Testing Issues
We'd love to report that testing the Chrome S27 in single and multi-GPU situations was trouble free and without issue, but we ran up on some bits and pieces worth telling which are worth considering when looking at the results.First off, enabling antialiasing in the driver and playing Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory results in the system rebooting. In the same game, turning on hardware shadow mapping results in corrupt shadows. Finally in SC:CT, running the SM2.0 codepath results in incorrect rendering on the main character. S3 say a new driver fixing the SC:CT issues is coming soon.
We benchmarked the S27 using the SM2.0 path in SC:CT, so bear in mind the rendering errors, even if they don't affect performance too much or at all.
The driver doesn't support antialiasing in OpenGL at all.
The driver only supports alternate frame rendering in MultiChrome mode, causing it some performance problems in certain games titles where an alternate mode might be the better choice.
Finally, the driver doesn't support any 50Hz output over component, meaning no 720p/50, 1080i/50 or similar using the YPbPr output cable just yet. The hardware is certainly cable, and S3 are working on a driver update as we speak, although it speaks volumes about the local testing they've done over here to date.
Onwards to the performance results.
