Worth Of 8 24 Gc Card

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:00:36 +0100 From: Dominique Petitpierre <petitp@divsun.unige.ch> Lloyd Wood <L.H.Wood@lut.ac.uk> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non Receipt Notification Requested), K A Sturrock <antkasx@gsusgi2.gsu.edu> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non Receipt Notification Requested), John Armstrong <jarmst@kaiwan.com> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non Receipt Notification Requested), Sam Sheng <ssheng@glacier.berkeley.edu> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non Receipt Notification Requested) Subject: SUMMARY: Is the Apple 8*24 GC video display board worth something? Here is a summary of the answers I received and informations I found out about my question: "Is the Apple 8*24 GC video display board worth something?" In short: It is not worth buying it. Acceleration is not compatible with System 7 (my problem) nor with 68040 CPUs. 24 bit colors works only on 13" monitors. In long: Here is my original message: >From: petitp@divsun.unige.ch (Dominique Petitpierre) >Subject: Is the Apple 8*24 GC video display board worth something? >Summary: Why do the MacWorld benchmarks show no real acceleration? >Should I buy the card? >Keywords: video display card, 24 bit color, graphic acceleration >Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 13:11:45 GMT > >I have the opportunity to buy a second hand accelerated color video display >board, the Apple 8*24GC, to use in my MacIIx with an Apple 13" monitor. It >seems a good deal: it is sold for $ 400 when the list price is $ 1340. > >But then I read the review "24-bit Color Graphics" in the February 1993 issue >of MacWorld (p 153). Their benchmark table show no real improvement between >the non accelerated and accelerated Apple boards: (+ 10% to + 20% for >low-level QuickDraw tests, at best +10% in real-world tests, even 6% slower >for horizontal scrolling). But the boards description claims Quickdraw >acceleration by a factor 5 to 30? > >Where is the mistake? > >On the board there are two slots for DRAM. The description is quite vague >about their purpose: some programs can use this memory to store "off display" >images. What programs know how to take advantage of this? Is it worth buying >the DRAM for it? > >I intend to use this card for graphic applications such as FreeHand, >Illustrator, PageMaker and Photoshop, with images from Kodak CDs and from a >256 levels of grey scanner (HP Scanjet). Will this card really speed >operations of these tools? Some relevant facts from the specification sheet from an Apple authorized dealer: - Name: Macintosh II Display Card 8.24 GC (I believe this is what appears in the window when you click the "Options" button of the "Monitors" Control Panel.) - resolutions: max 16.7 million colors on a 640 x 480 pixels monitor max 256 grays on a 640x870 pixels monitor max 256 grays on a 1152x870 pixels monitor - video: RS-343 and RS-170 (NTSC, interlaced); only 256 colors with "Apple convolution" for flicker free display. - extensib…