Diamond ships PCI version of Stealth III S540

Diamond Multimedia Systems has started shipping a PCI version of its Stealth III S540 graphics accelerator.

Featuring S3 Inc.'s texture compression (S3TC)technology, the product offers PCI and non-upgradeable AGP system owners the opportunity to take advantage of high-performance graphics at an attractive price point, accordig to Diamond officials.

The PCI Stealth card comes with 32MB of onboard memory and full support for Intel and AMD processors. With Savage4's DirectX 6.0 features, the company boasts that its Stealth III S540 PCI product can deliver up to six times the image quality of competing cards. S3TC allows the use of large texture maps up to 2048-by-2048, levels that were previously accessible only to AGP system users, the company says.

Purchase of a PCI Stealth III S540 includes the customer's choice of software bundle. Customers can select from titles such as Sin, Shogo, Heretic II, Asteroids, StarSiege Tribes, and Fighter Squadron, recieving two full-version PC games for a $12.95 shipping and handling charge.

The accelerator is priced at $129.95, and can be purchased through retailers or from Diamond's online store at www.diamondmm.com/where-to-buy/online-store /.