I was just yesterday in a store which sells ATI cards.  They told me
that ATI has just recently slashed the prices of the Vantage and Ultra so that
they are price-competitive with cards based on the S3 chipset. The June 1992
issue of BYTE has an article comparing several co-processed video cards for
Windows use (pages 172-184).

Byte says:

"In Windows, the display is markedly sharper and clearer than with most
S3-based cards".

–
Bruce Dunn    Vancouver, Canada   Bruce_D…@mindlink.bc.ca

I use a mix of 4 1×9 3-chip and 4 1×9 9-chip SIMMs without problems.
(That’s on a 386@33 system; TP motherboard.)
—
Steve Aliff (swal…@afterlife.ncsc.mil [144.51.1.1])

I’ve got a Vantage

>o. What was your video performance like?

Vast improvement over standard VGA in VGA mode, and speed increases were even
noticed in 800x600x256 mode over standard VGA.

>o. How reliable is the card and it’s drivers?

Haven’t had any real "bugs" per se, although some button hilight colors and a
few others are "misregistered" in the 800x600x256 mode…that may be due to the
color depth rather than the card.  I’m using the 3.0 driver on 3.1; when I
installed the 3.1 driver from cica, performance decreased noticeably.

>o. Was the documantation clear and informative?

For the most part, the included software is good enough that you don’t need
the docs.  However, I found the docs do not tell much more about the software
than the software itself.  The hardware instructions are clear.

>o. Did you get good technical support?

Haven’t had to use it yet.
—
\ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | /
–  Michael  we…@seas.ucla.edu   |  School of Engineering & Applied Science  -
–   Weiss   izzy…@oac.ucla.edu  |   University of California, Los Angeles   –
/ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | \

| A word of warning with ATI cards.  Apparently, an "ATI" card may be one of
| two things.  It may be either a card that ATI produced for retail
| sale, or a OEM product that they produce to some other manufacturers
| specification.  If you get the former, everything is fine and ATI drivers
| work fine.  If you get the latter (presumably not available as individual
| cards but rather packaged with some OEM’s PC system), you should be wary.
| I have a card that supports 800*600*256 and 1024*768*16, but since it is
| ATI’s OEM card, ATI’s new Windows 3.1 drivers don’t work perfectly (it has
| troubles displaying certain bitmaps that are included in Write files and
| sometimes produces "noise" on the screen when using DOS shells).  Having
| spent alot of time with an ATI tech support person (who was very helpful)
| we came to the conclusion that I just have to wait for newer ATI drivers
| (version 3.10.06 doesn’t work).  So, for the time being, I’m using the
| "Super VGA 800*600*16" driver that Microsoft provided with Windows 3.1.
| So, when considering ATI cards, you should be aware of the distinction.

Also bear in mind that this is not applicable (yet) to the
Ultra/Vantage series of accelerated cards. It’s true though, some
unscrupulous dealers will sell you an OEM version of their other cards
for the same price as the real thing. And the OEM versions don’t have
all the connectors, they tend to support VGA monitors only.

Kim

–
Kim Letkeman    k…@Software.Mitel.COM

| Oh, and I tossed the ATI 3-button mouse and plugged in my Microsoft one…

This is an area where personal taste governs, but I wouldn’t want
anyone to get the idea that the ATI mouse is seriously flawed. I like
it better than either Microsoft or Logitech Series 9.
—
Kim Letkeman    k…@Software.Mitel.COM

My ATI Graphics Ultra is an "OEM" version; it came without a box, but it
appears to be the real thing, and it does work fine with the current ATI
drivers.  I think the VGA Wonder cards have OEM versions which may not be
compatible (as Rob says), but the Graphics Ultra and Vantage OEM cards
are the same as the retail ones.

Another poster asked about Crystal font drivers — ATI tech support said to
expect them in the next few weeks, as they’re still in testing.  I hope they
will be supporting Crystal fonts with TrueType…

[ \tom haapanen    "i don't even know what street canada is on" -- al capone ]
[ t...@wes.on.ca                   "trust the programmer" -- ansi c standard ]
[ waterloo engineering software      "to thine own self be true" -- polonius ]

> Org.  : Waterloo Engineering Software
> Oh, and I tossed the ATI 3-button mouse and plugged in my Microsoft one…

I have an ATI Wonder XL.  I don’t like the shape of the mouse supplied with the
card.  Has anyone replaced the mouse as Tom has above?  I’d like to, but I have
a question or two:  first, which mouse–a bus mouse or a serial mouse?  Second,
would a Logitech mouse work, or would I have to get a Microsoft mouse?

Thanks for any help in advance …

–

       Joel Murray / Vancouver, British Columbia  /  Canada, Eh?
       Joel_Mur…@mindlink.bc.ca               CIS:  73200,3117

Ligneous and petrous projectiles can potentially fracture my osseous
structure, but pejorative appellations will forever remain innocuous.

Hope this helps.

– Rob
————————————————————————–
 Rob Ryan, internet:   Robert.R…@brown.edu or st802…@brownvm.brown.edu
           bitnet:     ST802…@BROWNVM.BITNET
           Compu$erve: 70324,227
 Brown University, Providence, RI
————————————————————————–

I’ve had a Graphics Ultra for a week now.

> o. What was your video performance like?

FAST!  It’s about 5x as fast overall at 800x600x256 as my old ET4000 at
800x600x16 (using PC Mag’s benchmarks), with things like BitBlts and
scrolling much faster yet.  Compared to ET4000′s 256-colour mode, the
speed difference is 8.5x.  The card can also run at higher scan frequen-
cies, giving a much steadier picture.  I don’t do much DOS stuff any more,
but it seems quite reasonable with what I have used there.  

Oh, and I tossed the ATI 3-button mouse and plugged in my Microsoft one…

> o. How reliable is the card and it’s drivers?

The current drivers work great with Windows 3.1, but they don’t yet support
Crystal Fonts.  The software setup program is excellent.

> o. Was the documantation clear and informative?
> o. Did you get good technical support?

Documentation is quite good, and tech support has been helpful so far.

[ \tom haapanen    "i don't even know what street canada is on" -- al capone ]
[ t...@wes.on.ca                   "trust the programmer" -- ansi c standard ]
[ waterloo engineering software      "to thine own self be true" -- polonius ]

Nope. I had bought 8 1×9-80 generic (NMBS) SIMMS with 9 chips from a
now-defunct company in the states for a good price. One was bad straight out
of the box so I replaced it with a locally-purchased 1×9-80 Toshiba 3-chip
module (still came out way ahead price-wise). No problems with WIN31 – sped
up the machine almost ~25% too (page interleave took effect).

…………….Dave

—-

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