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Diamond Stealth VRAM Dip switch settings

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First post, by serialShinobi

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I've noticed a dip switch on the Diamond Stealth VRAM where on the PCB one side of the switch has traces leading to the S3 911. The other side looks like a grounding pad. I have them all closed, thus shunting all the traces leading from the dip switch to the GPU. I have a list of the dip switch settings here:

https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphics-cards/C … EALTH-VRAM.html

The first two switches deal with powering on and some monitors from when the card was made - the IBM 8514, NEC 2A, 3D, 4D, and Mag 1448. Do I need to be concerned? I have a 4:9 LCD monitor from the thrift store that I believe supports turn of the millennium 4:9 display modes.

Third switch is alternate timing. The fourth is about turbo BIOS. Is that relating to turbo mode of the PC?

Thanks

Reply 1 of 4, by Horun

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Hmm never heard of 4:9 ? Do you mean 4:3 like a standard old CRT or early LCD ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_aspect_ratio
For quick ref on what most of those monitors have for res/timing some are listed here: http://web.mit.edu/~mkgray/afs/bar/afs/sipb/s … 11/doc/Monitors
Probably best setting would be for NEC 4D/5D... but could be wrong if it puts sync on green...

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 4, by serialShinobi

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Ah, yes, it was 4:3. It's a 2005 ViewSonic LCD. I wonder why the Diamond Stealth VRAM video card permitted options for the monitor on power up? Was there some reason to set the switch for monitor IBM 8514 on power up? Do you think most monitors back in the 90s used the same analog signal as the IBM 8514 or NEC Multisync monitors? I did get a black screen with illuminated monitor led when I first powered up my build which was 486 with same S3 graphics card by diamond. I started toggling the dip switches and eventual got a working screen output. But I just closed all the dip switches. I will try again now that I have the list of settings. Any idea what the power on to monitor IBM, etc is about? Just to get output to screen in the event one has a monitor that is not default? What are "alternate timings" mentioned in the list on stason I mentioned in my original post?

Reply 4 of 4, by serialShinobi

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I've been looking at a few CRTs from the 90s. The NEC Multisync 3D, compared with its predecessor, had a higher resolution due to a faster refresh rate and tighter dot pitch.

https://crtdatabase.com/crts/nec/nec-jc-1404hma

The "IBM 8514 monitor" aka IBM PS/2 monitor(s) have a comparable but not the same frequency, dot pitch, and display mode to the Multisync 3D.

http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/a96a.htm

Can circa early 2000s 4:3 high definition displays with 3 ms / 30 Khz refresh and and compatibility modes for legacy modes like 320x200 match any frequency set by the dip switches on a VGA card for the NEC 2D, 3D, or IBM PS/2(8514)? What happens if two frequencies are set by the dip switches like a slower refresh and a faster refresh? I have all four of my dip switches closed. Any issues that you can see?

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