stretch@EMUNIX.EMICH.EDU (Brian Stretch) (10/31/90)
#1 Rule when picking out a VGA card: Don't settle for anything less than
a TSENG4000-based card. There is no reason to.
Now, as for which card to get.. the STB PowerGraph seems to provide the
most bang for the buck (I have one, bought from Softwarehouse). Just make
sure you get the PowerGRAPH and not the cheaper PowerVIEW.. both are
TSENG4000's, but the View card will only accept 512K (it uses a slower
TSENG4000 chip). Last I knew, the PowerGraph's were $180 for the 256K
card.. Softwarehouse wants $9/chip for 256Kx4's, you can get 256Kx4-80ns
chips for half that (or less) from various chip merchants. Get 8 256Kx4's
if you go that route.. STB includes 100ns chips, and you might as well have
all 80's (what the hell, $10 more, even tho I doubt it makes a performence
diff).
If you want all-out speed, go with the Diamond SpeedStar. It is also a
TSENG4000 card, but Diamond did some really nice stuff with it.. they
aren't telling what (something about buffering?), but it's a good 30%
faster than other standard TSENG4000 cards (like the PowerGraph). It'll
cost you closer to $300.. that may or may not be worth it for you. Worth
a look if you can find a place selling them (or can get your dealer to
order one). Sorry, don't have Diamond's phone # in front of me right now..
Something else about the STB card.. STB now has a VESA-compatible BIOS.
It's either done or coming RSN (think it's done).. there are already VESA-
compatible GIF viewers out there (Vuimg 2.62 for one), no doubt more
programs are coming soon. Imagine a uniform protocol all the way up to
1280x1024x256.. anyhow, STB sends out BIOS upgrades for FREE (just give
them a reason, ie you have a VESA-supporting program you want to use).
Also, there's a new chip ("Sierra"?) coming out RSN for the TSENG4000
boards that allow 32,000 color screens.. ie 640x480x32K.. and this chip
is socketed on the PowerGraph (STB planned for it). Proper BIOS support
is being worked on. I do not know what Diamond is doing to support this
chip. (The upgrade is in the two-digit price range.. don't know enough
specifics I'm afriad, but I'm going to get the upgrade ASAP).
Anyhow.. STB puts out a great card and gives very good customer support.
Diamond makes the fastest card overall.. wish I had more info on them.
ONE THING TO NOTE: To get the most performence out of these cards, you
need a 286/386/486 with a fast 16-bit bus.. you might have to tweek the
I/O bus wait states. It'll still be faster than anything else short of
a Hercules Graphics Station tho.
---Brian Stretch (stretch@emunix.emich.edu)james@raid.dell.com (James Van Artsdalen) (11/01/90)
In <9010301701.AA07975@emunix.emich.edu>, stretch@EMUNIX.EMICH.EDU (Brian Stretch) wrote: > Now, as for which card to get.. the STB PowerGraph seems to provide the > most bang for the buck (I have one, bought from Softwarehouse). [...] > If you want all-out speed, go with the Diamond SpeedStar. It is also a > TSENG4000 card, but Diamond did some really nice stuff with it.. they > aren't telling what (something about buffering?), but it's a good 30% > faster than other standard TSENG4000 cards (like the PowerGraph). When choosing the card remember that they may not be software compatible in clock selection. For DOS applications this probably doesn't matter, since you can call the VGA BIOS to do mode switching. But for X11, OS/2, Windows and such, the VGA driver has to know how to set the clock, and that's not standard across ET-4000s. The card vendor probably provides Windows drivers and might supply OS/2, but probably not X11. > Also, there's a new chip ("Sierra"?) coming out RSN for the TSENG4000 > boards that allow 32,000 color screens.. ie 640x480x32K.. Quick comment here: You do get 32,768 colors, but it's five bits per gun, no translation. In some ways this is cleaner, but it's not a strict functional superset. For example, with normal 256 color mode you can have up to 64 shades of gray, or spread out your pallette more evenly across the spectrum. With the 16 bit per pixel mode, you can't quite do that - only 32 shades of gray are possible. It's a minimal difference, but strictly speaking, 256 color mode will do better for GIFs than 32,768 color mode will. Also, in 32,768 color mode, the highest supported resolution can't be more than 800x600. -- James R. Van Artsdalen james@raid.dell.com "Live Free or Die" Dell Computer Corporation 9505 Arboretum Blvd Austin TX 78759 512-338-8789
tim@ggumby.cs.caltech.edu (Timothy L. Kay) (11/01/90)
james@raid.dell.com (James Van Artsdalen) writes: >> Also, there's a new chip ("Sierra"?) coming out RSN for the TSENG4000 >> boards that allow 32,000 color screens.. ie 640x480x32K.. >Quick comment here: You do get 32,768 colors, but it's five bits per >gun, no translation. In some ways this is cleaner, but it's not a >strict functional superset. For example, with normal 256 color mode >you can have up to 64 shades of gray, or spread out your pallette more >evenly across the spectrum. With the 16 bit per pixel mode, you can't >quite do that - only 32 shades of gray are possible. It's a minimal Actually, if your card has a Brooktree DAC then you might be able to get 256 shades of gray. They used to have a DAC that had a 8/6 pin. This pin would either force the LUTs to be six bits deep for compatibility purposes or allow a full 8 bits. The eight bit mode could be enabled by cutting a trace on the circuit board. Recently Brooktree came out with a six bit version of their DAC. I suppose this allows them to be more price competetive. You could always change the DAC if it happens to be socketed (which it often is). Tim
ganter@urz.unibas.ch (11/13/90)
In article <9010301701.AA07975@emunix.emich.edu>, stretch@EMUNIX.EMICH.EDU (Brian Stretch) writes: > #1 Rule when picking out a VGA card: Don't settle for anything less than > a TSENG4000-based card. There is no reason to. > ok ! lot of staff deleted > > If you want all-out speed, go with the Diamond SpeedStar. It is also a > TSENG4000 card, but Diamond did some really nice stuff with it.. they > aren't telling what (something about buffering?), but it's a good 30% > faster than other standard TSENG4000 cards (like the PowerGraph). > again stuff deleted > > Also, there's a new chip ("Sierra"?) coming out RSN for the TSENG4000 > boards that allow 32,000 color screens.. ie 640x480x32K.. and this chip > is socketed on the PowerGraph (STB planned for it). That sounds great ! If You don't need super speed (or don't have K$ to buy a hires-graphics card with its own processor), that could be of great interest for lots of low cost 'CAD-ers and Image-processing-guys'. But another point would be of great interest too: What is the whole color-palette ? 256K or 16M ?. To do image processing, You need at least 256 grayscales. But that works only,if You have 16M colors to choose (that means a 24 bit CLUT, not only 18 bits). Now, if You can upgrade some of these cards to do 32K colors at same time, is it possible to exchange also the 18 bit CLUT-chip with a 24-bitter (if it isn't integrated in one of these VVVLSI's)? And why the hell don't they start to use VRAM (I know they are more expen- sive, but with these few memory chips, that would not be a serious problem) With VRAM You wouldn't have these great timing problems (speed !!) in hires modes. I would be very interested to get more info about these cards (especially the Diamond SpeedStar), that meens: How many colors/out of how many (256K or 16M) in hires modes, Upgrade possibility to do 32K colors (why not in 800x600, there is enough memory to do that (800x600x2=960K)). Addresses for dealers of these cards (eventually European dealers). Any pointers appreciated. Robert Robert Ganter University of Basel Switzerland ganter@urz.unibas.ch
rafiq@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Salik "slick" Rafiq) (11/14/90)
In article <1990Nov13.124907.1173@urz.unibas.ch> ganter@urz.unibas.ch writes: >In article <9010301701.AA07975@emunix.emich.edu>, stretch@EMUNIX.EMICH.EDU >(Brian Stretch) writes: >> #1 Rule when picking out a VGA card: Don't settle for anything less than >> a TSENG4000-based card. There is no reason to. >> [ A LOT OF STUFF DELETED ] Now that the VESA standard is complete, do any of the TSENG4000-based cards conform to the VESA standard? Would I be better off with the ATI VGAwonder+? Thanks. Salik. -- Salik Rafiq internet: rafiq@ccu.UManitoba.CA Department of Computer Science rafiq@gold.cs.UManitoba.CA University of Manitoba BITNET: rafiq@UOFMCC Winnipeg,Manitoba