marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (10/03/90)
Man, am I thrilled. I wrote earlier that my Ahead Systems VGA Wizard w/ 512K took forever to cat out my .login file when using Terminal or Crosstalk for Windows at the 1024x768 resolution. An unnamed person at a major software house wrote me and said I should try the Video 7 VRAM VGA card instead. I ordered one ($351 vs $193 for the Wizard) to try out and it arrived this week. I installed it last night and what a difference. I guess you get what you pay for. I earlier complained that at the high resolution, the Ahead board gave me a grainy picture with horizontal lines streaking across the screen. Also, any top or bottom border seemed to waver up and down by one pixel. Basically, it was useless at the 1024x768 resolution. I fell back to 800x600 to get a reasonable picture and performance. I don't much care for 800x600, because I can detect a slight flicker. I believe the scan rate for that resolution is 58 HZ, which is right around the threshold of the human eye. I was also disappointed that I had spent an extra $50 for the 512K version and wasn't taking advantage of it. With the VRAM VGA card, I see no horizontal lines. The image is not grainy and borders do not waver up and down. It's also 6-7 times faster than the VGA Wizard. I haven't timed the VRAM VGA at anything but 1024x768, but here's the numbers I have: (Win3 results to cat out a two screen .login file. Screen is already filled before I issue the command. These times compare to 1.7 seconds for the Wizard while running Crosstalk XVI in character mode. I'm communicating at 19.2Kbps.) Board Driver Resolution Win3 Terminal Crosstalk for Windows ----- ------ ---------- ------------- --------------------- Wizard Win3 VGA 640x480 3.0 seconds 4.1 seconds Wizard Ahead WIN480 640x480 2.9 seconds 4.1 seconds Wizard Generic SV800 800x600 5.2 seconds 8.4 seconds Wizard Ahead WIN600 800x600 5.2 seconds 8.2 seconds Wizard Ahead WIN768 1024x768 20.5 seconds 44.2 seconds VRAM Video 7 V776816 1024x768 3.8 seconds 6.1 seconds You can see why I'm thrilled. It's not even close. I don't know why the VGA Wizard is so bad. It has a poor image and is untolerably slow. I don't know if the problem is in the hardware or the drivers. If I have a few spare minutes some time, I may call them and let them know about this. As you can see, with Win3 Terminal I get almost the same speed with the VRAM VGA at 1024x768 as I did with the VGA Wizard running at 640x480. After doing the earlier test and finding the abysmal performance, I went to management to get a Dell GPX-1024 board which uses the TI 34010 graphics processor. It costs $850 and management turned it down. After hearing from that unnamed major software house (thanks guys), I approached management for the $351 I needed for the Video 7 board. They were much more amenable to that - even though it costs $157 more than the supposedly equivalent VGA Wizard. I guess we saved the Guv'mint $500 by going with the VRAM VGA. I'd still like to try out that GPX board. I'd like to get those times back down to character mode speed. I can live with this though. I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has tried Dell's advanced video board. I may try to sneak one into my next upgrade if it's really fast. I hope to get a Dell System 433E as soon as DOE sends us our new money. I find myself waiting a lot with this System 325. Windows really asks a lot from a CPU. Thought I'd let ya'll know... -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Missionary VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future
phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (10/08/90)
In article <marshall.654966527@wind55> marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) writes: |I'd still like to try out that GPX board. |I'd like to get those times back down to character mode speed. You mean 24x80 mode? How many rows and columns do you get in 1024x768 mode? -- The Bill of Rights isn't perfect, but it's better than what we have now.
marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (10/10/90)
phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai) writes: >In article <marshall.654966527@wind55> marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) writes: >|I'd still like to try out that GPX board. >|I'd like to get those times back down to character mode speed. >You mean 24x80 mode? How many rows and columns do you get in >1024x768 mode? To reiterate, when I use Crosstalk XVI (24x80 text mode) it takes me 1.7 seconds to cat out a ~50 line .login file. I run Crosstalk XVI without loading Windows. When I'm using Crosstalk for Windows 3 and using my VRAM VGA in 1024x768 graphics mode, it takes me 6.1 seconds to cat out the same file. I'd like to get an intelligent graphics card that can run Crosstalk for Windows fast enough to fill the 24x80 screen in one second instead of three. It would be a real time saver when trying to read the @#$%! man pages. My 19200 line sends me data three times faster than Crosstalk for Windows can draw it using my VRAM VGA at 1024x768. With the VGA Wizard, it's a factor of over twenty! Arrrgghh! BTW, MY VRAM VGA died two days ago. I'm back to using my VGA Wizard at 800x600. Apparently, my vendor (Random Access) sold me a used (previously failed) board. Assholes! I think I'll quit buying from them. -- Marshall L. Buhl, Jr. EMAIL: marshall@seri.gov Senior Computer Missionary VOICE: (303)231-1014 Wind Research Branch 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393 Solar Energy Research Institute Solar - safe energy for a healthy future