VOGONS


Miro S3 Trio32 VLB opinions

Topic actions

First post, by stalk3r

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Does anyone have experience with this card (Miro Crystal 12SD) ? If it's a good performer in DOS then I might give it a shot although at 35 EUR it is more on the upper side of my budget for a random VLB card
TKNQimvl.jpg

Reply 1 of 26, by kixs

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

It's a smaller brother from Trio64. Performs very good in DOS (pretty much as good as Trio64/Vision864) and average in Windows.

Price wise I'd say it's not on the expensive side.

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 2 of 26, by rasz_pl

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
stalk3r wrote:

35 EUR

kixs wrote:

Price wise I'd say it's not on the expensive side.

what? 😮
This is an insane price for what it is.

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 3 of 26, by stalk3r

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
rasz_pl wrote:
what? :o This is an insane price for what it is. […]
Show full quote
stalk3r wrote:

35 EUR

kixs wrote:

Price wise I'd say it's not on the expensive side.

what? 😮
This is an insane price for what it is.

Well depends, if you already bought a bunch of VLB cards couple of years ago, when they were much cheaper, then adding an extra mid-range card for 35 might seem expensive. But if you are new to the business and want to build a rig with semi-decent video, then it's reasonable (they are typically listed for around 70-100, provided there's any left for sale)

Reply 4 of 26, by dionb

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

At that price: snap it up. If you like it, keep it. If not, you'll have no trouble at all recouping your EUR 35. Hell, I'd promise to buy it from you 😜

Reply 5 of 26, by 386_junkie

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

The way prices are going these days, that is not too bad. Most decent VLB's are going up into the $100(s).

As another poster said, you'd have no probs recouping the 35.

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

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

Reply 6 of 26, by kixs

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
rasz_pl wrote:
what? :o This is an insane price for what it is. […]
Show full quote
stalk3r wrote:

35 EUR

kixs wrote:

Price wise I'd say it's not on the expensive side.

what? 😮
This is an insane price for what it is.

I'd buy it at that price + shipping. But that's just me 🤣

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 7 of 26, by dirkmirk

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

It's a good enough deal and you can easily expand the memory to 2meg, alot of 1meg cards use those memory chips with legs good luck finding memory to upgrade those.

Reply 8 of 26, by Gered

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I have one of these cards in my 486 PC (see link in my signature). It's a great card, I quite like it. I also picked mine up on eBay a couple years ago for a similar price. I remember being shocked when I saw it and bought it without hesitation, 🤣.

486DX2-66/16MB/S3 Trio32 VLB/SBPro2/GUS
P233 MMX/64MB/Voodoo2/Matrox/YMF719/GUS CD3
Duron 800/256MB/Savage4 Pro/SBLive (IN PROGRESS)
Toshiba 430CDT

Reply 9 of 26, by stalk3r

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Thanks guys for the info. I waited and seller relisted it for an even better price, so I too ordered it without hesitation 😀

Last edited by stalk3r on 2019-04-29, 14:16. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 10 of 26, by ph4nt0m

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
kixs wrote:

It's a smaller brother from Trio64. Performs very good in DOS (pretty much as good as Trio64/Vision864) and average in Windows.

Price wise I'd say it's not on the expensive side.

Trio32 has 32-bit memory vs. Trio64 with 64-bit. Although there are many Trio64 cards with just two 16-bit EDO chips installed. So their read memory bandwidth through VESA VBE is ~11Mb/s for Trio32 vs. ~18Mb for Trio64. The integrated RAMDAC sucks both in display quality and performance. 135MHz oh yeah. Not good for anything above 1024x768.

My Active Sales on CPU-World

Reply 11 of 26, by stalk3r

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
ph4nt0m wrote:

Not good for anything above 1024x768.

Luckily I am not planning to use it above 320x200 😀

I know this is not a high end card by any means. Those go for 150+ EUR nowadays, provided there's any for sale. But is scarce nevertheless, and pure DOS performance should not be bad.

Reply 12 of 26, by rasz_pl

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
stalk3r wrote:

Those go for 150+ EUR nowadays

get listed for >$100, not sold
Most collectors are in the hobby for the thrill of finding rare stuff in the free-$5 junk pile.

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 13 of 26, by Unknown_K

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

There are not that many decent VLB video cards on ebay at any one time so prices have gone up in the last year or two. A decade ago you would see them listed in bulk lots pretty cheap.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 14 of 26, by BinaryDemon

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Just curious, there's been a ton of homebrew hardware for certain devices like... XT-IDE ISA controllers, Adlib ISA replicas, XT-SVGA ISA, ect. Have there been any projects like that for VLB cards? It's likely prices will continue to rise as VLB cards get more difficult to find. It would be interesting to see a homebrew VLB card.

Check out DOSBox Distro:

https://sites.google.com/site/dosboxdistro/ [*]

a lightweight Linux distro (tinycore) which boots off a usb flash drive and goes straight to DOSBox.

Make your dos retrogaming experience portable!

Reply 15 of 26, by Tiido

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I have started a VLB IO and video card project.
T-01VIVC-A.png

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 16 of 26, by Anonymous Coward

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

For your design, I suggest using one of the graphics ICs that supported VLB interface but was only ever released as a PCI card.
For example: ET6000, CL-GD 5436 (maybe 5446), ARK2000, Trident 9680 and s3 Virge.

*Edit:

Looking at your layout, it seems you're planning to use a graphics chip in a BGA package. What is it going to be?

"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 17 of 26, by kixs

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
rasz_pl wrote:
stalk3r wrote:

Those go for 150+ EUR nowadays

get listed for >$100, not sold

Some cards get even over 200USD mark in the auction... it all depends on the card.

Most collectors are in the hobby for the thrill of finding rare stuff in the free-$5 junk pile.

I agree, but I only see a few people with all the luck to find anything useful in junk piles... I'm not one of them 🙁

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 18 of 26, by canthearu

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Anonymous Coward wrote:

For example: ET6000, CL-GD 5436 (maybe 5446), ARK2000, Trident 9680 and s3 Virge.

Can you get those in any kind of quantity anymore. It looks like the board design is for some kind of FPGA module that could emulate a VGA chip and maybe some highly compatible blitter.

Reply 19 of 26, by Tiido

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I'm using a MAX10 FPGA, anything is possible pretty much but for starters it'll only do MDA/CGA/EGA/VGA + VESA, enough for DOS stuff. Eventually I'll learn Windows driver making and then I can add 2D acceleration and maybe even dabble with 3D acceleration. It is supposed to become the fastest and most compatible video card there is for the old machines, with 15KHz output for connection to a random TV (RGB, S-video and composhit) and VGA+DVI output capable of at least showing 1920x1080 so that it can bypass potentially shitty scaling of some monitor. The card is both ISA and VLB, it can be used in 16bit ISA alone aswell. Video BIOS will be the hardest part for me, for the time being there's nothing more than incomplete PCB design. Eventually when there's more money and some other things are out the way I will continue working on this thing.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜