While VL-Bus video receives most of the attention, ISA video adapters are offering more capabilities than ever at bargain-basement prices of as low as $149. Even more surprising is the fact that the ISA cards that we tested typically performed just 5 percent to 15 percent slower overall than comparable VL-Bus cards.
Why isn't ISA slower? After all, ISA offers a modest bandwith of 8 MBps maximum, compared to VL-Bus's maximum of 132 MBps. However, for most graphics operations, VL-Bus adapters don't move data at speeds anywhere near the bandwidth of the bus.
The VL-Bus advantage is most evident in Blting, which is a straight pixel copy from memory to the screen. (Blt is an abbreviation for "block transfer.") For example, a fast
ISA card on a straight pixel copy will attain just under 7 MBps, while a fast VL-Bus adapter will top 16 MBps. This corresponds to a complete screen repaint (using 1024 by 768 pixels by 256 colors) of under .05 second for VL-Bus versus .11 second for ISA.
The Achilles' heel of ISA video cards is the limited address range of the ISA bus. Many of the fastest cards, such as Compaq's QVision 1280/I, gain their speed by mapping VRAM into high memory. The QVision drivers that we tested would work only in this "flat-mapped" memory configuration. The ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA will work with or without flat-mapping, but flat-mapping offers a substantial performance boost. The problem with flat-mapping in an ISA system is that you are generally limited to 12 MB of system RAM, an amount that seems smaller every day.
The Paradise/Western Digital Accelerator 24 offers the best value for general-purpose applications (1024 by 768 pixels with 256 colors). Despite its price/performance strengths, the Accelerat
or 24 offers only fair usability: It was among a handful of boards we tested that may require you to change jumpers, depending on your system configuration.
The S3 86C801-based STB PowerGraph X-24 also lists for $199 and, also like the Accelerator 24, it is DRAM-based. The PowerGraph was the slowest of the boards ranked for this category, but new S3 drivers, which were in beta at the time of our testing, showed a noticeable improvement over the released drivers we used for our formal rankings.
The lowest-cost boards we tested were based on the Cirrus Logic GD5426 chip. These boards include the STB Horizon VGA ($159) and Cardinal's VideoSpectrum XL ($149).
The standard GD5426 drivers are not the easiest to install, however; you must separately install a DOS utility to set the monitor refresh.
You'll need higher-cost VRAM-based boards to produce stable images with 16-bit color at 1024 by 768 pixels. Like its VL-Bus cousin, the 1280 VL Pro, the Appian Renegade 1280 ISA is one of the f
ew adapters that actually ran faster using 16-bit color than it did while using 8-bit color. We didn't like the 1280 ISA's unnecessarily complex installation.
For CAD/CAM applications (1280 by 1024 pixels with 256 colors), our two top choices use S3's 86C928 chip. The Sigma Designs WinMach 1600 was the fastest board in this category by a slim margin, but the Pixelworks WhirlWin-II was $100 cheaper. We gave the nod to the WinMach 1600 for its support of 24-bit color (16.7 million colors) at 800 by 600 resolution.
Need top performance and economy?
GENERAL-PURPOSE
Paradise/W D Accelerator 24
This board was a top performer among the low-cost DRAM-based adapters. Unlike the top-performing Compaq QVision 1280/I, the Accelerator 24 won't limit your memory expansion. The Accelerator 24 is more difficult to configure than most adapters due to its reliance on jumpers.
SPEED EASE OF PRICE AS RAM AS
(SECONDS) USE TESTED TESTED
BEST Paradise/W D Accelerator 24 0.733 * $199 1 MB
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I 0.721 *** $599 1 MB
RUNNER-UP Hercules Graphite Pro HG310 0.744 *** $399 1 MB
RUNNER-UP Volante Warp20-2 0.766 *** $499 1 MB
RUNNER-UP STB Systems PowerGraph X-24 0.865 *** $199 1 MB
ACCELERATOR CONTROLLER
BEST Paradise/W D Accelerator 24 WD90C31
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I Proprietary
RUNNER-UP Hercules Graphite Pro HG310 IIT AGX015
RUNNER-UP Volante Warp20-2 IIT AGX-14
RUNNER-UP STB Systems PowerGraph X-24 S3 86C801
STANDARD DRIVERS
AUTOCAD OS/2 WINDOWS 3.1 UNIX#
BEST Paradise/W D Accelerator 24 X X X
RUNNER-UP Compaq QV
ision 1280/I X X X X
RUNNER-UP Hercules Graphite Pro HG310 X X X
RUNNER-UP Volante Warp20-2 X X X
RUNNER-UP STB Systems PowerGraph X-24 X X X
KEY
Ease of Use:
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *
# SCO Open Systems' version of the X Window System.
The speed leader in 64,000 colors
DIRECT COLOR
Appian Renegade 1280 ISA
Appian Technology builds the Renegade 1280 ISA specifically for direct-color use: It runs faster in 64,000-color mode than in 256-color mode. If you are looking to step up to direct color and want to say good-bye to using palettes, consider the Renegade 1280 ISA.
SPEED EASE OF PRICE AS RAM AS
(SECONDS) USE TESTED TESTED
BEST Appian Renegade 1280 ISA 0.659 *** $490 2 MB
RU
NNER-UP ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA 0.803 *** $499 2 MB
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I 0.840 *** $599 2 MB
RUNNER-UP Nth Graphics Nth Edge 1280 0.787 *** $995 2 MB
RUNNER-UP Sigma Designs WinMach 1600 0.832 *** $995 2 MB
ACCELERATOR CONTROLLER
BEST Appian Renegade 1280 ISA Appian AGC98032
RUNNER-UP ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA ATI Mach 32
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I Proprietary
RUNNER-UP Nth Graphics Nth Edge 1280 Chips & Technologies 481
RUNNER-UP Sigma Designs WinMach 1600 S3 86C928
STANDARD DRIVERS
AUTOCAD OS/2 WINDOWS 3.1 UNIX#
BEST Appian Renegade 1280 ISA X X X X
RUNNER-UP ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA X X X X
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I X
X X X
RUNNER-UP Nth Graphics Nth Edge 1280 X X
RUNNER-UP Sigma Designs WinMach 1600 X X
KEY
Ease of Use:
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *
# SCO Open Systems' version of the X Window System.
For the best speed in true color
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
SuperMac Spectrum/24 ISA
Long a major force in the Macintosh market, the company's offerings dominated our tests for cards capable of 16.7 million colors at 1024- by 768-pixel resolution. However, the board requires a separate VGA graphics adapter.
SPEED EASE OF PRICE AS RAM AS
(SECONDS) USE TESTED TESTED
BEST SuperMac Spectrum/24 ISA 1.288 ** $999 3 MB
RUNNER-UP Raster Ops PaintBoard PC 1.963 *** $999 3 MB
RUNNER-UP Number Nine #9GXE 2.700 ***
$895 4 MB
ACCELERATOR CONTROLLER
BEST SuperMac Spectrum/24 ISA Proprietary
RUNNER-UP Raster Ops PaintBoard PC S3 86C924
RUNNER-UP Number Nine #9GXE S3 86C928
STANDARD DRIVERS
AUTOCAD OS/2 WINDOWS 3.1 UNIX#
BEST SuperMac Spectrum/24 ISA X
RUNNER-UP Raster Ops PaintBoard PC X X
RUNNER-UP Number Nine #9GXE X X
KEY
Ease of Use:
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *
# SCO Open Systems' version of the X Window System.
For switching resolutions on the fly
CAD/CAM
Sigma Designs WinMach 1600
The WinMach 1600 supports hardware panning and allows basic image manipulation, such as compression/decompression, antialiasing, rotation, and scaling. The board supports
16.7 million colors at 800 by 600 resolution for photo-realistic rendering and can change resolutions via a hot key.
SPEED EASE OF PRICE AS RAM AS
(SECONDS) USE TESTED TESTED
BEST Sigma Designs WinMach 1600 0.808 *** $995 2 MB
RUNNER-UP Pixelworks WhirlWin-II 0.815 *** $895 2 MB
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I 0.857 *** $599 2 MB
RUNNER-UP Appian Renegade 1280 ISA 0.886 *** $490 2 MB
RUNNER-UP ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA 0.967 *** $499 2 MB
ACCELERATOR CONTROLLER
BEST Sigma Designs WinMach 1600 S3 86C928
RUNNER-UP Pixelworks WhirlWin-II S3 86C928
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I Proprietary
RUNNER-UP Appian Renegade 1280 ISA Appian AGC98032
RUNNER-UP ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA ATI Mach 32
STANDARD DRIVERS
AUTOCAD OS/2 WINDOWS 3.1 UNIX#
BEST Sigma Designs WinMach 1600 X X
RUNNER-UP Pixelworks WhirlWin-II X X X X
RUNNER-UP Compaq QVision 1280/I X X X X
RUNNER-UP Appian Renegade 1280 ISA X X X X
RUNNER-UP ATI Graphics Ultra Pro ISA X X X X
KEY
Ease of Use:
Excellent ****
Good ***
Fair **
Poor *
# SCO Open Systems' version of the X Window System.
The Best Graphics Accelerators For ISA-Bus Systems
