Powerstorm vs Elsa Gloria video card?

Hi folks, I have a currently spare Powerstorm card here - a PBXGB-AA. Before I take a screwdriver to my PWS 600au, is it better than the present Elsa Gloria I have in there? Even if it isn't so much better, could I use it in conjunction with the Elsa Glori form a dual head system? TIA. -- Paul Sture

Paul Sture wrote: > Hi folks, > > I have a currently spare Powerstorm card here - a PBXGB-AA. > > Before I take a screwdriver to my PWS 600au, is it better than the > present Elsa Gloria I have in there? > > Even if it isn't so much better, could I use it in conjunction with the > Elsa Glori form a dual head system? > > TIA. > > -- > Paul Sture The PBXGB-AA is otherwise known as the Powerstorm 3D30 and is a somewhat faster card than the Elsa Gloria and about the fastest you will find to work in a PWD600au (i.e. pre EV6) this side of a Powerstorm 4D20. I have one and the scroll rate is much better than the Elsa. FredK would be the expert here but I don't think you can dual-head this. In case you haven't found it elsewhere, the 3D30 (and 4D20) use a hardware rotary switch on the card to adjust the screen resolution. The chart is copied below (from ATW #2041) PowerStorm 3D30 (PBXGB-AA) and PowerStorm 4D20 (PBXGB-CA) settings: 0 1280 x 1024 72 1 1280 x 1024 66 2 1280 x 1024 60 3 1152 x 900 72 4 1600 x 1200 65 (-CA only) 5 1024 x 768 70 6 1024 x 768 72 7 1024 x 864 60 8 1024 x 768 60 9 800 x 600 72 A 800 x 600 60 B 640 x 480 72 C 640 x 480 60 D 1280 x 1024 75 E 1280 x 1024 60 F 1600 x 1200 75 (-CA only) That's the switch position (0-F), resolution, refresh rate John H. Reinhardt

Paul Sture wrote: > Hi folks, > > I have a currently spare Powerstorm card here - a PBXGB-AA. > > Before I take a screwdriver to my PWS 600au, is it better than the > present Elsa Gloria I have in there? > > Even if it isn't so much better, could I use it in conjunction with the > Elsa Glori form a dual head system? > > TIA. > > -- > Paul Sture Thats a 3D30 if I remember correctly. http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/products/graphics/au/3d30.html Unfortunately it looks like HP's continued loss of data on older equipment continues; the support files link is dead. The info I have on hand here (an old SOC page) says you can run three of the 3D30s in a multihead arrangement, but doesn't say anything about mixing with another card. The 3D30 has a rep as one of the fastest 2D cards available for VMS. It is an 8 bit card so much more limited in color display, but the Elsa (which can do 24 bit) is probably a lot slower, and definitely has display issues running at 1280x1024. I'd guess that if you don't do a lot of photorendering or graphics that requires more color choices, the 3D30 will be a nice performance upgrade. Rich

Paul Sture wrote: > I have a currently spare Powerstorm card here - a PBXGB-AA. > > Before I take a screwdriver to my PWS 600au, is it better than the > present Elsa Gloria I have in there? > > Even if it isn't so much better, could I use it in conjunction with the > Elsa Glori form a dual head system? Try it. If the PowerStorm 3D30 synchs with your monitor and works with your configuration, that's the way I'd go -- the PowerStorm 3D30 is rather faster than the ELSA GLoria Synergy card. In my experience, the ELSA GLoria Synergy and (preferred to the ELSA) the ATI Radeon 7500 synch rather better with LCD monitors than does the PowerStorm 3D30, however. YMMV. The PowerStorm 3D30 is one of the fastest 2D cards around. (Still!) I haven't tried any of these cards on the DIGITAL Personal Workstation series, however. (The ATI Radeon 7500 driver does require an EV6 or later system, however.) I've not tried mixtures of graphics controllers when working with multiple heads -- configuring multiple occurances of the same controller is certainly easier. (I have a vague recollection this was once a restriction of X Windows support, but that may well have been lifted.) The PowerStorm 3D30 selector switch settings are posted over in the old Ask The Wizard area, if you don't have a copy of that stashed away.

johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com wrote: > FredK would be the expert here but I don't think you can dual-head > this. Though you CAN dual- or triple-head with two (or three) PowerStorm 3D30 series controllers.

Stephen Hoffman <Hoff@HoffmanLabs-RemoveThis-.Org> writes: > The PowerStorm 3D30 is one of the fastest 2D cards around. (Still!) > I haven't tried any of these cards on the DIGITAL Personal > Workstation series, however. (The ATI Radeon 7500 driver does > require an EV6 or later system, however.) I have a 40 in a 600au, works fine. -- Paul Repacholi 1 Crescent Rd., +61 (08) 9257-1001 Kalamunda. West Australia 6076 comp.os.vms,- The Older, Grumpier Slashdot Raw, Cooked or Well-done, it's all half baked. EPIC, The Architecture of the future, always has been, always will be.

In article <1161787212.246018.53160@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, "Rich Jordan" <jordan@ccs4vms.com> writes: [...] > The 3D30 has a rep as one of the fastest 2D cards available for VMS. > It is an 8 bit card so much more limited in color display, but the Elsa > (which can do 24 bit) is probably a lot slower, and definitely has > display issues running at 1280x1024. I'd guess that if you don't do a > lot of photorendering or graphics that requires more color choices, the > 3D30 will be a nice performance upgrade. > > Rich Yes, but in 16 bit mode, the Elsa has accetable performance. The 24 bit performance is far worse. 16 bit seems a good compromise between quality and performance. Patrick -- =============================================================================== pmoreau@ath.cena.fr ______ ___ _ (Patrick MOREAU) DSNA/DTI/SDER (ex CENA) / / / / /| /| Athis-Mons France / /___/ / / | / | __ __ __ __ BP 205 / / / / |/ | | | |__| |__ |__| | | 94542 ORLY AEROGARE CEDEX / / :: / / | |__| | \ |__ | | |__| http://www.ath.cena.fr/~pmoreau/ http://membres.lycos.fr/pmoreau/ ===============================================================================

In article <1161786819.111085.118310@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, "johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com" <johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com> wrote: > The PBXGB-AA is otherwise known as the Powerstorm 3D30 and is a > somewhat faster card than the Elsa Gloria and about the fastest you > will find to work in a PWD600au (i.e. pre EV6) this side of a > Powerstorm 4D20. I have one and the scroll rate is much better than > the Elsa. > > FredK would be the expert here but I don't think you can dual-head > this. > > In case you haven't found it elsewhere, the 3D30 (and 4D20) use a > hardware rotary switch on the card to adjust the screen resolution. > The chart is copied below (from ATW #2041) > > PowerStorm 3D30 (PBXGB-AA) and PowerStorm 4D20 (PBXGB-CA) settings: > > 0 1280 x 1024 72 > 1 1280 x 1024 66 > 2 1280 x 1024 60 > 3 1152 x 900 72 > 4 1600 x 1200 65 (-CA only) > 5 1024 x 768 70 > 6 1024 x 768 72 > 7 1024 x 864 60 > 8 1024 x 768 60 > 9 800 x 600 72 > A 800 x 600 60 > B 640 x 480 72 > C 640 x 480 60 > D 1280 x 1024 75 > E 1280 x 1024 60 > F 1600 x 1200 75 (-CA only) > > That's the switch position (0-F), resolution, refresh rate Thanks very much for that table John. It looks like I need it for my monitor. Do you have any idea of which position the switch is for "0"? -- Paul Sture

Paul Sture wrote: > In article <1161786819.111085.118310@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, > "johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com" <johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com> wrote: .... >> PowerStorm 3D30 (PBXGB-AA) and PowerStorm 4D20 (PBXGB-CA) settings: .... > Do you have any idea of which position the switch is for "0"? Um, switch? There's a rotating selector on the edge of the PowerStorm 3D30 (PBXGB-AA) or PowerStorm 4D20 (PBXGB-CA) series graphics card, and the selected digit is visible within the cut-out. If you're not seeing a zero somewhere within the herd of digits underneath the dial, then either you don't have a PowerStorm 3D30 or PowerStorm 4D20, or there have been changes to the hardware, or the table is wrong.

Stephen Hoffman wrote: > Paul Sture wrote: > > In article <1161786819.111085.118310@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, > > "johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com" <johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com> wrote: > ... > >> PowerStorm 3D30 (PBXGB-AA) and PowerStorm 4D20 (PBXGB-CA) settings: > ... > > Do you have any idea of which position the switch is for "0"? > > Um, switch? There's a rotating selector on the edge of the > PowerStorm 3D30 (PBXGB-AA) or PowerStorm 4D20 (PBXGB-CA) series graphics > card, and the selected digit is visible within the cut-out. If you're > not seeing a zero somewhere within the herd of digits underneath the > dial, then either you don't have a PowerStorm 3D30 or PowerStorm 4D20, > or there have been changes to the hardware, or the table is wrong. Or the eyes or the hardware is old. ;) On mine some of the positions are barely legible anymore and my eyes, well... I've had glasses since I was 12 (that's 34 years for those who are counting). The chart should be correct since I copied it from the Ask the VMS Wizard (ATW - bad acronym, sorry) #2041 John H. Reinhardt

johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com wrote: > The chart > should be correct since I copied it from the Ask the VMS Wizard (ATW - > bad acronym, sorry) #2041 And I happen to know who transcribed the contents of the cited ATW topic from the PowerStorm 3D30 and PowerStorm 4D20 series controller manual into that ATW topic (2041); that table could potentially contain transcription errors. :-)

In article <ei6elc$2ptc$1@pyrite.mv.net>, Stephen Hoffman <Hoff@HoffmanLabs-RemoveThis-.Org> wrote: > johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com wrote: > > > The chart > > should be correct since I copied it from the Ask the VMS Wizard (ATW - > > bad acronym, sorry) #2041 > > And I happen to know who transcribed the contents of the cited ATW > topic from the PowerStorm 3D30 and PowerStorm 4D20 series controller > manual into that ATW topic (2041); that table could potentially contain > transcription errors. :-) To err is human, but for a truly massive cockup, you need a computer :-) John had the correct diagnosis, 'tis probably the eyes which are getting old, but if there was any kind of colouring there to highlight the figures that's also long gone. -- Paul Sture

Paul Sture wrote: > > In article <ei6elc$2ptc$1@pyrite.mv.net>, > Stephen Hoffman <Hoff@HoffmanLabs-RemoveThis-.Org> wrote: > > > johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com wrote: > > > > > The chart > > > should be correct since I copied it from the Ask the VMS Wizard (ATW - > > > bad acronym, sorry) #2041 > > > > And I happen to know who transcribed the contents of the cited ATW > > topic from the PowerStorm 3D30 and PowerStorm 4D20 series controller > > manual into that ATW topic (2041); that table could potentially contain > > transcription errors. :-) > > To err is human, but for a truly massive cockup, you need a computer :-) ....or a Board of Directors ;-) -- David J Dachtera dba DJE Systems http://www.djesys.com/ Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/ Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/ Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/ Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/