marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (08/23/90)
Well, I just installed the new Win3 drivers for my 512K VGA Wizard and set up Win3 to run at 1024x768x16. I also installed the 8514 fonts. I have a Dell System 325 (25 MHz) with a GPD-16C monitor. I think the monitor is really a 16" Nanao 9070S. A few notes: It sure does allow me to get a LOT more information on the screen. Now I can get all of my Program Mamager Groups on screen at once with room to spare. I'll probably have it filled again in a few weeks. It also allows me to use Program Manager in a window so I can see icons at the bottom of the screen. I can see the entire width of a Word for Windows page. Yeah!!! The image is grainy. I can see tiny horizontal lines on the screen. Also, where there is a horizontal line drawn, it seems to vibrate up and down - especially when I'm not looking directly at it. When I run at 800x600, the screen flickers more, but doesn't have that grainy look. Lines don't vibrate either. It's hard on the eyes, but I can live with this problem. I don't know if the grainyness is caused by the card or the monitor. A friend has a Model 80 with 8514 and it looks a LOT better than this. I ought to put this Nanao on his system to see how it looks. When I run Terminal or Crosstalk for Windows I have REAL (TM) problems. While scrolling text, it's OK until the screen fills. But when it fills the screen, it takes about a second to draw each new line. I'd never get any work done at that rate. This is totally unacceptable. I guess there are just too many pixels to draw. It also seems to take longer to draw ANY window. This is rather disappointing. I don't know if the problem is with my wimpy 386/25 or my VGA Wizard. I sure could use a faster computer. I seem to remember that my old Paradise VGA Plus 16 is not even as fast as my Wizard. I only used it with Win/386 2.11 though, so I'm not sure about its performance with Win3. I never ran any good benchmarks. I'm thinking about getting Dell's GPX-1024/16 video board to replace the VGA Wizard. Unfortunately, it costs $900 and requires a VGA card too. It's the only thing I've seen that uses the VGA Feature Connector. I think I can use my VGA Wizard with it, but you can get a "VGA Option Module" for $219. I think this is really a Paradise VGA Plus 16. I believe it uses the TI 34010 processor, so it should be a lot faster. Has anyone tried this graphics accelerator? I guess I'll give 800x600 a try. This is just too slow. And to think I could have saved $50 by getting the 256K version which doesn't support the 1024x768 mode. Live and learn. Later. -- 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
marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) (08/23/90)
In the original posting, I wrote: >Well, I just installed the new Win3 drivers for my 512K VGA Wizard and >set up Win3 to run at 1024x768x16. I also installed the 8514 fonts. >I have a Dell System 325 (25 MHz) with a GPD-16C monitor. I think the >monitor is really a 16" Nanao 9070S. I'm using 800x600 now, so I'll talk about the differences. >A few notes: > It sure does allow me to get a LOT more information on the > screen. Now I can get all of my Program Mamager Groups on > screen at once with room to spare. I'll probably have it > filled again in a few weeks. It also allows me to use > Program Manager in a window so I can see icons at the bottom > of the screen. I can see the entire width of a Word for Windows > page. Yeah!!! I don't get as much info, but it's still a lot better than 640x480. With WfW, I can see 7.5" on the ruler. With VGA, I think it's only 6", so now I don't have to watch the screen scroll back and forth as I type on 6.5" lines. > The image is grainy. I can see tiny horizontal lines on the > screen. Also, where there is a horizontal line drawn, it > seems to vibrate up and down - especially when I'm not looking > directly at it. When I run at 800x600, the screen flickers > more, but doesn't have that grainy look. Lines don't vibrate > either. It's hard on the eyes, but I can live with this problem. > I don't know if the grainyness is caused by the card or the > monitor. A friend has a Model 80 with 8514 and it looks a LOT > better than this. I ought to put this Nanao on his system to > see how it looks. This image is no longer grainy, but large areas that are filled with light colors seem to flicker. I think the flicker rate must be just barely below my eyes' persistence rate. While using my PC as a Unix terminal, I have a black background, so it is not noticeable. > When I run Terminal or Crosstalk for Windows I have REAL (TM) > problems. While scrolling text, it's OK until the screen fills. > But when it fills the screen, it takes about a second to draw > each new line. I'd never get any work done at that rate. This > is totally unacceptable. I guess there are just too many pixels > to draw. It also seems to take longer to draw ANY window. This still happens, but it is not as bad. I think I'll just have to live with it. I really do need to get more info on screen. >I'm thinking about getting Dell's GPX-1024/16 video board to replace the >VGA Wizard. Unfortunately, it costs $900 and requires a VGA card too. Since Dell has a 30 day money-back guarantee, I'll see if my boss will spring for one to try out. I'm also going to try attaching this Nanao to an 8514A to see if the flicker and grainyness problems are caused by the monitor. -- 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
gregj@microsoft.UUCP (Greg JONES) (08/25/90)
In article <marshall.651350670@wind55>, marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl) writes: > The image is grainy. I can see tiny horizontal lines on the > screen. Also, where there is a horizontal line drawn, it > seems to vibrate up and down - especially when I'm not looking > directly at it. When I run at 800x600, the screen flickers > more, but doesn't have that grainy look. Lines don't vibrate > either. It's hard on the eyes, but I can live with this problem. > I don't know if the grainyness is caused by the card or the > monitor. Probably the card. I run OS/2 PM on a Video 7 VRAM VGA (512K) and a Nanao 9070S and don't have this problem at any resolution. > When I run Terminal or Crosstalk for Windows I have REAL (TM) > problems. While scrolling text, it's OK until the screen fills. > But when it fills the screen, it takes about a second to draw > each new line. Again this is probably the card. Graphical text-output stuff on the VRAM VGA is pretty fast, on a 20MHz 386. > I'm thinking about getting Dell's GPX-1024/16 video board to replace the > VGA Wizard. Unfortunately, it costs $900 and requires a VGA card too. The VRAM VGA is around $450 mail-order. I'd recommend that instead. Windows ships with a driver for it too. Note that I'm not representing Headland Technologies or Microsoft here, I'm talking about my home system... uunet!microsoft!gregj [I just happen to work here. Sheer coincidence.]