Low End Mac

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Mac Video Cards

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NuBus Video Cards

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Tech Specs

Village Tronic MacPicasso 320

Daniel Knight - 1996.08.25

The Village Tronic MacPicasso 320 card is a 7″ NuBus card compatible with 680×0- and PowerPC-based Macs running Mac OS 7.5 up to Mac OS 9.0.4. The MacPicasso 320 and 340 may be the only NuBus video cards to include a VGA port.

Village Tronic marketed it by saying, “It is the perfect solution for upgrade the video output performances of the ‘old’ Macs for keeping them still productive.” As far as we can tell, the card was introduced sometime in 1996, by which time all Macs were PowerPC and PCI had replaced NuBus slots on Power Mac models – and yet this card runs on most older 680×0 Macs with NuBus slots as well PowerPC NuBus models.

Hands On

The MacPicasso 320 was tested in a Mac IIfx, a IIci with cache card, and a Quadra 650. It was not tested on anything newer. We were unable to make the card work in a Mac IIcx. and suspect the Mac II and IIx would have similar problems. All machines were running System 7.5.5 on an external Quantum Fireball 2.1 GB hard drive.

Village Tronic MacPicasso 320 NuBus video card

Village Tronic MacPicasso 320 NuBus video card

Each will run the card in 1-, 8-, 16- and 24-bit modes. I was able to use the 640 x 480, 832 x 624, 1024 x 768, and 1152 x 870 setting with my 19″ ViewSonic V95 monitor plugged into the card’s VGA port.

The following video benchmarks were obtained at 640 x 480 resolution using Speedometer 4.02:

computer            1-bit   8-bit  16-bit  24-bit
IIci, int. video    0.467   0.461     n/a     n/a
IIci, MacPicasso    0.366   0.364   0.368   0.368
IIfx, "Toby"        0.454   0.447     n/a     n/a
IIfx, MacPicasso    0.429   0.426   0.423   0.433
Quadra 650, int.    1.340   1.341   1.385     n/a
Quadra 650, "Toby"  0.839   0.840     n/a     n/a
Quadra 650, M.P.    0.720   0.721   0.710   0.718

The “Toby” card is Apple’s unaccelerated Macintosh II Video Card. The MacPicasso 320, a supposedly accelerated video card, does not hold its own against “Toby” or the internal video of the Mac IIci and Quadra 650.

The best reason to buy this card is the vast number of video settings available – especially 16- and 24-bit color – not its speed.

Specifications

  • Alpine 64-bit graphics accelerator chip from Cirrus Logic
  • 2 MB of 64-bit 45ns ultra-fast EDO video RAM
  • Up to 180 MB/sec image fill
  • PAL and NTSC video support
  • Hardware QuickDraw acceleration
  • Automatically syncs to best refresh rates
  • 100% QuickDraw compatible
  • Accelerated for Power Macintosh

The card provides standard QuickDraw acceleration and supports the following resolution/color combinations:

  • 512 x 384 up to 24-bit
  • 640 x 480 (60, 67, 72, 86, or 160 Hz) up to 24-bit
  • 640 x 870 up to 24-bit
  • 800 x 600 (60, 72, 85, or 100 Hz) up to 24-bit
  • 832 x 624 up to 24-bit
  • 1016 x 768 at 75 Hz up to 24-bit
  • 1024 x 768 (43, 60, or 75 Hz) up to 24-bit
  • 1152 x 870 (66 or 75 Hz) up to 24-bit
  • 1280 x 1024 (43, 60, or 75 Hz) up to 8-bi
  • 1600 x 1200 at 96 Hz, up to 8-bit
  • 768 x 576 (PAL Video out) up to 24-bit

Notes

  • Software available for download from Village Tronic site.
  • Has both Mac and VGA monitor ports and requires no adapter for use with a VGA monitor.
  • Will not support monitors plugged into both ports on the card.
  • Works with G3/G4 upgrades.

Online Resources

keywords: #villagetronics #macpicasso