X-bit labs

Started by: I | Date 01/16/04

Comments: 21 | Last Comment:  03/11/04

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1. "The die size of each Volari VPU is even bigger than that of RADEON 9800 XT"
Why is it bigger if ATI chip have more transistors (110-115mln) and is made under a older tech .15?

XGI makes Volari at UMC and pack somewhere else than NVIDIA or ATI. They may have a bit different peculiarities of fabrication process and packaging, that is why the chip is bigger.

2. S3 is better no dout in every aspect, from chip it self and the drivers.
XGI must do a special mode besides the turbo mode like a "ultra mode" where there were no textures and we could play games in wire frame it would be fast i think, and at the same time make a tribute to nVidia cards since the "sound" already have it.

ROFLMAO @2

Nah well, goes to show you can't trust anyone these days...releasing such an immature product is bad enough to begin with (it needs a lot of rework) but taking the nVidia/Ati cheat path is even worse.....

Saddening. While I was a bit disappointed at first, I thought the performance would be at least 9600-like. Apparently I was mistaken. :'-(

3. sad

4. They actually broke my heart! I came here hoping to see a new company that wil actually give nVidia and ATi a run for their money, but one word can really sum this up...pathetic!

5. Looks like everybody needs to avoid this chip!

Also where were the Homeworld2 benchmarks? HW2 is the most modern OpenGL game on the market. It is sad not to see it benchmarked again. Out of 10 games, 5 were FPS, but there was only one OpenGL game and only one RTS game. It would've been nice to see more RTS games and OpenGL games and HW2 would've covered that.

Please bring Homeworld2 back into the benchmarks.

We do test when we can. In case of Homeworld 2 we cannot benchmark it without glitches... The tilte runs on Volari, but with loads of issues, main are speed and quality.

If a number of games were tried and not tested due to sabiltiy issues, shouldn't that be in a 32 page review?

6. i was thinking that V8 is still in test so it isnt a final product ??

What we have and what we tested is a final product from Club3D that is available now.

7. It does look like the XGI team needs to try again in a 2nd gen of the Volari Duo V8 Ultra...You can tell its a first attempt. (immature driver and inefficient hardware.

Like all first attempts...It sucks.

Just look at the first of the GF FX series. It was an expensive, overheated, noisy piece of joke. But as it got on, you can see the GF FX line improve...I suspect XGI's Volari series will be the same.

But for now, XGI engineering team should learn from their first gen product and go back to the drawing board and work on ver 2.

If a first you don't succeed...Call it ver 1.0 :)

8. What bothers me is not only this overpriced piece of junk, but the ample coverage xbit labs gave it to it! 32 pages? People, don't waste your time in review stuff like this, just wrap it up and be done with it if it's not worth it :)

Wel... There is a feature called "Print Article". If you do not like to read a lot of pages, use it to get a review on one page ;)

9. Oh, trust me, I use that nice feature. :) I just thought that the video card didn't merit a long review...but I am grateful that you are honest about it...thanks!

10. Your review makes me feel much better now,at least my 5950 isnt the worst in the market lol.

11. #7 If you compare this Volari Duo V8 Ultra to the GeForce FX 5800/5800 Ultra then the GeForce FX seems like a really good choice and a fairly mature product in comparision. Even though the FX 5800 rarly is as fast as the 5900 and generates more heat.


If it was priced MUCH cheaper and the performance was the only problem then maybe it could have been something but I rather use a first generation GeForce then these cards.

I can't belive this is a final product, it seems more like a joke.
Didn't XGI do any testing of their products before releasing them ?

12. WHY! WHY! WHY! WHY! did XGI have to cheat!? The hardware community may have tolerated a botched first attempt at market entry in hopes of something better the second time around, but by cheating, they have already given themselves a bad reputation! I was truly hoping that XGI would set themsleves apart as a company of integrity. In my opinion, however, there is still hope for XGI. If they can keep investors interested until they can refine thier dual chip design, and clean up thier drivers, they may be able to release a product worth purchasing. I love the competition between ATI and nVIDIA, but it would be so nice to throw another competitor into the ring. Get your crap cleaned up XGI. You can only change your name so many times before people smell you coming.

13. Well I think it is all up to better drivers.

Apparently they've released Linux drivers.

14. What a bad start for XGI.. seems that all these video card companies are just going for the market with ideas such as "dual chip interface" but the performance is just whack.

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