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EISA Graphics / Video Cards

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Reply 20 of 129, by 386_junkie

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A small update on the EISA graphics card front... and i've just been generously donated (paying only for shipping!) a 3D chipset... Artist XJ1000, by a friend over on Amibay.

429faa443563399.jpg

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of information out there about the card, but what I have found are some old news clippings which inform that the chipset has 3D capabilities (albeit over 8.33 MHz bus!) with the card itself having 2MB VRAM onboard. The simm bank along the top supports upto 8MB DRAM, though this DRAM can only be used in CAD operations apparently. To run in 3D mode I need to find proprietary software.

I also managed to find a site with Windows (3.1x & 95) driver zips for the chipset. In one of the zips there seems to be a small .CFG file which I can only hope is "the" config file... but they are really small files so I have my doubts... will need to wait until the card arrives to test.

Though I have a few 386 EISA projects on the go so hopefully this card will be untilized in one of them somewhere!

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 21 of 129, by Anonymous Coward

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I remember these cards. I forgot that they made one for EISA bus. I think I heard that the VGA core on this card might possibly be okay. I have to say I'm pretty surprised they made 95 drivers. Does it have them for NT4 as well?

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 22 of 129, by xjas

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386_junkie wrote:
A small update on the EISA graphics card front... and i've just been generously donated (paying only for shipping!) a 3D chipset […]
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A small update on the EISA graphics card front... and i've just been generously donated (paying only for shipping!) a 3D chipset... Artist XJ1000, by a friend over on Amibay.

[ link edited ]

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of information out there about the card, but what I have found are some old news clippings which inform that the chipset has 3D capabilities (albeit over 8.33 MHz bus!) with the card itself having 2MB VRAM onboard. The simm bank along the top supports upto 8MB DRAM, though this DRAM can only be used in CAD operations apparently. To run in 3D mode I need to find proprietary software.

I also managed to find a site with Windows (3.1x & 95) driver zips for the chipset. In one of the zips there seems to be a small .CFG file which I can only hope is "the" config file... but they are really small files so I have my doubts... will need to wait until the card arrives to test.

Though I have a few 386 EISA projects on the go so hopefully this card will be untilized in one of them somewhere!

^^ Clicking through to your image host took me to some fake malware / phishing site when I went to close the tab. Anyone else getting that?

twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!

Reply 23 of 129, by 386_junkie

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

I remember these cards. I forgot that they made one for EISA bus. I think I heard that the VGA core on this card might possibly be okay. I have to say I'm pretty surprised they made 95 drivers. Does it have them for NT4 as well?

Among others, yes; -

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/artgraphics/AR … 00_Drivers.html

Though the only one missing from the list that I would liked to have seen is NT3.1. There is now no chance this will be going into the Systempro, ELSA being a likelier candidate.

BTW did you get the message I sent you about the Symphony board regards to cache resistors & onboard cache wait state? Been looking online for more info but it keeps pointing me to modern manufacture boards.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 24 of 129, by 386_junkie

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If anyone has time / experience with EISA, could you please look at the file !AGI5510.CFG located in xj204win.zip (last zip file) and with a keen eye share your opinion on whether this is or is not possibly the config file to register a new EISA device within a system.

Thanks in advance for your efforts.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 25 of 129, by 386_junkie

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xjas wrote:

^^ Clicking through to your image host took me to some fake malware / phishing site when I went to close the tab. Anyone else getting that?

Fortunately no, but I have phishing turned off in my browser. I have just joined imagebam on recommendation from other vogoners as dropbox wasn't working.

Will keep an eye out for that, thanks.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 26 of 129, by 386_junkie

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The Matrox Magic arrived a couple of days ago... I have already tested and installed it into one of the Deskpro's. 😀

36e81f446943033.jpg 46d62e446943038.jpg d7d7ef446943042.jpg

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 27 of 129, by 386_junkie

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Thanks to kixs over on milliways ebay thread (it's gone now)... another had surfaced itself: -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-VGA-video-c … r-/141863422759

be5655455316128.jpg

Does anyone know if this is a true 'EISA' graphics card or maybe a proprietary / local bus technology adapter similar to the Tseng?

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 28 of 129, by kixs

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It was meant for you 😉

I hope he packages it well. I received one motherboard from him wrapped only in an ordinary newspaper and lots of sellotape. At least it wasn't inspected by the customs and was still in a working condition 😁

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 29 of 129, by 386_junkie

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I've bought from him before... he's ok, i'd say anything listed 'as-is' should be expected to be working 50% of the time but aside from needing a good clean the card seems ok. It s motherboards you need to be careful with.

Thanks again for the post

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 30 of 129, by GL1zdA

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As for Matrox, the ultimate EISA solution would be the Matrox Studio: https://archive.org/details/Matrox though I don't think the only EISA card in the set is a graphics adapter.

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Reply 31 of 129, by Anonymous Coward

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My guess is that it is EISA, since it uses S3 911 chipset with VRAM. All of the OPTi local bus cards I've seen so far use ET4000AX with DRAM. However, this card is not in the TH99 database, so you're taking a gamble plugging into an EISA board unless you know for certain what it is. Did you look up the FCCID? You could also try loading the video BIOS into an editor and examining the header.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 32 of 129, by 386_junkie

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

My guess is that it is EISA, since it uses S3 911 chipset with VRAM. All of the OPTi local bus cards I've seen so far use ET4000AX with DRAM. However, this card is not in the TH99 database, so you're taking a gamble plugging into an EISA board unless you know for certain what it is. Did you look up the FCCID? You could also try loading the video BIOS into an editor and examining the header.

Nothing came up in the FCCID, a bit more extensive searching came up with this: -

http://xjman.dsl.gr.jp/XF311/AccelCards.html#S3 911/924

Confirming the 911 and 924 both come in ISA, EISA, and VLB varieties. Still, not a lot of information out there... not looking forward to the config / driver search.

I may yet have a look at the bios string though just to be just... i'll look to back it up and archive it at least in any case.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 33 of 129, by BastlerMike

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There were Opti local bus cards with S3 chip. The card's name is "SVLB", which could stand for " Super VGA Local Bus". The silkscreen font reminds me of several other hardware items made by TMC.

Reply 34 of 129, by BastlerMike

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Just for the sake of completeness... MiroCrystal 32S

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Reply 35 of 129, by 386_junkie

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A new addition to the family; -

c6817e461864146.jpg

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 36 of 129, by kixs

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Nice thread... but I don't think I'm the only one missing some benchmarks of these cards, especially compared to their ISA/VLB cousins 😉

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 37 of 129, by 386_junkie

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kixs wrote:

Nice thread... but I don't think I'm the only one missing some benchmarks of these cards, especially compared to their ISA/VLB cousins 😉

Thanks.

That could be an additional side project... I'm in the process of building a couple of 384 / 486 EISA systems with the aim to make some benchmarks, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to do some benching of the EISA graphics cards on hand. Of course it may be difficult to compare all of them with ISA & VLB as I only have the one rig with an EISA / VLB motherboard and this is for 486 CPU's only.

Another consideration when comparing graphics cards of different buses would be to try and keep things like memory & chipset details constant. The only graphics card chipset that I have spanning all 3 buses (ISA, EISA & VLB) is probably S3's 924. Something more to look into perhaps.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 38 of 129, by kixs

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The only graphics card chipset that I have spanning all 3 buses (ISA, EISA & VLB) is probably S3's 924.

That's great... I really wonder how EISA performs. Although I'll stay with ISA and VLB systems. Just a few cards left for my collection and will do a benchmark round when I get some free time later this year 😉

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 39 of 129, by 386_junkie

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BastlerMike wrote:

Just for the sake of completeness... MiroCrystal 32S

This, this is an awesome card.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks