cards with 256kb only would not need any drivers other than the default vga.

Um, I don’t mean to stab you in the back here but both 800x600 16c and
640x400 256c resolutions do technically work on such cards w/ 256 KB. 🙁
Memory consumption is 240 000 Bytes and 256 000 Bytes, respectively. So it fits the memory.
But whether or not the graphics card supports it.. That's another question (BIOS, oscillators etc).. 🙁

Personally, I know first hand that the Paradise chips support both video modes, with just 256 KB. I tried just recently with a Paradise VGA Basic model, 8-Bit connector, 256 KB.
Pictures are here.

There's a working Windows 2.03 driver for both resolutions at dosdays site.
Windows 3.0/3.1 driver with additional resolutions does exist, too, but requires more than 256 KB of VGA memory.

Windows 3.1 Super VGA driver (800x600 16c) supports most of the ISA era models, and falls back to VBE mode 6Ah and 102h if needed.
That way, it sometimes works with modern AGP and PCIe cards, even.
GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0 has a lot of 800x600 16c drivers in its graphics cards list, too.

Edit: There's also a grayscale VGA driver and palettized VGA driver for Windows 3.x, which of the latter had been used by Sim City.
https://retro.swarm.cz/20230621/simcity-2000- … ustom-palettes/

Edited, rewritten.

Edit: One reason why some early SVGA cards seem to refuse to do SVGA modes is because of wrong monitor settings.
There are DIL switches that set VGA/SVGA and define monitor type.
Using "IBM AT standard" or similar makes those SVGA modes work on ancient fixed-frequency monitors (and modern LCDs).
At the cost of flickering. 56 Hz refresh and interlacing, in case of 800x600.

noshutdown wrote on 2025-02-27, 01:58:

if you've ever been using any isa video card in win9x(including vesa/pci cards whose chips were also made in isa version), especially older ones, please share your experience here.
for example, i think cirrus542x and 5434 were well supported, but not sure about the avga2 and early revision of 5420.
i know there is "windows hardware compatibility list", but some models were listed vaguely like "trident super vga", "paradise super vga" or "c&t accelerator" rather than detailed names, making it difficult to determine what chip it is. also, some cards working with unofficial testing drivers may not be on the list.

I have done this very recently with most of my ISA cards. I've confirmed that following chipsets have drivers with 16-bit colour support:

ATi mach32
Cirrus Logic GD5429/5434 (my 5424 only has 512KB of RAM installed and frustratingly requires a ZIP-40 chip for 1MB)
S3 911/924/801/928
Trident 8900-D
Tseng ET4000/w32i
Western Digital WD90c31

The following chipsets do not have 16-bit colour support, despite it working with Win3.x drivers:

Avance Logic ALG2101
Oak OTI087

I suspect that the Oak OTI077 and Oak OTI087X would also not have 16-bit colour support, but my cards only have RAMDACs that output 8-bit colour. Not sure about Tseng ET4000AX cards for the same reason.

Trident is unique in that to get 16-bit colour support, you need to use Trident's beta driver from April 1995 - https://discmaster.textfiles.com/file/6220/Bl … deo/uc95_10.zip - for everything else, built-in Win98 SE drivers are sufficient and even then, third-party drivers do not exist for ATi mach32, Cirrus Logic GD5429 or Western Digital WD90c31.

That said, the real kicker is whether the drivers support low-resolution 16-bit colour, as this effectively determines whether you can get playable framerates for games that require 16-bit colour. To that extent, only Cirrus Logic GD5429/5434, S3 911/924/801 (but NOT the 928) and Tseng ET4000/w32i are capable. The ET4000/w32i only supports 320x200, while the rest also support 320x240. S3 claims to support 400x300 and 512x384 but completely bombs out when trying to use either of those modes.

C&T F65545 cards hate systems that have >=16MB of RAM installed, so I haven't checked if it has 16-bit colour depth support.

Jo22 wrote on 2025-02-27, 09:59:

cards with 256kb only would not need any drivers other than the default vga.

Um, I don’t mean to stab you in the back here but both 800x600 16c and
640x400 256c resolutions do technically work on such cards w/ 256 KB. 🙁

Yes, and those resolutions do not natively exist for Win9x. You can use Win3.x drivers, but you only have GDI and no DirectX functionality.

DEAT wrote on 2025-02-27, 23:41:

Trident is unique in that to get 16-bit colour support, you need to use Trident's beta driver from April 1995 - https://discmaster.textfiles.com/file/6220/Bl … deo/uc95_10.zip - for everything else, built-in Win98 SE drivers are sufficient and even then, third-party drivers do not exist for ATi mach32, Cirrus Logic GD5429 or Western Digital WD90c31.

thanks a lot for the info, especially for the trident driver.
have you ever tried running et3000, pvga1/wd90c00 and realtek3105 in windows9x? and do they run 800x600x256colors non-interlaced?