Apple Display Card 4 8 / 8 24

[beachycove]

This Nubus card (the 4 8 and the 8 24 are same thing, it is just that the addition of two 256k vram simms makes the 4 8 into an 8 24) is currently on eBay. It is an unaccelerated 640x480 card, I think, and so it is of limited interest, but it has the ability to work in tandem with the 8 24 GC card for accelerated video across more than one Nubus slot. The particular magic involved is called Nubus block transfer. There is an Apple TIL article about it, dealing with these "three" video cards in particular.

I happen to have a IIfx and an 8 24 GC card, and am wondering about putting a bid on this other card to work with it, just for kicks. Before I spend more money on scrap electronics, however, can anyone tell me this: Is this feature (Nubus block transfer) something unique to a small range of Apple cards or would it be available on most any late-issue Nubus video card? I do have others to play with already.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

So the specialness of the 8•24 GC combined with a plain 8•24 is the fact that the 8•24 GC is accelerated, and will share its acceleration with other 8•24 cards via NuBus block transfer.

But, compared to later NuBus cards, the 8•24 GC's acceleration isn't that great. If you're going for best acceleration, go for a couple faster accelerated cards.

But if you're going for "cool tech, Apple-only" factor, go for an 8•24 GC+8•24. Obviously nowadays it's rather pointless, but at the time of release, it was a big selling point that you could throw in a cheaper 8•24 card and get what amounted to a second accelerated card for cheap.

 

[zuiko21]

The 8·24 does support resolutions higher than 640x480... up to 1152x870 (8-bit) but not multiscan monitors -- you have to set a fixed resolution on the adapter It supports the Portrait Display, too (640x870)

Unlike the (otherwise similar) Quadra 700 built-in video, there's no support for "modern" resolutions like 1024x768, either. But you can get 24-bit video at 640x480 with 1 MB VRAM; with that amount, the Q700 gets millions of colours only on 512x384 -- because it's doing 32-bit internally, for performance reasons.

 

[beachycove]

I missed the fact that it did several resolutions in my earlier reading (though information about the card is hard to find). Thanks for the information. NICE when people are helpful!

That card will support my preferred monitors nicely, it transpires: a portrait display, or a Radius two page greyscale, or something like my 14" AudioVision for colour. The idea is simply to max out a IIfx, or possibly a IIci, with period hardware that works in System 6.