Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!ames!hc!lll-winken!uunet!hodge!jdm
From: jdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: VGA Card query: Video 7's V-RAM card
Summary: Video-7 VGA cards have problems ...
Keywords: VGA V-RAM
Message-ID: <12536@hodge.UUCP>
Date: 2 May 89 17:33:16 GMT
References: <12361@hodge.UUCP> <5032@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Organization: Hodge Computer Research Corporation
Lines: 31


I've talked with a number of people who have owned Video-7 cards
(V-RAM and others) and they all agree that the lack of documentation,
poor technical support on the part of Video-7, poor quality of the
board itself, and the high failure rate of boards right out of the box
has them skipping over any Video-7 product purchases in the future.

The ATI VGAWonder has a unique data format that is proprietary to
ATI Technologies.  It's suppose to be a real pain to write driver
compatable software for the card, so most companies don't.  The
VGA Wonder also had a bug in 1024x768 mode where if the cursor goes
off the screen the card blows up in an unpredictable way--usually
cureable by a cold boot and loss of all unsaved data in your CAD program.
ATI is supposidly comming out with a completely redesigned board
in 3 months or so to fix all the problems.

So far the best VGA for under $500 that I've seen is the Orchid
ProDesigner+ (512K).  800x600x256 and 1024x768x16 modes, 4 year
warrenty, hardware pan and zoom, and font editor.  That and the
STB EM/Extra (512K) seem to be the most stable boards.

-- 

	jdm@hodge.cts.com [uunet zardoz vdelta crash]!hodge!jdm

	James D. Murray, Ethnounixologist
	Hodge Computer Research Corporation
	1588 North Batavia Street 
	Orange, California 92667  USA
	TEL: (714) 998-7750	Ask for James
	FAX: (714) 921-8038	Wait for the carrier