Trident 3D Graphics processor for notebooks (DX 8.1)

[KeiFront]

Trident’s New 3D Graphics Processor Delivers Industry’s Highest DX8.1 Performance With Lowest-Power Breakthrough For Notebooks.

http://www.tridentmicro.com/press/2002/pr020415.html

The XP4 offers three significant technical benefits in performance graphics to notebook PCs:

Lowest power consumption at less than three watts (max) with CoolPowerTM management.
Full DirectX 8.1 hardware with BrightPixelTM rendering engine delivering the highest 3D performance at 1 billion pixels/sec and 8 billion texels/sec.
High-efficiency memory interface with SmartTileTMarchitecture enabling a peak system bandwidth of 10.4 Gbytes/sec.

[Sasq]

I don't know if I should be
1) Impressed
2) Sceptical
3) Very Very Afraid

Dan

[rugger]

Originally posted by Sasq
I don't know if I should be
1) Impressed
2) Sceptical
3) Very Very Afraid

Dan

I am sticking to 2 at the moment

I have NEVER seen a Trident video card that didn't deserve to be trashed the moment I saw it.

From the old 512K 8900 Tridents, to the slightly accelerated 95XX cards, to the newer 3d blades, they have all sucked royal a** compared to almost any other competitor's current product, and often products one or two generations old.

I am suprised they arn't dead yet, given that the intergrated motherboard graphics are just as good as any Trident card.

[Belwarrior]

This passage is taken from the webpage link above.

The XP4 delivers full DirectX 8.1 visual quality and image sophistication while using only 30 million transistors.This is less than half the number of transistors of the nearest desktop equivalent. The half number of transistors directly translates to half the power consumption as well as half the manufacturing cost and is made possible by proprietary 3D graphics algorithms coupled with fully-optimized hardware pipelines

Does the last line mean 3D is done by software algorithms which means the work is done by the CPU?
And does half the number of transistors means half the 3D features we come to expect as it supports (maybe only) DX8.1 VISUAL QUALITY and IMAGE SOPHISTICATION ?

However, i think this would be a good alternative for people who play less demanding 3d games to relax in between work on their laptops. The lower power consumption might tempt the manufacturers though.

[rugger]

I ussually find Trident, moreso than most of the graphics industry, play with words and tell half truths to make their hardware look better on paper than it is in the flesh.

[Belwarrior]

Continuing Trident’s long experience in multi-view display technology since 1998, the XP4 also supports four simultaneous output displays: TFT, DVI, CRT and TV out. The TFT interface can directly drive any standard LCD panel through the internal Dual-Channel LVDS driver whereas the DVI panel interface can drive any standard DVI panel through the internal TMDS driver. For the most demanding graphics applications, the XP4 can support a screen resolution of up to QXGA (2048x1536) and the TV out display can support up to XGA (1024x768).

FOUR SIMULTANEOUS OUTPUT DISPLAYS!!!??!!!
This i have to see to believe, until then i have to take Option no. 2 as well. or maybe i am VERY Sceptical.

[GNEP]

reading it literally, it says four screens showing the same thing - i.e. 3 clones of your laptop screen.

With the same measure, my cheap and cheerful v. old P133 laptop already does dual-head!!!

gnep

[Ali]

It sounds like a Tile archatecture as well. Wonder how their drivers are?

It took PowerVR years to get their drivers up to speed, as far as visual glitches go.

Sounds good, and more choices the better.

Im going for number 2 as well at this point.

Ali

[az]

http://www.aceshardware.com/#55000485

AZ