Village Tronic MacPicasso 320

Physical Specs and Compatibility

The Village Tronic MacPicasso 320 card is a 7" NuBus card compatible with 680x0- and PowerPC-based Macs running Mac OS 7.5 up to Mac OS 9.0.4.

Hands On: Dan Knight

I've tested a MacPicasso 320 in a Mac IIfx, a IIci with cache card, and a Quadra 650. I was unable to make the card work in my Mac IIcx. All were running System 7.5.5 on an external Quantum Fireball 2.1 GB hard drive. 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 ViewSonic V95 monitor.

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, did not hold its own against "Toby" or the internal video of the IIci and Quadra 650.

The best reason to buy this card is the vast number of video settings available (below), not its performance.

Acceleration/Resolution/Color Support

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
1016x768 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) 8-bit only
1600x1200 at 96 Hz, 8-bit only
768x576 (PAL Video out)

Other 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.
Card has 2 MB SGRAM.

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