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To: Michael G. Potter who wrote (10942)3/2/1999 1:39:00 PM
From: Synapsid  Read Replies (2) of 16960
 
To better understand the differences betweeen the Savage4 and the Voodoo3, consider memory bandwidth.

The Savage4 uses a 64-bit memory interface which is cheaper to manufacture and enables the use of commodity SDRAM chips in a 32MB board. The Voodoo3 (and NVIDIA's TNT for that matter) is a true 128-bit architecture.

What this means is that a 166 MHz Voodoo3 board has a memory bandwidth at its disposal that is approximately 2.4 times higher than a 143 MHz memory Savage4 (2.6 GB/s vs 1.1 GB/s). Similarly, a 143 MHz Voodoo3 has a memory bandwidth of 2.3 GB/s vs 1.0 GB/s for the 125 MHz, 64-bit Savage4.

S3's chip tries to make up for this memory "horsepower" deficit with techniques that reduce memory bandwidth requirements (such as efficient AGP texturing and texture compression). Because memory bandwidth is more of a bottleneck with S3's chip, differences in memory speed have a greater influence on actual performance compared to Voodoo3.

Because the Savage4 is not targeted as a high-end product (illustrated by the lack of memory bandwidth), the 32 MB board from Creative is a bit of an anomality, since it is an attempt to eat high-end market share by hitting the 32MB spot using cheaper memory chips than would be possible in a Voodoo3 or TNT board (a 64-bit memory interface allows the use of commodity 64Mbit SDRAM chips in a 32MB configuration).
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