Launched: Feb 1993
Chipset: S3 86C801C (ISA), S3 86C805 (VLB) or S3 Vision864 (P64)
Bus: ISA 16-bit or VLB
Memory: 1 MB or 2 MB DRAM
(50ns or 60ns)
RAMDAC: ATT20C491-11
RAMDAC Speed: 110 MHz
VESA Standard: unknown
BIOS Dates: 10/28/93
Known BIOS Versions: 4.01
Part No. EMA004005020
The Mirage from Video 7 was an XGA-compatible card, offering
resolutions up to 1280 x 1024. It used a graphics processor from S3 at its core. Both 1 MB and 2 MB variants were available at launch.
It was a middle-of-the-range card, sat between the cheaper Vega and the more expensive Mercury, but as an ISA graphics card it was one of the fastest performing you could buy (even better than the ET4000AX). In VESA Local Bus form however, it showed average DOS performance and below average Windows performance.
Mirage was succeeded by the Mirage P64, which got the upgraded S3 Vision864 chip, a 64-bit accelerator (meaning it got a full 64-bit data path to video memory). The P64 came with 2 MB of DRAM. The performance results for the P64 were better, with DOS performance being considered very good, and above average Windows performance.