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  • From: keesan AT iamjlamb.com
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [BL] BL2 text modes for various video cards
  • Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 10:20:40 -0500 (EST)

Cirrus S3+ STB Trident Tseng ATI

80x25 x x x x x
50
43
28
30
34
60

100 x 40 25
44

132x 25 25 25 25
30 28
43 43 44 44
60 60


svgalib 1024-64K 1024-64k 1024-256 -- --
(links2) 800-16M 800-16M32 800-64K 800-16M32 800-16M

Xvesa 1024-64k 1024-64k 1024-64K 1024-2 1024-64k
800-16M 800-16M32 800-16M32 800-16M32 800-16M

S3Virge and STB have 4M RAM and will do 1024-16M
S3 and STB and Cirrus also list (whatvga2) as doing 1600 resolution
but my monitor does not support that.

An older S3 - same text modes as newer S3s but SVGAlib only 640-256
Alliance and Diamond Stealth text modes were not tested. They have
too many other problems.

Xvesa - all cards above suitable for 800 resolution,
Tseng not usable for 1024 in color.
SVGAlib (links graphical) all cards okay at 800
Trident usable at 1024 in 256 colors
ATI and Tseng not usable in 1024
Text mode - best cards are ATI and Tseng (100 columns and 132)
S3/STB and Trident will do 132 columns
Cirrus only 80 and 40 columns

DOS ghostscript - Tseng, Trident and ATI usable in SVGA mode (1024-256)
with psview - you can zoom and scroll and actually read the text.
Linux gs uses X-based gsview so would be better with Cirrus S3 STB.

Wordperfect for DOS - has drivers for 100 or 132 column text modes
for Tseng, Trident, S3, Cirrus (I think), and maybe ATI. Not STB?

For someone with two computers, I would suggest putting Tseng or ATI
in one (DOS ghostscript and textmodes), and S3 Virge or STB (with
4M RAM) in the other (SVGAlib and Xvesa and 1600 res).

If you want to use one computer for DOS ghostscript, and also linux
textmodes/SVGAlib (links graphical)/Xvesa - Trident is a compromise.
Fewer colors in SVGAlib than S3/STB/Cirrus, fewer text modes than
Tseng/ATI.

For X and SVGAlib but not text modes - Cirrus, S3 or STB are good.

The fastest card was the Tseng - 151 instead of 130 K/sec.




  • [BL] BL2 text modes for various video cards, keesan, 03/21/2004

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