VOGONS


First post, by Spartan2381

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I have a 386 machine with 16-bit ISA slots and I'm looking to install OS/2 WARP Version 3. What would some graphics card recommendations be as I know driver support was always an issue with OS/2.

Reply 1 of 7, by Jo22

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Hi there! I have to check, but I think the classic ISA VGAs should do.
Paradise PVGA, Western Digital 90cxx, Trident 8900, ATI VGA Wonder series, Cirrus Logic, Tseng Labs ET-4000AX.

There are drivers at http://files.mpoli.fi/hardware/DISPLAY/ you can check.

Good luck! 🙂🤞

PS: OS/2 Warp 4 introduced GRADD and comes with a sample VBE driver (GENGRADD?).
It's not what's you're looking for, but nice to play around with in the future.

Also, some drivers written for OM 2 2.x may still be compatible with 3.0.
If so, maybe the generic 16-Bit, 16c Super VGA driver for OS/2 2.0 still works.

Edit: Found the old SVGA drivers that are quicker than the new one.

"Capabilities of the Driver
Functionally this driver is identical to the 32-bit VGA driver supplied
with OS/2 2.1, but with a higher resolution. The performance should be
noticably faster than the 256 color SVGA drivers supplied with OS/2 2.1,
and just slightly slower than the 32-bit VGA driver.

This driver has been tested the following SVGA adapters.

Tseng ET4000
Cirrus 542x
Trident 8900,9000
Western Digital 90C11,30,31
Headland HT209"

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  • Filename
    SVGA16.ZIP
    File size
    167.45 KiB
    Downloads
    43 downloads
    File comment
    "800x600x16 SVGA driver. Functionally identical to the 32-bit."
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
Last edited by Jo22 on 2023-04-21, 05:27. Edited 1 time in total.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 2 of 7, by konc

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Safest choices would be cards with drivers contained in OS/2 for out of the box support. According to the manual these are

Non-Accelerated
ATI 28800
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5422/24
Headland HT209
IBM VGA 16/256 color
Trident TVGA8900B/C
TSENG ET4000
Western Digital WD90C11, WD90C30

Accelerated
IBM 8514/XGA
S3 86C801/805/928/864
Cirrus Logic 5426/5428/5430/5434
Western Digital WD 90C24/24A/24A2/31/33
ATI MACH 32/64
TSENG ET400 W32/W32i/W32p
Weitek Power 9000

Note: it's gonna be slooooow on the 386, I hope at least it's a fast one with plenty of RAM

Reply 3 of 7, by Spartan2381

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Thank you @jo22 and @Konc. It's got 16MB of RAM and is using the XT-IDE with SD card for the HD. If its really painful I may try OS/2 2.1. With that said would the cards you listed above work with OS 2.1, meaning they have build-in drivers? Thanks for help guys.

Reply 6 of 7, by Jo22

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Spartan2381 wrote on 2023-04-20, 15:24:

[..] Is like a dog I'll just go back to DOS. Never had a chance to play with OS/2 growing up so figured I would give it a try now.

I've found the v2.1 drivers that are said to be quicker.
Maybe they still work with 3.0 and can improve the performance on your 386.

Alternatively, please give Warp 4 a chance. It can also run Launch Pad, just like Warp 3, if needed.
Unlike with MS Windows, newer OS/2 releases required *less* powerful hardware each time.
Before eComstation and ArcaOS, I mean. That's another story. I mean '90s OS/2.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 7 of 7, by konc

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The minimum requirement for v4 is a 486, which is very far from an enjoyable system. It was released in 1996 (three years into the Pentium era) and includes stuff like OpenGL and Java, so no it's not lighter that v3