VOGONS


First post, by appiah4

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After years of searching for a single VLB VGA card I now have two all of a sudden.. I am familiar with Cirrus Logic as I used a 5426 back in the day with my DX33 but I never used a CHIPS VGA card. Brief online research indicates F64300 is a fantastic, workstation level card with great UI acceleration, but I can't find much on its gaming performance..

For a 486DX build, which is better?

If it makes a difference, I can upgrade the GD5428 to 2MB (requires 2 SOJ40 512x8 chips which I have) but I can't upgrade the FC64300 to 2MB (requires 8 DIP20 256x4 chips which I do not have).

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 1 of 11, by The Serpent Rider

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FC64300 is on par with CL-5434 and late S3 cards. But DX33 is too weak anyway.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 2 of 11, by appiah4

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The Serpent Rider wrote:

FC64300 is on par with CL-5434 and late S3 cards. But DX33 is too weak anyway.

I have CPU options ranging from SX33 to DX4-100 to use in this system.

Is it worth upgrading the FX64300 to 2MB? That will set me back around $20 it would seem.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3 of 11, by The Serpent Rider

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Is it worth upgrading the FX64300 to 2MB?

If you want to use Windows 9x with decent resolution and color - yes.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 4 of 11, by appiah4

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The Serpent Rider wrote:

Is it worth upgrading the FX64300 to 2MB?

If you want to use Windows 9x with decent resolution and color - yes.

No, it will be a DOS/Win3.1/Warp system only.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 5 of 11, by Anonymous Coward

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I believe most of those CHIPS cards actually have their own 256kb SRAM cache...but I think some of them don't, or it's optional. I would guess the cache must give a pretty decent speed boost.

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Reply 6 of 11, by chinny22

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appiah4 wrote:
The Serpent Rider wrote:

Is it worth upgrading the FX64300 to 2MB?

If you want to use Windows 9x with decent resolution and color - yes.

No, it will be a DOS/Win3.1/Warp system only.

Same applies for whichever GUI you are using. The extra memory simply allows higher resolutions.
Below link has a table with how much is needed for different resolutions.
http://www.danielsevo.com/bocg/bocg_screenres.htm

Reply 7 of 11, by appiah4

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chinny22 wrote:

Same applies for whichever GUI you are using. The extra memory simply allows higher resolutions.
Below link has a table with how much is needed for different resolutions.
http://www.danielsevo.com/bocg/bocg_screenres.htm

2MB sounds like a good idea, so GD5428 it is. In the meantime, I will keep my eyes open for a cheap source of 8 DIP20 256Kx4 ram chips..

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 8 of 11, by root42

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appiah4 wrote:
chinny22 wrote:

Same applies for whichever GUI you are using. The extra memory simply allows higher resolutions.
Below link has a table with how much is needed for different resolutions.
http://www.danielsevo.com/bocg/bocg_screenres.htm

2MB sounds like a good idea, so GD5428 it is. In the meantime, I will keep my eyes open for a cheap source of 8 DIP20 256Kx4 ram chips..

Can you be more specific with the type of ICs you need? We might be able to rummage in our stash of cards, boards and ICs and check if there is something compatible...

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Reply 10 of 11, by appiah4

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kixs wrote:
Most probably like these, only 60 or 70ns. […]
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Most probably like these, only 60 or 70ns.

s-l600.jpg

This is exactly what I need, but as noted above 70ns or 60ns speed ones. If you turn out to have them at hand I would be overjoyed..

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 11 of 11, by appiah4

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OK, so sorry for the unholy thread necromancy but this weekend I actually had the time to benchmark these cards against each other on my UMC U5S-33 system and here are the results:

                 CL-GD5428     FC64300
--------- ---------
3DBench 1.0 34.4 37.0
PC Player BM 6.7 6.8
Doom (Min.) 2134/1502 2134/1502

So yeah, in the less CPU limited 3DBench the FC64300 was significantly faster, but in CPU-limited scenarios it was a wash.

I would think the FC64300 would be a beast in a DX4 system though.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.