# Via/S3G UniChrome IGP Driver



## grassi (Dec 7, 2005)

im playing an online game and an administrator\friend is trying to help me with a configure only he wants to know what my computer is capable of, (which is a AMD\ athlon xp 3000+ 2.10Ghz 448 mb of ram,) how ever with that info he could tell how much ram i had. but does the AMD\ athlon 3000 mean anything? i also had an update for Via/S3G UniChrome IGP Driver which i didnt know about but downloaded in hopes to improve my gaming, Can anyone explain what this update is exactly. ive done some research but im computer illiterate, Maybe you could explain this say........, to a "dummy"? lol. hopefully you got 2 questions so far? This is hard for me to explain and lastly(3rd quest.) what is 3d now? i think this shows up when starting my online multiplayer game, as it reads files for game start up, i recall seeing under sytem: AMD athlon/3d NOW. thanks for your time. hope i posted in the right forum.


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## peterdiva (Oct 4, 2005)

He could tell how much RAM you have because you have an onboard graphics adapter (a chip on the motherboard as opposed to a separate card), this shares your RAM, 448mb for the system and 64mb for the graphics adapter.

This is where the Via/S3G UniChrome IGP Driver comes in, this is the driver for the onboard graphics adapter. Even though it probably won't make much difference to performance, it's always a good idea to update the driver if there's an update avaliable.

The 3000+ is a rating given by AMD to compare with a Pentium. Even though the CPU is running at 2.1GHz, AMD are saying that it has the same performance as a Pentium which is actually running at 3.0GHz. 3D NOW are just a set of instructions introduced by AMD (a long time ago) to improve 3D game performance, just to keep up with Intel really.


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## grassi (Dec 7, 2005)

peterdiva; thanks a lot, thats perfect,you couldlnt have explained to a noob any easier. lol. Ya know i was still tryin to figure this out, but just didnt understand. thanks again.


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## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

My laptop also has the S3 UniChrome Pro II video chip so I know thing or two about them. They are DirectX 7 capable, so you miss out on cool things like pixel shading features. They also sport a 2 pipeline design which equates to graphics that aren't exactly fast in some instances. They use a shared-memory architecture which peter explained in regards to your 448MB of RAM. Shared RAM is much slower than dedicated VRAM on the card itself. The only fix is to upgrade the video by installing a dedicated card.

My laptop's AMD Athlon64 3000+ runs at 1.8Ghz. My spare Athlon64 3000+ is rated at 2.0Ghz. Yours runs at 2.1Ghz. The difference in speed among the Athlon64 series is pretty negligible between like models. 3D Now is a technology AMD developed back in the days of the AMD K5 and K6 models to compete with Intel's MMX technology. As video chips evolve and take more work from the CPU, technologies like that will no longer be necessary.


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## grassi (Dec 7, 2005)

*ok. on that note!!!*

Im trying to figure out the best video card i can get for a game called enemy territory, im trying to improve fps as much as possible and anything else i can gain, as i asked a buddy in my online gaming network. He replied with


> I think we needed to know what motherboard you have before recommending a Graphics card.
> I use Radeon X850XT - but your motherboard might not be up do delivery (not sure)
> The other type is Nvidia cards like the 7600GT.
> But do you have PCI express or AGPx8 or AGPx4??
> ...


 hope the info in my past replies, is enough to tell what my computer system is capable of. i also have 3 options to upgrade my computer through hp, the max i believe is 1 gb, or i can go to 512 or something, i dunno much about this stuff, just want to improve my gaming, beside practice.lol. oh yeah the server i play on is from holland which gives me low ping and lots of delay, so i wanted the best options i guess.


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## gtjr_ph (Dec 9, 2005)

download CPUZ so you can tell the motherboard you are using if that wont tell try PC WIZARD........


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## sozan (Jun 20, 2008)

I have a via/sg3 unichrome igp driver and when ever I try to play online game mmorpg's .I Cant download them or when i download them i cant play them. A few times The game said it was because of my graphic driver was too low. But i was wondering if i have to to get a different driver for all of these high graphic games? I have tried about 7 different games an non of them would work. 

thanks, sozan


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