Hello, does the "Diamond Viper SE VLB 2+2" VGA card with Weitek 9100 chip belong to a higher tier than the Stealth or the Cirrus?
etomcat wrote on 2021-03-12, 23:37:Hello, does the "Diamond Viper SE VLB 2+2" VGA card with Weitek 9100 chip belong to a higher tier than the Stealth or the Cirrus?
A bit OT here
9100 is integration of the previous 9000 GUI + 5286 VGA core which used to be separate chips in previous generation.
It is quite capable GUI accelerator in Windows, but in DOS it is mediorce and even slower than Cirrus or S3 cards.
It is still a very nice and uncommon card from collectors point of view.
mpe wrote on 2021-03-13, 14:24:A bit OT here […]
etomcat wrote on 2021-03-12, 23:37:Hello, does the "Diamond Viper SE VLB 2+2" VGA card with Weitek 9100 chip belong to a higher tier than the Stealth or the Cirrus?
A bit OT here
9100 is integration of the previous 9000 GUI + 5286 VGA core which used to be separate chips in previous generation.
It is quite capable GUI accelerator in Windows, but in DOS it is mediorce and even slower than Cirrus or S3 cards.
It is still a very nice and uncommon card from collectors point of view.
Thanks for your response! I wonder why the advanced W9100 still needed a separate RAMDAC if the S3 and Cirrus got it integrated? Maybe the turquoise resin IBM Palette DAC chip was a vanity item in the computer video industry, a sign of bragging rights for more elite cards (like this, the Permedia and Infotronic)? BR, Tamas Feher
etomcat wrote on 2021-03-13, 16:11:mpe wrote on 2021-03-13, 14:24:A bit OT here […]
etomcat wrote on 2021-03-12, 23:37:Hello, does the "Diamond Viper SE VLB 2+2" VGA card with Weitek 9100 chip belong to a higher tier than the Stealth or the Cirrus?
A bit OT here
9100 is integration of the previous 9000 GUI + 5286 VGA core which used to be separate chips in previous generation.
It is quite capable GUI accelerator in Windows, but in DOS it is mediorce and even slower than Cirrus or S3 cards.
It is still a very nice and uncommon card from collectors point of view.
Thanks for your response! I wonder why the advanced W9100 still needed a separate RAMDAC if the S3 and Cirrus got it integrated? Maybe the turquoise resin IBM Palette DAC chip was a vanity item in the computer video industry, a sign of bragging rights for more elite cards (like this, the Permedia and Infotronic)? BR, Tamas Feher
AFAIK, when RAMDACs started being integrated into graphics chips, it was cost saving measure, not necessarily one for display optimal quality and thus started at the low end of the market. It took some time before higher end graphics chip designs started integrating a RAMDAC on-chip instead of relying on an external one . It probably also too some time for chip makers' designs to reach the output quality level of external high-end dedicated RAMDACs .
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