OS/2 Warp 3 Graphics Card Selection Input?

[Marc Galloway]

I have a machine with 16-bit ISA slots and I'm looking to install OS/2 WARP Version 3. What would some graphics card recommendations be as I know driver support was always an issue with OS/2 that didn't get better to WARP 4. Been searching for a compatibility matrix for what drivers where included in WARP 3 but having a hard time tracking that down.

[Mentore]

I have a machine with 16-bit ISA slots and I'm looking to install OS/2 WARP Version 3. What would some graphics card recommendations be as I know driver support was always an issue with OS/2 that didn't get better to WARP 4. Been searching for a compatibility matrix for what drivers where included in WARP 3 but having a hard time tracking that down.

Having only ISA slots is both a problem and an advantage, since it's a dead market but most if not all ISA graphics cards are supported.

You may find useful the SNAP graphics driver, which were released as freeware years ago:
here https://ecsoft2.org/scitech-snap-graphics you'll find the package description, which contains also a list of the supported adapters.

Mentore

[Andi B.]

IIRC it was a trident ISA card I used with Warp 3. It was able to produce 1024 x 768 with the trident drivers.  Which was astonishing good at that time.

[Martin Iturbide]

Welcome Mark

I have limited list of adapters that was supported by SNAP here: https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Video_Cards

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

Need FP35 with Warp 3 for SNAP support.
Seems I first used a Cirrus Logic card with Warp V3, possibly CL-GD5446. Then an ATI card, MACH64? Can't remember if it was ISA as well.

[Marc Galloway]

Thank you all for the information. I think with all the info you all provided I'll be able to source a card. Great info about SNAP being supported. I'll do so digging on where to download the fixpacks and how to install. Thanks again.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Marc

Just feel free to open a new thread when you start installing and tuning Warp 3 on your machine. Warp 3 has a variety of Fixpacks depending on which component you need to update.

Here it is a good page to give you some hints: http://www.altsan.org/os2/fixpaks/fixgraphics.html

Regards

[Marc Galloway]

Thanks Martin. Will do, I'm sure I'll need help as I get ready to go down the OS/2 path.

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

Marc,
Late response on my part, but if I recall correctly Matrox was a very strong OS/2 player back in the day. Their native drivers did well, as does the SNAP support, specifically the current readme shows the following:

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. Matrox MGA Millennium, MGA Millennium II, MGA Mystique
. Matrox MGA Mystique 220, MGA-G100, MGA-G200, MGA-G400, MGA-G450
. Matrox MGA-G550, Parhelia, MGA-P750, MGA-P650

The Matrox MGA-G450 & MGA-G550 are also supported in the MultiHead mode, although not sure if these came in ISA configuration.

Finally, are you limitted to ISA only, or does that board have VESA connector?

[Olafur Gunnlaugsson]

I have a machine with 16-bit ISA slots and I'm looking to install OS/2 WARP Version 3. What would some graphics card recommendations be as I know driver support was always an issue with OS/2 that didn't get better to WARP 4. Been searching for a compatibility matrix for what drivers where included in WARP 3 but having a hard time tracking that down.

Trident ISA cards using IBM drivers are the best bet for ISA, some of the Trident ISA drivers even have features that later drivers do not support such as changing resolutions without rebooting etc. Pro level ISA cards such as Matrox, S3 et. al. work well but are impossible to find. Tseng Lab. cards work well too, but have slow DAC's, but superb DOS support. Cirrus Logic (aka acu MOS, etc), ATI and SiS also work well but similarly have a slow DAC with the exception of a couple of ATI cards.

Almost any ISA card can be made to work actually, I used an obscure Avance Logic (aka Realtek) ISA card for years, that I have never seen offered for sale before or since, despite keeping an eye out for it on eBay for a quarter of a century.