Introduction:

XGI Technology Inc. was founded in June of 2003. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, XGI is a relative new comer to the VGA markets offering excellent value and superior customer service over other VGA retailers. XGI introduced the Volari™ desktop family of graphics processors last September and since then has established relations with over 20 major corporations, maturing into world wide affiliations and accomplishments including collaboration with Club-3D a leading supplier in VGA solutions in the European markets.

XGI offers mainstream features combined with the best possible value. How does this value apply and at what levels? While the gamers hold a substantial amount of the market share, XGI has quietly secured the corporate market needs from enterprise wide environments to educational and governmental establishments, effectively solidifying relations with mega manufacturers right on down to local establishments with cost effective solutions that span the world.

Corporations such as enterprise wide conglomerates rarely necessitates the use of $499.99 Multimedia 3D VGA cards supporting the latest gaming API's to work in spread-sheets, performing mail mergers and enterprise wide administration duties. Suffice to say that XGI has tapped into these realms with offering a VGA solution to a myriad of business entities, offering 2D and 3D performance for a fraction of the price of any comparable product. While having a substantial foot hold in the work forces, XGI also provides plenty of 3D gaming fun for those on a tight budget.

The Retail Box:

That budget and performance can be met with XGI's Volari™ V8. The Volari™ V8 is powered by XGI's 0.13 micron process GPU with advanced 256-bit 3D engine optimized for Direct X 9.0 & OpenGL 1.5 API's. A single 400MHz RAMDAC supports screen resolutions up to 2048 x 1536. The Volari™ V8 also supports features such as flat panel resolutions up to 1600 x 1200, 1080 x 720 DHTV resolutions with S-Video and RGB output all in a pint size PCB thats very quiet and operates and substantially lower temperatures that what we are used to seeing. Any event, I think it's time we dive into the XGI Volari™ V8 and get the scoop on this card.

First thing to notice upon opening the box, is the anti-static bag containing the Volari V8. Like most graphics cards, you get the typical retail packaging that contains the goods to effectively utilize the card to its full potential.

Taking the video card out and removing the cardboard spacer, we find the software and the RGB connector for sending video to high definition TV. Also included is an installation guide in over a half a dozen languages, the Volari Reactor drivers, user's guide and last but not least you will get a trial game called Knight Shift.

Now that we took a look at the included bundle, here is the heart and soul of the box one would buy, the XGI Volari V8. This is a AGP 8X, Direct X 9, 256MB, TV out, S-video video card.

• Model Number: Volari V8 256MB AGP
• Part Number: PV8RL03
• BOM Version: R00

Specifications:

• Blazing-fast AGP Bus Interface (AGP 8x)
• Octa-pipe 3D Engine
  • High performance 256-bit 3D engine
  • 2 units of Vertex Shader
  • 4 sets of Pixel Shader
  • 8 sets high performance pixel rendering pipelines 
• Ultimate Performance 2D Engine
• High Definition TV-OUT Solution with XV301
• MPEG-2 Video Decoder
• Video Accelerator
• Proprietary Cipher Video Processor
• Display Memory Interface (DDR or DDR-II SDRAM)
• High Integration

Blazing-fast PCI Bus Interface
- 32-bit PCI local bus standard Revision 2.2 compliant
- True AGP2.0 & AGP3.0 Compliant configuration setting
- Hardware auto detect for AGP1.0, AGP2.0 or AGP3.0
mode support

Octa-pipe 3D Engine
- Extreme High performance 256-bit 3D engine
- High order surface tessellation
- Optimized hardware geometry transform/lighting/setup engine
- Total of 2 units of Vertex Shader with Fully compliant Direct3D 9.0 Vertex

Shader ver. 2.0
- Total of 4 sets of Pixel Shader (2.0) with Fully compliant Direct3D 9.0 Pixel

Ultimate Performance 2D Engine
- Hardware command queue
- High-speed Direct Draw Accelerator
- Hardware GDI 2000 Accelerator
- Source read-buffer to minimize engine wait-state
- Built-in destination read-buffer to minimize engine wait-state

High Definition TV-OUT Solution with XV301
- PAL and NTSC Systems.
- Composite, S-Video, and Component RGB Output Signals
- Macrovision Copy Protection Process Rev. 7.1.L1
- HDTV 480i/480p/1080i/720p YPbPr Output Signals.
- A single link TMDS transmitter with excellent scaling capability for TFT
LCD panel display

MPEG-2 Video Decoder
- MPEG-2 MPaML standards compliant
- Supports up to 20 Mbit/sec bit rate decoding
- True hardware VCD, DVD and HDTV decoding

Video Accelerator
- YUV-to-RGB color space conversion
- Bi-linear video interpolation with integer increments of 1/2048
- Complete graphics and video overlay function
- Hardware video decoder interface
- Independent VBI capture
- Supports DVD sub-picture playback overlay
- Built-in independent Gamma correction RAM

Proprietary Cipher Video Processor
- 5 fields per-pixel motion detection de-interlace function, video
sources from MPEG decoder, Video capture and AVI interfaces.
- Down scaling function and scaling vector as 1/2, 1/4.
- Next generation de-interlaced and 1/2 down scaling function.

Display Memory Interface
- Supports DDR SDRAM, DDR-II SDRAM type to 256M Bytes memory

BitFluent Architecture (XGI Volari Duo Only)
- Advanced interface for dual GPU solution
- Up to 2.13GB bus bandwidth

High Integration
- Programmable 24-bit true-color RAMDAC up to 400 MHz pixel clock
- Built-in VIP interface
- VESA Plug & Display for PanelLink Interface
- Built-in Thermal Diode for GPU Security-Update

Miscellaneous
- Supports 32K/64K/128K Bytes ROM decoding
- Supports 20MHz SPI ROM interface 1140-balls 37.5mm x 37.5mm
FC-BGA package