VOGONS


Fastest DOS VLB Graphics card ever?

Topic actions

Reply 40 of 56, by BitWrangler

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

There were on the market 2 or 3 years before the Amd dx5 was.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 41 of 56, by MDKagent007

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
BitWrangler wrote:

There were on the market 2 or 3 years before the Amd dx5 was.

Yeah I know. I also have CPUs for an Intel DX2/33, DX2/66, DX4/100 and AMD-DX4-100/120, and AMD DX5-133 which is the maximum for the board that I have.

I swap them out now and then but for game play I leave the DX5 in as I get the best performance out of it with the Video Card.

Reply 42 of 56, by MDKagent007

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Here is what my tower case looks like

The attachment 593DA8E7-A898-4656-ACE2-67AE2460F3EB.jpeg is no longer available

Reply 43 of 56, by BeginnerGuy

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Slight derailment.. Did you swap out the turbo display in your case to a 3 digit? Just curious, here's my battle station:

The attachment Untitled.png is no longer available

Super jealous of that combo floppy drive!

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 44 of 56, by MDKagent007

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
BeginnerGuy wrote:

Slight derailment.. Did you swap out the turbo display in your case to a 3 digit? Just curious, here's my battle station:

Untitled.png

Super jealous of that combo floppy drive!

Nice! What's above the 3.5" floppy drive? Is that a tape drive or something? My case actually shipped with a 3-digit LED display when I bought it on eBay 2yrs ago. It actually arrived completely destroyed so it took me 4 months to repair it and bring it back to life. I almost thought it was a gonner. The case is the same style I had back in my teenage years so it was really important to me to save it. I think overall the repair to the case cost me in excess of $100. I actually have three (3) spare turbo LED's, both show three digits. Two can show up to 999 while one can only go up to 199. All my turbo LED's as spares work for any future builds. They are so rare and hard to find these days. As for the combo floppy, I got that brand new in a sealed box on eBay last year for $60 US.

Reply 45 of 56, by BeginnerGuy

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
MDKagent007 wrote:
BeginnerGuy wrote:

Slight derailment.. Did you swap out the turbo display in your case to a 3 digit? Just curious, here's my battle station:

Untitled.png

Super jealous of that combo floppy drive!

Nice! What's above the 3.5" floppy drive? Is that a tape drive or something? My case actually shipped with a 3-digit LED display when I bought it on eBay 2yrs ago. It actually arrived completely destroyed so it took me 4 months to repair it and bring it back to life. I almost thought it was a gonner. The case is the same style I had back in my teenage years so it was really important to me to save it. I think overall the repair to the case cost me in excess of $100. I actually have three (3) spare turbo LED's, both show three digits. Two can show up to 999 while one can only go up to 199. All my turbo LED's as spares work for any future builds. They are so rare and hard to find these days. As for the combo floppy, I got that brand new in a sealed box on eBay last year for $60 US.

It's an SCM Microsystems SBI-D2B PnP (2 in 1 PCMCIA card reader), connects to a 2 port SCSI 16bit ISA interface card. I don't really have a use for it so I was thinking to sell it to raise funds for a 5.25" floppy since they are expensive and I have a few games on 5.25 disks.

I didn't know the segmented turbo displays were rare.. I have the one that was in my original 486 saved in a bin here, but it's another 2 digit display. I'd like to swap out to a 3 digit for an am5x86 133 but it's no big deal.

Case looks great! We just need cool badges 🤣

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 46 of 56, by MDKagent007

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
BeginnerGuy wrote:
It's an SCM Microsystems SBI-D2B PnP (2 in 1 PCMCIA card reader), connects to a 2 port SCSI 16bit ISA interface card. I don't re […]
Show full quote
MDKagent007 wrote:
BeginnerGuy wrote:

Slight derailment.. Did you swap out the turbo display in your case to a 3 digit? Just curious, here's my battle station:

Untitled.png

Super jealous of that combo floppy drive!

Nice! What's above the 3.5" floppy drive? Is that a tape drive or something? My case actually shipped with a 3-digit LED display when I bought it on eBay 2yrs ago. It actually arrived completely destroyed so it took me 4 months to repair it and bring it back to life. I almost thought it was a gonner. The case is the same style I had back in my teenage years so it was really important to me to save it. I think overall the repair to the case cost me in excess of $100. I actually have three (3) spare turbo LED's, both show three digits. Two can show up to 999 while one can only go up to 199. All my turbo LED's as spares work for any future builds. They are so rare and hard to find these days. As for the combo floppy, I got that brand new in a sealed box on eBay last year for $60 US.

It's an SCM Microsystems SBI-D2B PnP (2 in 1 PCMCIA card reader), connects to a 2 port SCSI 16bit ISA interface card. I don't really have a use for it so I was thinking to sell it to raise funds for a 5.25" floppy since they are expensive and I have a few games on 5.25 disks.

I didn't know the segmented turbo displays were rare.. I have the one that was in my original 486 saved in a bin here, but it's another 2 digit display. I'd like to swap out to a 3 digit for an am5x86 133 but it's no big deal.

Case looks great! We just need cool badges 🤣

I could always sell you one of my 999 turbo displays as I have two on eBay. The only issue with it is that I do not have the manual how to set the switches for the regular and turbo setting. You'd have to play around with it. I haven't actually sat down on either one to try and figure it out. People have tried to find a manual for them but have had no luck...

My system runs on straight DOS 6.22 with Windows 3.11. I have no plans in upgrading it to Windows 95 anytime despite having the software as well. I'm trying to stick to legit DOS and Win 3.11 for the times 1992-94 era.

I play more on this system than I do on my PS4 🤣. I have level 18 character in Elder Scrolls ARENA for which I also have the codex in mint condition and the extremely rare mousepad. I only buy stuff that are complete on ebay i.e. box, manuals, software, all originals and in mint condition. I think on Elder Scrolls ARENA alone I put down like $300 US. The codex booklet sent me back $100 US and as did the mouse pad. The game with the box was roughly $100. its my most prized possession and most favorite game of all time that re-defined 3D gaming. I play Duke Nukem 3D now and then, also have Warcraft 1/2 + Expansion pack. I have over 36 games for the system including Links 386 with pretty much every single golf course add-on I was able to find. Just links 386 is like 30 boxes alone.

Reply 47 of 56, by vladstamate

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
MDKagent007 wrote:

its my most prized possession and most favorite game of all time that re-defined 3D gaming. I play Duke Nukem 3D now and then, also have Warcraft 1/2 + Expansion pack. I have over 36 games for the system including Links 386 with pretty much every single golf course add-on I was able to find. Just links 386 is like 30 boxes alone.

You really have a cool collection. However not to take anything away from how amazing Arena is, I would not say it defined 3D gaming. If nothing Ultima Underworld came out 2 years prior to that and I would say that redefined 3D first person gaming. Hint hint, look at my icon 😀

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HbC_nq8t1S9l7qGYL0mTA
Collection: http://www.digiloguemuseum.com/index.html
Emulator: https://sites.google.com/site/capex86/
Raytracer: https://sites.google.com/site/opaqueraytracer/

Reply 48 of 56, by MDKagent007

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
vladstamate wrote:
MDKagent007 wrote:

its my most prized possession and most favorite game of all time that re-defined 3D gaming. I play Duke Nukem 3D now and then, also have Warcraft 1/2 + Expansion pack. I have over 36 games for the system including Links 386 with pretty much every single golf course add-on I was able to find. Just links 386 is like 30 boxes alone.

You really have a cool collection. However not to take anything away from how amazing Arena is, I would not say it defined 3D gaming. If nothing Ultima Underworld came out 2 years prior to that and I would say that redefined 3D first person gaming. Hint hint, look at my icon 😀

I am sure there will be lots of people with various opinions. One thing for sure, the introduction of Arena had a profound influence on RPGs in the coming decades. It's the reason why The Elder Scrolls series, mainly the ARENA is so sought out as a collectible game. It's the only game that I am aware of that has a price range of anywhere between $50 US and $1000 US depending on the condition and its contents.

The Ultima series never took off with me personally. I do however have Ultima 6 in my collection but to this day, have never attempted to play it as yet. I also hear that Ultima 7 is highly collectible if you have the original fabric map in mint condition and with that alone can fetch anywhere between $100-$200 US in mint condition.

The ARENA developers are known for pulling influences from Ultima Underworld and Dungeons & Dragons, which released the massive, open, but ultimately derivative, first-person RPG: "The Elder Scrolls: ARENA". The 3D engine however stands out completely from Ultima as it gave you the freedom to move anywhere on the spot unlike the frame-to-frame movement in the Ultima series.

Last edited by MDKagent007 on 2017-10-23, 13:54. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 49 of 56, by hottobar

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
vladstamate wrote:
MDKagent007 wrote:

its my most prized possession and most favorite game of all time that re-defined 3D gaming. I play Duke Nukem 3D now and then, also have Warcraft 1/2 + Expansion pack. I have over 36 games for the system including Links 386 with pretty much every single golf course add-on I was able to find. Just links 386 is like 30 boxes alone.

You really have a cool collection. However not to take anything away from how amazing Arena is, I would not say it defined 3D gaming. If nothing Ultima Underworld came out 2 years prior to that and I would say that redefined 3D first person gaming. Hint hint, look at my icon 😀

The "re-" in re-defined is key here. We can't say UW defined 3D gaming either.

Reply 50 of 56, by hottobar

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
MDKagent007 wrote:

The ARENA developers are known for pulling influences from Ultima Underworld and Dungeons & Dragons, which released the massive, open, but ultimately derivative, first-person RPG: "The Elder Scrolls: ARENA". The 3D engine however stands out completely from Ultima as it gave you the freedom to move anywhere on the spot unlike the frame-to-frame movement in the Ultima series.

The Ultima Underworld engine is full 3D, not frame-to-frame, and similar to the ARENA one. It came out the same year as Wolfenstein 3D (1992), but it had the ability to render a fully 3D textured environment, allowing the player to look up and down. It was a technical marvel at the time, albeit much heavier than Wolf3D (which was capable to run on a 286).

Reply 51 of 56, by vladstamate

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
MDKagent007 wrote:

The ARENA developers are known for pulling influences from Ultima Underworld and Dungeons & Dragons, which released the massive, open, but ultimately derivative, first-person RPG: "The Elder Scrolls: ARENA". The 3D engine however stands out completely from Ultima as it gave you the freedom to move anywhere on the spot unlike the frame-to-frame movement in the Ultima series.

I think you are thinking of EOB or Lands of Lore series. Like Hottobar said, Ultima Underworld was a fully 3D engine RPG, predating Arena by 2 years.

Gameplay

Also, the Ultima series and Ultima Underworld are fairly different games.

Again, not taking away from Arena's attributes as a good game. I personally love Elder Scrolls games. And I envy you for your boxed Arena, I wish I had that! 😀

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HbC_nq8t1S9l7qGYL0mTA
Collection: http://www.digiloguemuseum.com/index.html
Emulator: https://sites.google.com/site/capex86/
Raytracer: https://sites.google.com/site/opaqueraytracer/

Reply 52 of 56, by MDKagent007

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Here are some pictures of my Elder Scrolls ARENA collection...

Reply 53 of 56, by MDKagent007

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Additional Photos of Elder Scrolls ARENA Collection

Reply 54 of 56, by Am386DX-40

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
MDKagent007 wrote:
Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

I figured I would post this so folks can have some comparison as to a Tseng ET4000 performance and how it compares against other cards...

I have a Tseng ET4000 W32p with 2MB VLB in my 486 DX5-133 with 128MB RAM and I get the following results with the X-VIdeo tests below.

640x480x8:0101 mode:

8-bit writes: 8,090 Kb/s
16-bit writes: 16,100 Kb/s
32-bit writes: 31,800 Kb/s
64-bit writes: 31,800 Kb/s
80-bit writes: 26,700 Kb/s

For Comparison to a person's earlier post regarding their "1mb Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 VLB video card":

8-bit writes: 5,420 Kb/s
16-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s
32-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s
64-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s
80-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s

The et4000 to me appears to be almost 3x faster.

My 3dBench rating is 71.4.

Sorry for necroposting, but I found this results interesting. Here are my numbers with a DX2-66 and a Trident 9400CXi 1Mb

8-bit writes: 4,450 Kb/s
16-bit writes: 8,900 Kb/s
32-bit writes: 17,700 Kb/s
64-bit writes: 17,500 Kb/s
80-bit writes: 14,800 Kb/s

The lower CPU speed might be playing a part in it, but still the Trident 9400CXi is not the fastest card around. That's currently the "weak spot" of my 486DX2-66 build. I wonder how it would look with a DX4-100 or faster.

My 3DBench score is 45.4, and 3DBench2 is 43.5

Reply 55 of 56, by claesbas

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

I have a question about getting 2mb on a Tseng ET4000 variant card? If its a 1mb and there are slots on it for more memory . Would it be possible to move the extra 1mb memory from a Cirrus logic GD5428 over to a Tseng ET4000 variant card like https://www.ebay.com/itm/CARDEX-W32-XVGA-VLB- … fQAAOSwIWxefgaf ? Or is all of these old VLB GPU cards with their own memory modules?

Reply 56 of 56, by CoffeeOne

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Am386DX-40 wrote on 2019-10-31, 17:24:
Sorry for necroposting, but I found this results interesting. Here are my numbers with a DX2-66 and a Trident 9400CXi 1Mb […]
Show full quote
MDKagent007 wrote:
Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

I figured I would post this so folks can have some comparison as to a Tseng ET4000 performance and how it compares against other cards...

I have a Tseng ET4000 W32p with 2MB VLB in my 486 DX5-133 with 128MB RAM and I get the following results with the X-VIdeo tests below.

640x480x8:0101 mode:

8-bit writes: 8,090 Kb/s
16-bit writes: 16,100 Kb/s
32-bit writes: 31,800 Kb/s
64-bit writes: 31,800 Kb/s
80-bit writes: 26,700 Kb/s

For Comparison to a person's earlier post regarding their "1mb Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 VLB video card":

8-bit writes: 5,420 Kb/s
16-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s
32-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s
64-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s
80-bit writes: 10,800 Kb/s

The et4000 to me appears to be almost 3x faster.

My 3dBench rating is 71.4.

Sorry for necroposting, but I found this results interesting. Here are my numbers with a DX2-66 and a Trident 9400CXi 1Mb

8-bit writes: 4,450 Kb/s
16-bit writes: 8,900 Kb/s
32-bit writes: 17,700 Kb/s
64-bit writes: 17,500 Kb/s
80-bit writes: 14,800 Kb/s

The lower CPU speed might be playing a part in it, but still the Trident 9400CXi is not the fastest card around. That's currently the "weak spot" of my 486DX2-66 build. I wonder how it would look with a DX4-100 or faster.

My 3DBench score is 45.4, and 3DBench2 is 43.5

Hi,
It's time for more necroposting (nice wording):

Compaq ProSignia Server with Pentium Overdrive 83MHz

EISA graphics card: Compaq Qvision 1024/E 1MB VRAM.

I had to lead a vesa driver first, no vesa modes built-in 🙁

║ ║
║ VESA Version: 1.2 ║
║ OEM name: Compaq QVision 1024 (1 Mbyte) ║
║ Capabilities: 00000001 ║
║ Video memory: 1,024 Kbytes - Detected: 1,024 Kbytes ║
║ Video mode: 0101 - (640x480x8) ║
║ ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Read 8 bit: ████ 1,170 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Read 16 bit: ████████ 2,340 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Read 32 bit: █████████████████ 4,690 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Read 64 bit: ████████████████ 4,570 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Read 80 bit: ████████ 2,390 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Write 8 bit: █████████████ 3,720 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Write 16 bit: ███████████████████████████ 7,440 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Write 32 bit: ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 14,800 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Write 64 bit: ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 14,800 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║
║ Write 80 bit: ██████████████████████████████████████████████ 12,400 Kb/s ║
║ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ║

Damned, some vesa local bus cards are faster 😁