acook@athena.mit.edu (Andrew R Cook) (01/09/91)
Hi - I am still trying to collect people's opinions on the best VGA video combinations for under $1000. I have gotten some responses, but need more information before I will post a summary (which I hope to do in a week or so). Here are a few specific questions that I have: 1) Non-interlaced moonitors like the Sony 1304, Seiko 1450, NEC 4D have horizonatal scanning frequencies that cover the range of 30-50 khz. A concern of mine, is that some software does not support (gasp) VGA, they use EGA or even Hercules (shudder). The required horizontal frequencies for these standards are in the neighborhood of 15-20 khz; clearly out of the range of the above mentioned monitors. My question is, what will sVGA video boards do, if the program requests EGA ? Can/will they take the EGA requests, and display them at a frequency the the monitor can handle (ie VGA) ? Or is the bottom line that I can no longer use EGA software if I get one of the above monitors? Does anyone have any experience with this? 2) Drivers. Specifically, what drivers are included with different boards, and how useable are they? My understanding is that 16 color drivers at 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 are available for most applications, but that 256 color drivers, if available, don't work very well. The most important application is probably Windows, since I really don't need 256 colors for word processing or programming. 3) Has anyone tried to write code (C or ASM) for the higher resolution modes? What code is available (commercial or public domain) for writing root-level graphics applications in 800x600 and 1024x768 ? Thanks for your responses. (send all responses to acook@athena.mit.edu; a summary will be posted in a week or so). Andy Cook acook@athena.mit.edu