Club3D Volari V3XT - bit-tech.net Forums

WilHarris · 3rd May 2005, 11:17

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...ri_v3xt/1.html

Looks to me like a good idea, and a bad implementation. Personally, I can't understand why you'd ever spent the money on it rather than £40 on an Nvidia 6200 or similar.

Sc0rian · 3rd May 2005, 11:22

agreed, it's a perfect card to go into my server

TMM · 3rd May 2005, 11:41

and i thought the 9200SE was bad enough

sadffffff · 3rd May 2005, 13:15

article doesnt work correctly in IE. the 1st page of the article doesnt start until the ads at the right stop when viewing in IE. works fine in FF but theres no way im using that.

Tim S · 3rd May 2005, 14:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadffffff

article doesnt work correctly in IE. the 1st page of the article doesnt start until the ads at the right stop when viewing in IE. works fine in FF but theres no way im using that.

I've passed the problem on, it's a site bug by the looks of things. I experience it in IE6 too.

Jumeira_Johnny · 4th May 2005, 06:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrhaz

Looks to me like a good idea, and a bad implementation.

Is this thier only product? or are there others, with better or worse performance? I like the idea of a third part chipset that is silent and cheap, although this one looks to fall a bit short.

Go4t · 4th May 2005, 08:52

http://www.xgitech.com/products/index.asp
they have a card or two that was meant to compete with the radeon 9800s but afaik they have horrible drivers

Saist · 4th May 2005, 09:57

Never thought I'd register in a forum with the intent to only make one post, but I think this one needs to be made.

XGI is well aware that their software support is less than desirable. To the point that they dumped their entire driver code into the Xfree86 and X.org repositories

http://www.xgitech.com/about/about_press1.asp?CTID={C3FD7D03-6BE1-4BB9-9F34-1221E723B87F}

Won't help the windows side, but then again, I'm not exactly sure there's a market for a 4th or 5th (looking at Chrome by S3) player in the Windows world... not with the shares ATi and Nvidia have, and not as long as Dell keeps getting big price breaks from Intel.

Anyways, what i'd like to see is a comparision of the XGI products versus ATi or Nvidia's offerings under a Linux box.

Should be interesting to see what a product that can be supported natively by the OS performs like when compared to products that require some additional configuration to get working.

Tim S · 5th May 2005, 22:22

Hi Saist, it might be worth having another look at further down the line, at least giving Linux and drivers the once over, as I'm sure there are some interesting things to be found. Maybe someone can help XGI to create a wonder driver that fixes all of the problems that we've come across in this review.

The only problem is that I see is that the majority of people who would buy this video card would be looking to build a Home Theatre PC around Windows Media Centre Edition.

Saist · 7th May 2005, 06:00

well, my take on it is that XGI is hoping that the complete source code to their drivers and unrestricted access will gain the support of the open source community and drive hardware sales.

I really can't argue that since i've already done it, purchasing a V3 and sending it to the developer of the distro I use (Mepis) and purchasing one of the V8's for use in one of my systems.

Point can be made I think that the open source community tends to gather around and support those products that support them back, and XGI wants to get that momentum behind their hardware. I mean, as the reviewer here stated, the Volari's look "great" on paper, but the software implementation will leave a sour taste in a many a mouth.

However, the volari's are cheap... a 256meg V8 was only $92 out of Newegg. A Volari V3 was only $32. Maybe if XGI starts making like an "AIW" version, and releases the capture code to OpenSource as well...

MythTV would be happy

Seriously though, I think that XGI may have a larger market in mind rather than just the HTPC market. if the open source support does materialize like XGI wants it to, I have little problem with making the Volari family a stock option on boxes I sell.

3rd May 2005, 11:17	#1
WilHarris Just another nobody Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Oxford Posts: 2,671	Club3D Volari V3XT http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...ri_v3xt/1.html Looks to me like a good idea, and a bad implementation. Personally, I can't understand why you'd ever spent the money on it rather than £40 on an Nvidia 6200 or similar.

3rd May 2005, 11:22	#2
Sc0rian Here comes the farmer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Suffolk Posts: 3,519	agreed, it's a perfect card to go into my server __________________ \o/

3rd May 2005, 11:41	#3
TMM Modder Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 3,228	and i thought the 9200SE was bad enough __________________ no, your face.

4th May 2005, 08:52	#7
Go4t i <3 bloodcar Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: runlevel 3 Posts: 939	http://www.xgitech.com/products/index.asp they have a card or two that was meant to compete with the radeon 9800s but afaik they have horrible drivers __________________ <kameleon> ~~~~~~~C====8d-_-b8====D~~~~~~~ <kameleon> EARGASM

5th May 2005, 22:22	#9
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	Hi Saist, it might be worth having another look at further down the line, at least giving Linux and drivers the once over, as I'm sure there are some interesting things to be found. Maybe someone can help XGI to create a wonder driver that fixes all of the problems that we've come across in this review. The only problem is that I see is that the majority of people who would buy this video card would be looking to build a Home Theatre PC around Windows Media Centre Edition. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

3rd May 2005, 13:15	#4
sadffffff Hypermodder Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: sadffffff Posts: 676	article doesnt work correctly in IE. the 1st page of the article doesnt start until the ads at the right stop when viewing in IE. works fine in FF but theres no way im using that.

4th May 2005, 09:57	#8
Saist What's a Dremel? Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 3	Never thought I'd register in a forum with the intent to only make one post, but I think this one needs to be made. XGI is well aware that their software support is less than desirable. To the point that they dumped their entire driver code into the Xfree86 and X.org repositories http://www.xgitech.com/about/about_press1.asp?CTID={C3FD7D03-6BE1-4BB9-9F34-1221E723B87F} Won't help the windows side, but then again, I'm not exactly sure there's a market for a 4th or 5th (looking at Chrome by S3) player in the Windows world... not with the shares ATi and Nvidia have, and not as long as Dell keeps getting big price breaks from Intel. Anyways, what i'd like to see is a comparision of the XGI products versus ATi or Nvidia's offerings under a Linux box. Should be interesting to see what a product that can be supported natively by the OS performs like when compared to products that require some additional configuration to get working.

7th May 2005, 06:00	#10
Saist What's a Dremel? Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 3	well, my take on it is that XGI is hoping that the complete source code to their drivers and unrestricted access will gain the support of the open source community and drive hardware sales. I really can't argue that since i've already done it, purchasing a V3 and sending it to the developer of the distro I use (Mepis) and purchasing one of the V8's for use in one of my systems. Point can be made I think that the open source community tends to gather around and support those products that support them back, and XGI wants to get that momentum behind their hardware. I mean, as the reviewer here stated, the Volari's look "great" on paper, but the software implementation will leave a sour taste in a many a mouth. However, the volari's are cheap... a 256meg V8 was only $92 out of Newegg. A Volari V3 was only $32. Maybe if XGI starts making like an "AIW" version, and releases the capture code to OpenSource as well... MythTV would be happy Seriously though, I think that XGI may have a larger market in mind rather than just the HTPC market. if the open source support does materialize like XGI wants it to, I have little problem with making the Volari family a stock option on boxes I sell.