I have Nitro 64 ISA card somewhere and can dump the BIOS if you still need it.

mockingbird wrote on 2020-09-04, 03:02:

I found a couple of GD5434 PCI cards in my stash and made BIOS dumps for you:

Thanks for 1.24b BIOS, I'll check it later - the latest one I've got is 1.22.

zyga64 wrote on 2020-09-04, 05:58:

Count me in ! How much will be unpopulated PCB alone ?
I need something that won't generate vertical stripes on LCD (in 320x200) - my Trident TVGA9000c unfortunately does this.

It's extremely hard to make a photo of an LCD without moire that show output quality, but it's better than both AVGA2 & TVGA9000A I've got lying around. I can still see faint vertical stripes though.
https://imgur.com/a/YZA06zA

kixs wrote on 2020-09-04, 19:15:

I have Nitro 64 ISA card somewhere and can dump the BIOS if you still need it.

Yep, that will be nice. But as far as I understand only Diamond has specific drivers and only generic PCI BIOS supports DDC monitor detection, so I'm planning to include these two - selectable by a jumper.

Tomorrow I'll try to send PMs to everyone interested - hope I don't forget anyone.

A bit late to the party, but interested as well in a complete kit.

Using an LCD monitor as a reference for output quality is a poor choice. Using an OSSC to capture over the VGA input (with appropriate 400p sampling mode selected) would be preferred

I can still see faint vertical stripes though.

Even some late PCI cards can show faint vertical stripes on LCD. Easy to spot on Windows 95/98 boot screen.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-09-05, 02:20:

Using an LCD monitor as a reference for output quality is a poor choice. Using an OSSC to capture over the VGA input (with appropriate 400p sampling mode selected) would be preferred

I don't have an OSSC, but I do have a DVI/VGA capture card. It's currently unplugged, but I can try. I'm expecting it to be perfect in both cases though.

Jager wrote on 2020-09-05, 07:08:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-09-05, 02:20:

Using an LCD monitor as a reference for output quality is a poor choice. Using an OSSC to capture over the VGA input (with appropriate 400p sampling mode selected) would be preferred

I don't have an OSSC, but I do have a DVI/VGA capture card. It's currently unplugged, but I can try. I'm expecting it to be perfect in both cases though.

It depends on the capture card and whether it includes a low pass filter on the analog input. The Datapath cards for example look like garbage when directly capturing old noisy ISA cards, and they are of exemplary quality.

Great looking card already! How is the vga output signal quality compared to other isa cards (both GD5434 or other brands?). Any "modern" improvements maybe in the DAC choice external components, trace lenght or whatever or simply it can be as good as any other GD5434 card could have been back in its days?

Ok, that didn't go as planned. These are captured images from my 5434 and Trident 9000b. Long story short - when trying to display 320x200 image (WinBios or 3dBench) with 720x400 or 720x350 resolution both look horrible. Lowering horizontal resolution to 640 pixels results in great image for both, but 5434 output is better anyway (9000b has some ghosting around text in VC and some lines in 3dBench even at 640x400).
Note - its not that bad on my NEC 2070NX, but with Trident vertical lines are much more noticeable.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V4GsIx-Q5hRc … fy4pZK8Hp-pect/

That got me curious, so I've checked my Cirrus Logic PCI and AGP cards on LCD. Here's my result:

Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446 (JQGD543XTPCI) - soft vertical lines, slightly more noticeable compared to your screenshots.
Cirrus Logic CL-GD54M30 (JQGD54M3XPCI) - faint vertical lines, but much less pronounced.
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446 (PixelView ProLink PV-CL544XP+) - very faint vertical lines, almost unnoticeable if you don't know where to look.
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5465 Laguna 3D (FQI546AVS) - no vertical lines.

So out of Alpine+ family chips in my possession, every card has it, but severity of effect can differ considerably. Laguna family seems to be not affected (but they have their own issues). Probably could check it later with more brandname(ish) card.

Jager wrote on 2020-09-10, 10:55:

Ok, that didn't go as planned. These are captured images from my 5434 and Trident 9000b. Long story short - when trying to display 320x200 image (WinBios or 3dBench) with 720x400 or 720x350 resolution both look horrible. Lowering horizontal resolution to 640 pixels results in great image for both, but 5434 output is better anyway (9000b has some ghosting around text in VC and some lines in 3dBench even at 640x400).
Note - its not that bad on my NEC 2070NX, but with Trident vertical lines are much more noticeable.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V4GsIx-Q5hRc … fy4pZK8Hp-pect/

See just like I said, sampling error

I'm in the process of restoring the 486DX-50 I had as a kid and would be very interested in one of your cards.

I have no idea what happened to the ISA video card that used to be in that computer but during the restoration so far, I've been stuck under-clocking the processor at 33MHz and using a VLB card.

My preference would be to run at the full 50Mhz with everything ISA but the prices for decent cards used is nuts.

Do you have any assembled kits available? I'm okay with a soldering iron, but I don't trust my hands with that level of micro-soldering yet.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-09-10, 13:45:

Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446 (JQGD543XTPCI) - soft vertical lines, slightly more noticeable compared to your screenshots. Cirrus Logi […]
Show full quote

Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446 (JQGD543XTPCI) - soft vertical lines, slightly more noticeable compared to your screenshots.
Cirrus Logic CL-GD54M30 (JQGD54M3XPCI) - faint vertical lines, but much less pronounced.
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446 (PixelView ProLink PV-CL544XP+) - very faint vertical lines, almost unnoticeable if you don't know where to look.
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5465 Laguna 3D (FQI546AVS) - no vertical lines.

What causes the faint lines? They bug me. They seem to show up more on dark colors. Is it aging lowpass filters?

Trident 9400cxi VLB - Lines
Mach32 EXM195a VLB - Integrated Ramdac - Faint Lines
CL-GD5429 VLB - Lines
Trident 9440 VLB - Excellent Blacks , No lines

Back then, when I had D945GCLF motherboard, One ATX power supply connector was missing a wire on the ATX connector so I soldered a wire from ATX 12V CPU connector so I don't get high density horizontal lines in video output.

See if you can find the noise that get introduced that causes this vertical line and also consult the service manual for this cirrus logic chipset on how to do this correctly.

Irony thing is, I don't have cirrus logic video card in my collection. What cirrrus logic video chips is most likely to have vertical lines so I could reproduce it and look for the source of this.

Cheers,

t3hbeowulf wrote on 2020-09-29, 23:26:

Do you have any assembled kits available? I'm okay with a soldering iron, but I don't trust my hands with that level of micro-soldering yet.

Sorry, but first batch is sold out, only 2 empty PCBs left. I'm thinking about ordering more parts/PCBs, maybe even partially machine pre-assembled, but I'm a bit low on funds. Plus I need some feedback about already sold units.

douglar wrote on 2020-09-30, 01:23:

What causes the faint lines? They bug me. They seem to show up more on dark colors. Is it aging lowpass filters?

Now I'm pretty sure that most of them are caused by sampling frequency vs pixel clock mismatch. OSSC should fix that, since it supports 640x400 input via VGA.

t3hbeowulf wrote on 2020-09-29, 23:26:

I'm in the process of restoring the 486DX-50 I had as a kid and would be very interested in one of your cards. […]
Show full quote

I'm in the process of restoring the 486DX-50 I had as a kid and would be very interested in one of your cards.

I have no idea what happened to the ISA video card that used to be in that computer but during the restoration so far, I've been stuck under-clocking the processor at 33MHz and using a VLB card.

My preference would be to run at the full 50Mhz with everything ISA but the prices for decent cards used is nuts.

Do you have any assembled kits available? I'm okay with a soldering iron, but I don't trust my hands with that level of micro-soldering yet.

Hmm. VLB is known to be unstable or not work at all at 50Mhz. Some cards will do it in some systems, but compatibility is an issue and for that reason the 50Mhz chips were a bleeding edge option that quickly got replaced with DX2/66 chips and tended to be associated with EISA bus workstations and high performance applications where video speed is unimportant.

If you're going to be playing more demanding video games like DOOM, you should probably upgrade to a DX2/66 or DX4/100 running at a 33Mhz FSB and keep the VLB card as even a mediocre local bus video setup is usually faster than a good ISA card.

Put me down as interested in the next batch too, should there be one. Maybe do some kind of pre-order system to obtain funds?

I checked STB Nitro CL-GD5440 based on this design - no lines.

It is how they designed the PCB and programming produces best results. I'm trying to find some video cards to play with to find out why getting lines in the LCD monitors as I do have scope.

What video cards that does produces lines?

Cheers,

Trident 9000c certainly isn't great with LCDs, lots of vertical banding on mine