Theoretical performance
Let's investigate just how much of that theoretical pixel-pushing and shader potential has made it through to reality. 3DMark03 (b340) offers up information on pixel, texel, and shading efficiency. Tests were run at 1024x768x32.
The 9800SE AIW boasts a 4x1 setup and a MPixel/s theoretical limit of 1520MP/s (380*4). That's shy of the DeltaChrome's 2400MP/s, yet 3DMark03 asserts that it betters the S8's performance. It's strange to see the DeltaChrome S8 return barely a third of its theoretical pixel power. The comparison Hercules 9800SE AIW uses a 256-bit memory bus to provide almost 20GB/s of juicy bandwidth.
Things look much, much better from the multitexturing point of view. There's no real reason why the results obtained should be 2.5x higher. The S8 is a strict 8x1 design, so it only has a single texture unit per rendering pipeline. Think of a case with heavy AA or AF. The card's comparatively poor memory bandwidth could suffocate the impressive multitexturing performance.
The DeltaChrome S8 is reckoned to be invested with cutting-edge shading technology. S3 alludes to the use of 4 Vertex shaders, but then doesn't go further and specify just how potent they are. 3DMark03's shader tests should illuminate the issue
Pretty poor, really. The 9800SE AIW takes a commanding lead. How about Pixel Shading ?.
Better, but still not as close as one would expect. The comparison Hercules 9800SE AIW has more than double the available memory bandwidth, but the DeltaChrome S8 has almost double the pixel-pushing power. We expect the DeltaChrome S8 to do well in DX9 benchmarks, but it may find itself falling behind in older tests and at higher resolutions, which rely more on brute memory power.
