From: mgvdmeer@cs.vu.nl (Marcel v.d. Meer)
Subject: Video Cards, a summary
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, VU, Amsterdam
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 10:15:20 GMT

(Sorry 'bout all those ^M's, I typed it in Dos :(

Below follows an excerpt I have made from a recent (jan. 12 issue)
Video card test in PC-Magazine. I'm sure that in some points,
either PC-Mag or I got it worng, but you are welcome to make
corrections In fact, the more, the better).
I am myself a PC reseller, but since I live in Europe, much
of this technology hasn't been introduced here.

If someone could post the specific specs of some cards that use
one of the below chipsets, that would be appreciated. I would
like to know what cards are available.

Summary follows:

Accelarator/Frame-buffer Chips:

Chip        Max     Max   VRAM/ Image   Bus      Acc/ Remarks
            Clr     Mem   DRAM  size             FB

S3 86c911   16-bit  1 Mb  VRAM  16-bit  All      Acc
S3 86c924   24-bit  1 Mb  VRAM  16-bit  All      Acc  c911 Compatible
S3 86c801   24-bit  2 Mb  DRAM  32-bit  ISA      Acc
S3 86c805   24-bit  2 Mb  DRAM  32-bit  EISA/LB  Acc  VLB var. of c801
S3 86c928   24-bit  4 Mb  VRAM  32-bit  All      Acc  Optimized for VLB

MACH 32     32-bit  4 Mb  V/R   32-bit  All      Acc
ET4000/W32  32-bit  4 Mb  DRAM  32-bit  All      Acc
90c31-LR    24-bit  1 Mb  DRAM  16-bit  All      Acc  Low-cost
90c33       24-bit  2 Mb  DRAM  32-bit  VLB      Acc  

GD5422      ??      1 Mb  DRAM  16-bit  ISA      FB
ET4000      24-bit  1 Mb  DRAM  16-bit  All      FB   New rev. G avail.

Performances:

Chip         Bus    V/R      Dos        Acad       Win

S3 86c911    ISA    VRAM     1.2-1.7    6.8-12.8   3.3-3.6
S3 86c924    ISA    VRAM     1.7-2.1    1.5-9.5    3.5-4.6
S3 86c801    ISA    DRAM     3.0-4.0    6.9-12.8   5.3-7.1
S3 86c805    VLB    DRAM     7.0        15.3       2.9
S3 86c928    ISA    VRAM     3.7        9.5        5.6

MACH 32      ISA    DRAM     4.3        5.8        6.3
MACH 32      ISA    VRAM     4.0        9.5        6.5
MACH 32      VLB    VRAM     8.0        12.3       18.3

GD5422       ISA    DRAM     6.0-6.0    3.4-4.9    2.2-2.6
90c31-LR     ISA    DRAM     4.6-6.0    2.1-5.4    2.6-4.9

ET4000       ISA    DRAM     4.5-6.0    1.0-4.4    1.4-1.6
ET4000       EISA   DRAM     6.0        1.0        1.4
ET4000-G     VLB    DRAM     10.9       NA         3.2
ET4000/W32   VLB    DRAM     10.9       NA         5.7

- When more than 1 card was tested, min. & max. performance is given
- The results of the autocad test are 1000 / PC-Mag result, this
  to give a performance where the higher number is better
PC-Mag graphics winmark: 1024x768, 256 color

Note 1 All 256 color modes (640x480/800x600/1024x768) give about
       the same Windows speed in relation to each other

Note 2 The below conclusions are my own and do not
necessarily agree wit those of the PC-Mag test-team


Conclusions:

All users:
Clearly, VESA Local-bus cards can offer a tremendous performance
increase. If you're upgrading your motherboard or buying a new
machine, and think about getting a 486, be sure toget a VLB-machine
and either buy a cheap card now and a well-developed VLB-card later
or buy a VLB-car now.

Whatever card you fancy, get all the facts straight:
RAM-DAC's, driverss etc. are constantly changing.
Be sure to get good drivers for the software you plan to use.
When a certain chip has some qualities (like 24-bit color) but
the card you're interested in, doesn't support them, think
about waiting until it does or to look for another card with
the same chip. Also, alot of times, better/faster drivers
can be found on some FTP-sites. This can dramatically increase
the performance/stability of some systems.

Acad users:
The above might now be entirely true for you. The difference
in performance is quite low, BUT most Cad systems (which
are mostly 486 systems) are now VLB systems. if you already
have a ISA/EISA system, you don't have to bother to update to
VLB though. 

Dos-users:
There best of using a relatively simple frame-buffer VGA card.
VLB-owners (to be) should be on the lookout for a Tseng ET4000
VLB card, it's blindingly fast at relatively low-price.
ISA users should check out a Cirrus GD5422 or Tseng ET-4000
based cards.

GUI-users:
Their best bet (at the moment) is a Accelarator card, which
offers good Dos-performance while profiding special hardware
functions to make Windows/OS-2/etc. graphics a lot faster.

Think about either an ATI MACH32 based card (hope they sort
out their driver problems and put their VLB version out on
the market for end-users) or a S3 based card.

The S3 cards are basically divided in 2 categories, the 1 Mb VRAM
versions (911/924) which are currently the most used, but watch
out for the 801/805 cards, which use cheaper DRAM, but support
2 Mb of it, and offer similar performance.

Cards which also to consider are cards which uses C&T's 82c481 in
combination with their Wingine chip, which offers great windows
performance. Also, the new to be released ET4000/W32 can be a
real winner, offering up to 4 Mb of (D)RAM, the same goes
for the S3 86c928, which should be the best performing S3 card
yet, using VRAM and optimized for VLB use.

X-Windows-users:
For you, there are special considerations. Unlike for a lot
of other GUI's, drivers are often not available. As I understand
it, correct me if I'm wrong (which I'm sure you will) there
are (for Linux) only drivers available for the ET-4000 and
S3 86c911/924, so your choice is limited. 


With the information above, I hope to have been able to shed some
light on the current chaos in video-land. Any respons/corrections/etc
would greatly be appreciated, either via E-mail or via Usenet.

Marcel vd Meer, marcel@mars.let.uva.nl, mgvdmeer@cs.vu.nl

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