While S3 have long been in the PC graphics market, since their fall from favour following Savage 2000 they took a hiatus and didn't resurface until they produced their "DeltaChrome" graphics series, now under the ownership of VIA. While DeltaChrome implemented DirectX9 shader capabilities it failed to make too much of an impact in terms of market share most likely because of performance and time to market issues. With the transition from AGP to PCI Express S3 are in the process of revisiting their DirectX9 architecture and improving on it whilst also implementing the PCI Express interface. Here, Beyond3D take an early look at S3's new GammaChrome S18 chip in the form of the GammaChrone S18 Nitro graphics board.

S3 GammaChrome S18 Nitro Review