ATI Graphis Xpression Mach 64 VLB

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scharfshutze009

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This is similar to my version of the ATI GRAPICS XPRESSION using the Mach 64GX family. It has 2MB of video RAM for 256 colors at 1280x1024, 65,000 colors at 1024x768, and 16.7 million colors at 800x600. I bought it on ebay several years ago. It was new in box still in the shrink wrap until I opened it although it still has not been used by me.
Mach64gx.jpg
 
brings back the good old days when they actually put the information you needed to know on the boxes and were far more simple and not insanely flashy looking..
 
Yea but think about it current video cards have improved majorly because they support 32-bit color at every resolution.
 
I was going to use it with this Amptron DX-9700 m919v3 motherboard.

AmptronDX-9700m919v3motherboard.jpg


Here are the specs

CPU

Supports 80486/5x86 Processor running at 25 up 133 MHz.
Intel P24D, P24T, DX4(P24C), DX/DX2-SL, 80486DX2/DX/SX.
Cyrix/IBM/Ti/SGS DX/DX2/DX4.
AMD Enhance DX2/DX4
Cyrix/IBM/AMD 5x86.
Architecture

3 PCI Local Bus slots and 4 x 16 bits ISA Bus slots include One 32-bit VL-Bus Master slot.
Cache Memory Slot

128K/256K/512K/1024KB asynchronous SRAM module supported.
System Memory

Use 72-pin SIMM modules x 4 auto banking or 30-pin SIMM modules x 4, 72-pin SIMM x 2 (The 72-pin SIMM modules x 2 should be the same size) in multiple configuration up to128MB using combinations of 256K, 1M, 2M,
4M, 8M, 16M, 32M, 64M SIMM Modules.
I/O SPEC.

2 PCI IDE interface on board support ATA spec.
Support two 16550 compatible enhanced serial port. up to mode 4 IDE interface. Floppy disk interface and, EPP/ECP high performance parallel port function,
System BIOS

Supports Flash ROM, Plug and Play, Green Feature, NCR 810 SCSI BIOS.

I current have the AOpen S3 Virge 4MB PCI Graphics card, a US Robotics 56K ISA Modem, A VLB (VESA Local Bus) SCSI card, 256MB of RAM, and a AMD 5x86 P75 133Mhz CPU in this computer with an Athena Power 400 Watt AT Power Supply.
 
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Out of all the quantum leaps graphic cards have made, that's the major one for you?
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No current video card have also added Anti-Aliasing, Hardware T&L, High Dynamic Range, Physics, and now Interactive Ray Tracing as well as blah blah blah.
 
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I have an old ATI EGA Wonder that still works. It uses an 8-bit ISA slot and it has TV out.
 
Oh damn, the thing can apparently accelerate trains that are running windows 3.1, pretty badass.
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LOL I believe the train was in reference to how well it could improve the performance of CAD programs.
 
Anyway what was the experience like when using cards like these, because I was a teen when these where popular and just released. Now I can't use them because the support isn't there and the only working computer I have with VESA won't boat from floppy or read floppy. Instead the computer POST's and the floppy drive light lights up, which is no fun and even Linux can't be installed on it. The other computer I have with VESA has a bad trace for the onboard video and won't allow me to bypass it, so I just use it for a step stole sorta.
 
Man,
I ebayed all my junk like that or threw it out all together.
Had a mountain of old gear and wife made me get rid of it since I really didn't have a place to store it.
 
scharfshutze009 said:
Anyway what was the experience like when using cards like these, because I was a teen when these where popular and just released.
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Funny story. PCI was quickly adopted once consumer chipsets were released and VLB died for good reasons. I was working in PC hardware when 16-bit ISA was being replaced by EISA on server boards and when VLB and PCI were introduced. My iirc about it...

VLB and PCI came out around the same time, but the VLB slot predates the PCI slot which was mostly used on server boards. In consumer systems, PCI adoption lagged behind VLB for about 2 years.

It's not specifically against this particular graphics card, but dealing with VLB was a mess. The cards ran synchronously with the CPU's bus speed, so some cards supported up to 40MHz, while other cards were only compatible with 25MHz bus speed. Stability while overclocking the cards (running higher than spec bus speed) was mixed and usually negative. Plus limits on CPU bus loading limited the number of VLB slots available since cards were directly connected electrically to the CPU. Cards were rated by how much load it put on the CPU bus, between 1 and 3. Some VLB cards wouldn't work together when installed in the same system due to conflicts. It was a support and configuration nightmare. Otherwise it was a great, low cost alternative to EISA when it worked. It served a good purpose on consumer systems and was another sign that IBM no longer controlled the direction of PC hardware.

Originally (consumer 32-bit) PCI was only at best equal to a 33MHz VLB card in bandwidth, plus slight overhead from being not necessarily running synchronous with the host bus clock rate. However, buffering and true bus mastering allowed PCI cards to work much better when more than one was installed and allowed a greater number of cards to be installed in total.

It might be surprising, but a lot of PC hardware in the early 1990s just wasn't stable. Rickety things like VLB just made it worse and that's why I'm not nostalgic over it.
 
I agree with pxc, the reason I usually avoid your threads scharfshutze009 is because you never had to troubleshoot unstable and picky hardware and software. For some strange reason you adore the idea of it!

ISA and SVGA standardization, and later the introduction of PCI and 32-bit DOS extension programs brought about the golden age of PC gaming. VLB was a short-lived hack that we like to forget :D

Did you know that we didn't even standardize the ISA bus (and give it an official name like "Industry Standard Architecture") until IBM dropped the Microchannel Bus bomb on the industry? There was no standardization on bus speed until they were forced to create EISA to compete with MCA , and that caused 10 long years of headaches, as the AT bus speed was usually tied to processor speed (and when it was decoupled, there was no standard).

Setting this standard made expansion cards much more widely compatible, and set the stage for many more standards.
 
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defaultluser said:
I agree with pxc, the reason I usually avoid your threads scharfshutze009 is because you never had to troubleshoot unstable and picky hardware and software. For some strange reason you adore the idea of it!

ISA and SVGA standardization, and later the introduction of PCI and 32-bit DOS extension programs brought about the golden age of PC gaming. VLB was a short-lived hack that we like to forget :D

Did you know that we didn't even standardize the ISA bus (and give it an official name like "Industry Standard Architecture") until IBM dropped the Microchannel Bus bomb on the industry? There was no standardization on bus speed until they were forced to create EISA to compete with MCA , and that caused 10 long years of headaches, as the AT bus speed was usually tied to processor speed (and when it was decoupled, there was no standard).

Setting this standard made expansion cards much more widely compatible, and set the stage for many more standards.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true although I did somehow manage to skip over most of it, even though I'm an 80's child considering I was born in 1980. You're somewhat right though and I don't have as much experience as you as well. My first computer was an Intel 80286 machine in about 1996 that my uncle gave my family as well as playing with my friends computers years before this that were similar if not better. Although none of my friends would dare let me mess with there hardware, so in that regard your right. I actually found myself just getting my hands on computers in the transitions from jumpers to dip switches and the impending end of both of those years later. If you've seen my thread on the Intel Pentium Overdrive then perhaps you noticed I can make machines this old work, but have yet to overcome obstacles as non working on-board floppy controllers. Your right though it was a painful 10 years or more of dealing with that technology, but at least I was willing to deal with that unlike my friend who couldn't wait for it to be simpler even if we all were in someway.

Not long after the 80286 machine we got an IBM Aptiva with an AMD K6 233 MHz processor and later an HP Pavilion with a Celeron Coppermine 800 MHz. At the same time as the HP I had already gone my seperate way and assembled my own computer off the slot 1 Pentium III 533 MHz Coppermine that I damaged the cache on the back of by taking off the cartridge the wrong way with a screw driver causing me to break the trace. Therefore, forcing me to have to use a Celeron 533MHz and a slot to socket adapter that were both barrowed from a friend. Then later getter a Pentium III Coppermine of my own to use in my computer, which was much better. Then later following that up with a build off the Pentium 4 Northwood 3.06 GHz. Afterwards I built off the Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33 GHz Wolfsdale. Previously a Core i7 3.33 GHz Gulftown and now a Xeon 1650 2600v2, so I've come a long way in about 18 or more years playing with computers even if it can't compare with your experience.
 
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