Re: [Fractint] Fractint with AGP??
Tim, I have a Windows XP system with a Radeon 9600 XT AGP card. Fractint works fine with it. As an aside, you may recall that many people on this list, including you, tried to help me with a problem I had when I first got the card. Fractint would not give me any resolutions over 640 X 480. Nothing I tried helped. However, I recently purchased a new monitor. It's a SyncMaster 173P LCD display. I can now get resolutions up to 1280 X 1024. My previous SONY monitor was certainly capable of the handling these resolutions, so I don't know why changing the monitor should have had an effect. Maybe this will give you some ideas about your own situation, though. Bill Rossi _http://members.aol.com/billatny/_ (http://members.aol.com/billatny/) _http://www.arts4u.org/rossi/_ (http://www.arts4u.org/rossi/)
Bill wrote:
I have a Windows XP system with a Radeon 9600 XT AGP card. Fractint works fine with it.
Thanks for the info! I'm inclined to suspect some weakness in the VESA support rather than AGP. In this day of Windows drivers, vendors are probably not that motivated to have good VESA video support because nobvody (other than Fractint users of course!!) care. Over the years, in my experience, ATI boards have had suspect VESA support although they have been otherwise good.
As an aside, you may recall that many people on this list, including you, tried to help me with a problem I had when I first got the card. Fractint would not give me any resolutions over 640 X 480. Nothing I tried helped.
However, I recently purchased a new monitor. It's a SyncMaster 173P LCD display. I can now get resolutions up to 1280 X 1024. My previous SONY monitor was certainly capable of the handling these resolutions, so I don't know why changing the monitor should have had an effect.
That's interesting too, glad to hear it worked out for you. Sounds like a Windows plug and play issue. Did you ever try to use DOS? Did anyone advise you to run the makecfg.exe program? It detects VESA modes and dumps them in a form Fractint can understand.
Maybe this will give you some ideas about your own situation, though.
Yes it did, thanks!! If any one has my exact board ATI Radeon 7500 AGP I'd like to hear. I'm not a gamer, so maybe I should just put in an older VGA in the "new" computer. Tim
I'd also be interested in how Nvidia based boards work with Fractint. Does anyone have a board based on Nvidia Gforce 5200? I'm not a gamer so I don't need the latest and greatest 3D, so I figure a board about like an Nvidia Gforce 5200 would be about right if it has good VESA VBE support. I have put a vesa test program here: http://tim.fractint.org/VESAINFO.TXT This dumps out a whole lot of information using: vesainfo -v > yourboard.txt Of course the makefcfg.exe program gives similar information. Maybe we should build up a database of boards known to work OK with Fractint. I'm not sure how long before VESA VBE is no longer found in video boards ... Tim
Tim Wegner wrote:
I have put a vesa test program here: http://tim.fractint.org/VESAINFO.TXT
I tried the above URL on two different ISP and with three different browsers. None of them were able to retrieve a valid file. Sincerely, P.N.L. ------------------------------------------------- http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/PNL_Fractals.html http://www.Nahee.com/Fractals/
Tim, I'm using a Nvidia GeForce4 MX 640 board. Works well with Fractint. This is my fractint.cfg, set up by making use of makefcfg*: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- ; FRACTINT.CFG File ;key name of adapter/mode | AX | BX | CX | DX |mode| x | y |clr| comments ;=========================================================================== ====== F2 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,130, 0, 0, 28, 320, 200, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F3 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,134, 0, 0, 28, 320, 240, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F4 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,131, 0, 0, 28, 320, 400, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F5 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,100, 0, 0, 28, 640, 400, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F6 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,101, 0, 0, 28, 640, 480, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F7 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,103, 0, 0, 28, 800, 600, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F8 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,105, 0, 0, 28,1024, 768, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F9 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,107, 0, 0, 28,1280,1024, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia F10 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,147, 0, 0, 28,1400,1050, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF1 ,VESA Color Palette Mode ,4f02,145, 0, 0, 28,1600,1200, 256,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF2 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,10E, 0, 0, 28, 320, 200, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF3 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,135, 0, 0, 28, 320, 240, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF4 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,132, 0, 0, 28, 320, 400, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF5 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,13D, 0, 0, 28, 640, 400, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF6 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,111, 0, 0, 28, 640, 480, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF7 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,114, 0, 0, 28, 800, 600, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF8 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,117, 0, 0, 28,1024, 768, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF9 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,11A, 0, 0, 28,1280,1024, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia SF10,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,148, 0, 0, 28,1400,1050, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF1 ,VESA RGB 565 ,4f02,146, 0, 0, 28,1600,1200, 64k,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF2 ,VESA xRGB 8888 ,4f02,10F, 0, 0, 28, 320, 200, 16m,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF3 ,VESA xRGB 8888 ,4f02,136, 0, 0, 28, 320, 240, 16m,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF4 ,VESA xRGB 8888 ,4f02,133, 0, 0, 28, 320, 400, 16m,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF5 ,VESA xRGB 8888 ,4f02,13E, 0, 0, 28, 640, 400, 16m,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF6 ,VESA xRGB 8888 ,4f02,112, 0, 0, 28, 640, 480, 16m,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF7 ,VESA xRGB 8888 ,4f02,115, 0, 0, 28, 800, 600, 16m,VESA mode from OEM NVidia CF8 ,VESA xRGB 8888 ,4f02,118, 0, 0, 28,1024, 768, 16m,VESA mode from OEM NVidia ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11, 320, 200,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11, 360, 480,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11, 640, 350,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11, 640, 400,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11, 640, 480,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11, 768, 480, 2,Full-Page Epson @ 60DPI ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11, 768,1920, 2,Full-Page Epson @ 240DPI ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11,1024, 768,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11,1600,1200,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11,1920,1440,256,Full-Page Paintjet 180DPI ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11,2048,1536,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11,5120,3840,256,For Background Fractals ,Disk/RAM 'Video' , 3, 0, 0, 0, 11,16000,12000,256,For Background Fractals ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- All the best, Hans-Joachim * Trying to access the vesa test program I'm getting a 404. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Wegner" <twegner@swbell.net> To: <BillatNY@aol.com>; "Fractint and General FractalsDiscussion" <fractint@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 5:51 AM Subject: Re: [Fractint] Fractint with AGP??
I'd also be interested in how Nvidia based boards work with Fractint. Does anyone have a board based on Nvidia Gforce 5200? I'm not a gamer so I don't need the latest and greatest 3D, so I figure a board about like an Nvidia Gforce 5200 would be about right if it has good VESA VBE support.
I have put a vesa test program here:
http://tim.fractint.org/VESAINFO.TXT
This dumps out a whole lot of information using:
vesainfo -v > yourboard.txt
Of course the makefcfg.exe program gives similar information.
Maybe we should build up a database of boards known to work OK with Fractint. I'm not sure how long before VESA VBE is no longer found in video boards ...
Tim
_______________________________________________ Fractint mailing list Fractint@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint
Dear all, obviously Tim Wegner mistyped the address of the vesa test program mentioned in his mail. The correct address is http://tim.fractint.org/VESAINFO.EXE All the best, Hans-Joachim Metzger
Nice social skills there. -----Original Message----- From: fractint-bounces+peter=getitonbangagong.biz@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:fractint-bounces+peter=getitonbangagong.biz@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of hajotem Sent: 06 August 2004 18:58 To: Fractint and General Fractals Discussion Subject: [Fractint] Fractint with AGP: Correct address of vesa test program Dear all, obviously Tim Wegner mistyped the address of the vesa test program mentioned in his mail. The correct address is http://tim.fractint.org/VESAINFO.EXE All the best, Hans-Joachim Metzger _______________________________________________ Fractint mailing list Fractint@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fractint
Hans-Joachim wrote:
obviously Tim Wegner mistyped the address of the vesa test program mentioned in his mail.
Yes indeed, thanks for the correction.
From the few responses I have seen so far, I would say Nvidia based boards have better VESA support than ATI. Which is not to say that in any other respect they are better boards ... VESA VBE support is hardly a priority for many users these days.
Bill Rossi sent me vesainfo results for a Radeon 9600, which has a maximum 256-color VESA mode of 1280x1024. Tim
I tried vesainfo and got yhe following: Allegro VESAINFO utility 3.0 By Shawn Hargreaves, 1997 VESASignature: VESA VESAVersion: 3.0 OEMStringPtr: Brookdale-G Graphics Chip Accelerated VGA BIOS TotalMemory: 125 (8000K) Mode 0x107: 1280x1024 8 bpp packed pixel Mode 0x112: 640x480 32 bpp direct color (xRGB 8888) Mode 0x114: 800x600 16 bpp direct color (RGB 565) Mode 0x115: 800x600 32 bpp direct color (xRGB 8888) Mode 0x116: 1024x768 15 bpp direct color (RGB 555) Mode 0x117: 1024x768 16 bpp direct color (RGB 565) Mode 0x118: 1024x768 32 bpp direct color (xRGB 8888) Mode 0x11A: 1280x1024 16 bpp direct color (RGB 565) Mode 0x11B: 1280x1024 32 bpp direct color (xRGB 8888) Mode 0x109: 132x25 4 bpp text Mode 0x10A: 132x43 4 bpp text Mode 0x10B: 132x50 4 bpp text Mode 0x10C: 132x60 4 bpp text Mode 0x101: 640x480 8 bpp packed pixel Mode 0x103: 800x600 8 bpp packed pixel Mode 0x105: 1024x768 8 bpp packed pixel Mode 0x111: 640x480 16 bpp direct color (RGB 565) 'vesainfo -v' for a verbose listing What does this meen as far as 256 color pictues on my machine? Doug Stewart
Doug asked:
What does this mean as far as 256 color pictues on my machine?
The 8 bits per pixel modes are 256 colors. See below. To use these modes, you may want to run the makefcfg program, or you may be able to edit.
Mode 0x101: 640x480 8 bpp packed pixel Mode 0x103: 800x600 8 bpp packed pixel Mode 0x105: 1024x768 8 bpp packed pixel Mode 0x107: 1280x1024 8 bpp packed pixel
BTW Doug, what is the name of your board? I'm not familiar with the brookdale BIOS. I am going out the door to buy a new video board, whish me luck ... will report yea or nay later this afternoon. If one's ONLY concern were Fractint (not 3D gaming graphics), older boards using Nvidia RIVA TNT chips work really well, up to 1600x1200x256. These go for $12 or so on Ebay. Try searching for "Nvidia Riva TNT". It would be fun to put together a legacy Fractint- optimized PC that was as cheap as possible ... though porting to newer environments would make this moot. Tim
participants (6)
-
BillatNY@aol.com -
doug Stewart -
hajotem -
Paul N. Lee -
Peter Moreland -
Tim Wegner