S3 Virge Driver For Mac
Posted : admin On 13.02.2020I realize there is no such thing as a perfect anything but. I have been looking at video cards recently and noticed a few threads revisiting some of the cards I am looking at. It seems some real progress has been made with some of the S3 chips shortcomings. I am now taking a heavy look at the S3 Virge/DX again. It is a very interesting card in that it was shipped with both VBE 1.2 and VBE 2.0 BIOSes and the ability to change the BIOS used on an Intel 430 board without reflashing (just learned about that).
That in addition to the new discovery and fix for gamma issues and the otherwise great S3 compatibility I am really looking for a high end 4MB S3 Virge/DX card for myself. I am planning on using it in a 'Time Machine' build consisting of an ASUS TXP4-X ATX motherboard with Intel 430TX chipset, 32-128MB SDRAM, AMD K6-2/3+ at whatever frequency I find, a modified YMF-719 ISA sound card, possibly an A3D Vortex2 PCI sound card and of course either a Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 PCI 3D graphics card. So, what high end S3 Virge/DX cards exist?
S3 Virge Video Card
Hercules Terminator GB3610P Some type of Number Nine card others? Other thoughts and comments? Empire total war darthmod for mac. Sorry, I don't have all my links available at the moment I want to give a big thinks for everyone that shares information like this!
Squareguy wrote:I love this page but it would be really cool if BIOS versions were added Thanks. Yes BIOS versions are important in some cases. First I have seen with Matrox Millennium that BIOS versions can count.
V2.5 (838-15) and older bioses are faster in DOS than V2.7 (838-17) and later versions. I have played with Matrox Millennium II BIOS versions too but was no difference in compatibility nor in speed so I not shown the versions. Later I will retest Mystique with different BIOS versions too. In last year December with Voodoo4/5 also I have found again that bios versions can count, so I have made more entries wit bios versions.
S3 Virge Driver For Mac Download
Some cases the manucacturer (modification in bios made by a manufacturer) is more important than bios version for example Virge family cards are really good in compatibility but Diamond Virge cards have serious display problem (flashing) with Commander Keen 4; 5; 6 and Keen Dreams. I have recently added Diamond Virge and Virge/DX to the page. My Virge/GX is the Compaq one and my GX2 is an Apac. If I get another GX or GX2 I will test it. I have filled some bios versions (including all DX bios versions). Gona wrote:Some cases the manucacturer (modification in bios made by a manufacturer) is more important than bios version for example Virge family cards are really good in compatibility but Diamond Virge cards have serious display problem (flashing) with Commander Keen 4; 5; 6 and Keen Dreams. I have recently added Diamond Virge and Virge/DX to the page.
S3 Virge Driver For Mac Os
I just recently tested a bunch of PCI cards, and out of all my S3 cards, the Diamond Virge DX was the only one that had VBE2.0 built-in. It's my only Diamond-branded S3, so I don't know if that was something they did to all their S3 cards or not. But I find it interesting that my Diamond S3 has VBE2.0 and your Diamond S3 cards have display problems where other S3 cards do not. Could their implementation of VBE2.0 be responsible for the display issues you see? Clueless1 wrote:Interesting.
I just recently tested a bunch of PCI cards, and out of all my S3 cards, the Diamond Virge DX was the only one that had VBE2.0 built-in. It's my only Diamond-branded S3, so I don't know if that was something they did to all their S3 cards or not. But I find it interesting that my Diamond S3 has VBE2.0 and your Diamond S3 cards have display problems where other S3 cards do not. Could their implementation of VBE2.0 be responsible for the display issues you see?No, thete is no relationship with Diamond's VBE 2.0 implementation beause the Diamond's Virge and Virge/VX are also have this problem and these cards are VBE 1.2 cards. Here is the problem: Diamond has quickly switch to the VBE 2.0 because my Diamond Virge/DX card has older bios (1997-Mar-12 with VBE 2.0) than Hercules bios (1997-Nov-06 with VBE 1.2).
I have 4 different card and only the Hercules has VBE 1.2. The problem in the Diamond bios because now I have tested the Diamond card with replaced bios (reference S3 bios 2.01.07) and Commander Keen 4 works without problem (and put Diamond bios chip to the Ariso card and the problem is occur on the Aristo card). Diamond cards are great, but for comparibility I recommend to use reference S3 bios versions. S3 ViRGE/DX (or /GX) with, fast 35ns memory and UniVBE or - best choice for DOS games and demos with decent VGA and VESA compatibility. Trio3D/2X PCI (AGP cards are pure crap ) are also pretty good (supports 24bpp modes in VBE 2.0 out of box, nice for very obscure DOS demos with oddball VESA modes) and often run even faster that ViRGEs but does not support 32bpp in Windows and have glitches with Quake 360x??? Modes (fixable by S3VBEFIX as well).
Matrox, Tseng, ATI.they are sometimes even faster that S3 and have better image quality but VGA VESA compatibility is far far weaker. Wbc wrote:S3 ViRGE/DX (or /GX) with, fast 35ns memory and UniVBE or - best choice for DOS games and demos with decent VGA and VESA compatibility. Trio3D/2X PCI (AGP cards are pure crap ) are also pretty good (supports 24bpp modes in VBE 2.0 out of box, nice for very obscure DOS demos with oddball VESA modes) and often run even faster that ViRGEs but does not support 32bpp in Windows and have glitches with Quake 360x??? Modes (fixable by S3VBEFIX as well). Matrox, Tseng, ATI.they are sometimes even faster that S3 and have better image quality but VGA VESA compatibility is far far weaker I really agree.
S3 ViRGE/DX and ViRGE/GX are with BIOS version 2.01.07 (or version that based on 2.01.07) are the best choise for DOS games/demos compatibility. And S3VBEFIX is a great utility special thenks for it wbc! I have added S3VBEFIX to my page.