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Need help choosing a VGA card for turbo XT system

T

themaritimegirl

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Hi - I have the opportunity to choose one of three different XT-compatible 16-bit ISA VGA cards, to put in my Epson Apex Plus turbo XT system. All three cards have been tested to work fine in an IBM PC, but I thought I would just post here in case someone knows one card to be better in some way than the others.

The three cards are:
  • Oak Technology OTI-077
  • Tseng ET4000AX
  • Prisma VGART 800+

Anyone a fan of any particular card? Thanks for the input!
 
I'm a big fan of the Tseng ET4000. They were ahead of their time in terms of throughput and outperform most other chipsets from the era.

Although on a XT class machine this isn't as important; your major bottleneck is the CPU. All the above will probably work equally well.
 
Thank you :) My biggest concern is hardware and software compatibility, after a bad experience with another VGA card that conflicted with the hard drive controller, which took me years to diagnose.
 
TheMaritimeMan said:
Thank you My biggest concern is hardware and software compatibility, ...
Click to expand...
There will always be a certain amount of risk. A money-back guarantee mitigates the risks.

TheMaritimeMan said:
... after a bad experience with another VGA card that conflicted with the hard drive controller, which took me years to diagnose.
Click to expand...
Was that the 'Possible ROM conflict - hard disk controller and VGA' subject described at [here] ?
 
modem7 said:
There will always be a certain amount of risk. A money-back guarantee mitigates the risks.
Click to expand...

Luckily the offer is free. :p

modem7 said:
Was that the 'Possible ROM conflict - hard disk controller and VGA' subject described at [here] ?
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the issue. The TVGA8900CL nor the MFM controller have no way of changing the address, unfortunately.
 
I think these cards are pearls thrown in front of pigs... Most software which is made for XT will not use VGA modes but some CGA, MDA or EGA modes. Such a VGA card is ways faster than the XT can deliver the graphics data. They have more memory than the XT directly can adress plus it's own ressources. The only real benefit you win is that it's easier to connect a modern monitor. Consider reserving the best of these cards, the ET 4000, for a 386 or 486 system, that fit's better, pearl for the princess.
 
I agree that you don't need a high-performance VGA card in an XT. However, plenty of games for a turbo XT use either EGA, VGA or MCGA modes.
EGA is very expensive and slow, it's simpler and cheaper to use VGA. It was like that even in the late 80s. I never had EGA, but I did upgrade my Commodore PC10-III with a Paradise VGA card. Not only did it allow me to play many games in EGA, VGA or MCGA mode, but the games generally also ran much faster than in CGA mode, because the advanced video standard allows more efficient rendering. So there are plenty of benefits to VGA in a turbo XT, I would say.
Quite a few games played very well in EGA/VGA, such as Prince of Persia, Test Drive 1/2, Lemmings, Sierra adventures, Commander Keen etc.
 
I would go for a one based on Trident 8900/9000 or Realtek RTG3105 chipsets, they had an utillity to switch to a 100% CGA compatibility mode.
 
I run a ATi 38800-1 Graphics Ultra Mach8 SVGA adapter with 1.5MB of video memory - incredible card and compatible with everything I run, but then again, I run DOS and Windows 3.1 on my PC/XT :)

Mike
 
nestor said:
I would go for a one based on Trident 8900/9000 or Realtek RTG3105 chipsets, they had an utillity to switch to a 100% CGA compatibility mode.
Click to expand...

Yes, Paradise has this as well. I believe ATi cards from that era also have this.
It's still nowhere near 100% compatibility, but at least the palettes will be correct.
 
The most important thing about running VGA in an XT is CGA compatibility...

TheMaritimeMan said:
Oak Technology OTI-077
Click to expand...
Rather crappy overall, but it does have CGA/Hercules/EGA emulation modes, available via VGAMODE.EXE

Tseng ET4000AX
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Very good chipset, also supports emulation modes, but they require a "Sync ROM" to work with VGA monitors - if your card has that ROM then it's probably the best choice, the video mode utility is usually named VMODE.COM

Prisma VGART 800+
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No idea, I guess it's the card's name, but it's the chipset what's most important...
 
I have had great success with these two cards in 5150/5160 systems. They are used only for testing, although if one did live in a system, it would be a late release XT, like the CompuAdd, or maybe an XT-286.

I prefer the Western Digital, as the VGA quality is good, and there are no vertical stripes.

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I also like the Video7 as I can change the display/monitor without having to change any jumpers on the card itself, but the VGA quality is not as good.

mlNELqj.jpg
 
Just want to echo that for retro systems, CGA compatiblity is important. While most VGA cards have generic CGA emulation, this fails on a few early applications. For example, the famous Microsoft Flight Simulator II will display a squished double screen. A "pure" CGA emulation mode will permit these applications to run and look right, within the limits of VGA hardware.

On the the Video 7, it is even possible to flip DIP switch and enter "pure" CGA emulation mode at startup, without running any utilities. That may enable some booters to operate properly.
 
1ST1 said:
I think these cards are pearls thrown in front of pigs... Most software which is made for XT will not use VGA modes but some CGA, MDA or EGA modes. Such a VGA card is ways faster than the XT can deliver the graphics data. They have more memory than the XT directly can adress plus it's own ressources. The only real benefit you win is that it's easier to connect a modern monitor. Consider reserving the best of these cards, the ET 4000, for a 386 or 486 system, that fit's better, pearl for the princess.
Click to expand...

The vast majority of the programs i use on my Turbo XT clone offer EGA or VGA modes which generally run extremely well on an 8mhz V20. I still use a CRT too, but i agree that it is nice to be able to plug in a throwaway flatscreen if you dont have much space. I really personally recommend adding a VGA card as very few games that will run well on a turbo XT in the first place will experience severe slowdown through a VGA card, at least that i've personally found. Plus ISA VGA cards are still generally easier to find cheap than EGA or even CGA at this point if you're building a system from scratch.
 
Stone said:
That feature connector is also found on lots of other (16-bit) VGA cards.
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The cards on your pictures all have a VGA-style feature connector - 26-pin edge.
But that Video Seven card posted earlier has an EGA-style connector - 32-hole.

SomeGuy said:
On the the Video 7, it is even possible to flip DIP switch and enter "pure" CGA emulation mode at startup, without running any utilities. That may enable some booters to operate properly.
Click to expand...
Many ISA VGA cards support CGA booters - they have an option to keep emulation mode active even after reboot, eg. OAK's VGAMODE.EXE has the "LOCK" option.
 
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