Uncreative Labs

Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:35 pm

Which card is recommended for ISA VGA?

The ATI VGA Wonder family looks good?

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

our tseng labe isa 16 bit video card and many olderr ise 16 bit video cards work ok in an xt.
Just be sure the extra "fingers" do not short out.,
of course you set the switches to none / ega.
don't ransack the world for 8 bit vga card.

A few cards may act strange. displaying only B&W or nothing on a pentium system.

BTW a good game combo is an ega card set at "cga monitor" and a cga monitor better colors.

Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 589 Location: Shandong, China

I haven't tried all the VGA cards that work in an XT, but I am strongly in favour of the VGAwonder. It is available in both 8-bit and 16-bit ISA slot versions, but either card will work in an 8-bit slot. What makes the VGA wonder more attractive than other cards that have both analog and digital outputs is that it can autoselect between them so that you don't have to flip any DIP switches if you connect a different monitor. At least I'm not aware of any other boards that do this.

Another interesting card for the XT would be the original IBM VGA adapter designed for the PS/2 8088 systems. I've been trying to get one of these for a while without results. It doesn't have many interesting features, but it's a real IBM part.

Joined: 01 Oct 2006 Posts: 36 Location: USA

wdegroot wrote:

A few cards may act strange. displaying only B&W or nothing on a pentium system.

I found that out on my XT recently. After trying several 16-bit VGA cards and getting no results I finally installed an old Tseng card (forget which model now) and it booted up. Hurray I though. So I put it all back together, set it up on my desk and started up a game only to find it was in black and white. That was a lot of work for nothing. I guess the color was controlled by the 16-bit section of that card.

Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2008 11:37 am

I've just installed one of these cards and cannot seem to get past the POST video card error beeps and nothing is coming out of the VGA connector:

1. DIP switches on motherboard are correct.
2. I've check jumpers a few times
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphics-cards/U-Z/VIDEO-SEVEN-XVGA-V7-VEGA-VGA-VER-2.html

Hmmm, I previously had an ATI EGA Wonder card installed which worked fine.

Any thoughts?

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

some cards work and others may not
avoid using the slot nearest the power supply on a genuine ibm mb.
it is intended for a serial card.
I know typically the video card is in that location, but not on these mb.
try another card older is better.
and are the switches set for " no vido" or EGA?
since the ati card worked,. it is likely.
Older monitors are unavailable and this is a thing many of us will face.
thing is text and apps will work but many games get screwed up.

when I had a pc chips mb ( fast 486) some cards were very strange.

Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 51 Location: czech republic

Old Trident cards work. What I did (after testing it) - I removed the 16bit part of the connector with a grinding machine, so now the card looks like true 8 bit Laughing

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

many olkder cards had " decenders"
as normal industrial chips were used ( not much integration)
and manufacturers need all the board space they could.
so many older boards "stuch down" below the connector and motherboards would often accept a board like that in one or more slots.

remmeber the HUGE boards used in early AT's and other 285 machines?

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

I have a paradise 8 bit ISA VGA card that I have not tested yet. My XT runs a CGA 8 bit card currently and I have a C&T chipset EGE 8 bit card also.

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

I have an Oak Technologies 077 chip card. It's primarily a VGA adapter, but with the dip switches I also have EGA, CGA, and Monochrome/Hercules support.

My other choice of VGA cards for an XT are the old WD 16-bit Paradise VGA cards.

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

with a cga monitoir use an ega card set for cga monitor
as it will give you 16 colors and better color
do NOT try a monot monitor with an ega card exceot set as mono (hercules mono graphics)

Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 589 Location: Shandong, China

I would avoid the OAK cards. From what I understand, the OAK VGA core is one of the few that is actually *slower* than standard VGA.

Certain cards will support full EGA graphics on a monochrome monitor. The ATi EGA and VGA wonders will do up to 16 shades of grey at the full 640x350 spec. I have heard the ETx000 series also work very well, but I am not certain if they have the same auto switching capabilities as the ATI cards.

Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 138 Location: Lynnwood,WA

Anonymous Coward wrote:

I would avoid the OAK cards. From what I understand, the OAK VGA core is one of the few that is actually *slower* than standard VGA.

Certain cards will support full EGA graphics on a monochrome monitor. The ATi EGA and VGA wonders will do up to 16 shades of grey at the full 640x350 spec. I have heard the ETx000 series also work very well, but I am not certain if they have the same auto switching capabilities as the ATI cards.

I got the Oak card as it was the only thing I could find. I really just want a normal EGA card for that box, but the OAK offers the flexability to test multiple monitors, so it does kinda' have a use. Plus it's an XT, it's not like it needs graphics that go really fast.

now on the other hand, I have a gripe about this card in that in certain EGA modes (320X200 in particular), certain colors appear with light blue bars. Really annoying.

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 2:25 am

If you can find one, The Headland Ergo II 1mb VGA card works wonders on the 8-bit bus. in full VGA color no less. It's got very few 16-bit fingers, so i figure those are just for slightly added performance too. BUT you have to configure the XT or the PC to have NO DISPLAY or it won't work..

Joined: 20 Sep 2009 Posts: 7

If you can find an ISA bus ATi Mach64, that is generally accepted as the fastest 16-bit ISA slot video card. I have an ATi Graphics Expression 2mb that I managed to find cheap still in the original box about a year or two ago. I'd like to find the 4mb version that supports higher resolution and more colors, but they are really hard to get these days. I'm not sure what you would look for if all you have is an 8-bit slot.