[Info-vax] OpenVMS Alpha Graphics Controllers (was Re: Offline VMS hobbyist question)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2013-04-08 22:02:17 +0000, Rich Jordan said:

> thanks, I actually started at your page, and had provided your site to
> the hobbyist.  I didn't see that it rated (by any particular measure)
> the functionality/usability/'niceness' of the various cards; normally
> newer in a given range is better, but if VMS had better support on an
> older card and dumb framebuffer only on a newer one, that might not
> hold true.

Some older graphics cards tend not to do 60 Hz all that well, and few 
(none?) provide 16 x 9.

Various older PowerStorm series — the pre-EV6 stuff — rendered 
something close to crawling worms for lines at 60 Hz.

Solid at 72 Hz, when the LCD display supported that.

No particular opinions on the recent EV6-class boards, beyond the ELSA 
GLoria Synergy being very slow for scrolling text and related tasks, 
and the general lack of 16 x 9 across most (all?) supported boards.   
The ELSA GLoria has gotten better at scrolling text, but it's still not 
a board I'd recommend.

Locally, I tend to use the Radeon 7500 (non-mobility) boards, and at 60 
Hz as that's native for the 4 x 3 displays in use.

Also read up on the "swizzling" links that're referenced on the web 
site for why you probably don't want to use an older board on an EV6 
box.  There should be a link on the graphics controller page.

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