I haven't tried that, but I remember using a cirrus logic card on a 386/40 with 16MB of RAM and when I set a higher resolution with more colors, it would slow the system very much. On a 286 I wouldn't try anything higher than 640x480 with 256 colors.

Thanks, I think it depends on the card and the system. I have my 386DX-40 with 16MB running both 3.1 and Win95A in 800x600 64K colours quite happily. Anything more than 64K colours i.e. 16 bit on an isa card is a bad idea though as it has to transfer the data over the 16-bit bus in two cycles thus instantly halving the speed.

It might be slow on the 286 though but would be nice to find out!!!

Yeah, it's possible your cards could use 386 instructions.

I dont' know much about drivers, but is it also possible some require protected mode?

I have a 286 25mhz, 16mb ram, and a Trident 1mb

I can do 1024x768x256 and 800x600x16bits without any problem,and the speed is very good

Sadly I don't have any cirrus Isa to test

My guess would be that the MS SVGA driver just doesn't support the CL cards. At least that is a more plausible explanation than MS including a driver with an OS that doesn't work with all CPUs the OS can run on. You could check this on the 386. Or you could try the VGA card from the 386 on the 286.

I've uploaded some Win3.x graphics drivers which are now available at vogonsdrivers. : CirrusLogic GD542x v1.3.

For more complete list see here : http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=10

Microsoft's SVGA driver only supports certain cards for high res and high colours. For the rest (majority of them), require the cards' own drivers.

Use these vendor-specific drivers to utilize the graphics cards' potentials.

theelf wrote on 2013-05-31, 20:32:

I have a 286 25mhz, 16mb ram, and a Trident 1mb

I can do 1024x768x256 and 800x600x16bits without any problem,and the speed is very good

Sadly I don't have any cirrus Isa to test

Wich driver do you use? I tried with some from the library but none of them seem to work except 800x600 16 color.
When I try 640x480 or 800x600 and 256 color it tells me that I need a 386 or higher.
My Trident is a TVGA9000A

OP here, I ended up using a Trident 9000A 512kb board too. You can get 256 colours but not the hi/true colour modes with the attached driver V1.4 which is from 1992. The readme file specifically says which modes need a 386+

Malik wrote on 2013-06-02, 06:15:

Microsoft's SVGA driver only supports certain cards for high res and high colours. For the rest (majority of them), require the cards' own drivers.

Use these vendor-specific drivers to utilize the graphics cards' potentials.

This is a bit of an old thread to resurrect, but for people ending up here through a search engine: there is also a patch available that allows the generic SVGA driver, that ships with Windows 3.x, to work with any video card that supports VESA VBE:

https://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/win31x.htm

(It has also been mentioned in other threads on this forum.)

A native driver for your specific graphics card or chipset is indeed almost always preferable, if you can find one. But the patched generic SVGA driver is the next best option.

@skafen Thanks for sharing the driver. Perhaps you can submit that ZIP file to vogonsdrivers.com?

digger wrote on 2021-07-31, 08:50:

@skafen Thanks for sharing the driver. Perhaps you can submit that ZIP file to vogonsdrivers.com?

digger wrote on 2021-07-31, 08:50:

@skafen Thanks for sharing the driver. Perhaps you can submit that ZIP file to vogonsdrivers.com?

Would be happy to. Not used the driver library before, I tried my forum login/password on the site but it didn't work. Presumably it is different. How would I go about submitting please?

Cheers

skafen wrote on 2021-07-31, 07:40:

OP here, I ended up using a Trident 9000A 512kb board too. You can get 256 colours but not the hi/true colour modes with the attached driver V1.4 which is from 1992. The readme file specifically says which modes need a 386+

Thank you I will try it🙂👍

skafen wrote on 2021-08-01, 11:56:

Would be happy to. Not used the driver library before, I tried my forum login/password on the site but it didn't work. Presumabl […]
Show full quote

digger wrote on 2021-07-31, 08:50:

@skafen Thanks for sharing the driver. Perhaps you can submit that ZIP file to vogonsdrivers.com?

digger wrote on 2021-07-31, 08:50:

@skafen Thanks for sharing the driver. Perhaps you can submit that ZIP file to vogonsdrivers.com?

Would be happy to. Not used the driver library before, I tried my forum login/password on the site but it didn't work. Presumably it is different. How would I go about submitting please?

Cheers

See this thread: VOGONS Driver Library

skafen wrote on 2021-07-31, 07:40:

OP here, I ended up using a Trident 9000A 512kb board too. You can get 256 colours but not the hi/true colour modes with the attached driver V1.4 which is from 1992. The readme file specifically says which modes need a 386+

It works now 👍
On the right the same picture on the win10 daily pc

Excellent! Glad the driver works for you.

skafen wrote:

Would be happy to. Not used the driver library before, I tried my forum login/password on the site but it didn't work. Presumably it is different. How would I go about submitting please?

Cheers

You can PM and upload to any of the contributors of vogonsdrivers. They will upload for you.

Or you can contact SquallStrife directly for your new username/password.