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- Path: sparky!uunet!newsflash.concordia.ca!mizar.cc.umanitoba.ca!access.usask.ca!cs.Usask.CA!coulman
- From: coulman@cs.Usask.CA (Randy Coulman)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Subject: SUMMARY: Questions: Tape Backup/ATI GU Pro/Mail Order
- Date: 18 Dec 1992 18:57:12 GMT
- Organization: University of Saskatchewan
- Lines: 216
- Sender: coulman@skorpio (Randy Coulman)
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <1gt6u8INNn01@access.usask.ca>
- Reply-To: coulman@cs.Usask.CA
- NNTP-Posting-Host: skorpio.usask.ca
-
- A couple of weeks ago I posted an article asking a couple of questions. I
- received a few answers to one of them, and I promised a summary, so here it
- is. Thank you to those who responded.
-
- Here's the original post, with responses integrated:
- --------------
- I will (finally) be ordering a new system for OS/2 next week. I have
- a couple of questions I need answered first:
-
- [ I have ordered this now - should be coming around New Year's day. I've
- already got the tape drive, UPS, and OS/2, with Faxworks and a fax/modem
- on the way as well. ]
-
- 1) I was planning to buy an Irwin A250 tape drive, since they have OS/2
- backup software (as good or bad as it may be). However, it appears that
- the software is somewhat expensive (I haven't been able to find an upgrade
- price from the DOS version in Canada). From rumblings in this group, I
- gather that Colorado is beta-testing OS/2 software for their drives. Does
- anyone have any general ideas about how much this will cost? When it will
- be out?
-
- [ No responses here. I ended up ordering the Irwin drive. I then called
- Irwin and ordered the upgrade for US$99. Hopefully it will do the trick. ]
-
- 2) I'm going to be buying from Gateway 2000. The system comes with a
- local-bus version of the ATI Graphics Ultra Pro with 1MB VRAM. This is
- upgradeable to 2MB VRAM plus a different RAMDAC chip (I forget the exact
- numbers). The price for this is US$125. Does it buy me anything under OS/2?
- Or should I just wait until it does buy me something?
-
- --- Robert L. Sillett replied:
- Maybe.
-
- We just got in 2 Pros. It's unknown when ATI will ship seamless
- 32-bit drivers, but at least they're working on 'em. The 16-bit
- drivers that ship with the Pro crashed all the time (on both machines,
- 386/25 and 486/50), so you need to use the 16-bit 8514/A drivers
- included in OS/2.
-
- When using 8514/A or Mach8 drivers, you need to split your memory
- between the VGA and accelerator parts of the Pro, otherwise a DOS box
- in Win31 or OS/2 will crash the system. Since my cards have 2 MB, I
- gave 1 MB to VGA and 1 MB to the accelerator (since 1024x768x256
- 8514/A only requires 1 MB and I can use the 1 MB of VGA to run DOS
- SuperVGA programs in a DOS box). I don't know if you can give 256 kB
- to VGA and 768 kB to the accelerator and use the 8514/A drivers.
- You'd better call ATI tech support (good luck -- they're ** ALWAYS **
- busy).
-
- We have a couple of Gateways w/ the ATI Ultra installed running OS/2
- 2.0 and the 8514/A drivers. The Pro is faster than the Ultra, but the
- 8514/A drivers still are terrible. No seamless windows and no palette
- management are supported (bitmaps and backgrounds look fine under
- full-screen Win-OS2, but the colors are off in PM/WorkPlace shell.
- 32-bit drivers w/ 256+ colors have palette management w/ the Service
- Pack. The 8514/A drivers are still 16-bit.)
-
- If you can wait until spring/summer when ATI releases its drivers,
- then the card is fine. All that's really needed in the short term is
- decent 32-bit seamless 8514/A drivers w/ palette management.
-
- Here's what the card can do -- when ATI writes drivers (their Win31
- drivers still don't support all modes yet).
-
- w/ 2 MB
-
- 1280 x 1024 x 256 colors
- 1024 x 768 x 64,000 or 256 colors
- 800 x 600 x 16.7m, 64k, or 256 colors
- 640 x 480 x 16.7m, 64k, or 256 colors
-
- w/ 1 MB
-
- 1024 x 768 x 256 colors
- I don't know about the lower resolutions, sorry.
-
- --- Bob
-
- --
- | Robert L. Sillett Internet: sillett@edc3jr.gsph.pitt.edu |
- | Systems Analyst US Mail: 127 Parran Hall |
- | Certified Novell Engineer (CNE) 130 DeSoto St. |
- | University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15261 |
-
- --- Frank Burleigh writes:
- i can't speak to the other questions you ask, but i have been
- thinking along the ati gu pro as well. watch out. the os/2
- drivers that come with the card don't work with ga+servicepak.
- ati's head of driver development told me that they will do a
- fix of some sort for those drivers in 1q93--but they are 16
- bit drivers from the mach8-based cards, so they won't be an
- optimal solution (though something that works would be nice;-)).
- 32 bit drivers for the mach8 will arrive, they say, in/by 2q93.
-
- my understanding is that, the above taken into account, you'll
- have to use your pro as an 8514a card using ibm's 8514a
- drivers. these drivers are (still) 16 bit and don't offer
- seamless winos2 (if that matters). also, ati's driver guy
- told me to make sure to get 2mb. i presume to accomodate the
- 1024x768 of 8514a. not sure if this means the card will just
- not work with os/2 with but 1mb or if it'll just drop to vga
- resolutions. obviously you'll be disappointed either way if you
- expected something better.
-
- the driver guy did tell me that the pro is plenty fast acting
- as an 8514a.
-
- also be aware of the memory aperture issue: the ati cards won't
- work in isa machines with more than 12mb because they need some
- of that address space. ati's newer windows drivers will allow
- the aperture to be on or off. you'll lose some speed without
- it but apparently not that much. not sure of further details.
- this isn't a problem with the card in 8514a mode and the 32 bit
- os/2 drivers will copy with the limitation.
-
- now, i bought my machine just a few months ago and didn't take
- this kind of stuff into account. i should have. the lesson i
- get is, avoid isa--get local bus or eisa or mca where these
- issues won't come up. don't know what bus the gateway uses.
- maybe it is local bus.
-
- one other point: $125 seems like a lot for the memory/ramdac
- upgrade. when i prices these cards from mail order places the
- difference in the 1mb and 2mb versions was well under $100. so
- if you could get the machine without that card...
-
- that's what i know--for what it's worth. as someone else has
- recently written me,
-
- short story: great hardware, drivers suck!
-
- --
- Frank Burleigh
- Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
- CIS 72730,1017; Internet burleigh@ogre.cica.indiana.edu; Bitnet burleigh@iubacs
-
- --- Yamanari write:
-
- You get incredible speed of graphics programs in a window,
- that's for damn sure. You also get setup headaches fro
- hell. See my Gateway Installation Hell post (November).
-
- I'd recommend it anyway, but go ahead and buy the extra med
- of VRAM--without it you can't get to the highcolor graphics
- modes in 800x600 or 1024 modes. the Windows drivers
- are top notch, but they are are (unfortunatley) nonexistant
- for OS/2, and the 8514 compatibility isn't so hot--I have
- YET to get WINOS2 to work properly (vanishing/flashing cursor..)
- and there seem to be some strange behaviors (primarily with
- DOS games..). You will need to follow a pretty rigorous
- installation to get it running tho.
-
- See my message--I got it working (as it is) and it works
- great (it's a dx2-66 lb system, and it _s_c_r_e_a_m_s_)
- but it's a pain in the butt.
-
- Gateway tech support was a big zero for assistance. IBM
- had nothing much to say (kept insisting to me that I had
- to have a VGA passthru for my 8514a/ultra card, which I
- told them I don't have.. and so on..)
- .
-
- Speaking of which, what _does_ the additional ramdac do?
- Gateway's docs mention it as an option,but not what it does.
-
- --
- Snout: O Bottom, thou art chang'd! What do I see on thee?
- Bottom: What do you see? You see an ass-head of your own, do you?
- ---"I despise mystics, they fancy themselves so deep, when they----
- ----aren't even superficial" --Nietzsche ---------------------
- ---
- [ I took these responses into consideration. I ended up ordering the
- RAMDAC and VRAM upgrades. ]
-
- 3) Where's a good place to find competitive prices for OS/2 software? For
- DOS and Windows, you can just look in all the magazines to find the best
- price, but no one advertises OS/2 software. I've found one place in Calgary
- that I can get software from, but I have no idea what the prices are
- compared to anywhere else. Example: PMFax is about CDN$230 including
- shipping. Is that a good price? They'll also sell me the OS/2 upgrade from
- Windows for CDN$84 including shipping, which I think is pretty good
- considering IBM Canada told me CDN$159.
-
- [ No responses here. Someone (I think Timothy Sipples) posted a list of
- prices from somewhere (Programmer's Connection?). I called and confirmed
- their prices of US$109 for PMFax (now Faxworks). I then called my source
- in Calgary and they matched the price, so I ended up getting it for
- CDN$152, shipping included. P.S. If anyone in Canada wants the name and
- number of this place, I'd be happy to share it with you. These guys
- specialize in OS/2 stuff, their prices include shipping, they will match
- any price they can confirm, including US Mail Order, the service has been
- great so far. I think they're a relatively new company, but I've been
- extremely impressed so far. As well, they're in Alberta, so there's no
- PST. If you're interested, drop me a note. NOTE: I am not affiliated with
- them in any way, just a satisfied customer. ]
-
- 4) When joining the DAP in Canada, do you get something similar to the OS/2
- Solutions Coupon Book that you can get in the States? If so, it might be
- worth my while to wait for that before buying some of my software. Comments?
-
- [ No responses here. I haven't joined yet, but I'll probably do it early
- in the new year. ]
-
- Thanks for your time. Posted or e-mailed responses are fine. I'll summarize
- any responses I get.
-
- Thanks again,
- Randy
-
-
-
- --
- Randy A. Coulman | ARIES Laboratory
- Research Assistant | Department of Computational Science
- | University of Saskatchewan
- coulman@cs.Usask.ca | Saskatoon, SK S7N 0W0
-