From: dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap) Subject: Re: Best Video Card ?? Date: 16 Jul 1992 20:11:10 GMT
In article <1992Jul16.110839@hammer.Prime.COM> cummings@hammer.Prime.COM (Kevin Cummings) writes:
>If you want a fast SVGA, go with an ET4000 based card. Anywheres from
>~$100 for a generic to ~$170 for a brand name. You can run X under LINUX
>today with an ET400 video card.
Great for Unix systems, but bad for OS/2. As of now, the sVGA drivers
for ET4000 cards have bugs in them leading to lost synch signals, and
messed up DOS boxes. Many bugs have been fixed, but there are still a
few out there. Proper drivers should be around any day now...
>If you want a graphics accelerator card (fast bitblits, hardware assisited
>line/polygon drawing, etc), get an S3 card. The Diamond Stealth can be
>found for $239-$249 if you look through the August Computer Shopper. Try
>Micro-Pro. X386 does not (yet?) support any S3 boards, but MS-Windows does.
>I'm not sure about OS/2. I don't remember getting any OS/2 drivers from Diamond.
>Perhaps S3 has some?
As of now, there are no S3 drivers for OS/2. I don't know when this
will change.
>If you have the option, go local-bus! Both the above should be available
>in local bus versions. If you're buying (well, Rob, you sound like you weren't)
>a new mother board, make sure its got a VESA local bus with at least 2 local
>bus slots (One for video, one for IDE/TAPE controller).
A good idea for non-coprocessed cards. If your card has a processor
on board (like 8514/a boards) then local bus may be a waste of money,
since you don't usually transfer enough data to those types of boards
to get a real speed advantage.
-- |) David Charlap "I don't even represent myself /|_ dic5340@hertz.njit.edu sometimes so NJIT is right out!. ((|,) ~|~ Hi! I am a .signature virus, copy me into your .signature file.