The PowerVR Kyro series. Hardly anyone used them but they traded blows with much more expensive and more powerful cards at the time, due to their efficiency.

It would have been interesting to see how things would have developed if the technology behind them had stayed on the desktop and matured longer.

G400... no T&L on chip really hurt them bigtime. g400max was an awesome card but it couldnt compete merely a few months after its release

Matrox parhelia, should have been improved and given a better chance much like what Nvidia had done with Geforce 5 FX into Geforce 6. That card could have been a lot more than what Matrox had allowed it to be and if it had Win 9x support they would have sold even more. Didn't need to be a top tier gaming card but just good enough to be mid tier and be a beast in CAD work.

Nevermind the Kyro - PowerVR Neon250.

- It had a VERY delayed release (was originally slated for mid to late 1998 with some games prepared to support it (i.e. Half-Life), got bumped to late 1999)
- It had a relatively obscure release
- The Geforce256 hype and Savage 2000 hype really buried it

The console/arcade variant isn't underutilized though (Dreamcast/Naomi/Atomiswave)

+1 on the PowerVR. The tile-based rendering was an interesting approach back then, which is what gave these chips the performance they had. Too bad the later Kyro cards didn't support SGL and we see PCX/m3D/Apocalypse prices skyrocketing day by day 🙁 Was about to write about the Dreamcast but leileilol beat me to it 😜 Its fate as a console was similar to PowerVR-based graphic cards' one though 😵

psychz wrote:

Its fate as a console was similar to PowerVR-based graphic cards' one though 😵

Whatcha talkin'bout? My Dreamcast isn't dead. I still play Shenmue and Half-Life on it every once in a while. :p

I bought the Kyro 2 when new.
It was a 3D Prophet 4500 retail with tvout

It died, then I RMAed it, then it died again and I got it replaced with a FDX8500LE
I still have the box and bought another one. I loved this card and my Duron 1000 😀

I believed in PowerVR and this card. It was really great to piss off the geforce 2mx fanboys with its performance over value 😁 good times!

stamasd wrote:

My Dreamcast isn't dead

Mine neither, in fact it's my favourite console! Long live the Dreamcast 🤣 Too bad they discontinued it early though... 🙁

Arctic wrote:

It died

Had a 3D Prophet 4500 survive through lots of use, a flood and severe PCB scratching... Dried out, repasted, tested and it's all good. 😊

I'm still rocking a PowerVR chip today ... in my phone. :p Actually I wonder if you could do a DC/Naomi emulator for Android that allowed games to use the chip natively.

Also yeah the DC was probably my favorite console too (and I think the only one I ever bought new!) My original one died in a flood but its replacement still works fine! KILLER platform for shoot-'em-ups & beat-'em-ups.

NV1

Ozzuneoj wrote:

The PowerVR Kyro series. Hardly anyone used them but they traded blows with much more expensive and more powerful cards at the time, due to their efficiency.

It would have been interesting to see how things would have developed if the technology behind them had stayed on the desktop and matured longer.

I second the Kyros. Still have one laying around waiting for me to be used, alas I have a second which needs a cap replaced.

I don't really see how a DirectX chip can be underutilized. You can try to run whatever you like on them and overwork them. Kyro has EMBM and you can run some of those G400 EMBM games on it AFAIK. Also, Kyro drivers are not exactly robust so you run into bugs.

When I think of underutilized I think more of things like how Verite V2200 never had a RRedline renderer for Unreal Engine 1. 😉 Not being able to run Unreal worth a damn really signified the end of days for Rendition.