I would recommend Cirrus Logic Cards (AVGA3) with GD542x chip. It has an integrated RAMDAC and support for True Color @640x480. You cannot make much wrong and you can get one easy for an affordable price.
Also like the S3 ISA Cards with S3 801 and 928, which are very fast and where sold with good DACs and True Color support in general, but rarer and more expensive … and faster in Windows like the GD542x. The 928 VRAM cards are very rare and high end for Windows, but a little Bit slower than the 801 (DRAM) cards in DOS.

The ATI Mach32, especially the VRAM variant, is also a very fast and compatible alternative with a very good 135MHz DAC and up to 2MB RAM (True Color @800x600 with 72Hz). But it’s rare and expensive. The extremely rare Mach64 ISA is a little bit faster in Windows and has „Video Acceleration“ but in general mostly on par with the Mach32 - VRAM vs. VRAM and DRAM vs. DRAM variant.

Also ET4000AX, WD90C31 and TVGA8900D/CL/RD can be fast and reliable ISA Cards, but you have to doublecheck the DAC before you buy it. There are a lot of variants with crappy DAC. The WD90C31 is the fastest option of these cards.

Top notch for ISA and DOS would be a Cirrus Logic GD5434 card with 2MB DRAM and an integrated 135MHz DAC - rare and very expensive. The VRAM cards from ATI and S3 (928) should be a little bit faster in the most Windows scenarios.
Last but not least there are some rare ISA cards with ET4000W32 chip with mostly „ok“ DAC which has nearly identical performance in DOS and higher performance in Windows regarding it’s little brother ET4000AX.

My personal favorite ISA cards in my collection are the WD90C31 (Paradise VGA) with a good DAC, the Mach32 VRAM (2MB) and the SPEA Mercury (S3 928).

PC-Engineer wrote on 2023-01-14, 19:43:

I would recommend Cirrus Logic Cards (AVGA3) with GD542x chip. It has an integrated RAMDAC and support for True Color @640x480. […]
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I would recommend Cirrus Logic Cards (AVGA3) with GD542x chip. It has an integrated RAMDAC and support for True Color @640x480. You cannot make much wrong and you can get one easy for an affordable price.
Also like the S3 ISA Cards with S3 801 and 928, which are very fast and where sold with good DACs and True Color support in general, but rarer and more expensive … and faster in Windows like the GD542x. The 928 VRAM cards are very rare and high end for Windows, but a little Bit slower than the 801 (DRAM) cards in DOS.

The ATI Mach32, especially the VRAM variant, is also a very fast and compatible alternative with a very good 135MHz DAC and up to 2MB RAM (True Color @800x600 with 72Hz). But it’s rare and expensive. The extremely rare Mach64 ISA is a little bit faster in Windows and has „Video Acceleration“ but in general mostly on par with the Mach32 - VRAM vs. VRAM and DRAM vs. DRAM variant.

Also ET4000AX, WD90C31 and TVGA8900D/CL/RD can be fast and reliable ISA Cards, but you have to doublecheck the DAC before you buy it. There are a lot of variants with crappy DAC. The WD90C31 is the fastest option of these cards.

Top notch for ISA and DOS would be a Cirrus Logic GD5434 card with 2MB DRAM and an integrated 135MHz DAC - rare and very expensive. The VRAM cards from ATI and S3 (928) should be a little bit faster in the most Windows scenarios.
Last but not least there are some rare ISA cards with ET4000W32 chip with mostly „ok“ DAC which has nearly identical performance in DOS and higher performance in Windows regarding it’s little brother ET4000AX.

My personal favorite ISA cards in my collection are the WD90C31 (Paradise VGA) with a good DAC, the Mach32 VRAM (2MB) and the SPEA Mercury (S3 928).

Thank you for the many choices, great help, I guess it will ultimately be down to the price or RAMDACs. Will keep that in mind, how would I go about identifying the RAMDAC through pictures? I already made that mistake with the Trident (6-bit variant)

You have to find and check the data sheets. There is no save way to identify it optically. In general DAC ICs with DIP layout are crappy. The frequency rating should be 80MHz or higher.

PC-Engineer wrote on 2023-01-14, 20:25:

You have to find and check the data sheets. There is no save way to identify it optically. In general DAC ICs with DIP layout are crappy. The frequency rating should be 80MHz or higher.

Thank you so much, with this variety of options so far and everyone else's tips too I'm sure I'll find good affordable options. Wish I had it before buying the Trident at the time, but I'm still very happy to have this info now

Cards like S3 928 and Tseng ET4000 are somewhat expensive indeed and you'd have to see if one comes by cheap. Most chance of finding one in a pile of unnamed stuff. That way I got my two ET4000AX cards and S3 928.

My Cirrus 542x ISA card (Video7) will do fine in most faster ISA only systems and will perform just below the great names by the way. I like it 😀

Another option I'd recommend as second option is the less known UMC 408. It is about as fast as an ET4000AX in benchmarks but needs a TSR to unlock it's potential. Preferably the UMC driver, not the usual UniVBE.

On the other hand: I have an Oak 077 card that performs just 10% less than an ET4000. I was surprised, I'll admit. So I think it really depends on the manufacturer.

Final note. A 486 based ISA only system would also benefit from some ISA overclocking. I had one of my ET4000AX running on a 12MHz ISA bus for some test and it upped the benchmark performance quite a bit. But still no chance of running Quake on it: still some slideshow. For that kind of performance you really need to go VLB or PCI. Just about any VLB card will outperform the best ISA card (except for the dreadful Diamond Viper VLB in VGA non-vesa mode)

waterbeesje wrote on 2023-01-14, 21:51:

Cards like S3 928 and Tseng ET4000 are somewhat expensive indeed and you'd have to see if one comes by cheap. Most chance of fin […]
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Cards like S3 928 and Tseng ET4000 are somewhat expensive indeed and you'd have to see if one comes by cheap. Most chance of finding one in a pile of unnamed stuff. That way I got my two ET4000AX cards and S3 928.

My Cirrus 542x ISA card (Video7) will do fine in most faster ISA only systems and will perform just below the great names by the way. I like it 😀

Another option I'd recommend as second option is the less known UMC 408. It is about as fast as an ET4000AX in benchmarks but needs a TSR to unlock it's potential. Preferably the UMC driver, not the usual UniVBE.

On the other hand: I have an Oak 077 card that performs just 10% less than an ET4000. I was surprised, I'll admit. So I think it really depends on the manufacturer.

Final note. A 486 based ISA only system would also benefit from some ISA overclocking. I had one of my ET4000AX running on a 12MHz ISA bus for some test and it upped the benchmark performance quite a bit. But still no chance of running Quake on it: still some slideshow. For that kind of performance you really need to go VLB or PCI. Just about any VLB card will outperform the best ISA card (except for the dreadful Diamond Viper VLB in VGA non-vesa mode)

Happy to check the UMC 408 out, learning user here, what is TSR? As for the UMC driver, should be easy to obtain I guess? The OAK 077 ISA card I have (the build's original card) is slower than the Trident 8900-CL I got after, different revision or something along those lines I suppose.

Edit: Pricing wise it's like I said, the difference between mid to high level cards and top tier cards is starting to fade away towards general overpricing in ISA cards. I can get a cheaper GD-5422 512k, but adding the shipping and the additional 512k memory I'll have to buy it will get close to the price of a Diamond Speedstar 24x for example, the same if I go directly for a GD-5422 1MB. And if the difference is something like 20/30 euros in total, I guess I would just go for the top options and close the build for good.

From lower to higher price impressions for now: if I get a cheaper GL-5422 1MB I'll just go for that then, looks like a very complete card for its level. If the difference in price between it and higher level cards remains the same meaning overpricing all around, then I'll just go for a WD90C31A-LR or even a Diamond Speedstar 24x for 20/30 euros more. Even the mentioned WD90C30-LR in earlier posts doesn't make up for its 256 colours only in pricing terms, so in theory it was correct but it's all too overpriced now.

Those prices all seem excessive to me 😮

I've never paid more than €15 for an ISA graphics card, mostly €5-10 and I've got quite some.
As for ram upgrades: AliExpress is cheap and often gets you the real deal.

A TSR is a "terminate & stay resident" program, like a driver. You load it into ram, it remains there to do it's thing but meanwhile you run the application you want 😀

waterbeesje wrote on 2023-01-14, 23:17:

Those prices all seem excessive to me :o […]
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Those prices all seem excessive to me 😮

I've never paid more than €15 for an ISA graphics card, mostly €5-10 and I've got quite some.
As for ram upgrades: AliExpress is cheap and often gets you the real deal.

A TSR is a "terminate & stay resident" program, like a driver. You load it into ram, it remains there to do it's thing but meanwhile you run the application you want 😀

Thanks for explaining, if they were at that price I'd just get 2 or 3 for any future build, and I don't even dare go to Ebay

Either WD90C30 or 31 and should be 1MB installed for ease of buying. Or cirrus logic ISA GD5422, 24 or 28 again, 1MB. Or S3 801 or 805, ISA, again 1MB.

Tseng is overrated too and not compatible with some games.

Last resort is Trident 8900D with 1MB installed. 8900CL is close behind.

The last and most last resort is go pentium 133 with PCI video card since PCI video cards with S3 and cirrus logic are least expensive and still compatible.

Cheers,

The order of ISA video cards for DOS interactive graphics performance goes like this:
Cirrus Logic GD-5434 (2Mb RAM is a plus, also fastest in Windows, but may not work on some XT and 286 motherboards)
Tseng Labs ET4000AX and Western Digital WDC90C30-LR (depends on which test you look at)
Tseng Labs ET4000/W32 (2Mb RAM is a plus, second to GD-5434 in Windows)
Cirrus Logic GD-5426/8/9
Trident TVGA8900-CL
the rest ...

These are all cards with 24-bit ramdacs, assuming decent models.

pshipkov wrote on 2023-01-14, 23:51:

The order of ISA video cards for DOS interactive graphics performance goes like this: Cirrus Logic GD-5434 (2Mb RAM is a plus, a […]
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The order of ISA video cards for DOS interactive graphics performance goes like this:
Cirrus Logic GD-5434 (2Mb RAM is a plus, also fastest in Windows, but may not work on some XT and 286 motherboards)
Tseng Labs ET4000AX and Western Digital WDC90C30-LR (depends on which test you look at)
Tseng Labs ET4000/W32 (2Mb RAM is a plus, second to GD-5434 in Windows)
Cirrus Logic GD-5426/8/9
Trident TVGA8900-CL
the rest ...

These are all cards with 24-bit ramdacs, assuming decent models.

Cirrus Logic GD-5434 (2Mb RAM is a plus, also fastest in Windows, but may not work on some XT and 286 motherboards)

I guess you forgot about ISA Mach64 VRAM and DRAM cards 😉

All of the „High-End“ ISA cards (Mach32/64, WD90c30/31, ET4000AX/W32, CL GD542x/3x, TVGA8900D/CL/RD, S3 801/805/928) are within a range of 10% in VGA DOS applications using a DX2/66 system.
So the other qualities like price, availability, Windows acceleration abilities, refresh rates, Color depht, VESA compatibility in DOS games and picture quality getting more important. The collectors point of view is an completely other thing.

If you want to use the machine, I'd replace the ISA only 486 with VLB or even better a PCI one. You have much greater choice of PCI VGA cards and also prices are much lower. ISA will always be a bottle neck.

PC-Engineer wrote on 2023-01-15, 11:37:

All of the „High-End“ ISA cards (Mach32/64, WD90c30/31, ET4000AX/W32, CL GD542x/3x, TVGA8900D/CL/RD, S3 801/805/928) are within a range of 10% in VGA DOS applications using a DX2/66 system.
So the other qualities like price, availability, Windows acceleration abilities, refresh rates, Color depht, VESA compatibility in DOS games and picture quality getting more important. The collectors point of view is an completely other thing.

I quickly had to come to that conclusion, however people's input here was important to enlarge the scope of cards to search for. I'm in no rush to find a new one so I'll try and be patient. But no doubt that the price range between mid/good level to top level cards is shortening upwards, so either an opportunity comes around that is not overpriced or little by little I'll start saving some aside for one of the top options. But like I said, to see a mere 20/30 euro difference between a GD5422/others and a WD90C31/Diamond Speedstar/Tseng ET4000AX is surprising.

kixs wrote on 2023-01-15, 13:15:

If you want to use the machine, I'd replace the ISA only 486 with VLB or even better a PCI one. You have much greater choice of PCI VGA cards and also prices are much lower. ISA will always be a bottle neck.

Thanks for the input, I have a Pentium Pro Win95 build for all demanding DOS games that I might want to play. Pre-Pentium hardware is very hard to find in my country, so it would actually be more expensive in theory to find a 486 PCI/VLB board, it was only in the Pentium era that computers were more accessible around here. If I can find a new ISA card that is not Trident (hence less jail bars effect or none at all at best on my LCD display) that is affordable, and faster than my 8900-CL (6-bit RAMDAC) while I'm at it, I'd just go for that and close this build for good.

Getting a new 486 PCI board would lead to getting a DX-100, and a PCI graphics card, maybe RAM if it doesn't come with it, etc., you get the point. Plus there's no point in upgrading the 486 to just make it do what the Pentium Pro already does, in my view.

Or I just may end up not finding anything that's not overpriced and one day getting the space for the build's original CRT and no more jail bars then!

If the jailbars are your only issue, can you try to find a CRT?

On a similar note, the VGA input on my dell ultrasharp has much worse banding than if I use my Extron VGA-DVI upscaler . So perhaps another consideration if you can find one of these for cheap.

drosse1meyer wrote on 2023-01-15, 18:40:

If the jailbars are your only issue, can you try to find a CRT?

On a similar note, the VGA input on my dell ultrasharp has much worse banding than if I use my Extron VGA-DVI upscaler . So perhaps another consideration if you can find one of these for cheap.

I do have this 486's original CRT that came with it, I just happen to have absolutely no space for it and probably won't for quite some time, that's all. Never saw a scaler like that for sale around these parts but will keep an eye on it, thanks

I had Trident 9000 with 512KB memory on my 386DX40 and I didn't feel to be limited by it. ISA bus and CPU speed was a much bigger limiting factor. I would say it was a good match for a 386. Very good compatibility with old games and decent performance with 12Mhz ISA. A friend with 386 had OAK 256KB and it sucked.

Interesting discussion on jailbars with Cirrus cards.

Got an ISA CL-GD5429 graphics adapter in my 486, connected to a 19" LCD monitor. Haven't seen the slightest trace of any jailbars so far. Running Windows 3.11 in 800x600, 65356 colors.

Launched and checked edit.com as suggested earlier in the thread, nothing there either.

The only artifacts I can see is some very slight ghosting and fuzziness, but guess that's to be expected with a 2 meter KVM cable, a KVM switch, and another 30 cm VGA cable between the computer and the monitor. Really got to try to get hold of the shorter 1 meter alternative at some point on that note.

Are there any other suggestions on how to provoke those jailbars? 😀

kaputnik wrote on 2023-01-16, 11:22:

Are there any other suggestions on how to provoke those jailbars? 😀

Monkey Island intro, as I mentioned earlier. And 320x200 256-color mode in general, it's way easier to spot with pixel/line doubling and also you test your monitor for proper upscaling. 640x480 and higher modes usually work well, it's the lower resolutions that are problematic. EGA's 640x350 is fortunately rarely ever used. Although that seems to be a good LCD monitor - the 800x600 mode looks nice. What's the brand/type and what native resolution it has?

Deunan wrote on 2023-01-16, 20:37:

kaputnik wrote on 2023-01-16, 11:22:

Are there any other suggestions on how to provoke those jailbars? 😀

Monkey Island intro, as I mentioned earlier. And 320x200 256-color mode in general, it's way easier to spot with pixel/line doubling and also you test your monitor for proper upscaling. 640x480 and higher modes usually work well, it's the lower resolutions that are problematic. EGA's 640x350 is fortunately rarely ever used. Although that seems to be a good LCD monitor - the 800x600 mode looks nice. What's the brand/type and what native resolution it has?

If you mean the title screen in the original version, it looks good. No jailbars as far as I can see 😀

The monitor is a Lenovo ThinkVision LT1913p, native resolution is 1280x1024. It was basically the cheapest non-widescreen 19" IPS monitor with reasonable response times etc I could find at the time.