To those interested in the new ATI Ultra Cards:

I had posted some questions regarding the new ATI Ultra Pro cards and
had asked confirmation of some opinions.

This message is a summary of the responses. Thanks to all of you that
replied.



a) The higher memory limits apply to ISA cards only, as far as I know.  The VLB
   and EISA version should have no problems.
 
b) I'm pretty sure from my experience that the ISA version doesn't
   work in systems with over 16M Ram.  There is supposed to be way
   of switching the "memory aperture" feature off to prevent this,
   but apparently it doesn't work.  I posted some "help me" messages
   on the net and people indicated that the EISA card didn't have this
   problem.

c) FALSE

d) The VLB card, which I have, allows you to set memory aperture over 32M
   by using their configuration software.  No messing with jumpers necessary.

   The 32M problem is probably valid only for ISA cards.



a) Again, the memory aperture need only be disabled if you have more than 124M RAM
   (EISA and VLB) or 12 M (ISA).  32M should not be a problem for you. 
 
b) Dunno.

c) Depends on the bus. YES if ISA, NO if EISA or Localbus



a) Nope.  I can use 640x480 at 72hz, 24-bit and 800x600 at 70hz, 24-bit, all
   non-interlaced.

b) Yes - According to PC Magazine, they've tested a local bus version
   that does 1024x768 in 24-bit which may or may not be interlaced.

c) Not for the Pro. Sometimes for the Plus.

   Some modes may run only interlaced on certain monitors. This has nothing to 
   do with 24 bits ... only with screen size. Note that for 24 bit color
   and Windows you MUST have 2 megs, memory size calculations notwithstanding.



a) They aren't perfect, but are much improved.  I don't recall the last time which
   I had to leave mach 32 mode (ATI GUP mode) and switch to 8514 or VGA mode due
   to software incompatibility.

b) True.  Many people recommended going back to Build 55 or 54.

c) They appear to be excellent, but have a few bugs. For example, certain
   graphs with dashed lines in Mathcad 3.1 do not print correctly, though they
   do display OK on the screen. They are about par for fancy cards ..
   other accelerated cards also have bugs.

d) Overall, I like the card, even if driver performance is somewhat less than
   satisfactory.  I am running the 1024*768 16 Color mode as that is all my
   NT driver for October NT version seems to allow.

   I will say this that Color performance is not quite as nice as a Diamond
   Stealth VRAM, but I have not been able to try out a lot of the options on
   the old driver.



a) It's quite fast, but whether or not its the fastest is open to debate.
 
b) Yes - I'll admit it was very very fast in 16-bit mode, which is what
   I wanted to use it for.  Too bad it crashed (in many different ways)
   every 20 minutes or so...

c) Depends on many many things.



a) I like it.

b) Well - PC Magazine seems to think it is.

c) Yes, this appears to be true :-)

d) As to greatest thing since sliced bread, I doubt it.  Better cards are
   coming out.  Who knows, maybe ATI will come out with something faster yet.
   Several reviews I read rated one Pycon Winjet card as a superior performer 
   at a cheaper price except for availability of drivers, which Pycon was 
   developing at that time.  (PC Magazine, about two months or so back)

   Overall, the card has a lot of potential, but you have to be able to use it.
 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
That is the end of the questions. These were the most discussed items in this
group so I thought they needed confirmation. For those of you not familiar
with the card I have included a summary here (from an ATI ad since I don't have
an Graphics Ultra yet.)

ATI Graphics Ultra Plus:
- Accelerated 1024x768 at 65K colours
- True colour(16.7M) at 800x600
- Multimedia Video Acceleration (for Indeo Video,RLE and Video 1 compressed)
  Stretch full motion video windows to full size
- Fast VGA
- Includes 3 button mouse (ISA versions only)
- Anti-aliased fonts (ed. avail in 16 colour mode only,I think)
- Real-time pan and zoom across large virtual windows desktop
- Around a 1/2 length card size
- Priced from $400 U.S.

ATI Graphics Ultra Pro:
- Everything in Graphics Ultra Plus
- Faster performance with VRAMS
- Accelerated 1280x1024 at 256 colours 74Hz non-interlaced
- Available in ISA, EISA and Microchannel
- Priced from $600 U.S.

ATI Technologies
(416) 756-0718

I hope this summary can be of use to you.

Al

P.S.  I am not associated with ATI Technologies in any way other
      than having used their previous ATI Ultra card for a few
      years (which I generally liked).

