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[keesan AT iamjlamb.com]

                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.