VOGONS


First post, by Iris030380

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I've had this card for eons, never actually used it because I never got around to building a 486-DX machine <sniff>.

So I was checking out VGA Museum etc, and there are so many different cards using the chipset none of which match mine. Can any of you ISA vid card gods elaborate on what it is exactly that I have? I'd much appreciate it. Also, same thing with this S3 Virge/GX2.

https://ibb.co/wBKX0Sx
https://ibb.co/Wtj1003
https://ibb.co/c2BsKCx
https://ibb.co/chqbggW

Would the Tseng be good for Doom? Worth swapping out for the Cirrus Logic card I was using in my Pentium 100 rig or not?

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Reply 2 of 8, by Iris030380

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imi wrote on 2022-07-08, 21:53:

the tseng is an ISA card, why would you want to use that in a pentium rig?
idk what CL card you have now, but if it's PCI then clearly no.

also it clearly says ET4000AX

Because the Pentium 100 has ISA slots, so I can use it. Is it against the rules? And I KNOW it's an ET4000AX, hence the title of my post. I was looking for other information like speeds, VRAM, etc. Thanks for pointing out the obvious though!

Jeez 😁

Calm down sonny. So hostile! 🤣

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Reply 3 of 8, by TheMobRules

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The usefulness of that Tseng card would be limited pretty much to ISA-only machines, think 386 or early 486. If you have other types of slots such as VLB or PCI, even mediocre cards for those buses will be way faster than the Tseng. Definitely not ideal for Doom, probably OK for more "static" types of games such as graphic adventures or strategy. It would be a noticeable bottleneck for a P100. Not sure what kind of CL card you're using, if it's PCI it will be much better than the Tseng, if it's ISA both cards will have very similar performance.

The S3 Virge is AGP, so it could be a decent 2D main card for a P2/SS7 build, but you will have to provide an add-on card for 3D acceleration (such as a V1/V2).

Reply 4 of 8, by kixs

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ISA slots in "newer" systems are good sound cards. Use the fastest bus for VGA card. That is PCI for Pentium. Good PCI cards would be later S3 or Matrox Millennium and similar.

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 5 of 8, by imi

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huh? I wasn't being hostile, just genuinely confused as to what exactly you were asking, like TheMobRules said, on anything but a early 486 systems and older you'd be severely bottlenecked by the ISA BUS, yes the ET4000AX might be among the fastest cards on ISA BUS, but there's only so far you can go... idk, you weren't aware of that apparently? ^^

also the pictures you posted are really low quality and low resolution, can't read anything on these chips, not that it really matters anyways as like said, you are limited by the ISA BUS, not memory speed or amount of VRAM or anything.
but if you want to know more about the RAM and RAMDAC just enter their model numbers into google and you're likely to find information or a datasheet on them, you at least seem to have a 24-bit DAC

if you enter the FCC ID of the Virge/GX2 you can find out that it's a Gainward card, but again, most of these cards use similar RAM etc. and speed differences between graphics chips are the main difference among cards.

and you still didn't say which CL card you're currently using :p
but to answer your original question, no you should probably not swap out that CL card with your ET4000

Reply 6 of 8, by j^aws

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For slowdown machines, you can pair slow ISA VGA cards with fast PCI cards in the same machine; much like using slow PCI cards with fast AGP cards in the same machine.

With a slow ISA VGA card matched to a 'slowed' down fast CPU, you can get appropriate speeds in speed-sensitive games where certain effects/ animations run at the appropriate speeds besides just matching appropriate framerates provided by a slowed down CPU. For example, certain animation effects run at correct speeds in Might and Magic III with an ISA VGA card running in a slowed down fast PC.

However, running Doom, as OP suggests with an ISA VGA card, isn't something really to consider if you have access to faster PCI/ VLB VGA cards.

EDIT: MM III.

Reply 7 of 8, by Iris030380

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I never would have guessed this S3 was a Gainward card. It's not even red. Thanks for all the information. The CL card is a CL-GD5446BV on a PCI bus. I was just thinking of messing with some older rigs that haven't been powered on in a while, and had a lot of spare time, so I thought maybe it's time to start trying out some of these much older and obscure cards I've collected over the years. Might still give it a go, just to see.

I don't have a 386 or 486, the slowest machines I have are a bunch of early Pentiums. All of which have at least one PCI. And the SS7 machines I have won't be needing the S3, Gainward or not, because they have Matrox or Geforce cards installed. The S3, performance wise, seems neither here nor there, to be fair. But it's Gainward so I'll keep it.

AND I checked the resolution of the pics I posted - sure they ain't that hot! 🤣 Blame this crappy chinese tablet, but even I can read the print on the chips from this 14" laptop.

Why so hostile?

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Reply 8 of 8, by Jo22

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I'm playing with a similar idea: Installing an ET4000AX in a future Pentium 133 or Pentium III 733 MHz build.. 🙂

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