[SunRescue] Q: about creator graphics cards...

[Ken Hansen]

Well, having just crawled out from under a rather large rock, I find myself
ignorant in the ways of Creator graphics.

Situation:

I have three Ultra 2s, two of which need framebuffers (well, framebuffers
better than TGX).
Obviously, these machines have the creator "UPA" or whatever SBUS-looking
space available.

My application is general user display, nothing fancy because I don't know
about fancy things. A fast card for a 21" Sun Monitor would be great, also,
high resolution would be nice too on those 21 diagonal inches...

Opportunity:

anysystem.com (a "Bill B. Approved Vendor") has several versions of Creator
cards available, with prices ranging from $65 to $285:

    Creator Series 1        $65
    Creator Series 3        $125

    Creator 3D Series 1    $95
    Creator 3D Series 2    $250
    Creator 3D Series 3    $285

Question:

Is price a reasonable indicator of anticipated performance? (i.e. is a
Cerator 3D Series 2 twice as fast/twice as good as a Creator Series 3?)

Thanks in advance,

Ken
(Who learned today that it is not a good thing to mix CPUs in an Ultra 2 - I
had a 300 MHz CPU in a machine configured for 200 MHz CPUs, and after
power-on, there was *no* output from the system. Same for a machine with
both a 200 MHz and a 300 MHz CPU installed.

It turns out that if the first CPU is the correct speed, but the second one
is not, you will get a message and the unit will power-down, putting out a
message on the console. If, on the otherhand, the wrong speed CPU is in the
first slot, and the right speed CPU is in the second slot, you get *no*
output.

I had 2 Ultra 2s delivered the other day, with no output *at all.* One was
2x 300 MHz, the other was 1x 200 MHz. I leave it to the reader to determine
how the CPUs were *actually* organized.)