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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!constellation!osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!crcnis1.unl.edu!wupost!sdd.hp.com!network.ucsd.edu!pacbell.com!att-out!cbnewsj!dwex From: dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat) Subject: Re: 45 graphic cards tested for MSWindows Organization: AT&T Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1993 15:01:46 GMT Message-ID: <1993Mar8.150146.14342@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> References: <rcpt.731543293@rw8.urc.tue.nl> <1993Mar8.004919.6027@netcom.com> <rcpt.731580191@rwa.urc.tue.nl> Lines: 94 In article <rcpt.731580191@rwa.urc.tue.nl> rcpt@urc.tue.nl writes: > hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes: > > > >About S3 cards and their performance from my personal experience > >with XS3: > > >Not all s3 based cards run at the same graphic engine speed. > > >So far S3 VESA Local bus cards are not showing higher performance than > >their ISA cards. It is almost as if the VESA Local bus interface was > >not properly design. I will find out more about this in the near > >future by testing an S3 card with a faster local bus interface > >(I can't named the manufacturers till I am certain that they > >perform faster) > > ...<your S3 experience deleted>... > > >When I get my hands on a working S3 928 card which works with XS3, > >I will let everybody know :-) > > I think a lot of people (like me) thinking to start with 386BSD are > confused which card to buy and which X-server to run. In the mean time > I have a little experience with 386BSD on our 486DX-33 with two > different ET4000 boards. Given the fact I am still not able to get an > ergonomic performance out of these cards, with this I mean 70 Hz at > 1024x768 with 256 colors, I would be very anxious to leave the official > XFree86-1.2 line and choose the XS3 server. You could help us by giving > an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the XS3 server > compared to the XFree86-1.2 (and for example answer the question why > XS3 is not part of XFree86-1.2) and a list of cards on which this > server runs. While there may be reasons to use XS3 instead of XFree86 (at least until XFree86 2.0 comes out), screen refresh rate is NOT one of them. Screen refresh rate is SOLELY a function of the capabilities of you monitor, given a modern video card (most ET4000's these days have 75-90MHz as their top clock). I give you the following examples from the Mode Database: (a) VESA timing, 75MHz clock ==> 70.07Hz (56.5kHz horizontal) (b) Nanao 9070s, 75MHz clock ==> 73.37Hz (58.9kHz horizontal) (c) Nanao 9080i, 72Mhz clock ==> 68.72Hz (55.4kHz horizontal) (d) NEC 4DS, 72MHz clock ==> 69.02Hz (56.6kHz horizontal) (e) NEC 5FG, 72MHz clock ==> 69.88Hz (56.6kHz horizontal) (f) Sony CPD-1604S, 75Mhz clock ==> 70.75Hz (57.2kHz horizontal) (that's just the few I saw with 70-75Mhz clocks. There are more with higher clocks, too, but those clock speeds aren't so common). All of these, with the possible exception of the VESA numbers, are from ET4000s. The issue is usually the max horizontal sync frequency of your monitor, not your card (especially if you have VRAMs). > > If people provide me with the basic information I will make a summary > answering questions like: > - XFree86-1.2 or XS3? > - if XFree86-1.2 which card? > - if XS3 which card? > - VLB / ISA / EISA > - 386 / 486 > - how much memory? For XFree86, I continue to recommend the Orchid ProDesigner IIs. From what I am told, VLB makes a HUGE difference (factor of 2+) with ET400's. ISA/EISA is not that big a difference. However, if you can use it, XS3 is your best performance option right now. But be wary of DRAMs. As Amancio will attest, you will be trading off performance for refresh rate with DRAMs (the higher your dot-clock, the less time the CPU has to access the video memory). This is not the case with VRAMs (at least not to any significant extent. > > Another tool that might be very helpfull would be a program that runs on > MSDOS and checks if the graphic card is supported by either XFree86-1.2 or > XS3. I can imagine of a program that shows a video test image (like you see > on TV) which can give you an idea about the suitability of a given card in > combination with a given monitor. > > --Piet Actually, I am working on a Unix-based version of just such a tool (based on the vgadoc2.zip documentation). We will likely ship a preliminary version of this tool with XFree86 1.2.1; it will really come into its own in XFree86 2.0. The first version will simply identify which hardware is installed (which is the really hard thing to do, especially under Unix). -- David Wexelblat <dwex@mtgzfs3.att.com> (908) 957-5871 AT&T Bell Laboratories, 200 Laurel Ave - 3F-428, Middletown, NJ 07748 "In and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky. They stand there." -- Yes, Roundabout