobile, and small form factor (SFF) products.

S3 Chrome 500 Series Highlights

Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 / OpenGL 3.0 Support: Designed with a fully programmable unified shader architecture, the Chrome 500 supports the latest DirectX® 10.1 graphics requirements to support Microsoft and OpenGL based applications. Realistic 3D rendering and increased visual acuity through improved Anti-aliasing (AA), Image/Texture improvements, higher precision formats, and programmable lighting effects allow users to experience life-like rendering and image quality.

GPGPU (General Purpose GPU) Technology:  Utilizing an array of S3 stream processors, the Chrome GPU can accelerate parallel data workloads and perform work on thousands of concurrent threads to achieve Gigaflops (GFLOPS) of high-throughput computations. Applications that can utilize S3 GPGPU technologies include high performance computing (HPC) infrastructures, video transcoding/encoding, game physics, and many more.

S3 Graphics PowerWise™ Technology:  Sophisticated algorithms and power control mechanisms will allow Chrome 500 Series GPUs to deliver the optimal balance between performance and power on-the-fly, to meet performance and application requirements for power efficient graphics intensive computing on thin and light notebook PCs and small form factor desktop PCs. Consuming under 25W of power, the Chrome 500 is ideal as the graphics of choice for HTPC (home theatre PCs), DIY enthusiasts, and existing PC users looking for the best bang for the buck upgrade.

ChromotionHD™ Video Technology: Featuring a fully programmable video architecture with true HD quality 1080p PiP Blu-ray™ playback, the ChromotionHD™ engine supports the latest HD standards including H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS, for a stunning movie experience.

PCI Express®2.0: Chrome 500 Series GPUs support the latest high throughput PCI Express® 2.0 bus technology for bandwidth intensive applications and games. The faster connection speed also allows users to take advantage of additional S3 Graphics technologies such as AcceleRAM™ which leverages system memory for image data storage, and MultiChrome™ Multi-GPU technology to unleash higher 3D rendering performance.

Advanced Display Connectivity:  Integrated digital display support with HDCP content protection allows users to connect to a multitude of monitors and displays for HD content viewing across a secure display path. Built-in HDMI transmitters with Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound and HD Audio controllers allow seamless audio/video HDMI connectivity. Display interfaces include the newly introduced DisplayPort, HDMI, dual-link DVI, and VGA.

AcceleRAM™: Chrome 500 Series GPUs allow users to dynamically manage the total video memory size by using a combination of local and system memory. Data transfers between system memory and the graphics processor take place on-the-fly across the PCIe bus.

Advanced Display and Audio Integration: Chrome 500 Series processors incorporate a DisplayPort transmitter, two dual-link DVI / HDMI transmitters with HDCP, two integrated dual-channel LVDS transmitters, and support for an analog CRT. Integrated Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound and HD Audio controller codecs are supported natively in the GPU.

Advanced power management: Chrome 500 Series processors support advanced power management technologies for desktop and mobile implementations, including dynamic clock controls and integrated temperature sensor technology. Individual execution units can also be turned-off when idle which allows additional power savings. Chrome 500 Series products support PCIe ASPM which helps minimize power consumption dynamically.