Nope, the "i" stands for interleaved, and the "p" does indeed support PCI interface, in addition to VLB. The main advantage of the "p" is that you can use 1024x768 in non-interlaced mode (scan doubling).

ARK2000MV is basically the same as ARK1000PV/VL for VGA performance, but is much better as a windows accelerator and also provides some kind of enhanced video playback capability.

The i rings some bells. I believe this was mentioned in PC magazines back in the day. I'm sure I had one of those...

Oh, OK, thanks for the info.

I have a Diamond Stealth 32 Tseng ET4000/32wp and a Diamond Stealth64 Graphics ARK2000 on the way.

Are those PCI or VLB cards. I've been trying to get the VLB version of Dimaond Stealth64 Graphics 2001 forever...

Oh sorry I missed your question.

They are both PCI cards.

I see this is an old thread too, that someone just dredged up.

Which vesa local bus card was the ultimate vesa local bus card, without any equal?

There is no ultimate graphics card as there is no ultimate sound card as there is no ultimate CPU, ...

I guess you got the pattern 😁

There are quite some very good all around cards, from budget cards to high end solutions and some cards with special features that are not suited for the more general tasks.

I have just learned from looking at the specs for 1997 DOS titles on Moby Games, that the VLB issue misses the point. The top DOS titles used the Glide API and required 3dfx PCI video cards.

I do not understand why do you all like Tseng VLB card, yes i agree that Tseng ISA cards are the fastest, but Tseng cards have some compatibility issues, that S3 and Cirrus cards do not have.

I suspect partly due to nostalgia. Tseng chipsets were known for speed back in the day.

Cyberdyne wrote:

I do not understand why do you all like Tseng VLB card, yes i agree that Tseng ISA cards are the fastest, but Tseng cards have some compatibility issues, that S3 and Cirrus cards do not have.

I noticed you really like that absolute statement that a certain card is the fastest. It's obvious that this can not be true as it depends on the application. So some TSENG ISA cards belong to the faster ISA cards (as well as e.g. S3 Vision928 based cards).

About compatibility issues: It is mostly unclear what this argument refers to exactly. Is your reference the original IBM VGA? You would be surprised about the issues it shows. If your reference are games/applications then essentially every graphics chipset is incompatible with one or another software.
A much better approach would be to ask I want to play JazzJackrabbit or Commander Keen and does the graphics chipset shows issues with that engine?

If you are looking for inspiration of a nice VLB setup, I put this together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhQ8Oq52O_k
Or maybe this VLB based setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygEShNqALpo
(I changed the AWE64Gold to an Ensoniq Soundscape Elite now, it was presented at the DoReCo 50 in September)

Okay, the best VLB ATI card was the 3D Pro Turbo (2, 4, 6 or 8 MB SGRAM). Did Matrox ever have a card with 8 MB SGRAM what was VLB?

dnewhous wrote:

Okay, the best VLB ATI card was the 3D Pro Turbo (2, 4, 6 or 8 MB SGRAM). Did Matrox ever have a card with 8 MB SGRAM what was VLB?

Did this really exist on VLB? Any picture?

S3 trio64 with 4mb of ram would my pick or s3 868 with 2meg is fine, their are other high end s3 cards basically you hit a cpu limit with vlb.

You wont see much if any difference between other chipsets like the et4000.

dnewhous wrote:

Okay, the best VLB ATI card was the 3D Pro Turbo (2, 4, 6 or 8 MB SGRAM). Did Matrox ever have a card with 8 MB SGRAM what was VLB?

The card does not exist.

And again, there is no "best" card. "Best" is what fits your needs most.
For some, the ARK1000 based cards are the BEST because they are the fastest cards in DOS 320x200. For others, the ATI Mach64 cards are the BEST because they have a very decent GUI acceleration. For others, WEIKTEK cards are the best because they support special features for certain software, despite being slow as hell in DOS with their auxilliary onboard VGA-chip. Others see the BEST cards in the best value for the money, for expample Cirrus cards.

...

And here I was thinking RG100 came back. Anyone know what happened to him??

And agreed about things like the speed of hardware components often being circumstantial.

Since this post has been resurrected...

shock__ wrote:

Last but not least ... could the wobbly picture on my Cirrus Logic 5426 possibly be caused by these capacitors apparently going bad?

Has anyone ever fixed the wobbly tendency of such cards? I have two Cirrus Logic 542x VLB and two Trident 8900C ISA cards do it. The caps don't look bulged, but could they, or the crystal on the Tridents be the problem?