Manufacturer: Diamond Multimedia

Available: Now

In today's high-end graphics market, new technologies are being developed so fast that only the companies that can deliver new products regularly, maintain them well, and garner developer support are able to succeed. A parallel can be drawn to a feeding frenzy of sharks (you know, the phenomenon between SE staffers when the Fed Ex man delivers a new CPU). Whichever beast can get the most food the fastest, survives the longest, which is figuratively the premise on which the industry is based. There have been casualties along the way (think Pine Tech, Canopus, and Hercules), and many people believed S3 would be another company lost, due to their lackluster product history.

Times change though, and S3 has refused to give up, progressively gaining support from the Savage3D to the Savage4 and finally to the announcement of the Savage 2000. Targeted at the performance sector of the graphics market, S3's Savage 2000 initially boasted lofty numbers, which would have demolished the fastest GeForce DDR boards available. However, it became evident that such speed would not be realized upon the initial product launch, instead they may be anticipated in a spring refresh release. In addition, it was revealed that the T&L engine S3 incorporated into the Savage 2000 would not be operational until a Q1 2000 driver release. Unfortunately disappointments are a part of life, so we are here today to look at what has actually materialized from S3's team and compare it to what is currently available.

Diamond's Viper II follows the Viper V770 Ultra, ironically an NVIDIA chipset, and although S3 originally intended NOT to compete against NVIDIA's popular GeForce fleet, we found in benchmark comparisons that it competes well with the GeForce SDR version, as well as generally trouncing ATi's Rage Fury MAXX at lower resolutions. Boasting S3TC, (which has recently been enabled in Unreal Tournament), hardware Transform & Lighting (yet to be implemented), a .18-micron process and excellent DVD playback, the Viper II hopes to incorporate an effective price/performance combination as it's main selling point. Seen as low as $150, Diamond's latest offering does have the potential to turn heads.