#Hardware Combo's
10 messages in this thread
Hardware Questions:
1. Anyone have any experiences good or bad using an ATI Mach 32 w/2 meg ram
graphics board using 486/66 local bus, with 3d Studio?
2. Anyone find any "real" advantage using 2-4 meg cacheing hard disc controller
card? Seems to me the only real advantage comes if you don't have enough ram.
Regards,
Looking for New Hardware
Fritz:
I'm using ATI Gr. Ultra Plus, 2MB (similar to the 'pro', but DRAMs, no VRAM's,
also Mach32 chip) on a 486/66 _ISA_ board (no LB).
So far, I'm very happy with it. But you shurely have to check the ATI forum for
the latest news…….Windows driver problems drived some people mad. The
Vibrant drivers for ACAD and 3DS for the ISA-board are perfect (24bit up to
800×600)…..
Regards……………………………..Alexander.
Alexander,
Thanks for the reply. Windows is not in my vocabulary (DOS Codger). Where did
you get the Vibrant Drivers?
Thx F.B.H.
Fritz –
Drivers for the ATI board are up on the ATI BBS, considering that these are
from Sept, they work great with R12 and 3DS. Most of the changes since the
Sept release has been into R12, but 3DS has also been reworked for greater
performance and usability.
If you want the best, a low cost upgrade to our retail ProRes/3DS or DLXpress
is the ticket to great 3DS performance, they will work on almost all of the
board out there and the few new boards not yet supported will of course be.
One of the problems that folks are reporting with the ATI board is playing back
flic's inside of 3DS. This is currently outside the driver ability to correct
and actually affects many boards. Some have solved it by using the updated
VESA.COM drivers from ATI. Best solution is to put AAPLAY in the program
menu<g>
Both the ATI and the Herc boards make excellent solutions. One of the
differences in the companies is that Hercules has been in the CAD business for
along time and their folks really know it. ATI has updated windows drivers on
their BBS that resolve most if not all of the windows driver.
Good Luck –
Jack Bayt – Vibrant
Fritz,
I sent both my ATI's back … Windows drivers stunk, and the VESA driver would
make my machine reboot when I tried running a FLI file in 3DS. I'm now using
the Hercules Graphite with good success. I've only had one customer have
problems with it and I believe that they have now fixed those.
Ang
Ang,
Thanks for the input!
I don't EVER use windows on my 3d Studio machine, you know, a died in the wool
DOS type. But I do run flic files. Did you have trouble with running them IN 3d
Studio or out in aaplay or Animator Pro?
>> in 3DS or AniPro
Fritz,
Just 3DS which was pretty weird. Anyway, ATI is a very frustrating company to
deal with … you can't get through to their tech support .. when you can they
really aren't very helpful. On the otherhand, the guys at Hercules are
available and helpful and eager to support their customers. Even the one
customer who had a problem was impressed with Hercules' efforts to fix his
problem … he simply didn't have time to work thru them. Hercules should be
shipping thier VL-bus-2MB version of the Graphite card. With all these
factors, I'd say its worth the wait.
Hea, Jim Carlson … whens the latest shipping date on the 2MB-VL-bus Graphite
Card?
Ang
Ang:
More hardware delays (not ours, one of our suppliers). Looking more like late
April for the 2MB version. We'll know a little more on Monday or Tuesday when
the latest batch of prototypes get delivered from the assembly house.
The 1MB version is getting a shakedown cruise on a bunch of different
motherboards, but its virtually ready to go. Software is almost done, and
we've just got to isolate a few weird problems with some of the 50MHz VL-Bus
systems. Should be out by the end of this month, worst case.
As always, I'm lurking and ready to help! <G!>
Jim Carlton Hercules Computer Technology
>> isolate a few weird problems with some of the 50MHz VL-Bus systems
Jim,
I thought that the DX-50's were incompatible with the VL-bus timming?
Ang
Ang:
So did I, but I _saw_ the Graphite VL running in an Orchid motherboard at 50MHz
(you shoulda seen the evil looking heat sink on the CPU!). Reports are, we
should be compatible with some of the 50's, but not all.
Great, I just love that kind of a hassle…"which version of the 50MHz XYZ
motherboard? The UMC chipset one? Oh no, we've only used the Symphony
version, I guess it won't work. Please don't scream at me…"
Although, we do have the ultimate cop-out: the VESA spec doesn't allow for a
connector on a 50MHz bus. It officially calls for up to 2 connectors at 33MHz,
1 connector at 40MHz, and 0 at 50MHz. Our Engineers are trying an experiment
to find out if changing out some components to faster version will help.
We don't really want to have to support the 50's, but the market wants it, so
we gotta give it our best shot. Unfortunately, it's a lot of retrofitting and
testing —> time consumer, in a BIG way.
Jim Carlton Hercules Computer Technology