Hardware

I recently installed a PGX-32 graphics card on my Sparc 10 Ultra. I was under the impression that it would give me 24 bits at 1600x1200, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's 8 bits only at that res.

So does anyone know of a Sun-compatible PCI graphics card that will run on the Sparc Ultra 10 running Solaris 10 (and has drivers available) that will let me run in 1600x1200x24?

You'd think that wouldn't be hard to find, but you'd be wrong. There is a confused and confusing welter on information and misinformation out there about these cards. And every card seems to have three different names. For example, the Sun PGX-32 is really a Raptor PGX-32 but comes up as a GFX8Pand is also an m640. Foo.

What you are looking for is Sun XVR-100. This is really a Radeon PCI 7000 with a Sun specific flash. You could also research the XVR-200 and XVR-500 but I'm not sure they're support in the Ultra10. The XVR-100 drivers are on the Solaris 10 CD#1.

People sell these on e-bay cheap as chips so worth a shot.

Hope that helps.

Thanks - that card looks like it would do the job. I notice that it even has a DVI output, though that one provides 24 bit output only up to 1280x1024. That got me looking at the rest of the XVR series. (I didn't realize you could get DVI for Suns).

The XVR-500 will do 1600x1200x24, but only with a 15 pin analog connector.
Then I found that the XVR-600 will also do 1600x1200x24 but has a DVI connector

I found a reference to it here XVR-600 - Everything2.com.that claims that "[it] works, though with degraded performance, in the Ultra 10." though they don't explain what they mean by "degraded performance".

Even the XVR-600 is pretty cheap these days, so what say you? An XVR-100 for 1600x1200x24 analog or the 600 with digital? Any reason not to go that route?

Yes, these series of graphics card were OEM'd by Sun (really Radeon) and therefore appear on the Sun HAL. I've not heard of any other than the XVR-100 going in an Ultra 10 but that doesn't mean they won't.

My interpretion of "degraded performance" is that PCI bus speeds increased over time and the later Radeon cards can be clocked faster but the Ultra 10 can't clock the card at the rate that it's capable of, but it still works.

My understanding is the a XVR-100 will do 1600x1200x24 so I would be tempted to buy a used one off ebay for US$40 unless I needed to do more than that.

"My understanding is the a XVR-100 will do 1600x1200x24 so I would be tempted to buy a used one off ebay for US$40 unless I needed to do more than that."

It will, but only analog, not digital. I find digital images a lot sharper than analog. The 100 only supports up to 1280x1024 through its DVI port. And apparently, not all 100's support the console through the DVI port. You apparently have to go to the XVR-600 to get a DVI port that will do 1600x1200x24 DVI. The 300 will do that resolution too, but it uses a DMS-59 port, so I'd need an adapter.

I found Sparc drivers for the 100 and 300 on opensolaris.org but not the 600. They're all reasonably priced, so my best bet might be the 300. I know I can get a DMS-59 to DVI adapter - I'm still looking for XVR-600 drivers. O the other hand, I found a reference that the 600 works with the Ultra 10 but have not found anything about the 300 working with it. What a mess.