The Macintosh Display Card 4•8 is a 12″ NuBus video card compatible with most 680×0-based NuBus Macs, with the exception of the Centris/Quadra 660AV. It was introduced in March 1990.
Details
The 4•8 is an unaccelerated card, but it supports NuBus slave block transfers, so it will benefit from the installation of an 8•24 GC card. The 4•8 supports standard Mac resolutions from 512 x 384 to 1024 x 768 with 8-bit color (256 colors) and 1152 x 870 with 4-bit color (16 colors). The Macintosh Portrait Display is supported in 8-bit (256-shade) grayscale and the Two-Page Display is supported in 4-bit (16-shade) grayscale.
The 4•8 video card does not support resolution switching on the fly and requires a video adapter to support different resolutions on a multiscan display.
Revision B cards add support for 832 x 624 with 8-bit color, which the original card did not support.
The Display Card 4•8 requires System 6.0.5 or newer and 32-bit QuickDraw or the 32-bit QuickDraw Patch File.
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.
Further Reading
- This card can be upgraded to the same specs as the Display Card 8•24 by the addition of two 256 KB VRAM SIMMs to the SIMM slots on the card.
- While unaccelerated, this card is a useful addition to a system for supporting a second monitor, particularly if an 8•24 GC card is installed. eBay has these cards fairly regularly.
- Macintosh Display Cards Overview, 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, Apple TIL
Keywords: #nubusvideo
