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Best DOS video card?

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Reply 120 of 212, by PhilsComputerLab

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Noticed that my Tseng card with ET4000AX chip doesn't support high resolution modes without a driver. This stops for example tools such as Segate DiscWizard Starter Edition 10.45 from loading.

Bjt what motherboard / chipset are you using with your K6-III+?

The DFI I use is one of the slower ones, maybe that's the reason.

What 3dbench and 3dbench2 scores do you get with all caches disabled (and without any software slowdown tools)?

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Reply 121 of 212, by dr.zeissler

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bjt wrote:

Disable l1&l2 via BIOS settings, I used gerwin's setmul to select 2x multiplier. And then a mild slowdown using the free version of moslo.

what if you only use molso without disabling the caches ?

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Reply 122 of 212, by bjt

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I found that high amounts of slowdown with moslo make cursor movement a bit uneven, so it's best to use max hardware slowdown then a little bit of software slowdown on top.

Running K6-3+ on TX chipset with SDRAM, I'll try to get some 3dbench results later.

OP, sorry for going offtopic.

Reply 124 of 212, by NightSprinter

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Apologies in advance if I'm necro-posting, but I found some things not listed in the comparison matrix that actually do NOT work on the MX440/420 (even with VBEPlus). Some demos like Eden refuse to run in vesa mode (lack of 640x480x8 mode), while I found demos like Gateways to only run in MCGA mode (my Voodoo3 3000 could run the former in vesa mode, and the latter at up to 16-bit color depth with vesafix). If a new thread for demoscene compatibility is to be made, I'd gladly start it so we can gather information. But just wanted to throw out the info that what might be listed may not be fully complete or accurate.

Reply 125 of 212, by Tertz

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NightSprinter wrote:

Some demos like Eden refuse to run in vesa mode (lack of 640x480x8 mode), while I found demos like Gateways to only run in MCGA mode (my Voodoo3 3000 could run the former in vesa mode, and the latter at up to 16-bit color depth with vesafix).

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Reply 126 of 212, by NightSprinter

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Yeah, that very one. The demo worked fine in VESA mode on my Voodoo3, as did Gateways in 16-bit color mode. However, both the MX420 and 440 wouldn't work at all. Strangely, Ro Bott worked (said VESA 2.0 or higher found and could run at 640x400x32). I wonder what's going on with that?

Reply 127 of 212, by elianda

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Most likely your card does not support the required mode.
Be aware that just 640x480x8 doesn't tell you everything as there are banked and LFB modes as well as demos most often require the mode to appear at a specific number.

Try an S3 Tro3D.

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Reply 128 of 212, by wbc

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elianda wrote:

as well as demos most often require the mode to appear at a specific number.

for example dat damn State 808 by Shock!, which is nearly impossible to run properly without UniVBE - this demo uses hardcoded standard mode 0x101(640x480x8bpp) for hires gfx and 0x155 (320x400x8bpp) in other parts. Some cards doesn't have this mode assigned ever, resulitng in two small screens on top of 640x480 screen, but some BIOSes does have i.e 512x384 mode assigned to 0x155 and demo just looks UGLY or does not work at all.
Once I hacked DOSBox patch in order to run on S3 cards with BIOS v.2.0 or higher w/o UniVBE and it works 😀

elianda wrote:

Try an S3 Tro3D.

can you provide a list of suported VESA modes by this card?

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Reply 129 of 212, by elianda

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I actually made a few tables here: ftp://78.46.141.148/vesainfo/

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Reply 132 of 212, by kanecvr

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After quite a bit of testing, I concluded the best DOS video card is the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446. Why?

- Fast. Faster in DOS then the S3 virge, Voodoo Banshee and all PCI matrox cards: DOS PCI Video Card Compatibility and Benchmark tests
- Great image quality in DOS. Clean and crisp on LCD monitors, no banding, no blur, and better colors then most other cards I've tried.
- Compatibility - any and all DOS games will run on it perfectly - even the buggier ones. No tearing, no stuttering, no scrolling problems.
- Price - it's cheap. You could probably get one cheaper then an S3 Virge.
- Availability - these should be pretty common. If you can't get the 5446, the 5440 should do fine, albeit a bit slower. The GD54M30 is quite a bit slower tough, so stay away from it if you're looking for speed. It should still do fine in a 486 machine tough.

It's hard for me to recommend the TNT2 since it's got some issues in a few games - namely stuttering in some scrolling platformers and I also had a tough time getting it to display more then 800x600 in dos. Also PCI TNT2 cards are rare in some parts (very rare in Romania) so availability is poor. I also had problems getting a TNT2 to run in older machines - it won't work in most PCI 486 boards and some socket 4 boards.

Reply 134 of 212, by clueless1

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After quite a bit of testing, I concluded the best DOS video card is the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446.

I might pick one of these up to play with. Does the GD5446 need a VESA extension driver for any common VESA modes? That's what I like about the TNT2 and Voodoo3: all the VESA modes I care about are built-in to their video BIOS.

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Reply 135 of 212, by dr.zeissler

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In the AGP-Performance-Class (P2) the most people will not play early dos-games for cga/ega because they will run way to fast on such a machine.
But good Dos/Vesa compatibilty is a must have for demoscene-stuff. has anyone really checked alle the errors matrox G100/200/400 card have?

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Reply 136 of 212, by brostenen

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I vote for the CL-5446 too. Though I have not tested high res modes on this card.
Secondly I vote for an S3 trio64 (something with + and v) card. As they are more or less equal in speed on a 486 class system.
For pentium systems I have no clue. The reason for me voting for the 5446 over the S3, is that the 5446 is cheaper.
You can probably get 2 to 4 cards, for the price of one S3 Trio64.

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Reply 138 of 212, by Ozzuneoj

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brostenen wrote:
I vote for the CL-5446 too. Though I have not tested high res modes on this card. Secondly I vote for an S3 trio64 (something wi […]
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I vote for the CL-5446 too. Though I have not tested high res modes on this card.
Secondly I vote for an S3 trio64 (something with + and v) card. As they are more or less equal in speed on a 486 class system.
For pentium systems I have no clue. The reason for me voting for the 5446 over the S3, is that the 5446 is cheaper.
You can probably get 2 to 4 cards, for the price of one S3 Trio64.

I guess I'm not really seeing those prices when I search for the cards. At least in the USA on eBay, S3 Trio and Virge cards are still cheaper and far more common than CL cards.

Also, is there a chart anywhere that clearly lists the VBE compatibility of various video cards?

How about the VBE requirements of various games?

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 139 of 212, by clueless1

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So maybe the CL-GD5446 is best for 486 and slow Pentium systems where you won't be gaming in SVGA anyway. Newer, faster DOS systems (fast Pentiums/MMX and higher) might be better suited with a Voodoo3, Banshee or TNT, where old game compatibility isn't an issue and VESA modes are built into the BIOS so you don't have to run a VESA TSR.

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