RetroCAD Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Greetings all - I am on the hunt for an Nth Engine graphics card. This is a video that provided hardware zooming for AutoCAD 2.5/2.62/9. The model I had connected to the monitor via 5 BNC connectors. If you see or know of one, please let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 I not only remember the Nth Engine graphics card I had such a card at one time. The feature you refer to required the use of a dongle as I recall. You're talking around 1985. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCAD Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 You, that’s what I’m after. I used the Nth cards until SoftEngine was released. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidOBM Posted January 15, 2020 Share Posted January 15, 2020 david.watterston@cdsurveys.com Hi we have one and the user manual ... what are you offering as they were really expensive in the ‘day’ ... cheers if you give me your email address I’ll send you a photo. We happily used it a number of years ago with Eclipse before we moved to the survey processing suite Geosite and now N4ce.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGAL Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 What about a Number 9 graphics card pretty sure same era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 On 11/12/2019 at 9:50 AM, RetroCAD said: You, that’s what I’m after. I used the Nth cards until SoftEngine was released. As I recall we paid close to $3,000 for the Nth Engine graphics card and SoftEngine. Probably a quarter of the cost of our "high end" computer at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCAD Posted January 16, 2020 Author Share Posted January 16, 2020 23 hours ago, DavidOBM said: david.watterston@cdsurveys.com Hi we have one and the user manual ... what are you offering as they were really expensive in the ‘day’ ... cheers if you give me your email address I’ll send you a photo. We happily used it a number of years ago with Eclipse before we moved to the survey processing suite Geosite and now N4ce.. I would love to see that card! My email is retrocad@facilitynow.com Many thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCAD Posted February 25, 2020 Author Share Posted February 25, 2020 Pretty excited to have not one but two Nth Engine cards. Hopefully I can get these running in the coming months. Hats off to the CADTutor.net Forum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 Dang at the size of those! Also...lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCAD Posted February 27, 2020 Author Share Posted February 27, 2020 Very cool! Where did you find this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 32 minutes ago, RetroCAD said: Very cool! Where did you find this? Just googled Nth Engine cards. I never knew these existed. I love the 1024x768 w/16 colors for $4k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) Yeah, those cards were massive. As it turns out I was only 3/4's right on the price. Since we had the 1024x768 nth Engine card we must have paid the full $4k. I ran a 21" Viewsonic color monitor using the nth Engine card to display the graphics and a 12" amber monitor for text. Did you get the dongle as well to run the software? Edited February 27, 2020 by ReMark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCAD Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 2 hours ago, ReMark said: Yeah, those cards were massive. As it turns out I was only 3/4's right on the price. Since we had the 1024x768 nth Engine card we must have paid the full $4k. I ran a 21" Viewsonic color monitor using the nth Engine card to display the graphics and a 12" amber monitor for text. Did you get the dongle as well to run the software? As far as I recall there wasn’t a dongle for the driver software. The card itself is a massive dongle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 I was referring to the program called Soft Engine that came with the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCAD Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 Fwiw, SoftEngine was made by a different company - Vibrant Graphics. Although in one of the unlocked versions I have, SoftEngine directly supports a few of the later-model Nth cards, such as the Nth/150. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fstilo Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 Greetings to everyone. I have a NTH graphics card named 3D Display Controller. The card is very beautiful and is also equipped with an expansion module. Unfortunately I don't have the drivers and the manual, also I haven't found any documentation related to this NTH for 16 bit ISA slot. I hope, with your help, to get the card up and running on my IBM 5170. Greetings from Italy to all friends of the forum, and to RetroCAD for the interesting recovery work of these graphic technology jewels. F. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGAL Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 I remember selling a PC with this card it was so far ahead of its time had hardware zoom plus other features. A zoom magnify glass if I remember correct. The Pc was like $15k all up 24" monitor. Needed 2 people to carry it. I would like to say could help but I am sorry like 30 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 I had a CAD computer custom built using the nth Engine graphics card which at the time retailed for $4,000. My system had two monitors though. A 24 inch one for graphics (in color) and a 15 inch one for text (monochrome). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fstilo Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 Thanks a lot for the replies. Could you tell me what is the difference between the "normal" NTH engine and this one, called "3D display controller"? Would it be a 16-bit evolution of the same card? What kind of color monitors were used then? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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