Windows 3.11 SVGA Native-Compatibility Cards? \ VOGONS

Windows 3.11 SVGA Native-Compatibility Cards?

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First post, by Malik

Posted on 2010-08-05, 13:56

Malik Offline

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I'm trying to find out which are the graphics cards that can utilize the SVGA modes using the original SVGA driver that came with Windows 3.11?

Or in other words, what are the compatible cards that the "generic" SVGA driver of Win3 can work with?

Are there any AGP cards that can do this?

Thanks for any information!

Sidenote: There is also the official updated SVGA driver which came with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups available that supposedly be able to utilize a slightly wider variety of cards. All my newer cards (mostly nVidia) can't work with it.
http://www.gaby.de/win3x/edrivers.htm

There is also the patched windows 3.11 svga driver that can work with any new graphics card, but there are some problems when the colours are set at anything higher than 256 with my current cards. (This driver can be downloaded, following my signature link.)

I'm looking for a decent Win9x era 3D card that can double as a native Windows 3.11 SVGA performer, to use in one of my hybrid dos-win9x/win2k systems.

SB Dos Drivers

Reply 1 of 6, by leileilol

Posted on 2010-08-05, 17:28

leileilol Offline

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I remember (or not?) the Tseng ET3000 working with it. The Realtek SVGA 512kb card works with it too but that card is slow as hell.

There is a VESA patch for the driver on this forum, but my experiences are random freezing.

long live PCem

Reply 2 of 6, by swaaye

Posted on 2010-08-05, 17:36

swaaye Offline

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leileilol wrote:
but my experiences are random freezing.

That's how Win3.x goes in general.

Reply 3 of 6, by valnar

Posted on 2010-08-05, 21:29

valnar Offline

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Any card that supports those drivers will probably be a dog in Win9x and compromise that speed.

If DOS gaming isn't too important, you might want to investigate the latest Matrox card (G400, Mystique maybe??) that supports Win3.1. They would have their own drivers, but it would work in both Windows and has great video quality. The native Matrox driver is also much better than the generic SVGA driver for Win3.1. I used to do the same that you are asking and went that direction.

Reply 4 of 6, by Malik

Posted on 2010-08-13, 04:41

Malik Offline

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Thanks. I just recieved a Rendition Verite V2200 card. I'll try this and post up the results.

SB Dos Drivers

Reply 5 of 6, by MURLON

Posted on 2010-08-16, 16:01

MURLON Offline

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Hi fiends!

I've got the original Intel tech support CD-ROM disk (dated January 1996). There are many drivers for old graphics cards on the disk, such as ATI Match 32/64, Diamond Stealth 32/64, Viper, Paradise 90C33, S3, STB and others. I also found the Windows 3.1 256 Color Display Driver. Here is the content of the README file.

1Windows 3.1 256 Color Display Driver Release Notes
2Copyright 1993 Microsoft Corporation
3--------------------------------------------------
4This disk contains a new high-speed 256 color display driver
5for Windows 3.1 which supports most non-accelerated Super VGA 
6display types.  If you have a Video card other than what is 
7listed below you may not want to use these drivers.
8
9For 800x600 256 colors and 1024x768 256 colorsresolutions 
10you will need 1Mb of memory on you video card.    
11
12You can install this driver by using Windows 
13Setup to select one of the following display types:
14
15	Super VGA  640x480 256 colors
16	Super VGA  800x600 256 Large    ; Large fonts
17	Super VGA  800x600 256 Small    ; Small fonts
18	Super VGA 1024x768 256 Large    ; Large fonts
19	Super VGA 1024x768 256 Small    ; Small fonts
20
21Displays supported by these selections include the following:
22
23	ATI VGA series, including
24		ATI VGA Wonder
25		ATI VGA Wonder Plus
26		ATI VGA Wonder 24XL
27
28	Cirrus Logic VGA (6420, 5420 series)
29
30	Oak Technology VGA (077 series)
31
32	Paradise VGA, including
33		Paradise VGA 1024
34		Paradise VGA Professional
35
36	Trident VGA (8900C series) *, including
37		Trident Impact
38
39	Tseng VGA (ET4000 series) **, including:
40		Boca VGA
41		Cardinal VGA
42		Diamond Speedstar series
43		Everex Viewpoint series
44		Metheus Premier VGA
45		Orchid Prodesigner II
46		Sigma VGA Legend
47		STB Powergraph
48
49	Video Seven VGA, including
50		Video Seven FastWrite
51		Video Seven 1024i
52		Video Seven VRAM
53		Video Seven VRAM II
54
55	Western Digital VGA
56
57
58*  NOTE:  MS-DOS applications run on Trident adapters may not
59          be restored correctly when switched back to full-screen
60          mode from Windows.

…Show last 7 lines

61
62** NOTE:  MS-DOS applications run on some Tseng ET4000 adapters
63	  may not be restored correctly when switched back to
64          full-screen mode from Windows.  If this happens,
65          use Windows Setup to select one of the ET4000 options.
66          However, this may slow the operation of windowed
67          MS-DOS applications.

Reply 6 of 6, by Malik

Posted on 2011-01-19, 13:24

Malik Offline

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Hey MURLON, thanks for the readme file! Just saw it. 😀

I just received a Trident 8900c 1MB ISA video card and have installed it in my 486. And yes, as mentioned in the readme file, Windows 3.x natively supports the Windows' own built-in SVGA modes for this card.

SB Dos Drivers

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