Macintosh II High Resolution Video Card

The Macintosh II High Resolution Video Card is a 12″ NuBus card compatible with 68K- and PowerPC-based Macs running up to Mac OS 8.1. It is not compatible with the Centris/Quadra 660AV.

Details

The Mac II High Res Video Card is unaccelerated. It supports resolutions of 640 x 480 and 512 x 384, which was the resolution of Apple’s 12″ color and monochrome displays. The video card was available in two configurations. The 4-bit model supports 16 color (4-bit) video on a 640 x 480 display, 256 colors (8-bit video) on a 512 x 384 display. The 8-bit model supports 8-bit/256-color video on a 640 x 480 display.

With an optional RAM upgrade, which requires eight 120ns DIP chips, the 4-bit version supports 640 x 480 in 8-bit color.

Notes

This Mac video card can support a special resolution of 704 x 512, and then only on certain Apple 640 x 480 displays and with the shareware MaxAppleZoom control panel – although the control panel has apparently expired. (It was last updated in June 1993.) I have seen one recommendation for using 672-pixel mode with the 12″ Macintosh Monochrome Display.

The High Resolution card is somewhat more useful than the Macintosh II Video Card, but only if you have a 512 x 384 pixel display.

Online Resources

Keywords: #maciihiresvideocard #macintoshiihiresolutionvideocard