Monster Media 1996 #15/Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO/os2/pcios2.zip/PCI_VIDE

Text File | 1996-06-06 | 60KB | 1,326 lines

          Document:  PCI Video Cards for OS/2 list
        Maintainer:  Patrick Duffy, [e-mail]
Last Revision Date:  11/5/95, 11/26/95, 12/3/95, 5/18/96, 5/26/96,
                     6/2/96
       Archived at:  ftp.netcom.com, in directory /pub/ab/abe/
                     CompuServe (GO BENCHMARK)
         Web pages:  http://warp.eecs.berkeley.edu/os2/workbench/work.htm
                     http://www.os2forum.or.at/english/info/os2hardwareinfo/
                     (note that the first URL may not have up-to-date
                     versions of the lists)

This document is intended for use by individuals and corporations in a
non-commercial manner.  It may be distributed freely within those
limitations.  Commercial use of this document in any manner requires
prior written permission of the author.

This is the PCI video card for OS/2 list. Remember that I depend very
heavily on your input, so feel free to correct any continuing
misconceptions I might have, or to insist that I should recommend a card
I don't, or to add a new card/piece of information to what's here
already. Your contributions and/or corrections are always welcome and
certainly appreciated.  I've added the PCI vendor IDs of the card
manufacturer to the list, in most cases in brackets after the relevant
card entry.  The first entry is HEX, and the second one is decimal.
Dates in brackets indicate the last revision date for the related entry.

General comments: (8/27/95)

For any video card (and any operating system, really) it's potentially
to your advantage to pick a card which is either supported directly or
is backwards compatible with some standard supported directly by the
operating system vendor.  That way, if a new release of the operating
system in question breaks the drivers you have, you'll either be
guaranteed new drivers with the operating system, or at least have a
"fall-back" point, where you'll have higher resolution than VGA, though
likely not with all the accelerated features of the card.

For OS/2 2.1/2.11, you'll want standards supported by IBM.  There are no
PCI XGA cards (something for which I would give my eye teeth), so your
best bet is a PCI S3 801/805/928-based card which works with the IBM
drivers. These seem to be relatively few in number in North America
(though fairly common in Europe), so if you can't find one listed here,
a safe bet is the ATI Graphics Ultra Pro listed below, especially since
it is used (with the latest ATI drivers) in several OS/2-certified
systems. It has the added advantage of being 8514 compatible, which
means that you'll have higher-than-VGA-resolution drivers for it, even
if they don't support all available modes of the card, if a new release
of OS/2 breaks ATI's drivers.  Also a good bet would be any video card
which uses the ET4000-W32[i,p] chip, since the ET4000 (not -W32[i,p])
chip is supported by OS/2 out of the box, and the new W32[i,p] chips are
supposed to be backwards compatible with it.

For OS/2 Warp, driver support seems to be much better.  Support (either
by IBM or coerced by IBM) for almost all major video chipset types is
built in, so when picking your card a good criterion to search by is
driver maturity, followed next by speed.  Fast cards are all well and
good, after all, but mediocre drivers can take away all the advantages
they potentially offer.  I'll try (as best I can) to offer up opinions
where that's concerned.  Please feel free to contribute.

One last note:  If a particular video chip is reported to work well when
used in a particular video card, this does not necessarily mean that it
will work well in systems where the video has been integrated onto the
motherboard.  For that matter, the presence of a given video chip on a
certain video card does not automatically guarantee that that certain
video card will work either, even if other implementations using that
chip work.  This is because every implementation of the video chip may
use slightly different support chips (DAC, etc.), and these slightly
different chips may (or may not) cause driver problems when existing
drivers were not written with that implementation in mind.  To that end
and unless specifically noted otherwise, all reports below are only for
the specific video card indicated.

                             NEW THIS WEEK
                             -------------

I've updated the information on the combination audio/video card by
Asus, and added their contact information to the "Useful Numbers"
section below.

Useful Numbers: (6/2/96)
---------------
#9:              [phone] (voice)
                 ftp.nine.com (FTP site)
                 www.nine.com (WWW site)

Asus:            [phone] (tech. support)
                 ftp.asus.com.tw (ftp site)
                 www.asus.com.tw (WWW site)
                 gopher.asus.com.tw (gopher site)
                 [e-mail] (tech. support E-Mail)
                 alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (internet newsgroup)

ATI:             [phone] (sales)
                 [phone] (sales -- FAX)
                 [phone] (tech. support)
                 [phone] (tech. support -- FAX)
                 [phone] (BBS -- N,8,1)
                 ftp.atitech.ca (FTP site)
                 www.atitech.ca (WWW site)
                 [e-mail] (General Inquiries)
                 [e-mail]  (Tech. Support)
                 GO ATITECH (CompuServe)

Avance:          ftp.avance.com (FTP site)
                 www.avance.com (WWW site)

Compaq:          ftp.compaq.com (FTP site)
                 www.compaq.com (WWW site)

Dell:            ftp.dell.com (FTP site for S3/Trio64 drivers)

Diamond:         [phone] (voice)
                 [phone] (FAX)
                 [phone] (BBS -- N,8,1)
                 ftp.diamondmm.com (FTP site)
                 www.diamondmm.com (WWW site)
                 75300,3673   (CompuServe)
                 DIAMOND.TECH (Genie)

ELSA (Germany):  0-241-9177-0    (Voice)
                 0-241-9177-600  (FAX)
                 0-241-9177-4    (FAXBack)
                 0-241-9177-981  (BBS)
                 0-241-9177-7800 (ISDN port)
ELSA (U.S.):     [phone] (Voice)
                 [phone] (Voice)
                 [phone] (FAX)
                 [phone] (BBS)
                 GO ELSA (Compuserve)

Hercules:        [phone] (voice)
                 [phone] (voice)
                 [phone] (FAX)
                 [phone] (BBS - US)
                 [phone] (BBS - Germany)
                 ftp.hercules.com (FTP site)
                 www.hercules.com (WWW site)

Matrox:          [phone] (voice)
                 [phone] (voice)
                 [phone] (FAX)
                 [phone] (FAXBack)
                 www.matrox.com (WWW site)
                 ftp.matrox.com (FTP site)

Miro:            www.miro.com (WWW site)

S3:              s3.com (FTP site)

SPEA (Germany):  voice: [phone]
                 fax: [phone]
                 BBS: [phone], 300 - 14400 - N,8,1

             PART ONE:  Cards Supported Out-of-the-box by Warp
             =================================================

a) 64-bit Cards
---------------

Manufacturer           Model        Comments
------------------------------------------------------
   #9                  GXE64*        The GXE64 is based on the
                                     S3/864 chipset and uses up to 2 MB
of DRAM. It uses the AT&T 20C498-13 RAMDAC.  A GXE64 is being used in
combination with the Qlogic SCSI card and the Intel 60 MHz Pentium
motherboard without problems.  Note that there may or may not be two
versions of this card; when you order yours make _certain_ that the card
you're getting uses the S3/864 chipset to get out-of-the-box support in
Warp.

(Number 9 Computer Company:  105D/4189) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  The drivers supplied with Warp apparently support all
modes of the card and work without problems.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support seems pretty good from #9.  The drivers
(the last version of which supported all modes of the card) seem to work
well with few problems.

 Actix                 GE 64*        Another S3/864-based card, with
                                     1 MB (expandable to 4) of memory
                                     and the STG1700 RAMDAC.

(S3 Inc.:  5333/21299) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  All modes of the card are supported, and the card
is reported to work well, with the exception that switching between
full-screen sessions which use the DOS/4GW extender and the MetaGraphics
library can result in the bottom half of the DOS full-screen being
corrupted.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  S3 has released drivers which apparently support most
modes of the card, up to 16bpp.

Deal of the week:  2 MB:  $299, from Treasure Chest Peripherals
                          [phone]/[phone]
                   4 MB:  $459, from Harmony Computers, [phone]

  Asus                 PCI-AV264CT-N Here's an interesting one from
                       **            Asus.  This card is apparently
based on the Mach64CT chip and has a 135 MHz DAC.  It is expandible to 2
MB of VRAM (and comes with 1 MB standard).  The really interesting part,
though, is that this card has in it a sound card (based around the
Creative Labs Vibra16 chipset) as well.  All of this has been reported
to work well under OS/2.  The card supports all of the following refresh
rates and colour depths:

(Asustek Computer, Inc.:  1043/4163)
(ATI Technologies Inc.:  1002/4098) (6/2/96)

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24           90 / 100
 800 x  600        8/16/24*          90 / 100
1024 x  768        8/16*            100 / 100
1152 x  864        8/16*             80 /  80
1280 x 1024        4/8*              75 /  75

* - Indicates that 2 MB of VRAM is required.

  Asus                 PCI-AV868*    Here's another combination card
                                     from Asus.  This card is based on
the S3/868 chip and will take up to 2 MB of DRAM.  The card plugs into
an Asus mediabus slot on boards which have one.  As an added bonus, the
sound card uses the Vibra 16S chipset for sound, which Warp recognizes
as an SB-16.

(Asustek Computer, Inc.:  1043/4163)
(S3 Inc.:  5333/21299) (9/13/95)

 Under Warp:  The card uses the generic S3 drivers and is reported to
work well.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

  ATI                  G Pro Turbo** This card is based on the ATI
                                     Mach64 chip and takes up to 4 MB of
VRAM.  There are documented incompatibilities between early versions of
this card and the Triton chipset, but these now appear to be fixed.
This particular card uses an EEPROM to store monitor information, and is
reported to work well, being (for the most part) faster than the
Graphics Ultra Pro it supercedes, with the exception that switching
times (for one user at least) between Win-OS2 and the desktop are very
slow -- as long as 15 seconds.

(ATI Technologies Inc.:  1002/4098) (12/3/95)

  Under Warp:  All modes of the card are supported, and the drivers are
reported to work very well.  New ATI drivers (version 2.01) are reported
to finally support the 1280x1024x24bpp mode of the card.

  Under 2.1/2.11:  All modes of the card are supported, and the drivers
are reported to work reasonably well.  Check the ATI FTP site for the
latest drivers. It may be necessary to set video_switch_notification to
ON for your Windows and DOS full-screen sessions, or your desktop will
be severely corrupted on switching back from a Win-OS2 full screen
session.

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24          Up to 72 Hz
 800 x  600        8/16/24          Up to 72 Hz
1024 x  768        8/16/24*         Up to 72 Hz
1280 x 1024        8/16*/24+        Up to 72 Hz

(*) Indicates that 4 MB of VRAM is required.
(+) The 24-bpp mode of this resolution is not supported in the Warp
    drivers.  The latest drivers from ATI (though not from IBM) do
    support this mode.

Deal of the week (2 MB):  $365.75 from Vektron International, Inc.,
                                       [phone]/[phone]
Deal of the week (4 MB):  $579 from Harmony Computers ($539 for the
                          OEM version) [phone]

  ATI                  Winturbo*     This is a less expensive version of
                                     the Graphics Pro Turbo above, and
is the card which generally comes with systems which advertise a Mach64
card. The main difference between this card and the Pro Turbo is that
the manual is a little less thorough and has less information in it. The
card is reported to work well.  This card may or may not use an EEPROM
to store monitor information; if it does not, follow these directions to
avoid installation hassles:

-Install Warp on the drive and partition of your choice.
-When the System Configuration screen comes up, reset the Primary Display to
 VGA
-From a fullscreen os/2 session, run os2inst.exe (disk 1 of the ATI floppies)
 directing the installation to the drive you installed WARP on.  Set
 monitor frequency/type as desired and save.
-Choose 'Drivers Installation'.
-Do NOT run 'Utilities Installation'
-Check the modification at the start of autoexec.bat, the SET command points to
 an EEDATA file in C:\MACH64.  Fix this.
-Run 'DSPINSTL' from an os/2 session, choose ATI Enhanced 1.54
 and use MONITOR DEFAULTS, then shutdown.
-If you had already installed the IBM Mach64 driver previously, dspinstl
 will ask permission to overwrite one or several newer target files.
 Allow it to do so.
-Reboot, and you'll see the Ring 0 driver 2.2 being loaded, choose resolution
 and colourdepth, and reboot once more.

(ATI Technologies Inc.:  1002/4098) (12/3/95)

  ATI                  Xpression*    This is a DRAM-based version of the
                                     Graphics Pro Turbo card.  Drivers
as for that card, though refresh rates at higher resolutions and
colour depths are not as high as for the Graphics Pro Turbo.  (The card
will do up to 75 Hz at 1280x1024x8bpp.  8 bpp requires 2 MB of DRAM, of
course.)  This card will accept a maximum of 2 MB of DRAM.  Note that
newer versions of this card no longer store monitor settings in EPROM!
If you have a newer version of this card, use the drivers which come
with the card and everything should work properly.  See above for
hints/tips about driver installation.

(ATI Technologies Inc.:  1002/4098) (5/18/96)

 Diamond               SpeedStar64*  This is a series of cards based
                                     around the Cirrus Logic CL543X
chipsets.  All cards (to my knowledge) use DRAM.  The cards are reported
to be significantly faster in full-screen DOS sessions than are the ATI
Mach32 cards, though it does not support DOS graphics in a window.

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  Driver support is reported to be good, and the cards are
said to run without problems.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  The drivers for the 5428 chipset work with it, and
support most modes of the chip. Diamond has released functional 256
colour (only) drivers for this card.

 Diamond               Stealth 64    Based on the 864 chipset from S3.
                                     This card takes either 1 or 2 MB of
DRAM and uses the S3 86C716 SDAC RAMDAC (some cards use the ICS5342
RAMDAC.  It has been discontinued (in favour of a card with the same
name which uses the S3 Trio32 chip). (This is the reason I'm not
recommending it.)

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  People have reported mixed success with this card and the
drivers supplied with Warp.  One person has reported that 'bit rot' sets
in when switching to and from full-screen Win-OS2 sessions.  One other
person reports that Warp recommends that drivers from Diamond be used
instead of the Warp drivers, and that the Diamond drivers (currently at
version 1.04) are reported to work fairly well.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Version 1.04 of the drivers now seem to support most
modes and all necessary colour depths.  One poster has reported that
Ultimotion works for him, so that warnings in the readme file that comes
with the drivers about playback not working seem to be spurious.

 Genoa                 Phantom 864   This card is based on the S3/864
                                     chip and takes up to 2 MB of DRAM.
The card is reported to misbehave under DOS, as it blanks the screen
after a hotkey return from PCTools.  (So I'm not recommending it.)

(Genoa Systems Corp.:  1047/4167) (8/27/95)

 Under 2.1/2.11:  OS/2 drivers exist and the card is reported to work
well.
 Under Warp:  This card should work with the OS/2 drivers supplied.  No
reports of success yet, though.

 Intel                 Cirrus Logic* There are two cards by Intel which
                                     use the 543X chipset.  One, the
PCICL54301MB, uses the 5430 chipset and comes with 1MB of VRAM.  The
other, the PCICL54342MB, uses the 5434 chipset and comes with 2 MB of
DRAM.

(Cirrus Logic:  1013/4115) (8/27/95)
(Intel:  8086/32902)

Under Warp:  The DRAM card is supported, but is reported to not be 100%
stable. The card has all the green features and apparently will blank
the screen automatically. However, occasionally when the card is
"re-awakened", the screen will either be a) totally garbled or b) will
give bold over/underscores on different letters. Starting an OS/2
fullscreen session and closing it fixes the problem. The card could be
responsible for instability on at least one .netter's system.
Apparently, on Warp beta II, the accel. drivers hung his system
regularly.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support is said to be there, but is of unknown
quality.  Cirrus Logic has released 8-bit drivers for the card, so I
suspect that this is all that is available.

 Orchid                Kelvin 64*    This card uses the Cirrus Logic
                                     5434 chipset.  2 MB of RAM
                                     supports:

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24          Up to 75 Hz
 800 x  600        8/16             Up to 75 Hz
1024 x  768        8/16             Up to 75 Hz
1280 x 1024        8*               Up to 75 Hz

(Cirrus Logic:  1013/4115) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  The card and drivers are reported to work well.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Drivers are in the file KOS211.EXE (off the Orchid
BBS), but they only do 8 bit colour. Presumably also the 5428 drivers
will work with this card as they do the Diamond.

 Spider                Graphics*     This card uses the Cirrus Logic
                                     5434 chipset.  Driver support as
for the Diamond SpeedStar 64 and the Orchid Kelvin 64, presumably.

(Cirrus Logic:  1013/4115) (8/27/95)

b) 32-bit Cards
---------------

Manufacturer           Model        Comments
------------------------------------------------------
  ATI                  GU Pro/2MB**  This card is based on the Mach32
                                     chipset from ATI, and comes with 1
or 2 MB of VRAM.  The card uses an EEPROM to store monitor information,
and has what is apparently a very fast screen-switching time.  As the
card is 8514-compatible, all the features of the 8514 (graphics in a DOS
window, etc.) are available and all work.  8514 does not support DIVE,
but then the native drivers don't support graphics in a DOS window,
either.  It's a tradeoff...

(ATI Technologies Inc.:  1002/4098) (12/3/95)

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24          Up to 72 Hz
 800 x  600        8/16/24          Up to 72 Hz
1024 x  768        8/16             Up to 72 Hz
1280 x 1024        8                Up to 72 Hz*

(*) Depends on the DAC installed:
    ATI68875B: 60 Hz N/I
    ATI68875C: 74 Hz N/I
    Bt481:     95 Hz I

 Under Warp:  The Windows and Win-OS2 drivers for the card seem to have
problems co-existing.  It's necessary to write a batch file to copy the
Windows driver into place when booting straight DOS as a result.  (I
have not experienced this problem with the Mach32 card in my system
while running Warp Connect for Windows.) Otherwise, the card seems to
run very well.  (The aforementioned video problem should not be an issue
with Warp+Win-OS2 when it's released.)

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Drivers exist for all supported video modes of the
card including true colour.  They (version 2.6) work fairly well. This
card is 8514-compatible, though oddly enough the 8514 drivers are
reported to be faster than the latest native drivers.  ** IMPORTANT **
to avoid complete corruption of your desktop when running full-screen
Win-OS2 settings, make sure you set video_switch_notification to ON (it
defaults to off) for your full-screen DOS sessions and your full-screen
Win-OS2 sessions.

 Cardex                Challenger*   This card uses the ET4000-W32p
                                     chipset and comes with 1 MB
(upgradable to 2 MB) of RAM.

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24          up to 72 Hz
 800 x  600        8/16/24          up to 72 Hz
1024 x  768        8/16*            up to 70 Hz
1280 x 1024        8*               up to 70 Hz

(*) Requires 2 MB

(Cardexpert Technology:  10B0/4272) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  The card is reported to work very well, with no problems
and all modes supported in the 2 MB configuration.  With 1 MB on the
card, one person has reported problems with any resolution beyond VGA.
The Warp drivers apparently do not support a hardware cursor above 256
colours.  (Get the latest drivers from Tseng, which apparently fix many
of these complaints.)

 Under 2.1/2.11: All resolutions are supported, but only at 8 bpp.

 Cardex                Thunder64 Pro This card uses the Cirrus Logic
                                     5434 chipset and is PCI
2.0-compliant.  It takes up to 2 MB of 70 ns DRAM and has all the green
functions.

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
640  x 480         8/16/24          74 Hz
800  x 600         8/16             74 Hz
800  x 600         24               60 Hz
1024 x 768         8/16             75 Hz
1280 x 1024        8                60 Hz

(Cardexpert Technology:  10B0/4272) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  The card is reported to work fairly well (using the
updated drivers from the IBM BBS, with only minor bugs.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support as for other Cirrus Logic cards,
presumably.

 Diamond               Viper         This card uses the P9000 chipset
                                     from Weitek.  I've seen a lot of
futzing with this card, and I've had reports from people that it will
not work with Asus SP3G motherboards (with BIOS rev. 3.12 on the card).
Other people have had no problems, though.  To be avoided.

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
640  x 480         8/16/24          70 Hz,
800  x 600         8/16             60, 70 Hz,
800  x 600         24               60, 72 Hz,
1024 x 768         8/16             60, 70 Hz,
1280 x 1024        8                60, 70 Hz,
1600 x 1200        8                60 Hz

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  I've had a report of success with the card using an Intel
Premiere II (90 MHz) board with the 1.00.01.AX1 (!) BIOS, except that
apparently there is colour flicker (only briefly) when starting a
Windows application.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Diamond has released version 1.02 beta drivers which
fix a lot of problems with the older (1.01) drivers. They are reported
trouble-free initially, provided that you remember to use the "-d"
option when unzipping the driver files to disk if you use PKUnzip
(Info-Zip does this automatically). Resolution change via system setup
is not supported yet (this must be done via dspinstl), although refresh
rates above 60Hz for higher resolutions now are.

 Diamond               Viper Pro     This is a newer version of the
                                     Viper, based around the Weitek
P9100 chipset (the P9000 is in the Viper).  Driver support as for the
P9000, with notes and reservations as listed above.

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (8/27/95)

 Genoa                 Phantom 2MB*  This card uses an ET4000/W32p
                                     chipset.

(Genoa Systems Corp.:  1047/4167) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  Driver support and refresh rates as for the Cardex
Challenger.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support and refresh rates as for the Cardex
Challenger.

 Genoa                 Phantom 32i*  This card uses an ET4000/W32i
                                     chipset.  Drivers as above for the
                                     Phantom 2MB.

(Genoa Systems Corp.:  1047/4167) (8/27/95)

 Hercules              Dynamite**    Another ET4000/W32p-based card.
                       Power         Drivers/support as for the Cardex
                                     card, with the exception that rev.
D of the card has problems with the Warp drivers (corrupted desktop when
it is first displayed).  A fix is available from IBM for this.

(Tseng Labs Inc.:  100C/4108) (8/27/95)

 Intel                 Mach32**      Intel has discontinued their
                                     generic S3/928 card in favour of
three new (also generic) PCI video cards.  This card is very likely the
best bet of the three, since it has the same chip as is in the Graphics
Ultra Pro above, and ATI has drivers that work for all modes and
resolutions of that card.  The card also comes with the ATI68875C DAC,
so you'll get good refresh rates at high resolutions and colour depths
out of it.

(ATI Technologies Inc.:  1002/4098) (8/27/95)
(Intel:  8086/32902)

 Micro Media             ???*        This is a card based on the S3
 Technology                          P86C805 chipset which will,
                                     apparently, work with the IBM S3
                                     drivers.

(S3 Inc.:  5333/21299) (8/27/95)

 Leadtek               T200*         This card can have up to 2 MB of
                                     RAM and will also hold a video
capture daughterboard.  The video card itself works with the current
ET4000/W32p drivers.  The video capature daughterboard (composite &
S-VHS input and 15-pin SVGA output) is only supported under Win/3.1 at
the moment, but apparently OS/2 drivers are promised "soon".  There is
also being developed an MPEG daughter-board for the card.  Support as
for the Cardex, presumably.

(Leadtek Research Inc.:  107D/4221) (8/27/95)

 STB                   LightSpeed*   Another ET4000/W32p card.  Driver
                                     support as for the Cardex,
                                     presumably.
(STB Systems Inc.:  10B4/4276) (8/27/95)

             PART TWO:  Cards Requiring Third-Party Support
             ==============================================
a) 128-bit Cards
----------------

Manufacturer           Model        Comments
------------------------------------------------------
   #9                  Imagine 128   This is actually a family of four
                                     cards from #9.  The primary
difference between them is the RAMDAC they use, and the maximum amount
of memory which they will accept.  All cards have 128-bit internal
operations and have a 128 bit path to VRAM.  The 128-1280 has a 170 NHz
RAMDAC, the 128-1600 has a 220 MHz RAMDAC, and a newer version of the
128-1600 has at least a 220 MHz RAMDAC (by IBM) and will accept up to 8
MB of VRAM.  The other cards (with the different RAMDACs) will accept up
to 4 MB of VRAM, with the exception of one card which will take only 2
MB.  The cards all use a Cirrus Logic chip for basic VGA functions, and
all can (with the current drivers) display VGA resolution in a DOS
window on the desktop, making them nearly unique in that regard (only
the ATI Mach32 cards, when using the 8514 drivers, can do this as well).
Apparently however (because of the Cirrus Logic chip) the card is
reported to be slow in DOS full-screen sessions.  OS/2 drivers are
included with the card.  The cards (in their various configurations)
support the following resolutions and refresh rates:

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24          at least 100 Hz
 800 x  600        8/16/24          at least 100 Hz
1024 x  768        8/16/24-         at least 100 Hz
1152 x  864        8/16/24-         at least 100 Hz
1280 x 1024        8/16-/24-        at least 100 Hz
1600 x 1200        8-/16-/24*       60/100 Hz+

-Not available w/2 MB of VRAM
*The 24-bit colour depth requires 8 MB of VRAM.
+The 100 Hz refresh rate requires the 8 MB card with the IBM RAMDAC

(Number 9 Computer Company:  105D/4189) (5/18/96)

Under OS/2 2.1/2.11:  Driver status unknown.
Under Warp:           Drivers exist but are not very mature yet.  The
                      Hawkeye feature (the only way to set refresh
                      rates for the card) does not work in Win-OS2 for
                      some people (you can run Hawkeye from a native
                      Windows session and use the NUMBER9 file it
                      generates there, though), and general desktop
                      corruption is apparently common.  The drivers are
                      at version 1.13, which indicates at least that
                      they are being worked on, and, given #9's
                      reputation with other cards listed here, they will
                      doubtless improve in the future. (New drivers are
                      apparently in beta and are reported to improve
                      matters somewhat.)

b) 64-bit Cards
---------------

Manufacturer           Model        Comments
------------------------------------------------------
   #9                  9FX Motion    This card uses the S3/968
                       771*          chipset and up to 4 MB of VRAM.  It
                                     uses the IBM RGB RAMDAC.  This card
apparently does _not_ work well with fixed-frequency monitors, making it
necessary to repostion the screen for each mode separately.

(Number 9 Computer Company:  105D/4189) (5/18/96)

 Under Warp:  Drivers are available from the #9 FTP site and are
reported to work well.  The card will also work with the generic S3
drivers (which is what I'm told the #9 drivers actually are).

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support is unknown, though #9 has a pretty good
history of consistent OS/2 support.  Check first, though.

   #9                  GXE64*        The GXE64 may or may not exist in
                                     two flavours, one of which (this
one) uses the S3 Trio64 (764) chip.  New drivers for this card and
others like are being released frequently by S3, so drivers and support
shouldn't be a problem.

(Number 9 Computer Company:  105D/4189) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  The latest drivers from S3 (at S3's FTP site, called
S3_257.zip) are reported to work with this card.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support as for Warp, presumably.

   #9                  GXE64 Pro    The GXE64Pro is based on the
                                    S3/964 chipset and will take up to 4
MB of VRAM.  It uses the Ti3025 RAMDAC.  These cards will not work with
the drivers which come with Warp.

(Number 9 Computer Company:  105D/4189) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  #9 has apparently released new drivers which fix install
problems.  Apparently most modes of the card are supported, and the
drivers are reported to work reasonably well.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support seems pretty good from #9.  The drivers
(the last version of which supported all modes of the card) seem to work
well with few problems.

DEAL OF THE WEEK:  GXE 64PRO:  $355           [phone]/[phone]

 #9                    Vision 330    This card uses the S3/Trio64 chipset
                                     and will take up to 2 MB of DRAM.

(Number 9 Computer Company:  105D/4189) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  The drivers are reported to work well with either the 1 or
2 MB versions of the card.  The install process is said to be
complicated but well documented.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support is unknown.

 Creative Labs         Graphics      This card by Creative Labs uses
                       Blaster MA302 the Cirrus Logic GD5462 chipset and
                                     uses RAMBUS RAM, which is said to
allow for up to 500 MB/sec data transfers.

(Vendor ID unknown) (5/26/96)

 Under Warp:  Driver support is in place.  No reports yet, though.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

 Creative Labs         Graphics      This card by Creative Labs uses
                       Blaster MA202 the Cirrus Logic GD5446 chipset and
                                     uses 2 MB of EDO DRAM.

(Vendor ID unknown) (5/26/96)

 Under Warp:  Driver support is in place.  No reports yet, though.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

 Creative Labs         Graphics      This card by Creative Labs uses
                       Blaster MA201 the Cirrus Logic GD5446 chipset and
                                     comes with 1 MB of EDO DRAM,
                                     upgradable to 2 MB.

(Vendor ID unknown) (5/26/96)

 Under Warp:  Driver support is in place.  No reports yet, though.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

 Compaq                QVision 2000  This card is used by Compaq in
                                     heir Deskpro XL590 machine.

 Under Warp:  Drivers (version 2.02A) are out and are reported to work
well at 1280x1024x256.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Drivers (version 2.02A) are out, but I have had no
reports of success with them.

(Compaq:  1032/4146) (8/27/95)

 Diamond               Stealth 64    This card is based on the 964
                       VRAM          chipset from S3 and will take up to
                                     4 MB of VRAM.  It uses the Bt485
                                     RAMDAC.

 Under Warp:  Diamond has apparently released version 1.02 drivers
recently which, though not optimized, are reported to be fairly solid.
MMPM/2 is reported to be unstable, however (though whether or not this
is video driver-related is unknown).  You may need a BIOS upgrade (to
version 1.07) to get what Diamond calls "full OS/2 support".
(Apparently the BIOS you get depends on where the 964 chip used in the
card was manufactured -- very odd.)

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (12/3/95)

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Version 1.02 of the drivers are now out.  No reports
of success or failure with them yet, though.

 Diamond               Stealth 64    Based on the Trio64 chipset from
                                     S3, with newer versions of the card
being based on the Trio64V+.  This card replaces the Stealth 64
in the list above, and comes with either 1 or 2 MB of DRAM.

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (5/26/96)

 Under Warp:  Driver support (without ultimotion video, apparently) is
available.  I've had mixed reports from people using this card.  For
some, it works well.  For others, desktop corruption results on
switching from full-screen to windowed sessions.  For still others, it
is prone to random blanking of the screen, the only solution to which is
a complete re-install of the drivers.  In addition the card (using the
Trio64V+ chipset) will not synch. at anything above 87 Hz interlaced at
1024x768, though it would do 1280x1024.  To be avoided.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support is unknown, though the card should work
with the Warp drivers (in as much as the card works at all).

 Diamond               Stealth 64    This card is based around the
                       Video DRAM    S3 Vision868 video accelerator
                                     and will take up to 2 MB of DRAM.
Drivers for OS/2 2.1 and Warp are in the box (version 1.0).

The 2 MB card supports all the following colour depths and resolutions
(refresh rates unspecified):

256 colors:      640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024
65K colors:      640x480, 800x600, 1024x768
16.7mill colors: 640x480

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (8/27/95)

 Under 2.1/2.11:  No reports.
 Under Warp:  The card is reported to work well with the supplied
drivers, although the install has some quirks (as detailed below for the
VRAM card).

 Diamond               Stealth 64    This card is based around the
                       Video VRAM    S3 Vision968 video accelerator
                                     and uses the Texas Instruments
TVP3026 220 MHz RAMDAC.  The card comes with 2 MB (upgradeable) or 4 MB
(nonupgradeable) of VRAM, and has available an optional hardware
MPEG/video capture daughtercard (currently unsupported under OS/2).
Drivers for OS/2 2.1 and Warp are in the box (version 1.01).

The card supports all the following colour depths and resolutions
(all resolutions may be run at 72 Hz N/I at a minimum):

Resolution         # of bpp
---------------------------
640  x  480        8/16/24
800  x  600        8/16/24
1024 x  768        8/16/24+
1152 x  864        8
1280 x 1024        8/16+

+ - indicates that 4 MB of DRAM are required.

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (12/3/95)

 Under 2.1/2.11:  No reports.
 Under Warp:  The card is reported to work well with the supplied
drivers, although the install has some quirks:

Follow the manual's instructions and when dspinstl *fails*, go in to
\os2\install and copy dspinstl.sav (Warp's dspinstl.exe) over
dspinstl.exe (Diamond's that has the problem). Restart dspinstl, follow
the rest of the instructions and you're up and running. Note that Go95,
Diamond's monitor config utility (centring, refresh etc) doesn't work
properly in Warp. You *must* choose one of the pre-defined monitors
since the user-defined option is disabled.

In addition, if you are using this card with an AMI Atlas PCI
motherboard, you may need to upgrade the BIOS to get the combination to
work; AMI has a (flash) BIOS upgrade which is specific to S3-based
cards.

 ELSA                  Winner 1000   This card is based on the 864
                       Pro PCI       chipset and takes up to 2 MB of
                                     DRAM.  The card uses the S3 86C716
SDAC RAMDAC.  The current drivers support 16 bpp.

(Elsa GMBH:  1048/4168) (12/3/95)

 ELSA                  Winner 2000   This card is based on the 964
                       Pro PCI       chipset and takes up to 4 MB of
                                     VRAM.  It uses the Ti3020 RAMDAC.
The current drivers support 16 bpp.

(Elsa GMBH:  1048/4168) (12/3/95)

 ELSA                  Winner 2000   This card is based on the 968
                       ProAVI        chipset, takes up to 4 MB of
                                     VRAM, and uses a 170 MHz RAMDAC.
It is intended for the European market only.  Apparently the program
which installs OS/2 drivers for the card is OS/2-based (you need to have
REXX installed), and the DOS-based utility used to set monitor refresh
rates does not save them properly.  Apparently too this card does not
work well with early versions of the Saturn chipset; ownwers of boards
which use Saturn rev. I and II chipsets must disable the PCI bus burst
mode to avoid pixel corruption.

 Under Warp:  The current drivers are reported to be stable (1.01.00)
and seem to support 32bpp modes for most resolutions (though these
appear to be simply 24bpp modes without pixel packing), along with
EnDIVE.  Refresh rates above 75 Hz in 1024x768x32bpp apparently cause
pixel corruption on an Asus SP3G board, even after disabling the PCI bus
burst mode.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

(Elsa GMBH:  1048/4168) (12/3/95)

 ELSA                  Winner 2000   This card is based on the 968
                       Pro/X**       chipset and comes with 2, 4, or 8
                                     MB of VRAM (the 2 and 4 MB models
cannot be upgraded).  The 2 and 4 MB cards use a TVP3026 220 MHz RAMDAC,
and the 8 MB card uses a 250 MHz RAMDAC.  The program which installs
OS/2 drivers for the card is an OS/2 executable (though you need to have
REXX installed) which requires you to test selected resolutions during
installation before you can set them on boot-up.  If you do manage to
mess up the installation in spite of that safety precaution, you can
apparently reset the card to run in VGA mode by adding a line to
config.sys.

 Under Warp:  The current drivers (1.05.00) are reported to be stable,
fast, and to support 32bpp modes for most resolutions (though these
appear to be simply 24bpp modes without pixel packing), along with
EnDIVE (this card and the ProAVI are the only two cards of which I know
that do this).
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

(Elsa GMBH:  1048/4168) (6/2/96)

Resolution         # of bpp          Max. refresh rate
------------------------------------------------------
640  x  480        8/16/24           > 72 Hz (all depths)
800  x  600        8/16/24           > 72 Hz (all depths)
1024 x  768        8/16/24*          > 72 Hz (all depths)
1280 x 1024        8/16*/24*         > 72 Hz (all depths)
1600 x 1200        8*/16*/24+        > 72 Hz (all depths)

* - requires 4 MB of WRAM
+ - requires 8 MB of WRAM

 Hercules              Stingray*     This card uses the ARK2000PV chip,
                       64/Video      and will accept up to 2 MB of EDO
                                     RAM.

(Vendor ID unknown) (5/26/96)

 Under Warp:  Driver support for most modes of the card are in place,
the exception being the 24bpp modes and 1600x1200x8bpp. Driver support
is said to be solid, as is Hercules' tech. support.  The latest drivers
are in the file SP120S.EXE and are available from ftp.hercules.com in
\Stingray and on ftp.netcom.com in \pub\hercules\stingray. Under
2.1/2.11:  The card uses the same driver as for Warp.  No reports of
success/failure, though.

 Hercules              Terminator    This card uses the S3/968 chip and
                       Pro*          a 220 MHz IBM RGB DAC.  It will
                                     accept up to 4 MB of DRAM.

(Vendor ID unknown) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  Driver support for most modes of the card is in place and
reported to work well.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

 Matrox                Millennium**  This is one of the first cards to
                                     use WRAM, or windowed RAM, (up to 8
MB; cards come in 2 or 4 MB configurations and may be upgraded from this
to 8 MB by buying more RAM), and its performance reflects that (I know
-- I own one).  The card is reported to be one of the (if not the)
fastest cards on the market in DOS, Windows, and OS/2.  Driver support
(currently at revision 1.12) is there and timely (new drivers are being
released frequently), and Matrox tech. support is helpful and
OS/2-conscious.  This, in combination with the fact that IBM and HP are
using this card on their new P6 systems (with OS/2 as a preload option)
gives me cause to recommend this card. Numerous reports of success
(including my own) only add to my confidence level in the card.

(Matrox:  102B/4139) (5/26/96)

Resolution         # of bpp          Max. refresh rate
------------------------------------------------------
640  x  480        8/16/32           > 72 Hz (all depths)
800  x  600        8/16/32           > 72 Hz (all depths)
1024 x  768        8/16/32*          > 72 Hz (all depths)
1152 x  864        8/16/32*          > 72 Hz (all depths)
1280 x 1024        8/16*/32+         > 72 Hz (all depths)
1600 x 1200        8*/16*/24+        > 72 Hz (all depths)

* - requires 4 MB of WRAM
+ - requires 8 MB of WRAM

 Under Warp:  Driver support is in place for all modes and resolutions
of the card, and the drivers seem to work well with the exception that
DIVE does not display correctly in 24 bpp mode (though this could be a
limitation of DIVE -- I'm not sure).  If your install script fails, make
sure that you haven't changed your config.sys to a mixture of cases. The
install script apparently does not like this.
 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support is in place for all modes and
resolutions of the card.  No reports yet, though.

 Miro                  Crystal 20SD* The 20SD uses the S3 864 chipset
                       Crystal 20SV* and the AT&T 20C498 RAMDAC for the
                                     1.X BIOSes, he STG1700 RAMDAC
for the 2.X BIOSes, and the S3 86C716 SDAC for the 3.X BIOSes.  It will
take up to 2 MB of DRAM. The 20SV uses the S3 964 chipset, AT&T 20C505
RAMDAC, and will take up to 4 MB of VRAM.  Older versions of the 20SD
may have problems setting ergonomic refresh rates.  The latest revision
of the 20SD supports all of the following modes/refresh rates:

Resolution         # of bpp          Max. refresh rate
------------------------------------------------------
640  x  480        8/16              59.9  / 60.4
800  x  600        8/16              56.0  / 75.0
1024 x  768        8/16+             87.0* / 75.0
1152 x  864        8+                60.0
1280 x 1024        8+                88.6*

+ - indicates that 2 MB of DRAM are required.
* - indicates an interlaced refresh rate.

(Miro Computer Products AG:  1031/4145) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  Warp drivers for the 20SV were released January 11/95.
The card is, apparently, working very nicely, with all available
resolutions and modes of the cards supported, including 1152x864. One
person has reported running at 1024x768x100 Hz (colour depth
unspecified, however). Drivers for the card may be found at ftp.leo.org,
in the directory /comp/os/os2/drivers/display

 Under OS/2 2.1/2.11:  One person has reported getting 1280x1024x8bpp at
72 Hz with the 20SD card, and the drivers are reported to work well.
(How this was accomplished given the card specifications above is a bit
of a mystery, though.)

 Miro                  Video 20SD*   The 20SD uses the S3 868 chipset
                       Video 20SV*   It will take up to 2 MB of DRAM.
                                     The 20SV uses the S3 968 chipset,
and will take up to 4 MB of VRAM.  All of the standard video modes are
supported with 2 MB of DRAM or VRAM (though I don't know the refresh
rates).  Higher colour depths at higher resolutions are possible.

Resolution         # of bpp
---------------------------
640  x  480        8/16/32
800  x  600        8/16/32
1024 x  768        8/16

(Miro Computer Products AG:  1031/4145) (5/18/96)

 Under Warp:  The card is, apparently, working very nicely, with all
available resolutions and modes of the cards supported.

 Under OS/2 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

 Orchid                Fahrenheit    This card takes up to 4 MB of VRAM
                       Pro 64        and uses the S3/964 chipset.

(S3 Inc.:  5333/21299) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  Driver support is reported to be poor, as the drivers
provided routinely lose synch and do not display the correct colours.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support as for other 964-based cards,
presumably.  (i.e. only 16-bit)

 S3                    Vision868*    This card, as the model name
                                     implies, uses the 868 chip from S3.
                                     The card (I believe) uses DRAM (up
                                     to 2 MB).

(S3 Inc.:  5333/21299) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  Driver support is in place, and the drivers are reported
to work well.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown, though drivers for the 864
cards (which were 8-bpp only for 2.1) should work with the card.

 Spea                  Mirage P32*   This card is based on the S3 Trio32
                                     chip and takes up to 2 MB of DRAM.

(Spea Software AG:  1017/4119) (9/4/95)

 Under Warp:  Driver support is in place, and the drivers are reported
to work well.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.

 Spea                  Mirage P64*   Also based on the new 864
                                     chipset from S3.  The card will
take up to 2 MB of DRAM and uses the AT&T 20C498 for BIOS version 3.X,
the S3 86C716 SDAC for BIOS version 4.X, and the AT&T 21C498 for BIOS
versions earlier than these.

Resolution         # of bpp          Max. refresh rate
------------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24           100/100/95
 800 x  600        8/16/24           100/101/73
1024 x  768        8/16*             100/79
1152 x  864        8*                76
1280 x 1024        8*                75

(*) Indicates that 2 MB of DRAM is required.

(Spea Software AG:  1017/4119) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  The latest drivers are called osmip204.zip on the Spea
BBS. They explicitely support Warp, all resolutions, high refresh rates
and work flawlessly. There's also a tool included to switch resolutions,
color-depths, and refresh rates under PM.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  The latest drivers are version 2.04 (osmip204.zip).
As noted above, the drivers support all modes of the card and high
refresh rates.

 STB                   Velocity64V*  This card is based on the S3/968
                                     chip and will take up to 4 MB of
EDO VRAM and uses the IBM RGB RAMDAC.  It does not use an EEPROM to
store the monitor configuration, as refresh rates, etc., for your setup
must be retrieved every time the system is rebooted.

Resolution         # of bpp         refresh rate
----------------------------------------------------
 640 x  480        8/16/24          > 72 Hz
 800 x  600        8/16/24          > 72 Hz
1024 x  768        8/16/24*         > 72 Hz
1280 x 1024        8/16*            > 72 Hz
1600 x 1200        8*               > 72 Hz

* 4 MB of VRAM required.

(STB Systems Inc.:  10B4/4276) (12/3/95)

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support unknown.
 Under Warp:  Drivers come with the card, and the card is reported to
work with the generic S3 drivers.  One problem (not so much related to
the card but the driver installation routine by S3) is that the
full-screen Win-OS2 drivers reference the wrong driver in system.ini;
s3w1k16.drv (for example) should be changed to s3w1k16v.drv (s3w1k16.drv
is the DRAM driver).  Otherwise, the generic S3 drivers are reported to
be solid, quick, and to cause no problems at any colour depths.  They
even support some (though not as many as 8514) graphics in DOS windows.

c) 32-bit Cards
---------------

Manufacturer           Model        Comments
------------------------------------------------------
 Diamond               Stealth 32    This card uses the ET4000/W32
                                     chipset, but will apparently not
work with the W32 drivers in Warp.  Drivers from Diamond are available,
but not optimal, as explained below.  To be avoided.

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (5/18/96)

 Under Warp:  Presumably the OS/2 2.1/2.11 drivers will work with this
card, though I've had no reports of success.  One person has reported
partial success, in that the Diamond drivers (specific to Warp) ran with
his card, but he could not get the card to sync properly at 1280x1024 at
any refresh rate higher than 87 Hz interlaced.  This was true for all
drivers tried.  One possible solution to this might be to obtain the
Diamond version of a program called SETMODE.EXE (level 1.15).  This then
could be used in a DOS fullscreen to set up a custom monitor definition
that works with your particular monitor and then point DSPINSTL to
x:\SETMODE.EXE MONITOR during the install.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Support for this chipset is limited to 8 bit colour.
Diamond has released what appear to be drivers of reasonable quality for
the 8-bpp modes of this card. Given Diamond's track record with drivers,
though, I don't think I'll recommend it until they have proven they'll
keep on supporting OS/2 for a while.

Deal of the week:  $195 from TC Computers, [phone]

 ELSA                  Winner 1000*  This card is based on the S3 928
                                     chipset and comes with either 1 or
2 MB VRAM.  It uses the Sierra SC15025 RAMDAC.  This card will not work
with the IBM S3 drivers.

(Elsa GMBH:  1048/4168) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  Presumably the 2.1/2.11 drivers will work with this card,
though I've had no reports of success.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Make sure you have the latest install/driver disks for
this card to get all the available modes of the card which, in its 1 MB
configuration, will do up to 1280x1024x4bit at 60 Hz N/I.  Lower
resolutions offer more colours and higher refresh rates.

 Hercules              Stingray Pro  This card uses the ARK Logic
                                     ARK1000PV chip, and will accept up
                                     to 1 MB of DRAM only.

 Under Warp:  Provided you get the latest drivers from the Hercules FTP
site (the Warp drivers are at revision 2), the card is reported to work
fairly well.  Support for all of the 8 and 16 bpp modes of the card is
provided, with a future driver release supporting all 24 bpp modes as
well (though the release date for these drivers is undetermined).  It's
interesting to note that this card and the Stingray 64 use the same
driver.

(Vendor ID unknown) (8/27/95)

 Under 2.1/2.11:  The card uses the same driver for Warp and for
2.1/2.11, though I've no reports of success/failure here.

 Miro                 Crystal 10SD*  This is another card based on the
                                     S3/805i chipset.  It uses the S3
                                     GENDAC RAMDAC.

(Miro Computer Products AG:  1031/4145) (12/3/95)

Under Warp:  The IBM S3 drivers are reported to work very well with it.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  The IBM S3 drivers are reported to work well with it,
although drivers specific to the card are available on on cdrom.com in
/pub/os2/2_1/drivers, as file miro110.zip.

 Miro                 20TD Live!     This card uses the ET4000/W32p
                                     (rev. C) chipset and will take
up to 2 MB of RAM.  It has a Phillips video mixer and a Phillips Tuner.

(Miro Computer Products AG:  1031/4145) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  Drivers exist in Warp, but they are reported to not work
well with the card.  In addition, Miro has stated that they have no
intention of supporting the card or its video functions under OS/2.  To
be avoided.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support as for Warp.

 Spea                 Mercury LITE   This is supposed to be based on the
                                     S3 928 chipset.  It uses the Bt485
RAMDAC.  Successful installation requires that the V7MIRVBE TSR be
installed in the full-screen DOS session from which SVGA is run so that
the SVGA program will detect the card properly.

(Spea Software AG:  1017/4119) (12/3/95)

 Under Warp:  This card is *not* supported by IBM, but is supported by
native drivers from SPEA. Driver installation is reported to be much
improved over older versions, as the need for V7MERVBE is gone. SPEA
delivers an installation tool called V7setup.exe which will set
resolution and refresh rate in an OS/2 sesssion.  Rebooting will start
the card with those settings.

Under 2.1/2.11:  The Warp drivers and tools should work with it.

c) Other cards
--------------

Manufacturer           Model        Comments
------------------------------------------------------
 Diamond               Stealth 64    Based on the ark2000pv chipset and
                       Graphic 2001  takes either 1 or 2 MB of DRAM.  It
                                     will run in 32-bit mode with 1 MB
of DRAM and 64-bit mode with 2 MB.  The card uses the ics5342 clock
generator.

(Diamond Computer Systems:  1092/4242) (11/4/95)

 Under Warp:  No reports, though driver support is said to be in place.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support is claimed by Diamond, though no
drivers yet exist.

 Diamond Flower Inc.   WG-1010P      This card apparently uses the SIS
                                     SG86C201 chipset and takes up to 2 MB of
DRAM (Fujitsu 814260-70 is recommended).  There is a jumper for PCI bus
interrupt select (A - D, though what the card does with the interrupts
I'm not sure), which apparently is shipped from the factory open (the
card does not use an interrupt, I would guess).

(Vendor ID unknown) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  The card has drivers which are alleged to work with Warp,
but the install procedure fails in a manner similar to the Diamond Video
VRAM cards (with a similar remedy, I suppose).

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Driver support is unknown, though the Warp drivers
will likely work.

 Hercules              Stingray      This card uses the Avance Logic
                                     2301 chipset and comes with 1 MB
                                     RAM.

(Vendor ID unknown) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  Video support is unknown, though 2.1/2.11 drivers should
work with it.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Beta OS/2 drivers are available for the Express
(below), which should presumably work with this card as well.

 STB                   Express       Another card with the Avante 2301
                                     chipset.

(STB Systems Inc.: 10B4/4276) (8/27/95)

 Under Warp:  Video support is unknown, though the drivers for 2.1/2.11
should work with it.

 Under 2.1/2.11:  Beta drivers are available for this card which
apparently are fairly stable.  One bug reported is that in seamless
Win-OS/2, when the mouse pointer is clicked, the click does not occur
where the mouse pointer is, but seems to be down and to the right of the
pointer.  This has apparently been reported to IBM and is being
investigated (though I'm not sure by whom).


d) Just say no...

Manufacturer           Model        Comments
------------------------------------------------------
 Intel                 PCIMGAII      The last (and certainly least where
                                     OS/2 is concerned) generic Intel
offering is based on the MGA-II chip from Matrox.  Beware, as
explained below.

(Intel:  8086/32902) (8/27/95)
(Matrox:  102B/4139)

 Matrox                MGA II        Drivers (version 2.0) Impression
                       Impression    supporting 24 bit colour are
                                     available for these cards, and are
reported to work reasonably well. Given the length of time it took to
actually produce the drivers, however (some cards are still
unsupported), these two particular cards are to be avoided.  Further
evidence of this is found in the fact that Intel acknowledges problems
with these cards and the Triton chipset, to the extent that they "are
not recommending these cards at this time".  My own (rather horrid)
experiences with the MGA II, as well as the reports of others who have
mailed their troubles to me and posted on the .net, do not inspire any
confidence in me for these cards either.

(Matrox:  102B/4139) (11/26/95)

There's what I know.  Please E-Mail suggestions/corrections and I'll
post again.
--
Patrick Duffy, [e-mail]

"Evil is out there making hand-crafted mischief for the swap meet of villany."
                                    -- The Tick