DataExpert ExpertColor DSV5357 (S3 Virge/GX2)
| Technical details | |
| Name: | ExpertColor DSV5357 |
| Company: | DataExpert |
| Chipset: | S3 ViRGE 86C357 at 66 MHz |
| Bus: | AGP 2x |
| RAM: | 4 MB SGRAM 8ns 64 bit at 99 MHz |
| DAC: | integrated 170 MHz 8/15/16/24/32 bit |
| Connectors: | VGA, VESA, TV-Out |
| PCI-ID: | VENDOR 5333 DEVICE 8A10 |
| FCC-ID: | ? |
| Manufactured: | 1998 |
This chipset has the ViRGE On Board - (ViRGE = Virtual Reality Graphics Engine) one of the first cards for PC with 3D acceleration features in hardware. Still, it was often slower than rendering scenes by software rendering with the CPU. So it was soon nicknamed "3D decelerator". S3 introduced their own graphics API for 3D acceleration called S3D with a few games supporting it (Tomb Raider, Descent II, Terminal Velocity, Mech Warrior 2, ...) The S3 ViRGE/GX2 series incorporates the same 2D graphics core as the S3 Trio64V2. The S3 ViRGE/GX2 supports SGRAM and EDO-DRAM but is not much faster than a S3 ViRGE/DX at the same clock. So all whats left are the higher clocks. The VESA mode support is very good. Also "Dual Display Capabilities", "AGP compatibility" and "DVD assisted playback" were keywords for selling this card as "Home PC/TV accelerator".
DataExpert ExpertColor DSV5357 Drivers
S3 Drivers
VESA Info
Specification table at Wikipedia
archived S3 ViRGE/GX2 product overview
Detailed review at Vintage 3D
