Diamond Viper
The Viper was released in 1993. The Weitek P9000 chip is a Windows accelerator, while the 5286 or OTI087X from Oak Technology handled the 2D VGA work. Some cards have the more integrated P9100 in place of both the P9000 and 5286 chips.
It's worth noting that the Viper VLB was known for its poor performance, due to its sluggish VGA chip which can only run on a 16-bit interface.
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Released | 1993 |
| Bus | VESA Local Bus or PCI | |
| Chipset | Weitek P9000 and either Weitek 5286 or Oak OTI087X | |
| Standards | Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA | |
| Memory | 2 MB VRAM (for P9000) + 1 MB DRAM (5286) | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (video out) 26-pin VGA Feature connector |
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| RAMDAC | ||
| Part # | ||
| FCC ID | FTUVIPERA | |
| Price | At launch: $549 | |
| See Also | Diamond Stealth Pro |
The Viper was an odd design choice in 1993, after Diamond had good success with the Stealth Pro.
The Viper's standard RAMDAC was a Brooktree Bt485 which ran at 110 MHz, though Diamond offered a Sierra HiColor DAC as a cost option for this card.
Board Revisions
Several board revisions are known to exist for the Viper: B1, B3, E3 and E4.
Competition
The Viper VLB went up against a range of early VESA Local Bus "GUI accelerators" back in 1993, including the Hercules Graphite VL (HG510), Genoa 8500 VL-20, Number Nine #95GXE VL-Bus, Orchid Fahrenheit VA/VLB, STB Horizon VL, Cardinal Warpspeed, and ATI Graphics Ultra Pro mach32. When compared to these, the Viper VLB performed the best. InfoWorld ran a benchmark comparison of all of these cards, with the Viper VLB scoring the top position with a VidMark of 86.88, though the rest of the pack weren't far behind.
Price was an important factor, and it didn't always mean you got a card that was far better just because you had deeper pockets. In second place was the Cardinal Warpspeed with a score VidMark of 84.84. In third place was the $595 Number Nine #9GXE VL-Bus with a score of 78.70. The Genoa 8500 scored third place with a VidMark of 75.89 even though it cost just $219 (under half the price of the Viper). Behind these were the Orchid Fahrenheit VA/VLB which came in fourth place with a score of 75.84 and the STB Horizon VL that scored 70.65. Interestingly, bottom of the pile was the ATI Graphics Ultra Pro mach32 with a VidMark of 61.11 despite it relatively high price tag of $499.
In the Media
Setting it Up
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Original Utility Disk (VLB) Comprises installer, DOS utilities and drivers for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.5x. |
Original Utility Disk (PCI) Comprises installer, DOS utilities and drivers for Windows 3.1 (v1.06) and Windows NT 3.5x. |
Windows 95 VLB Drivers Viper VLB Windows 95 Accelerated ALPHA drivers v2.01. Supports the Viper Pro PCI, Viper SE PCI, and Viper VLB. Does not support Viper Pro\SE VLB or the Viper PCI. |
Windows 95 VLB Drivers Viper VLB Windows 95 Accelerated ALPHA drivers v2.15. Supports the VLB version of the Diamond Viper only. |
Windows 95 PCI Drivers Viper PCI Windows 95 Accelerated BETA drivers v2.14. Supports the PCI version of the Diamond Viper only. |
Windows 95 PCI Drivers Viper PCI Windows 95 Accelerated BETA drivers v2.15. Supports the PCI version of the Diamond Viper only. |
Windows 3.1x VLB Drivers Viper VLB Windows 3.1x drivers. |
Windows 3.1x PCI Drivers Viper PCI Windows 3.1x drivers. |
Windows NT 3.5x VLB Drivers Viper VLB Windows NT 3.51 drivers. |
Windows NT 3.5x PCI Drivers Viper PCI Windows NT 3.51 drivers. |
OS/2 2.1 VLB Drivers Viper VLB OS/2 v2.1 drivers. |
OS/2 2.1 PCI Drivers Viper PCI OS/2 v2.1 drivers. |
VPRMODE VLB Utility Viper VLB 'set mode' utility. |
VGA BIOS ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
VGA BIOS ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
VGA BIOS ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
VGA BIOS ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
VGA BIOS ROM For Viper PCI cards only, *not* VLB. |
More Pictures