jdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm) (05/01/89)
I need your basic "completely IBM compatable, do everything for under $500" VGA card. So far I've found the best so far (I believe) are the ATI VGAWONDER card and Video 7 V-RAM VGA card. Am I right or wrong? Anybody own either of these cards? Praises? Problems? Anybody heard any poop at all? Got another card to recommend? -- jdm@hodge.cts.com [uunet zardoz vdelta crash]!hodge!jdm James D. Murray, Ethnounixologist Hodge Computer Research Corporation 1588 North Batavia Street Orange, California 92667 USA TEL: (714) 998-7750 Ask for James FAX: (714) 921-8038 Wait for the carrier
keithe@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (05/02/89)
In article <12361@hodge.UUCP> jdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm) writes: > > I need your basic "completely IBM compatable, do everything > for under $500" VGA card. So far I've found the best so far > (I believe) are the ATI VGAWONDER card and Video 7 V-RAM > VGA card. > > Am I right or wrong? Anybody own either of these cards? > Praises? Problems? Anybody heard any poop at all? Got > another card to recommend? > We've been evaluating VGA cards for internal use - in-house developed EE CAD tools. Based on our evaluation, biased quite heavily by "how fast does it deaw to the screen?" and "how compatible is it with high-density text modes (132 column, Wordperfect preview and return, etc) I find it difficult to believe that the ATI WonderCard (the one with the buil-in mouse interface, right?) and the Video7 VRAM are even mentioned in the same sentence. We wouldn't have the ATI product (we have a nickname for it) on a bet! It is slow (some 8-bit EGA cards are faster!) and simply incompatible with our text->graphics->text programs. (See my earlier posting, "Why I'm rejecting the ATI WOnder VGA Card.") The Video7 VRAM card is the best one we've found. Except it's too expensive. Can you get a VRAM for under $500? Its little brother, the FastWrite, is almost as good, not having quite the speed nor the high-density graphics modes (800x600x256 or higher). These are, of course, the opinions of myself and a couple of co-workers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Tektronix, Inc., nor their subsidiaries, assigns nor heirs. (Jeez I love that lawyer (liar) talk! :-) We're in the process of evaluating a couple of Tatung VGA cards. One uses the Video7 VGA controller IC, the other uses a Paradise (Western Digital) VGA controller IC. I'll let you know what we find out when we're done, but that might be a little bit of a while. (We have to get a replacement for the Video7 clone since it just isn't working correctly and we can't figure out why...) kEITHe
jdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm) (05/03/89)
I've talked with a number of people who have owned Video-7 cards (V-RAM and others) and they all agree that the lack of documentation, poor technical support on the part of Video-7, poor quality of the board itself, and the high failure rate of boards right out of the box has them skipping over any Video-7 product purchases in the future. The ATI VGAWonder has a unique data format that is proprietary to ATI Technologies. It's suppose to be a real pain to write driver compatable software for the card, so most companies don't. The VGA Wonder also had a bug in 1024x768 mode where if the cursor goes off the screen the card blows up in an unpredictable way--usually cureable by a cold boot and loss of all unsaved data in your CAD program. ATI is supposidly comming out with a completely redesigned board in 3 months or so to fix all the problems. So far the best VGA for under $500 that I've seen is the Orchid ProDesigner+ (512K). 800x600x256 and 1024x768x16 modes, 4 year warrenty, hardware pan and zoom, and font editor. That and the STB EM/Extra (512K) seem to be the most stable boards. -- jdm@hodge.cts.com [uunet zardoz vdelta crash]!hodge!jdm James D. Murray, Ethnounixologist Hodge Computer Research Corporation 1588 North Batavia Street Orange, California 92667 USA TEL: (714) 998-7750 Ask for James FAX: (714) 921-8038 Wait for the carrier
mallett@cg-atla.UUCP (Bruce Mallett) (05/03/89)
In article <12536@hodge.UUCP> jdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm) writes: > >I've talked with a number of people who have owned Video-7 cards >(V-RAM and others) and they all agree that the lack of documentation, >poor technical support on the part of Video-7, poor quality of the >board itself, and the high failure rate of boards right out of the box >has them skipping over any Video-7 product purchases in the future. I've had two of their products, first the VEGA-7 EGA adapter and now the VRAM-VGA card. I've been very happy with both, documentation, speed, compatibility, and response to questions (although I have had only two with the VRAM). BAM!! ...decvax!cg-atla!mallett
jpdres13@usl-pc.usl.edu (Joubert John V) (05/04/89)
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The newest issued of PC World (May 1989)has a review of the two
cards that you mention (ATI VGA Wonder and the Video VRAM VGA). I have the
Video Seven Fastwrite VGA, and am very pleased with it. No problems, very
fast. The article in PC World points out that the VRAM VGA is only slightly
faster than the Fastwrite VGA (very slight). The card picked best all around
(or editor's choice or whatever they call it) was the ATI card.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) (05/04/89)
In article <12536@hodge.UUCP> jdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm) writes: > >I've talked with a number of people who have owned Video-7 cards >(V-RAM and others) and they all agree that the lack of documentation, >poor technical support on the part of Video-7, poor quality of the >board itself, and the high failure rate of boards right out of the box >has them skipping over any Video-7 product purchases in the future. > Do we buy from a different Video-7? 1. (lack of documentation) The fastwrite and vram documentation is among the best we've got. It even tells you how to change the display modes with BIOS calls rather than the supplied canned program. I've had to reverse engineer some Genoa and Everex mode changing programs to get this vital information. And if you want complete specs (register level programming) they will sell (at a reasonable cost) it. 2. (Poor technical support). When I called about getting a Windows 386 driver for the latest Windows revision, they said they were nearing shipment and that it would be a couple of weeks. I got it within a week, no charge. When other engineers here have called about technical information, they have had no trouble talking to engineers at Video-7. 3. (Poor board quality and failures) The board has no jumpers (although there is one resistor mounted on the back). Almost entirely SMDs. We have never had a failure. These boards are not only the fastest we have tested, but also the only boards that seem to work flawlessly with all software (WordPerfect 5.0 seems to be the definitive test -- can you set a 132 column mode, run WP, do a page preview, and then return back to 132 column text? These are the only cards we have tested that do it.) >So far the best VGA for under $500 that I've seen is the Orchid >ProDesigner+ (512K). 800x600x256 and 1024x768x16 modes, 4 year >warrenty, hardware pan and zoom, and font editor. That and the >STB EM/Extra (512K) seem to be the most stable boards. Haven't tried these, but we will try to get them for evaluation. Does anybody know of a 16 bit VGA card that will work on a 12.5 MHz bus? Tom Almy toma@tekgvs.labs.tek.com Standard Disclaimers Apply