September'2001 3Digest -
STMicroelectronics KYRO 64 MBytes
By Andrew
Worobyew
This chip is presented by reference STM KYRO 64 MBytes, AGP videocard.
Features:
- STM KYRO chip, 115 MHz clock rate, 128-bit engine;
- 64 MBytes SDRAM memory in eight IBM 6.8ns microchips, 115 MHz clock
rate;
- Peak speed of scene drawing in multitexturing mode is 115 megapixels/sec
and 230 megatexels/sec.
- Tile architecture.
Overclocking is unavailable.
The release of KYRO, a new generation of the PowerVR chip, has illustrated
another try to conquer the market with unusual processor architecture.
We've written about tile architecture rather long ago. But the original
price of KYRO couldn't make it competitor to NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, besides
there few manufacturers of these cards. But the product has been released
and its price and perfomance could have made it the real competitor
to NVIDIA GeForce2 MX, but the lack of manufacturers spoils the competition.
For the 20th of September'2001 the latest drivers from STM - 7.01.14.
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As we can see, latest version drivers are preferable, first of all due to fixed
bugs. But still there is criticism about stability. E.g. Giants may
lock-up on Pentium IV platform (when resolution is higher than 1024x768).
Upon the whole, KYRO / KYRO II work unstable and abruptly on new platforms.
Unstable perfomance in Serious Sam was caused by strict 100% usage
of 32-bit color in the Quality mode, and before we have used the default
Quality settings and not all effects have been actually 32-bit. But
the main reason to explain the perfomance boost in 32-bit color is the
usage of S3TC in the latest 7.01.11 version that gives nice results!
Still there are quality problems. I.e. No One Lives Forever has Z-buffer
bugs:
You can compare screenshots taken on this card with reference ones taken on NVIDIA GeForce3.
| Games / Cards |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
| STM KYRO |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| NVIDIA GeForce3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Games / Cards |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
| STM KYRO |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| NVIDIA GeForce3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Games / Cards |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
| STM KYRO |
|
|
|
|
|
-
|
| NVIDIA GeForce3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Games / Cards |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
| STM KYRO |
|
|
|
-
|
|
|
| NVIDIA GeForce3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Game list:
- 1. Quake3
- 2. Unreal
- 3. Unreal Tournament
- 4. No One Lives Forever
- 5. Serious Sam
- 6. Colin McRAE Rally2
- 7. American McGee's Alice
- 8. Mercedes Benz Truck Racing
- 9. Sacrifice
- 10. F.A.K.K. 2
- 11. Need For Speed V (Porshe 2000)
- 12. Real MYST
- 13. Blade of Darkness
- 14. Giants
- 15. 3DMark2001: Game1
- 16. 3DMark2001: Game2
- 17. 3DMark2001: Game3
- 18. 3DMark2001: Game4
- 19. 3DMark2001: Dot3
- 20. 3DMark2001: EMBM
- 21. 3DMark2001: Vertex Shaders
- 22. 3DMark2001: Pixel Shaders
- 23. Black & White
- 24. Undying
- 25. Anachronox
- 26. Max Payne
Real MYST doesn't run at all, crashing into OS.
Read more about this videocard in its review
published on our site.
2D quality is perfect like that of NVIDIA GeForce2. 1600x1200 gives clear
pictures, and 1280x1024x100 Hz is just excellent.
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