donovan@cg-atla.UUCP (Dennis Donovan X5176) (12/20/87)
I am in the process of buying a NEC Powermate II with a Multisync Display and I was wondering what graphics board to get eith it. I think it supports VGA, is this correct? I was going to get the NEC GB-1 graphics board until I talked with a person from NEC who informed me that is isn't 100% compatible with IBM. He said that it was something like 99% though, so that doesn't bother me too much. I was reading about the Paradise VGA Plus board in PC World and it sounds pretty good, but couldn't find any prices for it in any of the ads. I would like to know if anyone has had experience with the GB-1 or the Paradise VGA board with the Multisync Monitor. Thanks in advance for any info. Dennis -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +----------------------------------------------------------+ | Dennis L. Donovan | | UUCP : decvax!cg-atla!donovan | | AT&T : (617) 658-5600 x5716 | | USMAIL : Compugraphic Corporation | | 200 Ballardvale St., M.S. 200-2-2F | | Wilmington, MA 01887 | +----------------------------------------------------------+ "Nobody asked, just my opinion" Disclaimer: The views expressed are my own, I doubt if CG really cares anyway.
davidsen@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr) (12/22/87)
I have had a GB-1 for about a year. It is okay, but has the following
problems: it is slightly slower than many other EGA cards available. It
is not VGA compatible, and from talking to the manufacturer, it won't
get a BIOS upgrad. The hard ware is not compatible. On the plus side, I
ordered the compatibility module which does CGA and Hercular emulation.
This includes a separate Z80 CPU, and works very well. It allows me to
run a number of things which won't run on any EGA I've tried.
If I were buying an EGA/VGA today, I'd probably get the new Everex board
which does all 17 VGA modes in hardware. It also does 640x480x256, and
800x600x256. The 256 colors make a big diference in image processing,
less in graphics applications.
--
bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
{uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -mewtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (12/23/87)
We bought a GB-1. We had problems with the EGA graphics. We contacted Tseng Labs who makes the board for NEC. Tseng sent us a new ROM which cured several problems. Tseng did this quite out of the goodness of their hearts, and thus can not be counted on as a solution. NEC is supposed to have ugraded the ROMS on newer GB-1s. We never did get the Hercules emulation to work right, but then this is a problem on most EGA cards that claim Hercules capabilities. The Paradise autoswitch EGA is probalby the best price/value EGA card. It is also very well manufactured. The NSI EGA Wonder is also a reasonable card, but is not partiularly advantagous when used with an multisync type monitor. Yes, the NECs can do VGA, but I don't really like the NEC monitors as I previously noted. I can say this from a detached position, as I have used the NEC monitor that this letter is being composed on for more than a year. -Bill
norm@ontenv.UUCP (Norman Soley) (12/29/87)
I have a GB-1 and a multi-sync on my locally manufactured clone. SOME
programs which use the Microsoft Mouse always bomb on this system but
work on a co-workers machine where the only difference is a different
video card. I don't have access to a 'real' IBM AT to try it on to
determine if it is the fault of the clone or the GB-1.
--
Norman Soley - Data Communications Analyst - Ontario Ministry of the Environment
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