Basic questions about EGA and VGA cards

[Bill-kun]

Are all EGA cards 8-bit?
Are all VGA cards 16-bit?
Is the leftmost ISA expansion slot required to be the one used for the video card, or can I use any slot?
If the leftmost slot is 8-bit, can I put a 16-bit VGA card in it and use it as an 8-bit graphics card?

 

[jafir]

I assume you’re just talking about the ISA slot, and not memory bandwidth or some other thing measured in bits.

There are 8bit ISA vga cards:




There are some 16bit ISA vga cards that will work in an 8bit slot as well. But you have to research the specific card to be sure.

 

[modem7]

Is the leftmost ISA expansion slot required to be the one used for the video card, ...

It was convention only that the video card was fitted in ISA slot #1.

... or can I use any slot?

In the IBM 5155 and IBM 5160, slot #8 cannot be used unless the card specifically supports operation in slot #8. Example at [here].

If the leftmost slot is 8-bit, can I put a 16-bit VGA card in it and use it as an 8-bit graphics card?

As jafir wrote, it depends on the card.

Other considerations:
- The 16-bit-ISA card may work in an 8-bit ISA slot, but the BIOS expansion ROM on the card requires a V20 CPU or later on the motherboard. (E.g. Wang 3050 VGA card)
- The 16-bit-ISA card may work in an 8-bit ISA slot, but the BIOS expansion ROM on the card requires an 80286 CPU or later on the motherboard.
- The motherboard BIOS on some computers may be early enough not to support BIOS expansion ROM's.