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Diamond Speedstar Pro questions

F

Floppies_only

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Hi fellow enthusiasts,

I managed to win a Diamond Speedstar Pro video card on ebay. The TULARC website (I wonder if that was set up by an amateur radio club) says it can display 1024 X 768 resolution. It has one megabyte of RAM. I was wondering if you can get more colors with 640 X 480 resolution. I'm pretty vague on how video memory is structured.

The website says that the card can be configured for zero wait states or one wait state. I am hoping to use this card with a 386 running at 25 MHz. Does anyone know which setting will work?

I found another website that has a link claiming to be the driver for this card, but it's well over a megabyte. That seems kinda big to me. Do you guys think it's fake? (I saved the URL - I can post it tomorrow)

Thanks,
Sean
--
"Fast, Sir. It means fast." -- IIRC, the caption from a Speedstar ad in Computer Shopper.
 
I have a SpeedStar VL version. It'll work straight up in a ISA slot too. I haven't used it in a while. I recently swapped out my Gigiabyte 486 board (3 VL slots), for something with 3 PCI slots and installed an old Matrox Millenium VGA. So, I can't check it out (the SpeedStar) until I reinstall that Gigabyte mobo into another box that I working on. I do think that it will support 1024x768 in at least 256 colors. I think I've got the manual archived somewhere - may take a little while to find it. This makes for a good excuse to fiddle with that Gigabyte 486VF some more.
 
Agent Orange said:
I have a SpeedStar VL version. It'll work straight up in a ISA slot too. I haven't used it in a while. I recently swapped out my Gigiabyte 486 board (3 VL slots), for something with 3 PCI slots and installed an old Matrox Millenium VGA. So, I can't check it out (the SpeedStar) until I reinstall that Gigabyte mobo into another box that I working on. I do think that it will support 1024x768 in at least 256 colors. I think I've got the manual archived somewhere - may take a little while to find it. This makes for a good excuse to fiddle with that Gigabyte 486VF some more.
Click to expand...

Agent Orange,

Is this true for all VLB cards or was it just for the Diamond SpeedStars? I always thought VLB was not backwards compatible w/ ISA!
 
Definetly not all VLB cards. They would have to be specifically designed to work in both slots. VLB cards that have the 16-bit (center section) of the connector still present would be most likely to work in my opinion.
 
Thats too bad. I have been looking for Tseng ET4000/W32i based ISA video card w/ 2MB of RAM but have yet to find one. The VLB variety seems to be everywhere though! On another note which would you guys go for:

ET4000/W32 EISA or ET4000/W32i ISA? Would the EISA bus help things at all at those resolution/colors? Thanks!
 
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EISA video cards are much harder to find then ISA, so I would go for EISA (if you have an EISA system to install it in).

I have a ET4000/W32 ISA card (I think it is 1MB of RAM but havn't looked), the more common ISA cards are ET4000A's and are 1MB max.

Never tried a VLB card in an ISA slot.
 
Unknown_K,

Agreed EISA cards are hard to find and the drivers are even harder to find. The reason I asked is because according to Wiki the W32i chipset is much more improved vs. W32. However, it is ISA/VLB only. So better bus or better chipset for actual use? I am leaning toward the better chip set because I doubt the bus will make the big of a difference at 1024x768x256.
 
I am pretty sure I know of an ISA based ET4000W32i card on ebay in the $10-$20 range. I will take a look and send you the link if I find it. Just so you know, Cirrus Logic is probably faster than ET4000W32i on an ISA card. I would get a CL-GD5434 based card.
 
The W32x chips were faster in Windows 3.x, no idea if they made a difference in DOS. I would expect a VLB version to be faster then a DOS version when color depth is an issue just because of bandwidth.

You realy need to specify what you are using the video card for to say which one is faster. Gaming, Windows 3.x, Win 95, CAD, etc need different chips. For example a Diamond Viper VLB is super fast in Win 3.1 256 color, other cards are better for Win 3.x 24 bit modes, and the Viper sucks for DOS gaming (and even in DOS gaming there is a difference between early VGA performance and VESA modes used by later games).
 
Not completely sure. However, I have had several 16-bit ISA video cards that would work in my 1000SX's 8-bit slot. Limiting factor seemed to be whether or not it would physically fit. I don't expect that you would be able to get your drivers to function full throttle or at all, but you might get basic VGA.
 
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Floppies_only said:
I'm pretty vague on how video memory is structured.
Click to expand...

As long as we're talking about an "all points addressable" framebuffer graphics system (not getting into character generators or 2D/3D acceleration), video memory is pretty simple to calculate: Resolution Width * Resolution Height * Bytes-per-pixel

16 colors = 4 bits or 0.5 bytes/pixel
256 colors = 8 bits or 1 byte/pixel
32K/64K colors = 15/16 bits or 2 bytes/pixel (15-bit is kinda rare, but showed up on some cards)
16M colors = 24 bits or 3 bytes/pixel (typically)

So 1024x768 @ 256 colors = 1024*768*1 = 786,432 bytes. So even the next step up (typ. 64K/16-bit) will raise the requirement to about 1.5MB, so you won't get any better color depth without a VRAM upgrade, if one exists.
 
Unknown_K said:
You realy need to specify what you are using the video card for to say which one is faster. Gaming, Windows 3.x, Win 95, CAD, etc need different chips. For example a Diamond Viper VLB is super fast in Win 3.1 256 color, other cards are better for Win 3.x 24 bit modes, and the Viper sucks for DOS gaming (and even in DOS gaming there is a difference between early VGA performance and VESA modes used by later games).
Click to expand...

Mainly this card would be for DOS gaming. It is for my retro system which is centered around a 486 and I plan to use it to play games made up to mid 1990s so all 2D games, maybe 3D SW rendered games. I use the system currently to run my own private "PC Board", and just to mess around in DOS/Win 3.1. I have a Millennium II/Voodoo2 Graphics based system for the early 3D games and Win9x.
 
The number of colors depends on the amont of memory and the ramdac. I have 2 different et4000 ISA cards both with 1mb. The one with an 80mhz ramdac can only do 256 colors while the one with the 135mhz ramdac can do true color at 640x480.
 
I think that the number of colours supported by the card have more to do with the color look up table supported by the RAMDAC than the speed. The speed of RAMDAC will determine which refresh rates are available at any given resolution. An 80MHz RAMDAC is what I would describe as "crappy", 72Hz at 640x480, 60Hz at 800x600 and god knows what at 1024x768. It basically makes modes above 640x480 unusable on a CRT.
 
Slightly related question... I have an original ISA Diamond SpeedSTAR with an ET4000AX and 1MB... I have another ISA card with an ET4000/W32 and 1MB as well. I know that the ET4000AX was considered one of the fastest DOS/VGA modes controllers, and I believe the ET4000/W32 was meant for GUI acceleration in Windows. My question is, is the ET4000/W32 slower/the same/faster for standard DOS/standard VGA modes? The machine in question is a 386 system I'm building primarily for DOS gaming. Should I leave the SpeedSTAR VGA card in there?
 
The Diamond Speedstar was considered to be the "nugget" of it's day. Slower or faster seems to be kind of academic if you intend to game on a 386. It won 't be the Speedstar that holds you back - why not shoot for a 486?
 
Agent Orange said:
The Diamond Speedstar was considered to be the "nugget" of it's day. Slower or faster seems to be kind of academic if you intend to game on a 386. It won 't be the Speedstar that holds you back - why not shoot for a 486?
Click to expand...

I have several 486's. This is my latest "project"... It's an old, bare bones, 386 system I acquired that came in an AT desktop case (typical dark greyish, thick steel case). I'm adding parts and happen to have these 2 ISA VGA cards. Was simply wondering which of the two would have an edge in DOS. This will be for pre-multimedia era DOS games. If I want to play anything beyond that, I fire up any of my 486's or my trusty Gateway P5-133 XL. ;)
 
I suppose you could come up with a bench mark game and just run both cards, one at a time, and see what pops.
 
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