Imagination Technologies / STMicro PowerVR Series 3: KYRO

Conclusion

The idea of a tile based rendering system may not be that new: Imagination Technologies has attempted to implement this technology ever since the launch of the PowerVR Series 2 card, which was supposed to ship almost one and a half years ago. While the idea behind this technology has not changed, the way it is being implemented has. Long gone are the days where tile based rendering video cards were what dreams were made of. This outlook on tile based rendering technology changed with the incorporation of the PowerVR Series 2 based processor in the Sega Dreamcast. Surprised by the high performance and low cost, many consumers wondered if such as systems could be made powerful enough for a PC. KYRO proves that this is so.

Is tile rendering the solution to the increasingly significant memory bandwidth constraints that limit today's 3D accelerators at high resolutions? Gigapixel seemed to think so since their GP-1 core used similar techniques. 3dfx must think so as well considering their recent aquisition of Gigapixel. The technology just makes good sense - afterall, why bother rendering pixels that won't even be drawn to the screen? The question is, can tile rendering be executed properly. As far as actual products go, Gigapixel is still a vaporware company, but the PowerVR Series 2 has been available (albeit in the Dreamcast) for quite a while.

How can Imagination Technologies / STMicro even think about entering the market at such a hectic time as now, with new chips from ATI, NVIDIA, and 3dfx just announced? Well, by decreasing costs and providing a high level of performance, they are attempting to grab a section of the market left largely untapped by the major vendors: the budget gamer. The KYRO is not attempting to take NVIDIA's crown by outperforming it: Imagination Technologies / STMicro would rather sneak around and steal it from behind NVIDIA''s back. By appealing to the performance conscious gamer on a budget, they are in position to grab some of the precious video card market.

What is standing in the way between KYRO and success? Well, right now it is two main things: the drivers and the drivers. We understand that the drivers are early alpha drivers, however we have seen some companies release drivers nearly as buggy as these in order to get their product to market in time. We can only hope that PowerVR does not take this path and that the 30-60 days before product shipment is spent tweaking and perfecting the drivers.

The key to KYRO's success is its price. While it can't compete with the GeForce 2 GTS or the Voodoo5 5500 in terms of performance, the KYRO cards will also be considerably less expensive. With the 32 MB version slated to cost under $200 and the 64 MB version to cost slightly above the $200 mark, the 64 MB KYRO we tested is able to achieve speeds almost equal to 64 MB GeForce DDR cards costing over $100 more. We suspect that the 32 MB KYRO will perform nearly identically to the 32 MB DDR GeForce, making it about $50 less than the competition.

The idea behind a tile based rendering system is intriguing, to say the least. By shrinking the amount of data that must pass through the memory bus, a tile based rendering system could produce a video card that fully scales with core speed once again. Do Imagination Technologies / STMicro have what it takes to pull it off? If the KYRO is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes.