I am trying to decide what I should get for a 1992 era specific machine. A Cirrus Logic-GD5424 VLB or a Tseng 4000AX ISA? The 4000AX had been out since 1989 but I hear it held its own until the 3D accelerator days. But it is only ISA where the GD5424 is VLB. Have any of you ever compared the two to see which has the edge?
The GD542x series are very good early VLB cards. They will have an edge over the 4000AX.
I believe there was a comparison on this forum somewhere, but I can't find it now.
And am I correct in saying there was no version of the Tseng 4000AX in VLB?
wrote:And am I correct in saying there was no version of the Tseng 4000AX in VLB?
I think there are VLB versions of the ET4000AX, but they might be rare compared to the later revisions, such as the ET4000/W32,i,p.
There were ET4000AX on VLB. I have one.
Requests are also possible... /msg kixs
wrote:There were ET4000AX on VLB. I have one.
Would that provide a performance bump then on VLB vs ISA? Wonder if there are comparisons of both the GD5424 and 4000AX VLB versions then?
I would chose the CL card because it's more compatible... Both cards in vlb form will be faster than their isa counterparts
wrote:wrote:There were ET4000AX on VLB. I have one.
Would that provide a performance bump then on VLB vs ISA? Wonder if there are comparisons of both the GD5424 and 4000AX VLB versions then?
Take a look (I did these benchmarks a few years ago and are unfinished - will redo everything and add more cards... sometime...):
I'd guess the performance of VLB 5424 and ET4000 are on par in DOS. In Windows 5424 has GUI accelerator while ET4000 doesn't - you need /w32, i or p models. w32p is on par with S3 864 in DOS, but lags in Windows.
Requests are also possible... /msg kixs
wrote:I would chose the CL card because it's more compatible... Both cards in vlb form will be faster than their isa counterparts
+1 on this - I'm a big fan of the ET4000AX chipset but the VLB versions I have (2 of) are a bit finicky. Ultima 7 for example doesn't work. The ISA versions of that chipset I've tried are more compatible for whatever reason. Ultima 7 works with ISA - in the same PC that I tested the VLB cards.
CL cards on the other hand seem to be consistently very good and very compatible - some have better image quality than others because of the implementation.
Life? Don't talk to me about life.
wrote:CL cards on the other hand seem to be consistently very good and very compatible - some have better image quality than others because of the implementation.
Yea, getting brand name cards may help. I have a Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB, which seems to have reasonable image quality.
wrote:wrote:CL cards on the other hand seem to be consistently very good and very compatible - some have better image quality than others because of the implementation.
Yea, getting brand name cards may help. I have a Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB, which seems to have reasonable image quality.
Yes those old Speedstars were gorgeous - I have a WDC based ISA that is a wonder to behold.
Life? Don't talk to me about life.
