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From: lair@ellis.uchicago.edu (Scott A. Laird)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: ATI 8514/Ultra
Message-ID: <1991May18.073019.27665@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 18 May 91 07:30:19 GMT
References: <717@esosun.UUCP>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (NewsMistress)
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 46

In article <717@esosun.UUCP> tanida@esosun.css.gov (Tom Tanida) writes:
>Has anybody had any experience with the new ATI 8514/Ultra card?  The
>magazine ad I read about it claimed it was up to 5 times faster than
>even a TI 34010 equipped card.  Plus VGA, XGA register level
>compatibility- all for only $595 list (which translates to < $350
>actual retail value :-) ).  I'm also interested in opinions with this
>card with Windows 3.0, or graphics intensive games (e.g. Wing Commander).
>
>Thanks,
>-Tom
>tanida@esosun.css.gov

First, I don't believe it's _register_ compatible with the XGA, just the
8514/A.  The XGA emulation is in software.  

Second, while not having seen it personally (give me a month...) several 
magazines have discussed it, and it appears to be just about as fast as
they say it is, but has a few BIOS problems that are still being ironed out.
They may very well be fixed by now, since PC Magazine reviewed it over a 
month ago, and must have had the card at least a month before that.  The
driver software for the hardware fonts in Windows was also a little weak
at that time.  (For those who don't know, that card is capable of scaling
and anti-aliasing fonts in hardware, 4000 chars/sec was the figure I saw
on one of the fliers they sent out last summer, but I'm not sure what
it actually can do)

As far as Wing Commander, it shouldn't make a difference.  This is another
standard that a program has to try to support, or the card will make no 
difference.  The good thing is that most software that can use it already
has a driver for is, since it is register compatible with IBM's 8514/A,
which has been around for several years.  I know that Word Perfect and Windows
both support the 8514/A, as have Borland languages since, I think, Turbo C
1.5.

Also, as far as price, the only decent price I've seen so far was, I think,
about $395 with 512k and VGA.  The list cost was an extra $200 for 1 Mb of RAM,
so it should be ~$500.

If anyone has actually tried one for a period of time, please post (or e-mail)
I suspect quite a few people are interested.  Thanks.

-- 
Scott A. Laird            |  Any semblance of the above to anything is purely
lair@midway.uchicago.edu  |  coincidental, as it was the result of an infinite
The University of Chicago |  number of monkeys sneaking in to use my computer 
                          |  for the afternoon.