System Setup and Notes
Hardware
SystemShuttle SN95G5, NVIDIA nForce3 250, Socket 939, DDR, AGP8X (all cards bar the OmniChrome)
ECS KV2 Extreme, VIA K8T800 Pro, Socket 939, AGP8X (OmniChrome)
Processor
AMD Athlon FX-53 (2.4GHz, 1MB L2, dual-channel memory), Socket 938
Graphics Cards
Club3D OmniChrome S4, S3 S4, 256MB, AGP8X
HIS Excalibur Radeon 9550, ATI RV350, 128MB, AGP8X
AOpen Aeolus GeForce FX 5500, NVIDIA NV34B, 128MB, AGP8X
AOpen Aeolus GeForce FX 5200, NVIDIA NV34, 256MB, AGP8X
Sapphire Radeon 9200 SE Atlantis, ATI RV280, 128MB, AGP8X
MSI MS-8959 FX5700LE-TD128, NV36, 128MB, AGP8X
Memory
512MB (2 x 256MB) Corsair XMS3200LLPT - 2-2-2-6
Hard Disks
1 x 36.6GB Western Digital Raptor SATA
Software
Windows XP Professional w/ SP1NVIDIA nForce Unified Platform Driver v4.27 English
VIA Hyperion 4.51v
DirectX 9.0b End User Runtime
S3 DeltaChrome Driver 2.00.13-0283
NVIDIA 61.76 Graphics Driver
ATI CATALYST 4.7 Graphics Driver
Unreal Tournament 2003
3DMark03
Notes
The SN95G5 left me for pastures new before the OmniChrome arrived. I'd used it for testing of the other budget graphics cards you see in the list above, in preparation for a work-in-progress article on budget graphics cards (unpublished as of yet). So I assembled the nearest platform I could, using VIA's K8T800 Pro core logic, and used that for testing the OmniChrome. Only two tests are used for brevity, they both highlight the basic performance of the S4 at 325MHz that you'd see in all our other tests.Driver
S3's driver is aesthetically horrible, but that aside it does offer good control over the GPU and connected hardware. Here are some screenshots.
Direct3D Settings
OpenGL Settings
Basic Information
Connected Display Adjustment
