#Vibrant & Viper?????????
11 messages in this thread
David,
Thanks for the information. Color depth is a big issue for me because in
addition to pretty detailed 3ds stuff I work alot with images and graphics. Do
you happen to know of any impresive true color high res PCI boards? Do think
the Viper will ever be upgradable to 24 x1024x768?
Theres a board Matrox has been touting that sounds pretty impressive, seems
especially geared for 3ds work and as I recall available in a PCI version. Know
any thing about it.
Regards, Peter Kroko
Peter:
The Diamond Viper comes with 2MB. I can't remember if you can add more (I
don't think so) which would be necessary to do 1024×768 at 24-bit color
depth. With 3MB on board, the Matrox MGA can do 1024x768x24. According to
the manual (I happen to have a 3MB ISA version), the following resolutions
are available:
Board Support
Resolution 256 col 32K col 16M col
640×480 yes yes yes
800×600 yes yes yes
1024×768 yes yes yes
1152×882 yes yes no
1280×1024 yes no no
1600×1200 no no no
NTSC yes yes yes
PAL yes yes yes
Hope this helps.
David
Peter,
>> Do think the Viper will ever be upgradable to 24 x1024x768? <<
No, as this is a limitation of the P9000 chip. The chip can only address 2MB
of VRAM, and subsequently 24bit is limited to 800 x 600. However, there is a
P9100 chip in the works that will erase this limitation.
On the Matrox, check out the thread in the 3D Studio section that has been
developing on the Matrox boards, lotsa goodies there.
Chuck
Chuck,
<<On the Matrox, check out the thread in the 3D Studio section that has been
developing on the Matrox boards, lotsa goodies there.>>
PC Magazine just raved about the board, seems like the way to go. Happen to
know what sort of chip set it has? I've developed an affection for TIGA boards
if know other reason than just about every software out there has a driver for
it.
Thanks, Peter Kroko
The Matrox uses the MGA chipset (hence the name MGA <g>). It is a
64bit architecture accelerator that blows away any TIGA ever made,
and is probably cheaper. 3D Studio drivers ARE its weakness, but
this situation will be rectified in the next few weeks with the
Vibrant in-line driver update. I own an MGA and think it's the
best!!!!!!!!!! (I love it <g>)
>> rectified in the next few weeks
This is bugging me. I heard this exact comment from Brian last
December. That's over 8 weeks ago. Do you know what's going on?
Basically, it took Matrox longer than expected to get the Vibrant
folks going on the driver, and then the MGA hardware was more unusual
than anyone had thought. See my msg 83316 to John for more info.
John, I'm not positive, but I THINK that next week's Vibrant driver
update will cover all new boards EXCEPT the Matrox board. The
chipset and architecture in that board is so non-standard that it's
going to probably be another month before that's supported.
I heard that, too. I haven't spoken with Vibrant or Matrox lately,
but I was told it would be by the end of 1st quarter 94, so I guess
they're on schedule, still. I did hear Febuary, but that was a while
ago.
John Tissavary (La Luna cie)
John,
I've learned my lesson about estimating when the inline driver update will be
available. Thanks for everyone's patience.
Matrox support WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE in the next release of the inline
driver. Expect at least a 30 day lag after this next update. We
have been diludged with requests for support and it has our highest
priority. It will take time to do it right, however.
No problem. I figured it wouldn't be in this next update. As long as
it comes out right, and takes advantage of the MGA's excellent
features, I'll be super happy!