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OS/2 Warp 3 Graphics Card Selection Input?

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spartan2381

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I have a 386 machine with 16-bit ISA slots and I'm looking to install OS/2 WARP Version 3. What would some graphics card recommendations be as I know driver support was always an issue with OS/2.
 
OS/2 v3 will be very very slow on that system.

Most ISA video card with 512 meg of vram would be fine though, but vlb or pci would be far better.

Having a 486 with 8megs of ram would be a good idea as well.
 
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Caluser2000 said:
OS/2 v3 will be very very slow on that system.
Click to expand...
I was hoping that the 16MB of RAM and SD card would make it usable. If not maybe trying OS/2 2.11 as a backup. Would you have any suggestions for graphics cards for versions 2.11 and 3?
 
Wait a sec here, gpu with 512mb ram? I can say Ive run v3 fine on a s3 virge 2mb and 5x86 133 (AMD, 64mb ram). Do you mean 512kb? for basic VGA? AKA 640x480 256 colors?
 
The Sci Tech drivers were improved over what shipped with Warp. I would suggest trying one of the video cards supported by Sci Tech. http://www.os2site.com/sw/drivers/video/scitech/sdd/sdd-os2-7.0.9.txt is a direct link to the readme file. It has been years so I don't remember which of the supported chips had the best performance with an ISA bus. I suspect for most uses the performance won't vary all that much so get a decent card that is available cheap.

I recommend turning off the WPS expanding box effect. It is takes awhile to do and with a system that not exactly fast it can prove very annoying.
 
It's a good idea to upate the CD installtion disk with either IBMs updated or Danis's IDE drivers as well. IBM got a lot of still by folk trying to install v3 Warp with the original ide drives and updated them pretty damn smartly. v3 Warp Connects IDE drivers are ok out of the box.

You will also get updated hdd drivers for bigger hdds as well.....

Hobbes should have them as well- https://hobbes.nmsu.edu/
 
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Thanks guys really appreciate all the information, the pictures so supported cards are especially helpful!

I'll use the Warp Connect based on your recommendation around IDE drivers.
 
It'll save you less effort if the SD card is in its ide hdd range otherwise it is wise to update the Warp Connect CD install disk with new ide drivers..

You also get network support with Warp Connect. The tcpip stack is 16-bit though and no DHCP support just have to manually put in an IP address which isn't hard.

On my 486DX2/66 with16megs of ram DECpc with Warp Connect I elected to skip all the network stuff and installed the Warp 4 Server network client which is full 32-bit with DHCP support.

Link to my system- https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/digital-decpc-lpv-series.21600/
 
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What 386 cpu are you planning to use? I know I said it'd be slow but it'd be interesting to see how you get on all the same ;). After all folk back in the day would've given it a shot when it was released.

The specs on the edge of the box do state 386SX or above.20140103_093159.jpg20140103_093159.jpg
 
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Its a Tandy/GRiD 325sc with the AM386SX-25 and Cyrix 387 co-processor. I was always told the OS/2 was more memory hungry vs CPU. It should be a interesting experiment.

I think I've narrowed down my card selections to the below. Any one that would be better than the other?
  1. TSENG ET4000AX
  2. DIAMOND SPEEDSTAR 24X WDC WD90C31
  3. STB SYSTEMS S3 P86C801 POWERGRAPH X-24
 
I wasn't rich enough to have one of those. Just trucking along with a Trident 9000 or similar. I know the S3 is great as I tested one about a decade later when they were litterally given away. as no one wanted ISA video cards anymore apart from us hobbyists. ET4000s are pretty populer with the vintage computer community in general.
 
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I purchased Warp 3 when it came out but found out my IIt based VLB video card (Hercules Graphite something or other still have it) was not supported so back to the store it went.
 
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