[comp.os.os2.misc] 72Hz VGA Card Recommendation Sought

sip1@quads.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples) (06/27/91)

Thanks to all who responded with great monitor suggestions.  I appreciate it.
I looks like I'm going with a Panasonic C1381 monitor.

To follow up, though, I'm now looking for a VGA card.  Here are the
characteristics I'm most concerned with, appropriate for that monitor:

- must have 72Hz vertical refresh in standard VGA modes (plus 640x480x256);
- 512K;
- 16 bit;
- must have 60Hz (not 56Hz) vertical refresh in 800x600 modes;
- support for OS/2 1.3 PM in above modes (16 color -- 256 color possible?)
  with above refresh rates;
- well supported otherwise.

Do all Trident 8900 boards perform the above feats?  Do all Tseng Labs ET4000
boards perform the above magic?

I'm one of those unfortunate people who get see flicker fairly easily.

Thanks for your advice.

T.F.S.
Timothy F. Sipples				sip1@quads.uchicago.edu

rommel@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Kai-Uwe Rommel) (06/28/91)

In article <1991Jun27.021511.1862@midway.uchicago.edu> sip1@quads.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples) writes:
>- must have 72Hz vertical refresh in standard VGA modes (plus 640x480x256);
>- 512K;
>- 16 bit;
>- must have 60Hz (not 56Hz) vertical refresh in 800x600 modes;
>- support for OS/2 1.3 PM in above modes (16 color -- 256 color possible?)
>  with above refresh rates;
>- well supported otherwise.

>Do all Trident 8900 boards perform the above feats?  Do all Tseng Labs ET4000
>boards perform the above magic?

It depends on the card AND driver. The Trident 8900 card I tested
recently was DIP-switchable between low refresh rate and interlaced mode
for cheap displays and higher refresh rate and non-interlaced operation
for more expensive displays and the OS/2 1.3 drivers I tested recognized
these settings and worked in both modes as expected. But I found that
even with high refresh rate it still flickered a bit (I think it had
about 60-63 Hz at 1024x768x16).

Different to this, the ET4000 driver always programs the chip itself
and works in 800x600 with about 70 Hz and in 1024x768 with about 66-68
Hz non-interlaced. I can tell the difference because I have a 8514/A
that works with 70 Hz non-interlaced at 1024x768. I have a STB Tseng
4000 card which is in interlaced mode when powered on but the PM driver
immediately came up with non-interlaced mode at the high refresh rate on
this card. Also, the image size was a bit different than in the DOS-used
BIOS-based mode. When using an ET4000 card with these drivers, make sure
you have a display that can synchronize up to 58 kHz !!! A NEC 3D will
not even work in 800x600 with this driver !!!

>I'm one of those unfortunate people who get see flicker fairly easily.
I'm one too.

Kai Uwe Rommel

/* Kai Uwe Rommel, Munich ----- rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de */

DOS ... is still a real mode only non-reentrant interrupt
handler, and always will be.                -Russell Williams