procerus wrote:

This stuff's just pure gold. I think I'm falling in love with you people. :o ;) […]
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This stuff's just pure gold. I think I'm falling in love with you people. 😮 😉

ATI looks a better route for VESA compatibility then, eh?

Regarding the GF4 it is notable that a number of Windows 9x/ME users found that it locks up if you try to use both UniRefresh and VBEPlus (link in my sig).

This is a combo a lot of people were using for compatibility with older games. I don't think Rob Muller (the programs' author) ever got to the bottom of the trouble. But there was a significant change in VESA support between the GF3 and GF4.

Procerus, since you still tweak Win98 - you should do an all-and-out video extender test. VBEPlus, UniRefresh, AdvanceCAB (showthread.php?threadid=620 ), UniVBE (http://www.scitechsoft.com/products/enterpris … ree_titles.html ), etc. No holds barred. I've been thinking about doing such a thing for a while. This would be a good project. You could use SciTech's profile.exe for speed testing, etc.

For the record, I love this thread. Here's a profile report with a RIVA TNT 2 without UniVBEin Win98:

1Available modes are (add 4000 for Linear Framebuffer version):
2    100 -  640 x  400  8 bits per pixel
3    101 -  640 x  480  8 bits per pixel
4    102 -  800 x  600  4 bits per pixel
5    103 -  800 x  600  8 bits per pixel
6    104 - 1024 x  768  4 bits per pixel
7    105 - 1024 x  768  8 bits per pixel
8    106 - 1280 x 1024  4 bits per pixel
9    107 - 1280 x 1024  8 bits per pixel
10    10E -  320 x  200 16 bits per pixel
11    10F -  320 x  200 32 bits per pixel
12    111 -  640 x  480 16 bits per pixel
13    112 -  640 x  480 32 bits per pixel
14    114 -  800 x  600 16 bits per pixel
15    115 -  800 x  600 32 bits per pixel
16    117 - 1024 x  768 16 bits per pixel
17    118 - 1024 x  768 32 bits per pixel
18    11A - 1280 x 1024 16 bits per pixel
19    130 -  320 x  200  8 bits per pixel
20    131 -  320 x  400  8 bits per pixel
21    132 -  320 x  400 16 bits per pixel
22    133 -  320 x  400 32 bits per pixel
23    134 -  320 x  240  8 bits per pixel
24    135 -  320 x  240 16 bits per pixel
25    136 -  320 x  240 32 bits per pixel
26    13D -  640 x  400 16 bits per pixel
27    13E -  640 x  400 32 bits per pixel
28    145 - 1600 x 1200  8 bits per pixel
29    146 - 1600 x 1200 16 bits per pixel

Oh, procerus - check out our other threads on UNIVBE and VESA, too, they're must-reads. 😀

Waitasec - DosFreak, you said you ran UNIVBE in XP? And it WORKED?

You sure you didn't mean you ran PROFILE.EXE or something?

heh. Replace UNIVBE with PROFILE. 😉

I'm going to gather all of my testing together and probably repost pretty soon. Currently going through a reorganization phase. Organizing all of my game testing stuff.

Cool. Do it. 😀

I didn't realise that SciTech were giving away old versions of Display Doctor and UniVBE.

Although I haven't used UniVBE for over two years now (since fitting a GeForce2 GTS which isn't a supported chipset) it did lend DOS capability to my Matrox Millennium and, before that, my Cirrus Logic 5434.

Indeed, if I open this drawer to my left and thumb through the floppy disks in the "Utilities" section I actually have registered copies of Display Doctor and UniVBE that are older than those free ones. I even still have the printed manuals here on the shelf. I think I've been sat here for far too long...

🙁

And, yes, I'll gladly do some tests on Windows 98. 😀

procerus wrote:

I didn't realise that SciTech were giving away old versions of Display Doctor and UniVBE.

Not SDD/UNIVBE 7.0 though. I wish they would. I don't see what the point is, anymore

Still, it's a recent addition by them:
showthread.php?threadid=570

Although I haven't used UniVBE for over two years now (since fitting a GeForce2 GTS which isn't a supported chipset) it did lend DOS capability to my Matrox Millennium and, before that, my Cirrus Logic 5434.

It was an excellent product, when it supported your chipset.

I'm hoping someone figures out a way to add SNAP Graphics support to games that didn't use MGL in their development. SNAP Graphics supports all the latest video chips, including your GTS. And they have preliminary drivers in DOS. However, to use them, a game/application has to be designed using MGL. Check out http://www.scitechsoft.com

Additionally, check out AdvanceCAB for DOS, as I said - it includes a program (called VBE32) which is effectively a UNIVBE replacement, and does support your chipset as well. Perfect for old DOS gamers to check out. (They haven't figured out how to do this in Windows NT yet, I doubt the AdvanceMAME guys are going to...)

Indeed, if I open this drawer to my left and thumb through the floppy disks in the "Utilities" section I actually have registered copies of Display Doctor and UniVBE that are older than those free ones. I even still have the printed manuals here on the shelf. I think I've been sat here for far too long...

Truly? Would you mind telling me what versions you have, as far back as you have? I'm working on a SciTech documentation project to detail what changed between various versions. A Changelog for the complete series, as it were, since SciTech saw fit not to do one.

And, yes, I'll gladly do some tests on Windows 98. 😀

Woohoo! 😀

With this we started here 😀

(tests in both Windows XP Professional and DOS 7.1)

HIS Radeon 9200 128 MB - VBE 2.0
---------------------------------

(modes reported by VTEST)

192h Present 320x240x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
193h Present 320x240x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
194h Present 320x240x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
195h Present 320x240x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
196h Present 320x240x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
1a2h Present 400x300x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
1a3h Present 400x300x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
1a4h Present 400x300x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
1a5h Present 400x300x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
1a6h Present 400x300x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
1b2h Present 512x384x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
1b3h Present 512x384x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
1b4h Present 512x384x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
1b5h Present 512x384x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
1b6h Present 512x384x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
1c2h Present 640x350x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
1c3h Present 640x350x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
1c4h Present 640x350x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
1c5h Present 640x350x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
1c6h Present 640x350x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
100h Present 640x400x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
183h Present 640x400x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
184h Present 640x400x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
185h Present 640x400x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
186h Present 640x400x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
101h Present 640x480x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
110h Present 640x480x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
111h Present 640x480x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
112h Present 640x480x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
121h Present 640x480x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
103h Present 800x600x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
113h Present 800x600x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
114h Present 800x600x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
115h Present 800x600x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
122h Present 800x600x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
105h Present 1024x768x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
116h Present 1024x768x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
117h Present 1024x768x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
118h Present 1024x768x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
123h Present 1024x768x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
107h Present 1280x1024x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
119h Present 1280x1024x15bpp 32768 Direct color graphics
11ah Present 1280x1024x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
11bh Present 1280x1024x24bpp 16777216 Direct color graphics
124h Present 1280x1024x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
109h Present 132x25x4bpp COLOR TEXT
10ah Present 132x43x4bpp COLOR TEXT
130h Present 132x44x4bpp COLOR TEXT

MSI NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 128 MB - VBE 3.0
-------------------------------------------

(modes reported by VTEST)

MODE ACTIVE? RESOLUTION DESCRIPTION

100h Present 640x400x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
101h Present 640x480x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
102h Present 800x600x4bpp 16 color graphics
103h Present 800x600x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
104h Present 1024x768x4bpp 16 color graphics
105h Present 1024x768x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
106h Present 1280x1024x4bpp 16 color graphics
107h Present 1280x1024x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
108h Present 80x60x4bpp COLOR TEXT
109h Present 132x25x4bpp COLOR TEXT
10ah Present 132x43x4bpp COLOR TEXT
10bh Present 132x50x4bpp COLOR TEXT
10ch Present 132x60x4bpp COLOR TEXT
10eh Present 320x200x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
10fh Present 320x200x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
111h Present 640x480x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
112h Present 640x480x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
114h Present 800x600x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
115h Present 800x600x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
117h Present 1024x768x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
118h Present 1024x768x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
11ah Present 1280x1024x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
11bh Present 1280x1024x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
130h Present 320x200x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
131h Present 320x400x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
132h Present 320x400x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
133h Present 320x400x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
134h Present 320x240x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
135h Present 320x240x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
136h Present 320x240x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
13dh Present 640x400x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
13eh Present 640x400x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics
145h Present 1600x1200x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
146h Present 1600x1200x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
147h Present 1400x1050x8bpp 256 color Packed Pixel graphics
148h Present 1400x1050x16bpp 65536 Direct color graphics
152h Present 2048x1536x32bpp 0 Direct color graphics

Hercules GeForce 2MX 32MB - VBE 3.0
------------------------------------

(modes reported by Scitech Display Doctor)

100 - 640 x 400 8 bits per pixel
101 - 640 x 480 8 bits per pixel
102 - 800 x 600 4 bits per pixel
103 - 800 x 600 8 bits per pixel
104 - 1024 x 768 4 bits per pixel
105 - 1024 x 768 8 bits per pixel
106 - 1280 x 1024 4 bits per pixel
107 - 1280 x 1024 8 bits per pixel
10E - 320 x 200 16 bits per pixel
10F - 320 x 200 32 bits per pixel
111 - 640 x 480 16 bits per pixel
112 - 640 x 480 32 bits per pixel
114 - 800 x 600 16 bits per pixel
115 - 800 x 600 32 bits per pixel
117 - 1024 x 768 16 bits per pixel
118 - 1024 x 768 32 bits per pixel
11A - 1280 x 1024 16 bits per pixel
130 - 320 x 200 8 bits per pixel
131 - 320 x 400 8 bits per pixel
132 - 320 x 400 16 bits per pixel
133 - 320 x 400 32 bits per pixel
134 - 320 x 240 8 bits per pixel
135 - 320 x 240 16 bits per pixel
136 - 320 x 240 32 bits per pixel
13D - 640 x 400 16 bits per pixel
13E - 640 x 400 32 bits per pixel
145 - 1600 x 1200 8 bits per pixel
146 - 1600 x 1200 16 bits per pixel

VESA problems:

1) Low refresh rates

This is a big problem with CRT monitors. Nobody wants to play at 60Hz but as far as I know there is no universal refresh rates utility for DOS games that works flawlessly with most modern cards. SciTech stopped development of Display Doctor which could change refresh rates, utilities UniRefresh and VBEHz are also outdated and they work with some cards only (less skilled users have even problems to run them at all).

Results with UniRefresh and VBEHz:
GeForce2 MX - VESA refresh rates can be changed in DOS and also in XP. Even VGA modes refresh rates change is possible with VBEHz (I have only 70 Hz + VGA and 60 Hz + VESA without this utility).
GeForce FX5200 - both utilities work, but only in DOS - in WinXP setups work and TSRs load but VESA rates stay always at 60Hz.
ATI RADEON 9200 - it has only VBE 2.0 (incredible, seems that ATI probably never switch to VBE 3.0), so refresh rates utilities do not work. But there is a possibility to hack bios with
RadEdit so the rates can be increased up to 85 Hz. This option is only for 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 resolutions - if the game needs other resolution, rate is low again. And author of RadEdit unfortunately also stopped support of his great utility. VGA modes can not be changed with VBEHz.

2) Some VESA games do not work on XP NTVDM but in DOS only
(and they could have a graphic problem)

Riddle of Master Lu, Orion Burger, Fable, Noctropolis. On HOTU are ripped versions of Orion Burger (BTW same creators and similar engine as Riddle has) and Fable and they behave the same as the full versions I also have. This behavior is present with all tested cards. On the other side, VESA games like Sherlock Holmes and Case of Rose Tatoo, Death Gate or Shannara run in XP with them.

3) Games that use UniVBE

These are particularly problematic (more info here ). NOLFB helped with Toonstruck so it can work in XP and in DOS with both nVIDIA cards, with ATI 9200 it runs, but it has big black rectangles in the parts of the screen (DOS and XP) so it is unplayable. Discword 2 works with GeForce 2MX and ATI 9200 cards in XP and DOS if modified driver is used. With GeForce FX5200 in XP game freezes on start and works with modified driver in DOS only. This behaviour is the same with full and HOTU version.

4) Games that run only with certain cards
(probably because some missing VESA modes)

Typical examples are Ark of Time and Perfect General 2 - with ATI card worked in XP and DOS, no chance to get them running with NVIDIA cards.

5) Other known problems

Mouse in upper half of the screen - no problem with tested cards
Corrupted graphic in Windows when game ends - yes, ATI had such a problem but new Catalyst drivers solved it.

------------------

So none of tested cards is ideal. ATI has most VESA modes but VBE 2.0 only (thus refresh rates problems) and does not work with Toonstruck. Both GeForce 2MX and GeForce FX5200 have some modes missing but at least they have VBE 3.0. GeForce 2MX card is best for refresh rates changes. Except of flaws in VESA card bioses unfortunately many of VESA software utilities are no longer developed, therefore certain problems are unsolvable for ordinary users.

Dvwjr, if you want me to do some additional particular test, it is possible until the end of this week when I have to return ATI 9200 and NVIDIA 5200 cards.

Originally posted by Jiri:

Dvwjr, if you want me to do some additional particular test, it is possible until the end of this week when I have to return ATI 9200 and NVIDIA 5200 cards.

If you have the time, perhaps you could test and post some results for all of your video adapters in a fashion similar to this previous post here. Look for the attached file SVGATEST.EXE, and we can compare your results from VTEST which appears to just list the VESA modes which the video BIOS says that it supports with the results from SVGATEST.EXE which attempts to display test video in each mode selected. If you did this for Dos 7.10 and WinXP it would allow us to see what VESA video modes will actually display on your monitor. A plus would be if your monitor is able to display the screen-resolution/refresh rate for its currently displayed video mode from one of the front panel monitor buttons. This would help to confirm what the refresh rates are for those VESA video modes which are visible to the eye.

Best of luck,

dvwjr

Yes, I will do it. But is it possible to get test results automatically into the log file with VGATEST utility? Or with some other utility?

No auto logging in the file, so I wrote it down.

1HIS ATI RADEON 9200     WIN XP Pro (SP1)
2----------------------------------
3
4mode 0                  OK 70Hz
5mode 1                  OK 70Hz
6mode 2                  OK 70Hz
7mode 2 scroll           OK 70Hz
8mode 3                  OK 70Hz
9mode 3 scroll           OK 70Hz
10mode 3 extend           OK 70Hz
11mode 4                  OK 70Hz
12mode 7 scroll           OK 70Hz
13mode 23                 OK 82Hz /70Hz in DOS
14mode 23 scroll          OK 82Hz /70Hz in DOS
15320x200/4c (mode4)      0K 70Hz
16320x200/4c (mode5)      OK 70Hz
17640x200 B/W (mode6)     OK 70Hz
18320x200 16c (mode D)    OK 70Hz
19640x200/16c (mode E)    OK 70Hz
20640x350 (mode F)        OK 70Hz
21640x350/16c (mode 10)   OK 70Hz
22640x200/2c (mode 11)    OK 60Hz
23640x480/16c (mode12)    OK 60Hz
24320x200/256c (mode 13)  OK 70Hz
25VESA 100 640x400/256c   OK 70Hz
26VESA 101 640x480/256c   OK 60Hz
27VESA 103 800x600/256c   OK 60Hz
28VESA 105 1024x768/256c  OK 60Hz
29VESA 108 1280x1024/256c OK 60Hz
30VESA 110 640x480/32kc   OK 60Hz
31VESA 111 640x480/64kc   OK 60Hz
32VESA 113 800x600/32kc   OK 60Hz
33VESA 114 800x600/64kc   OK 60Hz
34VESA 116 1024x768/32kc  OK 60Hz
35VESA 117 1024x768/32kc  OK 60Hz
36VESA 119 1280x1024/32kc OK 60Hz
37VESA 11A 1280x1024/64kc OK 60Hz
38VESA 112 640x480/16.8mc OK 60Hz
39VESA 115 800x600/16.8mc OK 60Hz
40VESA 118 1024x768/16.8mc OK 60Hz
41VESA 102 800x600/16c    OK 60Hz
42VESA 104 1024x768/16c   OK 60Hz
43(next modes failed)
44
45- the same results as in XP were in DOS 7.1
46- refresh rates changes are possible with RadEdit up to 85Hz	
47
48MSI GeForce FX5200       DOS              WinXP
49-----------------------------------------------
50
51mode 0                   OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
52mode 1                   OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
53mode 2                   OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
54mode 2 scroll            OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
55mode 3                   OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
56mode 3 scroll            OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
57mode 3 extend            OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
58mode 7                   OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
59mode 7 scroll            OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
60320x200/4c (mode4)       0K 70Hz      OK 70Hz

61320x200/4c (mode5)       OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
62640x200 B/W (mode6)      OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
63320x200 16c (mode D)     OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
64640x200/16c (mode E)     OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
65640x350 (mode F)         OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
66640x350/16c (mode 10)    OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
67640x200/2c (mode 11)     OK 60Hz      OK 60Hz
68640x480/16c (mode12)     OK 60Hz      OK 60Hz
69320x200/256c (mode 13)   OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
70VESA 100 640x400/256c    OK 70Hz      OK 70Hz
71VESA 101 640x480/256c    OK 60Hz      OK 60Hz
72VESA 103 800x600/256c    OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
73VESA 105 1024x768/256c   OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
74VESA 107 1280x1024/256c  OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
75VESA 111 640x480/64kc    OK 60Hz      OK 60Hz
76VESA 114 800x600/64kc    OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
77VESA 117 1024x768/64kc   OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
78VESA 11A 1280x1024/64kc  OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
79VESA 112 640x480/16.8mc  OK 60Hz *    OK 60Hz
80VESA 115 800x600/16.8mc  OK 60Hz *    fail (black screen)
81VESA 118 1024x768/16.8mc OK 60Hz *     fail (black screen)
82VESA 11B 1280x1024/16.8mc OK 60Hz *   fail (black screen)
83VESA 102 800x600/16       OK 60 Hz     fail (black screen)
84VESA 104 1024x768/16     OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
85VESA 106 1280x1024/16    OK 60Hz      fail (black screen)
86(all next modes failed)
87
88* test picture was only in the left part of the screen
89- refresh rates changes are possible only in DOS with VBEHz or UniRefresh
90
91
92Hercules GeForce 2MX   DOS           WinXP
93------------------------------------------------------
94
95mode 0                  OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
96mode 1                  OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
97mode 2                  OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
98mode 2 scroll           OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
99mode 3                  OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
100mode 3 scroll           OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
101mode 3 extend           OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
102mode 7                  OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
103mode 7 scroll           OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
104320x200/4c (mode4)      0K 70Hz       OK 70Hz
105320x200/4c (mode5)      OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
106640x200 B/W (mode6)     OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
107320x200 16c (mode D)    OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
108640x200/16c (mode E)    OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
109640x350 (mode F)        OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
110640x350/16c (mode 10)   OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
111640x200/2c (mode 11)    OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
112640x480/16c (mode12)    OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
113320x200/256c (mode 13)  OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
114VESA 100 640x400/256c   OK 70Hz       OK 70Hz
115VESA 101 640x480/256c   OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
116VESA 103 800x600/256c   OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
117VESA 105 1024x768/256c  OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
118VESA 107 1280x1024/256c OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
119VESA 111 640x480/64kc   OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
120VESA 114 800x600/64kc   OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
121VESA 117 1024x768/64kc  OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
122VESA 11A 1280x1024/64kc OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
123VESA 112 640x480/16.8mc	OK 60Hz *     OK 60Hz
124VESA 115 800x600/16.8mc	OK 60Hz *     OK 60Hz
125VESA 118 1024x768/16.8mc OK 60Hz *    OK 60Hz
126VESA 102 800x600/16      OK 60 Hz     OK 60Hz
127VESA 104 1024x768/16    OK 60Hz      OK 60Hz
128VESA 106 1280x1024/16   OK 60Hz       OK 60Hz
129(next modes failed)
130
131* test picture was only in the left part of the screen
132- refresh rates changes are possible in DOS and XP with VBEHz or UniRefresh

Here is another report on a VESA compliant video adapter which functions the same under DOS **and** WinXP for all the VESA mode applications that the VBE 3.0 compliant video supports. It is the on-board VGA/Graphics accelerator included on some models of the new Intel 82915G/GV/910 GL Express Chipset, also know as the Intel 900 Graphic Media Accelerator. The particular motherboard in question is the AOpen i915Gm-I populated with 512mb of PC3200 DDR RAM and an Intel 2.8gHz LGA 775 Pentium IV processor. It also had built-in Intel 10/100 Ethernet and built-in RealTek 7.1 HD sound. It is a microATX board with only four slots, two "legacy" 32-bit PCI slots, one PCI-e 1x slot, one PCI-e 16x (for video upgrades) slot. The on-board video used 8mb of the main system RAM for starters and up to 128mb of system RAM for 3D games if required. Not bad for $100 motherboard as an upgrade for a relatives PC...

The video quality in DOS/VESA fullscreen graphics mode is great, however with Windows text applications such as Web browsers the text on the analog VGA output is not as visibly sharp as Matrox video adapters. If the Matrox G450/550s are a "10" for Windows text readibility, then the Intel 900 Windows text readibility is around an "8.8" in my opinion. Very good, just not quick as defined and sharp as Matrox video adapters.

The Intel driver developers wrote the video driver properly, combined with the latest Intel video driver version release 6.14.10.3943 which includes the Video BIOS version 3329. They allowed the Intel VGA BIOS to 'touch' the proprietary SVGA extention registers to enable VESA support in the WinXP DOS emulation fullsceen mode, which many other video card companies neglect to do, leading to those video adapters not functioning in VESA modes under WinXP.

Here are the results from the VGATEST.EXE program which show that the Intel graphics driver developers allowed the Intel 900 proprietary SVGA registers to be modified under WinXP, because the BIOS supported VESA modes work. Would make an ideal DOS gaming platform under the WinXP DOS emulation, very good with VESA compliant DOS games. For Windows XP use, does excellent work with DVD viewing with its video acceleration (DVD viewing requires only 3-5% CPU resources), probably just fair (comparable to GeForce 4 MX440) for modern 3D Windows games, very good color correction (RGB gamma, brightness, contrast) for the Desktop and seperate color correction for the video overlay.

Results of VGATEST.EXE:

1Intel 900 
2Graphic Media Accelerator    DOS           WinXP (SP2)
3------------------------------------------------------ 
4mode 0                    OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
5mode 1                    OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
6mode 2                    OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
7mode 2 scroll             OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
8mode 3                    OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
9mode 3 scroll             OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
10mode 3 extend             OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
11mode 7                    OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
12mode 7 scroll             OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
13320x200/4c (mode4)        OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
14320x200/4c (mode5)        OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
15640x200 B/W (mode6)       OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
16320x200 16c (mode D)      OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
17640x200/16c (mode E)      OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
18640x350 (mode F)          OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
19640x350/16c (mode 10)     OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
20640x200/2c (mode 11)      OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
21640x480/16c (mode12)      OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
22320x200/256c (mode 13)    OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
23VESA 100 640x400/256c     OK 70Hz          OK 70Hz 
24VESA 101 640x480/256c     OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
25VESA 103 800x600/256c     OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
26VESA 105 1024x768/256c    OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
27VESA 107 1280x1024/256c   OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
28VESA 111 640x480/64kc     OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
29VESA 114 800x600/64kc     OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
30VESA 117 1024x768/64kc    OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
31VESA 11A 1280x1024/64kc   OK 60Hz          OK 60Hz 
32VESA 112 640x480/16.8mc   OK 60Hz *        OK 60Hz *
33VESA 115 800x600/16.8mc   OK 60Hz *        OK 60Hz *
34VESA 118 1024x768/16.8mc  OK 60Hz *        OK 60Hz *
35VESA 11B 1280x1024/16.8mc OK 60Hz *        OK 60Hz *
36(next modes failed) 

* test picture was only in the left part of the screen
- refresh rates changes are possible in VESA mode under
WinXP with VBEhz.

dvwjr

edit: updated with SVGATEST.EXE

Thanks for posting!

Reminded me that I really need to go through the forum, gather all this info together, and do a writeup.

Didn't I say the same thing in the EMS thread like 2 years ago but never did?

*sigh*

Now that someone has resurrected this interesting thread, I will do some testing later (when I arrive home), now that I have ditched my 64MB GeForce4 Ti4200 (LOTS of VESA problems) for a 256MB ATi Radeon 9600.

😎

Above information has been copied and is currently being implemented into a guide. Anyone can post if they want. Just posting this here so I know I don't miss any info.

All tests completed succesfully for my ATi Radeon 9600 AGP (256MB) under Windows XP SP2 😎

eL_PuSHeR wrote:

I have ditched my 64MB GeForce4 Ti4200 (LOTS of VESA problems) for a 256MB ATi Radeon 9600.... All tests completed succesfully for my ATi Radeon 9600 AGP (256MB) under Windows XP SP2.

Thanks for testing. I think that ATI cards are better choice for VESA compatibility (they have more working VESA modes, at least ATI9200/9600 in comparison with GeForce2MX/Ti4200/FX5200), but many of them still seem to have only VBE 2.0. I would like to know if there are some ATI cards on the market with VBE 3.0 and work with UniRefresh or VBEHz. It would be nice to have more tests here, especially with the newest ATI and NVIDIA cards. BTW, some interesting info regarding VESA is also here.
UniRefresh no longer works on nVidia's latest

Bleh. BLEH. I will NEVER buy an ATi card, purely on the basis of their crappy drivers. I've seen the horrors firsthand. I'll keep my nVidia cards, which have given me exactly 1 bluescreen my entire life (that happened to be a beta driver, though none of their other beta drivers (including the ones my entire system is running on right now) have caused me any problems before), thanks.

Snover wrote:

Bleh. BLEH. I will NEVER buy an ATi card, purely on the basis of their crappy drivers.

Latest Catalyst drivers are quite good in my humble opinion. I've had not a single problem since I purchased my Radeon 9600.
anyway, I agree with you that older drivers just sucked. I still remember when I had OS/2 installed and had a crappy ATi Rage card. Ah, what a crappy "ATi Ring0 OS/2 driver". 😁