S3 ViRGE
The S3 ViRGE (short for Vi RTUAL R eality G raphics E ngine ) graphics processor was one of the first 2D / 3D accelerator for the mass market.
2D
Launched in 1995 by S3 Inc. , the ViRGE marked a new milestone for 2D acceleration: Equipped with EDO-DRAM and aggressive 1-cycle timing, the ViRGE / 325 became the fastest 2D accelerator of that time. The fact that the chip was also pin-compatible with an older member of the S3 trio family made it easy and inexpensive to launch corresponding cards on the market.
3D
While the chip was revolutionary in that there was now an affordable 3D accelerator with excellent 2D quality, it relatively quickly earned the dubious title, the first "Graphics Decelerator" (something like "graphics brake", as a play on "Accelerator" = "Accelerator") of the world, since 3D acceleration was not competitive. Although the ViRGE could calculate simple 3D scenes faster than the processor-based software rendering, activating features such as bilinear filtering or Z-corrected fog led to a drop in speed, so that software rendering was faster again. Furthermore, the 3D features of the ViRGE were very limited. Ironically, the 3D acceleration of the expensive VRAM -based ViRGE / VX (988) was even slower than that of the ViRGE / 325 due to lower clock rates.
API support
Together with the ViRGE family, S3 tried to establish the programming interface (API) called S3D as the standard for 3D games. Despite the lack of 3D performance, some S3D games came onto the market due to the name S3: Terminal Velocity , Descent 2 and later Tomb Raider .
Although the ViRGE offered an acceptable speed in these adapted games, the general conditions changed drastically at the end of 1996 with the introduction of 3dfx Voodoo Graphics and Rendition Vérité as well as the increasing importance of DirectX . Both chips offered significantly better 3D acceleration at a similar price. In this way, all chances that S3D could firmly establish itself were ruined.
Another negative aspect was the fact that ViRGE lacked any kind of OpenGL support and the chip was therefore unusable for the Quake engine, which was extremely popular at the time .
variants
Between its appearance in 1995 and its final end in 2000, the ViRGE family received various upgrades. The ViRGE / DX improved the speed of the original ViRGE / 325. The ViRGE / GX received support for the more modern SDRAM / SGRAM . The ViRGE / GX2 was a graphics chip with support for the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
The ViRGE was largely replaced by the Savage 3D in 1998 . Even so, a derivative of the ViRGE, Trio3D , remained in production even after the Savage 3D was phased out.
Model data
| chip | publication | Manufacturing process | Chip ID | Core clock | TMUs | RAMDAC | Memory interface | Memory size | interface |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ViRGE / 325 | 1995 | 500 nm | 86C325 | 55 MHz | 1 | 135 MHz | EDO DRAM | 2/4 MB | PCI |
| ViRGE / VX | 1996 | 500 nm | 86C988 | 55 MHz | 1 | 220 MHz | VRAM | 2/4/8 MB | PCI |
| ViRGE / DX | 1996 | ? | 86C375 | 72 MHz | 1 | 170 MHz | EDO DRAM | 2/4 MB | PCI |
| ViRGE / GX | 1996 | ? | 86C385 | 73 MHz | 1 | 170 MHz | SDRAM / SGRAM / EDO-DRAM | 2/4 MB | PCI |
| ViRGE / GX2 | 1997 | ? | 86C357 | 90 MHz | 1 | 170 MHz | SDRAM / SGRAM | 4 MB | AGP 1.0 |
| ViRGE / MX | 1997 | ? | 86C260 | 55 MHz | 1 | 135 MHz | SDRAM / SGRAM | 2 MB | AGP 1.0 |
| Trio3D | 1998 | ? | 86C365 | 100 MHz | 1 | 230 MHz | SDRAM / SGRAM | 4 MB | AGP 1.0 |
| Trio3D / 2X | 1999 | ? | 86C362, 86C368 | 100 MHz | 1 | 230 MHz | SDRAM / SGRAM | 4/8 MB | AGP 1.0 |