Diamond Multimedia

Diamond was a graphics and sound card manufacturer for the IBM PC and its compatibles. Their first series was the "SpeedSTAR", based on the Tseng Labs ET4000 and ET4000AX chipsets. This was followed with the "Stealth" from 1995, which offered 3D acceleration under Windows - these used a chipset from S3. The SpeedSTAR range became their low-end / budget range at this time. Later on the Stealth cards incorporated both 2D and 3D capabilities. Moving towards the late 90s, Diamond introduced the "Viper" range, relegating the Stealth range to be mid-range.They merged with S3 in 1999.

Graphics Cards

SpeedStar

Launched: 1991
Chipset: Tseng Labs ET4000AX
RAMDAC: MUSIC TR9C1710
Memory: 1 MB
Bus: ISA 16-bit
Price: ?
FCC ID: FTUTENTIMB

The original SpeedSTAR graphics card. Does not support true color. Good VGA performance for the 2D era.

Drivers: Windows 3.1

 

SpeedStar VGA

Launched: ?.
Chipset: Tseng Labs ET4000AX
Bus: ISA 16-bit
Price: ?
FCC ID: FTUTENTIMB

Good VGA performance for the 2D era.

Drivers: Windows 3.1

 

SpeedSTAR 24

Launched: ?.
Chipset: Tseng Labs ET4000AX
Memory: 1 MB DRAM
Bus: ISA 16-bit
Price: ?
FCC ID: FTUSPEEDC

The core clock runs at 65 MHz. The card has a single 15-pin D-SUB port. Supports true color. Good VGA performance for the 2D era.

Drivers: Windows 3.1

 

SpeedStar 24X

Launched: 1992.
Chipset: Western Digital WD90C31A-LR
Memory: 512 KB (maximum 1 MB)
Bus: ISA 16-bit
Price: ?

Core clock runs at 80 MHz

Drivers: Windows 3.1

 

SpeedStar Pro

Launched: 1993
Chipset: Cirrus Logic CL-GD5426 or CL-GD5428
Memory: 1 MB FPM (expandable to 2 MB)
Bus: ISA 16-bit or VLB
Price: ?

The core clock speed runs at 80 MHz, with memory running at 50 MHz.

Drivers: Windows 3.1

 

SpeedStar 64

Launched: 1994.
Chipset: Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434
Memory: 1 MB (upgradable to 2 MB).
Bus: ISA 16-bit or VLB
FCC ID: FTUSA5434A
Price: $92 (2MB ISA, Apr 1997)

Windows accelerator card. Internal memory access only runs at 32-bit if you have just 1 MB installed. Runs at 64-bit if you install an extra 1 MB.

 

 

SpeedStar 64 PCI

Launched: ?
Chipset: Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434
Memory: 2 MB (expandable to 4 MB?)
Bus: PCI
Price: ?

 

 

SpeedStar Pro SE

Launched: 1994.
Chipset: Cirrus Logic CL-GD5430
Memory: 1 MB FPM (expandable to 2MB)
Bus: PCI / VESA Local Bus
Price: ?

Core clock runs at 86 MHz, memory clock at 60 MHz.

 

 

Stealth 64

Launched: 1994
Chipset: ?
Bus: VESA Local Bus and PCI
FCC ID: ?
Price: ?

Another picture of the Stealth 64 card.

 

Stealth SE

Launched: 1995
Chipset: S3 Trio32
Bus: PCI
FCC ID: FTUPCI7322M
Price: ?

SpeedStar A50

Launched: 1998
Chipset: SiS 6326
Memory: 8 MB SDR
Bus: AGP 2x
Price: ?

This card supports MPEG-1 (Video-CD) hardware acceleration, and DirectX 5. The core clock runs at 100 MHz and has a memory bandwidth of 800 MB/second.

 

SpeedStar A55

Launched: 1999
Chipset: S3 Trio 3D/2X
Memory: 8 MB SDR
Bus: AGP 2x
Price: ?

This card supports MPEG-2 (DVD) hardware acceleration, and DirectX 5. The core clock runs at 100 MHz and has a memory bandwidth of 800 MB/second.

 

SpeedStar A90

Launched: 1999
Chipset: S3 Savage4
Memory: 32 MB SDR
Bus: AGP 4x @ 2x
Price: ?

This card supports DirectX 6. The core clock runs at 125 MHz. Its RAMDAC runs at 300 MHz. Memory bandwidth is 1000 MB/second.

3DMark 99 scored 2049.
3DMark 2000 scored 704.

 

Stealth 3D-2000

Launched: 1997
Chipset: S3 ViRGE 86C325
Bus: PCI
Memory: 2 MB or 4 MB EDO
Price: $137 (4MB, Apr 1997)

Key features:

  • 55 MHz core clock
  • 55 MHz memory clock (64-bit bus width)
  • Runs the original S3 ViRGE chipset - the 86C325
  • Memory can be expanded from 2 MB to 4 MB
  • 135 MHz RAMDAC

 

Stealth Video 2500

Launched: 1997
Chipset: Alliance ProMotion AT24
Bus: PCI
Memory: 1 MB or 2 MB EDO DRAM (64-bit)
Price: $59.95

Key features:

  • 170 MHz RAMDAC
  • Resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 (with 2 MB)
  • 24-bit colour depth
  • Refresh Rates up to 120 Hz
  • Up to 16.7M colours at 800 x 600 resolution
  • MPEG-1 playback up to 30 fps

 

Stealth 3D-3000[XL]

Launched: 1997
Chipset: ?
Bus: PCI
Memory: 2 MB or 4 MB EDO
Price: $180 (2MB, Apr 1997), $230 (4MB, Apr 1997)

Viper VLB

Launched: 1993
Bus: VLB
Chipset: Weitek P9000 & Weitek 5286
Memory: 2 MB VRAM (for P9000) + 1 MB DRAM (5286)
FCC ID: FTUVIPERA
Known BIOS Versions: 2.02
Known Board Revisions: B3
Price: ?

The P9000 chip is a Windows accelerator, while the 5286 handles VGA 2D work.

Some cards have the more integrated P9100 in place of both the P9000 and 5286 chips.

 

Viper V330 AGP

Launched: ?.
Bus: PCI
Price: ?

This card is basically a rebadged nVidia Riva 128/128ZX.

 

Viper V330 PCI

Launched: ?.
Bus: PCI
Price: ?

This card is basically a rebadged nVidia Riva 128 PCI.

 

Sound Cards

Diamond Multimedia OEM'd a few sound cards despite being largely remembered for their graphics cards. Oak technology were the development company behind these. Oak Technology exited the PC audio and 3D graphics markets in the quarter ended March 31st, 1998.

 

Diamond Sonic Sound

FM synthesizer: Yamaha YMF262.
Chipset: OPTi 82C929A (MAD16 Pro).
Audio codec: Crystal CS4248-KL.

The MAD16 (MediaChips 16-Bit Audio Controller) "Pro" chip provides Sound Blaster Pro, Windows Sound System, Ad Lib, and MPU-401 (UART) compatibility.
4 CD-ROM headers.
Wavetable header.

Issues reported with Windows drivers for MAD16 Pro. Any sound card with the 82C929A chip on it is really meant for use in pure DOS or alongside another sound card in Windows.

There is an "LX" version of the Sonic Sound. Some of these cards have an OPTi 92x chipset. These require a different driver

 

Diamond Sonic 3D

FM synthesizer: ESS 1688A ("ESFM")
Mixer chip: ES968F.

4 CD-ROM headers.
Wavetable header.

Diamond Sonic Pro

Main chip: 9248
Secondary chip: 9426
Has the Sierra Semiconductor Aria chipset.

Aria cards MUST be initialized via a software driver to function which for this card presented a problem as the original Diamond drivers are nowhere to be found on the internet except a dead archived link. This forced me to use the drivers for the already mentioned Prometheus line of Aria based cards which fortunately mostly seem to work, at least under MS DOS.

These cards are extremely rare.

 

MonsterSound MX300

Launched: ?.
Bus: PCI
Price: ?