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ST Labs SIS-315 128meg GRAPHICS CARD

This review was kindly made possible by :

July 29-2002

SPONSORS

HIGHLIGHTS
  •   Powered by 2nd generation 256-bit core engine--SIS 315 with ultra-fast 128MB SDRAM.
  • 175Mhz core clock speed, 166Mhz memory clock speed.
  • Double performance compared to SIS 300 graphics boards.
  • Integrated 375Mhz RAMDAC, resolution up to 2048x1536, True Color @ 60 Hz.
  • Hardware supports Transform & Lighting (T&L) with Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA).
  • Full acceleration for Microsoft DirectX 8 and OpenGL 1.2 ICD.
  • DVI-output for high-resolution display on digital monitors (Optional).
  • Comprehensive AGP 4X / 2X / 1X supports.
  • New hottest 3D Eagle Eye function for internet gaming, and fully supports D3D & OpenGL games (Optional).
  • DVI-output for high-resolution display on digital monitors (Optional).
  • Vivid NTSC / PAL TV-Output with flicker filter (Optional).
  • Localized auto installation guide for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese.
FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

The most anticipated 3D engine

  • Incorporates SIS latest graphics processing chipset - 315, optimized for SDR / DDR.
  • Ultra-thin dye shrink (0.15 microns) to supports very high clocking rates.
  • 2 dual-texturing pipelines, mapping 4texels per clock cycle.
  • 3D THRILL 315 built-in Visibility Engine can reduced bandwidth loading also enhance total performance of gaming.
  • New hyper texel architecture delivers 666Mega-texels and 333Mega -pixels per second for mind-blowing frames rates and Full Scene hardware Anti-Aliasing (FSAA).
  • 175Mhz core clock speed, 166Mhz SDRAM clock speed.
  • 3D THRILL 315 32MB is designed with 32MB (also provides maximum memories capacities up to 128MB of DDR / SDR solutions) for turbo-boosted 3D performance in games requiring large texture buffers. With the advent of new technologies such as flat panel monitor, the 3D THRILL 315 32MB also includes a DVI-out connection.
  • AGP 4X (boosts 3D operations that pass through the AGP bus) / AGP2X compatible.

3D features for the next generation games

5 engine architecture:

  • 2nd generation hardware transform engine.
  • 2nd generation hardware lighting engine.
  • 2nd generation hardware visibility engine.
  • 100% hardware triangle setup engine.
  • 2 dual-texturing rendering engines.

4-texels per-clock pipeline engines:

  • It generates unprecedented and amazing 10Million-triangles per second and 666Million-texels per second.

Most advanced supports:

  • Driver supports for OpenGL (Silicon Graphics) and DirextX8 (Microsoft) such as texture transparency, wrapping, mirror and alpha blending. S3 Texture Compression (TC) supports D3D and OpenGL.

Amazing output functions

DVI output function:

  • DVI stands for Digital Visual Interface. It is a new standard for digital display supported by all major monitor manufactures.
  • DVI is compatible with the former standards of digital display such as VESA P&D and DFP (Compaq) and only an adapter cable.
  • Supports for 1280X1024 flat panels in 16Million colors.
  • Incredible sharpness and true color 32bit gaming.
  • The best connection for digital flat panels, digital CRT and LCD projectors.

TV / Video output function:

  • It for extraordinary image playback for DVD titles or games on your television: NTSC and PAL TV output in 640X480 and 800x600.
  • Attractive full 32bit true color SVGA display.
  • Outstanding resolution of up to 2048X1536 in 16Million colors performed with a 375Mhz RAMDAC. 

I dont know what to say , but those specs sound real good to say the least , and looking at those trick ramsinks , well , it kind of gives you the feeling this card has some serious potential .

Unfortunately running 3Dmark 2001 brought me back to earth with a thump , performance in Quake was some what better , but unfortunately not what i expected from a card in this price range .

Stock Benchmarks: Epox 8k3a / xp1700 @ 11x166 1.75v / Maxtor ATA133 7200rpm / Samsung PC2700 256meg / Direct X8.1 / win98SE /

No overclocking just stock settings , and the best I could achieve with this card , returned a score of  :

1949 3Dmarks [3Dmark2001SE ]

Quake 800x600x16bit = 92.4FPS

The performance of this card comes somewhere around the GF2mx400 cards , as its not quite up there with the original GF2mx cards that preceded the mx200/400 cards .

 Overclocking :

Looking at the ramsinks kind of made me think there might be some serious head room on this card for redemption . Unfortunately not , stock specs according to Power Strip were 166mhz for the GPU and 166mhz for the memory . Overclocking the card via Power Strip , I took it to 180core / 180mem which returned a score of 2053 3Dmarks , ok were getting some where , well not really , this is about as high as she would go safely , taking the ram up to 190mhz saw the pic quality deteriorate seriously , whilst the core did go up to 200mhz it locked up doing 3Dmark2001 , so 190core / 180mem is possible , but almost pointless , as the card is so slow .

You might think me unfair , but with my cpu doing 1.83ghz ( XP2200 speed ) a cheaper GF4mx440 will literally crush this SIS 315 card under its benchmarks , and coming close to being 3 times faster , offering better picture quality , at a lower price . Well i wanted to know how this card performs , and now I know , so I must say that I highly recommend that you look else where for a gaming card , as this one just does not do its retail price justice .

Matt korhonen