tanida@forseti.css.gov (Tom Tanida) (05/18/91)
Has anybody had any experience with the new ATI 8514/Ultra card? The magazine ad I read about it claimed it was up to 5 times faster than even a TI 34010 equipped card. Plus VGA, XGA register level compatibility- all for only $595 list (which translates to < $350 actual retail value :-) ). I'm also interested in opinions with this card with Windows 3.0, or graphics intensive games (e.g. Wing Commander). Thanks, -Tom tanida@esosun.css.gov
lair@ellis.uchicago.edu (Scott A. Laird) (05/18/91)
In article <717@esosun.UUCP> tanida@esosun.css.gov (Tom Tanida) writes: >Has anybody had any experience with the new ATI 8514/Ultra card? The >magazine ad I read about it claimed it was up to 5 times faster than >even a TI 34010 equipped card. Plus VGA, XGA register level >compatibility- all for only $595 list (which translates to < $350 >actual retail value :-) ). I'm also interested in opinions with this >card with Windows 3.0, or graphics intensive games (e.g. Wing Commander). > >Thanks, >-Tom >tanida@esosun.css.gov First, I don't believe it's _register_ compatible with the XGA, just the 8514/A. The XGA emulation is in software. Second, while not having seen it personally (give me a month...) several magazines have discussed it, and it appears to be just about as fast as they say it is, but has a few BIOS problems that are still being ironed out. They may very well be fixed by now, since PC Magazine reviewed it over a month ago, and must have had the card at least a month before that. The driver software for the hardware fonts in Windows was also a little weak at that time. (For those who don't know, that card is capable of scaling and anti-aliasing fonts in hardware, 4000 chars/sec was the figure I saw on one of the fliers they sent out last summer, but I'm not sure what it actually can do) As far as Wing Commander, it shouldn't make a difference. This is another standard that a program has to try to support, or the card will make no difference. The good thing is that most software that can use it already has a driver for is, since it is register compatible with IBM's 8514/A, which has been around for several years. I know that Word Perfect and Windows both support the 8514/A, as have Borland languages since, I think, Turbo C 1.5. Also, as far as price, the only decent price I've seen so far was, I think, about $395 with 512k and VGA. The list cost was an extra $200 for 1 Mb of RAM, so it should be ~$500. If anyone has actually tried one for a period of time, please post (or e-mail) I suspect quite a few people are interested. Thanks. -- Scott A. Laird | Any semblance of the above to anything is purely lair@midway.uchicago.edu | coincidental, as it was the result of an infinite The University of Chicago | number of monkeys sneaking in to use my computer | for the afternoon.
yon%smltalk.cbm.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com (David A. Yon) (05/20/91)
> In article <717@esosun.UUCP> tanida@esosun.css.gov (Tom Tanida) writes: > >Has anybody had any experience with the new ATI 8514/Ultra card? The > >magazine ad I read about it claimed it was up to 5 times faster than > >even a TI 34010 equipped card. Plus VGA, XGA register level > >compatibility- all for only $595 list (which translates to < $350 > >actual retail value :-) ). I'm also interested in opinions with this > >card with Windows 3.0, or graphics intensive games (e.g. Wing Commander). > > If anyone has actually tried one for a period of time, please post (or e-mail) > I suspect quite a few people are interested. Thanks. > Well, I have a 33Mhz 386 running Window 3.0, and I expect the card to arrive tomorrow or Wednesday (5/20 or 5/21). I've already run the PC Magazine Windows Benchmark on my system with the ATI VGA Wonder (v3.0 BIOS), and I plan to do that first thing when I get the 8514/Ultra. I'll post my initial impressions later in the week. At the very least I am hoping for a Windows setup that has a nice crisp feel when running 1024x768x256 (right now the 800x600x256 driver is molasses, even on my new 386!). David Yon yon%smltalk.cbm.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com yon@world.std.com
lwb@pensoft.uucp (Lance Bledsoe) (05/21/91)
In article <717@esosun.UUCP> tanida@esosun.css.gov (Tom Tanida) writes: >Has anybody had any experience with the new ATI 8514/Ultra card? The >magazine ad I read about it claimed it was up to 5 times faster than >even a TI 34010 equipped card. Plus VGA, XGA register level >compatibility- all for only $595 list (which translates to < $350 >actual retail value :-) ). I'm also interested in opinions with this >card with Windows 3.0, or graphics intensive games (e.g. Wing Commander). I have an 8514/Ultra (1m) & VGA Wonder+ (512). With windows it is a good idea to get the 1m version. The board is GREAT, and seems to be very compatible (it also SCREAMS!). I reccommend it! Lance -- Lance Bledsoe Off: (512) 343-1111 Pencom Software, Inc. Fax (512) 343-9650 8716 Loop 360 N. Suite 300 Home: (512) 258-0112 Austin, Texas 78759 UUCP: cs.utexas.edu!pensoft!lwb
roell@informatik.tu-muenchen.de (Thomas Roell) (05/23/91)
>Has anybody had any experience with the new ATI 8514/Ultra card? The >magazine ad I read about it claimed it was up to 5 times faster than >even a TI 34010 equipped card. I didn't try out the ATI 8514/Ultra, but many different other 8514 clones. And the result was that a normal board outperformed all these highend boards with a 32MHz 34020. Note that this test didn't include CAD or other applications where the 34020 could get to it's highest performance. All I tested was the performance for GUI applications (MS Windows, X Windows) - Thomas -- _______________________________________________________________________________ E-Mail (domain): roell@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.de UUCP (if above fails): roell@tumult.{uucp | informatik.tu-muenchen.de} famous last words: "diskspace - the final frontier..."