Greetings,
My real 486 uses a Mach64 PCI card and my P3 has a Voodoo 5. 86box has had a lot of updates and has a wide selection of video card choices. I am building virtual DOS and Windows 3.x machines. I am looking for the opinions on the best and most compatible video cards for DOS games and for the best Win3.x experience? There are a lot of options and I will have to hunt down drivers.
Thanks!
Hi! One configuration for an absolute best experience for Windows 3.1x is tricky, I think.
I'm not saying it's impossible, though.
It's just.. The ET4000AX, among other cards, is supported natively by QuickTime, but hasno GDI accelerator, no special video acceleration.
It also has no YUV conversation, perhaps no DCI drivers (the Video for Windows release from ELSA supported DCI).
And it's limited to lower resolutions. The Trio series supports high resolutions and colour depths,
but these get into the way with classic applications that want 640x480 @256c. And the drivers are 386 Enhanced-Mode only.
Then there's the Trident 8900D. It has a soft-font mechanism, is quick etc, but doesn't have GDI acceleration.
Then there's the Paradise Professional VGA. Ancient, quick, compatible. Has SVGA drivers for Real and Standard-Mode of Windows 2.x/3.x.
However, the physical cards do only have 256KB installed usually. Sure, they could be upgraded to 512KB piggy-back style..
But the drivers don't expect this. Old pre-Win3.1 drivers may only support 640x400 in 256c or 800x600 in 16c.
Edit: There are many more models, of course. I'm just a bit sleepy right now, can't remember. CT&T, OAK, Video Seven ?
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Jo22 wrote on 2022-04-23, 21:59:Hi! One configuration for an absolute best experience for Windows 3.1x is tricky, I think. I'm not saying it's impossible, thoug […]
Hi! One configuration for an absolute best experience for Windows 3.1x is tricky, I think.
I'm not saying it's impossible, though.It's just.. The ET4000AX, among other cards, is supported natively by QuickTime, but hasno GDI accelerator, no special video acceleration.
It also has no YUV conversation, perhaps no DCI drivers (the Video for Windows release from ELSA supported DCI).
And it's limited to lower resolutions. The Trio series supports high resolutions and colour depths,
but these get into the way with classic applications that want 640x480 @256c. And the drivers are 386 Enhanced-Mode only.Then there's the Trident 8900D. It has a soft-font mechanism, is quick etc, but doesn't have GDI acceleration.
Then there's the Paradise Professional VGA. Ancient, quick, compatible. Has SVGA drivers for Real and Standard-Mode of Windows 2.x/3.x.
However, the physical cards do only have 256KB installed usually. Sure, they could be upgraded to 512KB piggy-back style..
But the drivers don't expect this. Old pre-Win3.1 drivers may only support 640x400 in 256c or 800x600 in 16c.Edit: There are many more models, of course. I'm just a bit sleepy right now, can't remember. CT&T, OAK, Video Seven ?
Thank you for the suggestions! I am hoping for GDI acceleration and a couple megs of RAM. The Mach64 seems decent on my real rig, but I have read posts on VOGONS where people have reported issues. It is probably difficult to find a sweet spot. 86box probably has the cards you mentioned, and I will look into them. There are a lot of S3 choices and even Voodoo 3 cards which I read work great in DOS and work in Win3.x with a SVGA patch, but without a way to make adjustments. I can't remember what cards I had back in the day, but I remember that they worked well in both DOS and Windows, though memories can be off, and I never had anything to compare those old systems to. If a card had different RAM options, 86box lets you select the amount. I tried the Elsa Winner 2000pro/x under a Win95 build with the 8mb option, but the drivers wouldn't work properly, so I didn't try it in Win3.x yet. I will probably stick with 640x480x256 whichever I use, since Sierra games seem to require that. I will be playing around with old Win3.x apps, though.
I either narrow down to the SVGA Virge, TVGA 8900D or ET4000 "card" in 86Box. For me, I just require 640x480x256c in Win3.x for the games I want to play, and most do require or play best at this setting, and these cards run them without problems.
