Western Digital's WD90C30 and WD90C31 for VGA
Thye-Lai Tung
Western Digital chips (WD90C30 and WD90C31) for VGA display. Can someone
tell me the differences between these two chips, specifically
o the fastest refresh rates for these non-interlaced modes:
1024x768: 60 or 72Hz ?
800x600: 60 or 72Hz ?
assuming 1M bytes of DRAM is installed.
o which one has a graphics accelerator for Windows ?
o the speed of the DRAM: 60 or 70ns ?
o well-known model and brand names I can relate to.
Thanks.
Thye-Lai Tung
tt...@td2cad.intel.com
Rajiv Dewan
>I am looking at 2 486 systems with builtin VGA, they use slightly different
>Western Digital chips (WD90C30 and WD90C31) for VGA display. Can someone
This is used in Paradise Windows accelerator and the Diamond SPeedstar 24X.
These were reviewed in PC Magazine Jan 12 issue. The article also includes
a discussion of the chips themselves. Interestingly, but not surprisingly,
there is considerable performance variation amongst the boards that use
the same chip. Depends on Hardware implementation and software (drivers).
The Speedstar 24X comes with monitor model specific drivers.
Rajiv
Address: Internet: r-d...@nwu.edu
Amateur Radio Packet: aa...@w8lvn.il.usa
Mark Boyd
>>
>> In article <C134B...@inews.Intel.COM> tt...@td2cad.intel.com (Thye-Lai Tung) w
>> rites:
>> >I am looking at 2 486 systems with builtin VGA, they use slightly different
>> >Western Digital chips (WD90C30 and WD90C31) for VGA display. Can someone
>> ^^^^^^^^
>> This is used in Paradise Windows accelerator and the Diamond SPeedstar 24X.
>> These were reviewed in PC Magazine Jan 12 issue. The article also includes
>> a discussion of the chips themselves. Interestingly, but not surprisingly,
>> there is considerable performance variation amongst the boards that use
>> the same chip. Depends on Hardware implementation and software (drivers).
>> The Speedstar 24X comes with monitor model specific drivers.
My Speedstar 24X didn't come with monitor model specific drivers! It
came with a (DOS only) program, 24xmode, which allows you to select
the behavior for the various video modes. You usually set them by
selecting a particular monitor from the list, but you can also set
them (refresh rate, sync polarities) for each mode the card supports.
Nice. But the program must be run each time you boot, so if you aren't
using DOS, it is useless.
Mark
ajb...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
>I am looking at 2 486 systems with builtin VGA, they use slightly different
>Western Digital chips (WD90C30 and WD90C31) for VGA display. Can someone
>tell me the differences between these two chips, specifically
>
> o the fastest refresh rates for these non-interlaced modes:
> 1024x768: 60 or 72Hz ?
> 800x600: 60 or 72Hz ?
I can only speak for the WD90C31, but assuming it has a fast enough RAMDAC (for
refresh is dependent on how fast the seperate RAMDAC can handle the image data)
it should support 72Hz in all modes of operation except 1280*1024 (which as far
as I recall is only in interlaced 43Hz mode).
> assuming 1M bytes of DRAM is installed.
> o which one has a graphics accelerator for Windows ?
The WD90C31 is the Windows graphics accelerator.
> o the speed of the DRAM: 60 or 70ns ?
You're not likely to find DRAM speeds of less than 70ns unless the card is
local bus.
> o well-known model and brand names I can relate to.
The Paradise Graphics Accelerator, and the well-known Diamond Speedstar 24X
accelerator are both based on this chip. Note that the Diamond is CONSIDERABLY
faster than the Paradise (which would heavily imply that other WD90C31
"clone-based" video boards would also be slower) by virtue of the excellent
WinSpeed drivers that Diamond employs. It'd be an interesting experiment to
try Diamond's SS24X drivers with the Paradise though :).
Hope it helps.
Alex
>
>Thanks.
>
>Thye-Lai Tung
>tt...@td2cad.intel.com
David Lebel
>WinSpeed drivers that Diamond employs. It'd be an interesting experiment to
>try Diamond's SS24X drivers with the Paradise though :).
I've tried it, and I dropped from 11.7 WinMARKS (based on WinBench 2.5) to
2.5 WinMARKS. The Diamond's drivers was running at 1024x768x256, and the
WD/Paradise's drivers was running at the same resolutions, but at only 16 colors.
Interresting test though... 8-]
--
David Lebel | C-3PO: Sir, the possibility of successfully |
Universite de Montreal | navigating an asteroid field is <o>
leb...@JSP.UMontreal.CA | approximately 3720 to 1. | Star
(514) 343-6532 ext 44644 | HAN: Never tell me the odds! < \ Wars
Bailey Brown
>>> the same chip. Depends on Hardware implementation and software (drivers).
>>> The Speedstar 24X comes with monitor model specific drivers.
>My Speedstar 24X didn't come with monitor model specific drivers! It
>came with a (DOS only) program, 24xmode, which allows you to select
>the behavior for the various video modes. You usually set them by
>selecting a particular monitor from the list, but you can also set
>them (refresh rate, sync polarities) for each mode the card supports.
>Nice. But the program must be run each time you boot, so if you aren't
>using DOS, it is useless.
What you say is true about 24XMODE, but there are DIP swtiches on
the board that let you specify which refresh rate is used with
which mode. I think it defaults to these settings if 24XMODE
hasn't been run (which would be the case when not using DOS.
------------
Bailey Brown "Above all else, confusion reigns."
Intergraph Corporation
bbr...@casca.b11.ingr.com Procol Harum
Han Thomas
>My Speedstar 24X didn't come with monitor model specific drivers! It
>came with a (DOS only) program, 24xmode, which allows you to select
>the behavior for the various video modes.
When I bought my computer, the dealer installed the SS24x, and put the 'Fixup'
command in the autoexec.bat. The SS24x manual doesn't mention it at all,
does anyone know what it is supposed to do? I don't use it anymore, sometimes
when I tried to display a GIF, it would display only the top 1/5 of the screen,
with the rest of the picture displayed 'on top of it' (difficult to explain :-)
This even happened to the SS24X-intro-picture, after running the install-
program. (It still happens occaisionally when displaying a picture in a low
resolution (using VPIC) )
Also, dos anyone know a FTP-site with the latest drivers? (Please tell me the
exact location and filename, since I have to get them through FTP-mail..)
Han.