Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : S3 (A LONGER TERM PERSPECTIVE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Nasser who wrote (10870)	5/7/1998 6:51:00 AM
From: mark doubiago	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14577

John, it probably depends on which Trio vs which Virge. I believe the Trio that is getting the latest wins is the Trio3D which may be a higher performance chip than any of the Virge chips. I would expect it to cost more than at least the Virge and Virge GX. The GX2 may cost more because of DuoView and TV out which I don't think the Trio3D has. For a comprehensive comparison of features see the web site, but here are just a few. Trio3D, 128bit engine, 230MHz RAMDAC, 100MHz SGRAM memory. Virge GX2, 64bit engine, 170MHz RAMDAC, 83MHz SGRAM memory. From the specs the Trio3D is a faster chip. The Trio3D also incorporates the Virge GX2 3D engine so thats a wash. They both support AGP 66MHz bus so thats also a wash. I also believe that I saw somewhere that the Trio3D has some new and faster drivers. From what I have read, I would guess that the Trio3D is faster on both 2D and 3D, maybe quite a bit faster on 2D while the Virge GX2 provides a couple of more glitzy features. The Trio3D looks like a pretty decent chip for mainstream computing, therefore the recent wins. It probably has 2D performance near the top and reasonable 3D performance for anything besides games. And most of us don't buy a card or chip for 3D games yet and there aren't many 3D business applications out there. On top of all that, its probably cheap, but still at or near the price of the GX2, their previous top of the line chip.

To: John Nasser who wrote (10870)	5/7/1998 11:26:00 AM
From: Synapsid	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14577

I would guess the Trio64V2 is sold to PC OEMs for well below $10. The Trio64V2 and ViRGE/DX/GX are sold to Taiwan/Hong Kong manufacturers also for low prices. In addition, these parts are manufactured in an older process technology (certainly not .35 micron), severely depressing gross margins. The PCI Trio3D, even at the same price, might have a better gross margin. I believe until recently, there was an understanding in the market that AGP chips would be close to $20. However, Trident probably undercut that severely with their very mediocre 975 chip and is selling high volumes in Asia to save their business. I would expect the AGP Trio3D to have higher margins, but that creates a dilemma for S3 of how to market el-cheapo AGP chips in Asia (Diamond a customer of the GX2-AGP). What's interesting is that the Savage3D is using a cutting-edge 0.25 process, a decision which may have been inspired by past experience of non-optimal manufacturing process.