phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Phil Howard KA9WGN) (02/02/91)
Gateway 2000 recently switched to selling the Diamond Speedstar VGA board in their systems (from ATI). I had never heard about it and got some magazine references, but these turned out to be some mentions of the board that were in favor without saying why. Gateway 2000 said the board was selected due to its high speed performance and 1 megabyte capacity. I can use the 1 megabyte capacity. However I don't need the highest speed. What I really need is the best degree of compatibility. I need a VGA board that will work with software designed to run on VGA and SVGA systems in all the modes the program was designed to handle. If it can do 1024x768x256 color I want it to work in that mode on mine. Also I want to be able to test software I develop (that's what I will be using the machine for mostly) that uses lots of these extended modes and be sure that my software will work in the available modes on the various other boards on the market that are good at compatibility. If some board doesn't take compatibility seriously, then I can't take that board seriously. So is this Diamond Speedstar a decent board to work with or should I go back to just getting ATI (which in published tests had a "very good" level of compatibility with a "good" speed). I just don't have any data on the Diamond Speedstar to compare. -- --Phil Howard, KA9WGN-- | Individual CHOICE is fundamental to a free society <phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> | no matter what the particular issue is all about.
cd5340@mars.njit.edu (Charlap) (02/02/91)
Since there is no real PC standard for resolutions beyond 640x480x16, any sVGA card will be a risk. ATI comes with drivers to adapt it to the VESA standard, which is trying to become a standard. Of course, IBM has their own standard (8514 and XGA) which isn't compatible with anything other than the new PS/2 computers they were meant to work with. --- David Charlap (cd5340@mars.njit.edu)
phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Phil Howard KA9WGN) (02/03/91)
cd5340@mars.njit.edu (Charlap) writes: >Since there is no real PC standard for resolutions beyond 640x480x16, any >sVGA card will be a risk. ATI comes with drivers to adapt it to the VESA >standard, which is trying to become a standard. Of course, IBM has their >own standard (8514 and XGA) which isn't compatible with anything other >than the new PS/2 computers they were meant to work with. Where does one find out the technical details to be able to program the various SVGA cards at the register level for modes not provided on the VBIOS or drivers? I have a book that tells about such programming and includes enough details of register level to do VGA programming that way. However it does not mention any differences between different board types. I have some things I want to do with VGA programming that require direct access to the video memory without going through any subroutine or interrupt calls to do the screen updates. I could settle for letting VBIOS set up the modes, but I still need the video RAM access level. And I still need SOME idea of how well the Diamond Speedstar VGA works since I have no real references to draw upon. -- --Phil Howard, KA9WGN-- | Individual CHOICE is fundamental to a free society <phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> | no matter what the particular issue is all about.