hmmm maybe the overclock becomes impossible after unlocking the missing shaders with the xt bios

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-11, 01:36:

hmmm maybe the overclock becomes impossible after unlocking the missing shaders with the xt bios

If the card becomes unstable after unlocking then that's a pretty good indication that they were locked because they failed certification at the factory, works the same with the Athlons you could unlock. You may get lucky and get 4 fully working cores, you may only get three working cores or as was normally the case you got two fully function ones and two that would cause serious issues the moment they got used.

You win some you lose some when you unlock stuff.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-10, 22:35:

@AGP4Life, can you check if you can overclock the x800 pro memories at all? I think they are undervolted on both the pro and the xt, so while being 1.6ns, they cant reach the PE frequencies

Sorry for the bad pic. But yea 620mhz on mem no problem. Although that's just a quick test.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-10-11, 01:40:

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-11, 01:36:

hmmm maybe the overclock becomes impossible after unlocking the missing shaders with the xt bios

If the card becomes unstable after unlocking then that's a pretty good indication that they were locked because they failed certification at the factory, works the same with the Athlons you could unlock. You may get lucky and get 4 fully working cores, you may only get three working cores or as was normally the case you got two fully function ones and two that would cause serious issues the moment they got used.

You win some you lose some when you unlock stuff.

makes sense!

Figured I'd post some photos of the recent scores I posted earlier.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-11, 05:11:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-10-11, 01:40:

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-11, 01:36:

hmmm maybe the overclock becomes impossible after unlocking the missing shaders with the xt bios

If the card becomes unstable after unlocking then that's a pretty good indication that they were locked because they failed certification at the factory, works the same with the Athlons you could unlock. You may get lucky and get 4 fully working cores, you may only get three working cores or as was normally the case you got two fully function ones and two that would cause serious issues the moment they got used.

You win some you lose some when you unlock stuff.

makes sense!

Worth trying some underclocking.
Gotta remember these things were sold within defined parameters usually with a 10% buffer.

Eg top model =8 shaders at 300mhz (sold at 270)

Any chip that failed to meet that requirement was binned lower.
Eg Budget model= 4 shaders at 250mhz (sold at 225)

Depending on the granularity of the models at the time, unreleased combinations are possible.

Eg you might unlock 8 and find it operates fine at 200.

A rough estimate of the performance difference would be 4x225 (900) vs 8x200(800). So in that case, with a very simplified estimate, 8 shaders would be worse.

The way I'd approach it is to underclock it to the absolute minimum and benchmark it to see if it displays normally.

If it still displays artifacts, it indicates a genuine fault with one or more of the disabled shaders. It will never work properly with 8. By now there might be software which can selectively disable shaders, perhaps allowing you to isolate one faulty shaders and have an oddball 7 shader card. I'm not aware of such, but it's possibility. There is a tool for very old nvidia cards to disable memory channels to work around faulty ram.

If it does display normally, then it's just a matter of slowly bumping the speed up until the artifacts return, and dropping it back. I'd try 15mhz bumps to start.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-09, 09:02:

Just got another card I've been looking for ages.
Question: Is the pink pad thing around the bridge chip useful for something? Or is its purpose just that of preventing damage to the chip? Heat dissipation?

A little bit of both, and yet it does neither too well.
Well in terms of cooling, it's barely doing anything.
And it's mostly a PITA if trying to put a cooler on the bridge chip with that pink pad, since it's a fraction of a mm higher. Need to either remove it and squish it a bit or remove it altogether. But then the issue with the latter is that you have to come up with a pretty good solution of how to balance the heatsink you intend to use on that tiny core of the bridge chip. If it tilts sideways too much and with any pressure, there's always the possibility of chipping an edge on the core of the bridge chip.

I personally haven't done this yet, though I've bought a kit of Arctic Thermal Epoxy and intend to permanently add a large(ish) heatsink to all of my bridge-chip ATI cards. Gonna experiment probably on my HD2400 AGP first or a X1300, since those wouldn't be a huge loss if something goes awry.

BTW, in regards to that Sapphire HD3870 AGP... I absolutely hate the cooler it uses. It's not really adequate for the TDP of the card and as a result, it will run hot at full load. I suggest replacing that with an IceQ 3 or Zalman VF1000 or something along those lines if you can find/get one.
Also note your card has United Chemicon KZG and KZJ cap(s). (The brown ones are KZG, and the black one is KZJ.) These are problematic series from United ChemiCon and I've seen many of these particular cards with these particular caps blown on ebay in the past. Wish I would have gotten one and recapped it back when they were still cheap (late 2000's / early 2010's).

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-09, 09:26:

I was thinking to get a NVME heatsink, drill two holes in it, and install it on the bridge chip using the existing heatsink mounts and maybe a couple of washers. Thoughts?

Should work OK.
Again, main issue would be balancing the heatsink on the core, especially if the pink thermal pad is removed. And if the thermal pad is left, then a very thin shim might be needed to get better heat contact with the code. I don't know how good or bad a thick(ish) layer of thermal compound would work to make up for that gap. Probably won't be too bad, given the low overall TDP of the bridge chip (I imagine around a Watt or so.) On that note, even with a heatsink, you can still expect that bridge chip to run hot if there's no nearby direct airflow on it. Good airflow in the case may or may not be enough. When it gets to that, use the good ol' "finger test": if the heatsink feels uncomfortably hot to the touch, then that bridge chip is probably running even hotter underneath (assuming it is coupled well to the heatsink), and that's still no good.

G-X wrote on 2024-10-09, 18:44:

I contemplated putting one of these on the chip + make sure i have good airflow and calling it a day. If it survived being cooked for so long it will last me long enough with that tiny heatsink on it.

Maybe!
What people forget is that Silicon is a consumable material (of sorts) when it comes to CPUs and GPUs. How long it lasts depends on a lot of factors. Heat is always the enemy and more of it accelerates its degradation faster. Alternatively said, less heat = longer life. So the cooler you run it, the longer it should last. Of course, if the chip silicon is near EOL already due to previous wear, then those tiny heatsinks may not be enough to slow down the degradation that much, especially with little or no direct airflow over them.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-09, 19:29:

... but I am worried that such solution might be too much pressure for the bridge chip to handle.

It would be if the heatsink is allowed to get hot. Then the underfill is weaker and more likely to allow the solder bumps (between core and substrate PCB) to get crushed.
Also worth mentioning is that a bridge chip heatsink won't help much IF the GPU chip itself has inadequate heatsink/cooling, as that would make the entire PCB of the card run hotter, making the bridge chip run hotter too. So in that case, even the relative large NVME heatsink might not be that much of an overkill.

G-X wrote on 2024-10-09, 19:38:

If it's spring loaded like in your pic it might work but still i'd be worried about putting any pressure on it since it's so tiny (compared to the die on let's say a southbridge on a mainboard.)

It will be fine.
Most GPU manufacturers were just cheap bastards when they left these bridge chips without any active cooling on top. Not all are like that, though. For example, my VisionTek Radeon x1950 has an aluminum backplate that's also extends (covers) the bridge chip - a nicely though of cooling solution, for once!

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-09, 05:20:

Only needs a new fan because this sounds like a velociraptor while being chewed by a t-rex. I wish there were more new replacement retro coolers that didn't cost a fortune. I mean I like this GF2 but I'm not going to spend 20 bucks on a cooler. That's more than what I paid for the card.

If keeping the original look is not of uttermost importance, then you can grab any quality-made 40 or 50 mm fan off of Digikey or Mouser for less and slap it on the original heatsink.
Or just go the easier route: learn how to fix these tiny fans properly. A drop of oil on the shaft on the back is not really a proper way to do it. It works, but it's a short-term solution at best. Some fans' bearings get so gunked up over time, they absolutely require full disassembly and cleaning to bring them back to good working condition that will actually last worth a damn.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-09, 05:20:

Best cheap genuine retro cooler I could find is this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32682508049.html which was used on Canopus cards and seems to be compatible with GF2s. I will try to lubricate the fan before I buy anything though, but not always I have had luck with that.

* edit: small caveat about that aliexpress cooler: it's 5v, which makes it significantly less useful

I wouldn't bother with these small "retro" coolers. They are even more garbage than the original, and the original ones back in those days were really an afterthought just to get the product (video card) out the door. You can tell that is so, because they are all the same design: tiny heatsink with barely any surface area larger than the chip underneath it and a tiny fan running at full speed (to try) to make up for the small surface area of the heatsink.

That being said, you're better off either making your own or getting one of those universal Chinese 2-slot coolers that copy the Zalman pressed fin design. Sure they may not keep the original looks of the card, but at least they fit properly just about anything retro (most of the time) and provide a decent cooling performance for what they are.

I myself have a stack of scrapped Xbox 360 heatsink (both GPU and CPU), so I use those to make my own coolers. It's not that hard once you figure out the techniques and hardware needed.

marxveix wrote on 2024-10-09, 18:10:

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD7750 1GB GDDR5 (for XP/10 machine) […]
Show full quote

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD7750 1GB GDDR5 (for XP/10 machine)

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/sapphir … hd-7750-oc.b652

Smart choice there!
What I particularly like about the HD7750 is that it has a considerably lower TDP compared to the HD7770, yet will still get you pretty good and comparable performance. Should last you for many years of use, provided the stock fan profile of the GPU is not retarded (i.e. bump up the fan speed only when the GPU gets way too hot) - nothing that RBE can't fix with a few clicks, though. 😉

Munx wrote on 2024-10-09, 09:54:

High-end LGA1156 is in that state where it's stuck between retro and modern. Can make a really mean XP machine or a period-correct Vista rig while still being usable for basic tasks today or even some lighter gaming.

Agreed.
What's even nicer about these is that the "lower-end" i3 and i5 CPUs may allow you to get pretty high OC. And given that most XP -era games will run better on a CPU with 1 or 2 very fast cores compared to a slower quad+ core CPU (save for Crysis), you may get some pretty good FPS in some XP games with the right video card.

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-10-09, 04:58:

Server hardware is junk if you are not into playing with useless loud hot power hungry servers, no matter the price. IT will take minutes to boot, fans will go full blast, performance of those Xeons is pathetic at around Thinkpad X220 or $3 Q6600 level.

Agreed.
Although in Weedee's case, it's a server/workstation motherboard, which aren't that terrible in the above listed regards.
Case in point: I have a Dell Precision T7500 with dual Xeon CPUs. It has a lot of fans and it's not a quiet PC, though also nowhere close to the loudness and whine of old PII/3/AthlonXP or server hardware. The worst thing about it is, as you mentioned, the very slow boot - especially with the 2nd CPU card and extra 12 GB of RAM it brings. It takes almost a quarter a minute just for the POST screen to come up (I presume that's due to the "quick" memory test done at POST... which with registered RAM, a lots of it... can take more than a dew moments). Then another minute or so is needed for the onboard LSi SATA/SAS raid controller to detect any drives. So even with an SSD, it takes a long time to come up from a cold boot... and I always cold boot it, because those dual Xeons use a lot of power, so I don't keep the machine running for nothing... except when it gets very cold in the winter. 🤣

Part 2... so I can give more replies without breaking the character limit (wait, is there one on Vogons?) Maybe I'll find out soon enough one of these days. 🤣

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-10, 05:55:

unrelated: i just tested the 8500LE number two (yes, I got another! and number 3 is on the way.... but it's a 9100 actually).

this one has some issues. vga port is completely dead even after cleaning, dvi works and it can do the first 3dmark 2001 benchmark, but crashes during the second
should i try recapping it? aesthetically in perfect conditions except the noisy fan

Nah, ATI cards from back then pretty much never had issues with bad caps, because ATI always used good quality Japanese manufacturers. Only exception are some of the 3rd party builders, like Sapphire, which almost always used shitty caps on the lower and mid-range cards. But even then, chances are slim.

I think the key here is that DVI port works and VGA doesn't. This suggests signal lines from the GPU chip are likely damaged. Radeon 8500/9100 is old type (wire-bond / non-flip chip) design, though, so it should be pretty robust unless it was allowed to overheat severely.

The only other thing I can think of is physical damage - i.e. maybe the GPU was dropped really hard before (shipping damage unlikely, if the item was packed OK-ish) or maybe the card was bent between other PC hardware or in the PC case it was in. Or electrostatic damage.

My suggestion is to look for damaged SMDs first. Ceramic caps can short out and still look OK. Obviously if any are shorted out, it wouldn't be on any of the power lines, otherwise the card wouldn't even boot. But a shorted one on a signal line may allow the card to boot normally while causing other issues. So check the ones connected to thin traces or what appears to be in series with any resistor(s). While at it, also check for chipped resistors. And lastly, check the protection diodes on the VGA connector.

Also, does underclocking (memory or GPU or both) make the card more stable? Very very small chance, but the RAM could be getting marginal at this age.

Tiido wrote on 2024-10-10, 13:48:

Speaking of these X8xx cards, I have several I got for few € each from Estonian ebay equivalent, but they all have bad fans that make huge noise and oiling etc. will not fix that. It seems the fans are some sort of size that nobody else uses so I wonder if anyone knows any new replacements that would fit without having to modify stuff ?

They are most likely ball bearing fans then.
Oil is good for restoring sleeve bearings, but won't be any good at all on ball bearings. In fact, there's almost nothing that can restore severely worn out ball bearings. They just have to be replaced. Now, if they are only mildly worn, opening them and repacking them with white lithium grease suitable for bearings (after a through cleaning and de-greasing with brake cleaner) may get them "quiet enough". The good news is that most fans tend to use the same size ball bearings (I forgot the dimensions off top of my head right now), so you can often sacrifice something like a stock Intel LGA775 fan to get an odd-ball fan going again.

But the real issue here is that... as I've said in the past... the size of the cooler/heatsink is usually not adequate for the TDP on most video cards. Video card manufacturers from back then regularly used just the bare minimum to keep the card working past warranty (not that this has changed today... though modern GPUs are more likely to fail for different reasons now.) So as a result, to compensate for the small heatsink surface area, most manufacturers ran the fans full blast. Only once people got annoyed by the loud noise and as the industry saw the demand from the customer for this did we see GPU heatsink and fan size increase.

So the real solution, for most retro GPUs, is to replace the stock cooler with something bigger and better. Of course, that may not always be an easy task.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-10, 17:57:

There are replacement fans on the bay but chances are they are just as loud

They have to be - otherwise these cards would overheat.
Only difference is the cheapo no-name fans might be sleeve bearing... which will make the overall more quiet for the same amount of airflow compared to the original BB fans. On the down side, don't expect a sleeve bearing fan to last as long as a BB fan when running at full speed.

G-X wrote on 2024-10-10, 18:12:

I tried lubing the shaft (pun intented) but made things worse

x1800 fans are BB from what I remember. So yeah, no amount of oil gonna help it.

G-X wrote on 2024-10-10, 18:12:

Another member also said when the C-clip is removed the fan just drops out. However i need to remove the entire HS for that so i need to take it apart again and not really in the mood for it.

Can't have your cake and eat it too, the way these things are. 😁
Either have to put the effort to do it properly or... really that's the only way. Anything else isn't usually worth bothering in the first place.

G-X wrote on 2024-10-10, 18:12:

It may be that the outer part of the electric motor is somehow glued to the casing ... if that's the case there is no replacing the fan unless you can swap the entire top acrylic part including the fan.

Unlikely.
Fan shroud is just part of the fan, unfortunately. So only way to service it is to replace or refurb the bearings. As far as I remember, none of these cards used sealed sleeve bearing fans (and those usually tend to seize up rather than get louder with time but still spin OK). Worst case, there may be a pressed-fitted plastic plug on the back of the fan, making it more difficult to get to the c-washer on the shaft. For these, I just cut/drill a hole. Annoying and more work, but not impossible to get such fans fixed.

Perhaps when I'm in the mood and when I have the time (a rare combination 🤣), I'll write a how-to guide and post it on the forums on how to take apart and restore various types of fans.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-10, 00:38:

Reminds me that I almost bought a 9700 pro with mouse poop and urine on it. I contacted the seller about it because he didn't even realize. Said he would be willing to sell it for 30$, I nearly accepted but ended up refusing that offer. I replied "sorry no, graphics card with mouse droppings is past what I find acceptable, even for 30$". Then he roughly cleaned the card and sold it for 90$. The fun part is that I eventually regretted my decision. I will never own a 9700 pro 😁

Meh. I've cleaned lots of PC hardware with mouse piss and poop in/on it. It's no worse than cleaning poop after your pets (and sometimes accidentally getting some on your hand.) The only difference is that mice can carry disease... so it's a good idea to wear gloves when cleaning such hardware... or at least not have any recent cuts or open wounds on your hand.
That said, I've been dumpster-diving for nearly 2 decades now, and I've seen much much worse stuff.
The worst offender I had recently was a computer mouse I got from the local flee market. It was one of those cheap no-name gaming mice, but looked kinda nice... well, once my eyes could evaluate it past the grime (and believe me, very grimy it was!) So I decided to give it a test by putting my hand on it and clicking on the buttons to see how it also feels. It felt OK too. But when I went to take my hand off of it, the mouse literally stuck to my hand 🤣 - it was that dirty! I don't know why my reaction was to smell my hand after this (primal instincts, I suppose 🤣 ). It wreaked of old urine and sweat mixed together. Not sure if it was human or mice or cat urine (maybe all three??), but maybe better that I don't know. Anyways, I didn't have any hand wipes to wash my hand until the end of the flee market, so I just kept that hand away from touching what I could. Funny thing is, I did buy that smelly mouse - just felt bad for it and knew probably no one would buy it and it would end up in the dump, adding more pollution to the planet. After a lot of manual work getting it clean (complete disasselby down to the smallest bits, wash with dish soap and water, then a wipe with 90% IPA for disinfection), one wouldn't know how dirty this mouse was before if I didn't tell them. Worked OK too.

Wes1262 wrote on 2024-10-10, 00:38:

Also folks, this is a reminder that you should clean second hand stuff thoroughly....... really thoroughly.

Agreed.
Never know who's used it and how.
Or worse - with bigger items like desktops and monitors/TVs, there's always the possibility of bringing roaches into your home. So anything that I buy 2nd hand alwayd gets a thorough inspection. If I have even the slightest of suspicion, I take it apart outside before bringing it it. Found more than a few desktops and TVs that had roaches in them. For this reason, the best time to get (larger) hardware is either in the midst of winter or summer. With the former, I leave items outside in the cold for a week or so (or until temperatures consistently drop below freezing), and with the latter, I leave items out in the sun, preferably take apart so that all surfaces can get hot. These methods may not be good enough to kill the roaches (and their eggs), but will usually at least drive them away. After all, they have to eat too. 😁 An environment that is too hot or too cold and devoid of food will be abandoned (eventually.)

PcBytes wrote on 2024-10-10, 18:19:

More scores, took a layover at Bucharest (between trains lol) and met with a few chaps to get these: […]
Show full quote

More scores, took a layover at Bucharest (between trains 🤣) and met with a few chaps to get these:

- Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
- Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
- Innovision (Inno3d very likely) 3dfx Voodoo Banshee 16MB

momaka: how many VooDoo cards do you have?
PcBytes: YES! 🤣

I think I'll probably never get to own (a working) Voo Doo card. The only one I have is very (physically) broken.
I'm also probably too cheap - I just can't come up with a reason to spend that much $$ on a single retro computer item. And they aren't getting cheaper with time either. Ah well. :\

Got this card. Sold as “Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500” but the SQ2500 had the B0 revision not the A2. Does anyone know what it is?

momaka wrote on 2024-10-11, 08:25:

Or worse - with bigger items like desktops and monitors/TVs, there's always the possibility of bringing roaches into your home. So anything that I buy 2nd hand alwayd gets a thorough inspection. If I have even the slightest of suspicion, I take it apart outside before bringing it it. Found more than a few desktops and TVs that had roaches in them. For this reason, the best time to get (larger) hardware is either in the midst of winter or summer. With the former, I leave items outside in the cold for a week or so (or until temperatures consistently drop below freezing), and with the latter, I leave items out in the sun, preferably take apart so that all surfaces can get hot. These methods may not be good enough to kill the roaches (and their eggs), but will usually at least drive them away. After all, they have to eat too. 😁 An environment that is too hot or too cold and devoid of food will be abandoned (eventually.)

I have been trying to think of a protocol to deal with that possibility. A relative is having a tough time with them, thinking they came in with a yard sale appliance, and there might be an epidemic of them in this area, because they can't find roach control products, they are sold out everywhere local

Thoughts are going to something like a large bag around the thing, where you can flood it with CO2 or nitrogen and leave it for a bit, they can't go without oxygen for shorter time than water or food.

Probably easier to seal a bag with normal air, some food, and a place to hide.

You want them out, not dead inside.

momaka wrote on 2024-10-11, 08:25:

Nah, ATI cards from back then pretty much never had issues with bad caps, because ATI always used good quality Japanese manufact […]
Show full quote

Nah, ATI cards from back then pretty much never had issues with bad caps, because ATI always used good quality Japanese manufacturers. Only exception are some of the 3rd party builders, like Sapphire, which almost always used shitty caps on the lower and mid-range cards. But even then, chances are slim.

I think the key here is that DVI port works and VGA doesn't. This suggests signal lines from the GPU chip are likely damaged. Radeon 8500/9100 is old type (wire-bond / non-flip chip) design, though, so it should be pretty robust unless it was allowed to overheat severely.

The only other thing I can think of is physical damage - i.e. maybe the GPU was dropped really hard before (shipping damage unlikely, if the item was packed OK-ish) or maybe the card was bent between other PC hardware or in the PC case it was in. Or electrostatic damage.

My suggestion is to look for damaged SMDs first. Ceramic caps can short out and still look OK. Obviously if any are shorted out, it wouldn't be on any of the power lines, otherwise the card wouldn't even boot. But a shorted one on a signal line may allow the card to boot normally while causing other issues. So check the ones connected to thin traces or what appears to be in series with any resistor(s). While at it, also check for chipped resistors. And lastly, check the protection diodes on the VGA connector.

Also, does underclocking (memory or GPU or both) make the card more stable? Very very small chance, but the RAM could be getting marginal at this age.

This card is Powercolor something, made in China? It doesn't have the usual Ati heatsink. the caps are a bit chewed up, like dinged. I am not sure though, it also says copyright Ati 2001
I don't think the card was dropped. Seems in perfect condition but I will check the SMDs. I still need to buy a microscope... if you folks have any suggestions....
I am really not good at all at GPU stabbing. Or electronics. Or anything. But I own a good multimeter.

zuldan wrote on 2024-10-11, 09:31:

Got this card. Sold as “Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500” but the SQ2500 had the B0 revision not the A2. Does anyone know what it is?

The attachment ABD9BC06-6ED4-47A5-8C71-AD263862D036.jpeg is no longer available

That looks the same as my first aureal vortex card which I decided must be this http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/aureal_vor … 2_superquad.htm

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-11, 11:08:

zuldan wrote on 2024-10-11, 09:31:

Got this card. Sold as “Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500” but the SQ2500 had the B0 revision not the A2. Does anyone know what it is?

The attachment ABD9BC06-6ED4-47A5-8C71-AD263862D036.jpeg is no longer available

That looks the same as my first aureal vortex card which I decided must be this http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/aureal_vor … 2_superquad.htm

8500LE

Also lucky find in a job lot. Mx 440 AGP8x 128mb, 128 bit, 300/275mhz with DVI. So basically this is faster than a Mx 460

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-11, 11:08:

zuldan wrote on 2024-10-11, 09:31:

Got this card. Sold as “Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500” but the SQ2500 had the B0 revision not the A2. Does anyone know what it is?

That looks the same as my first aureal vortex card which I decided must be this http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/aureal_vor … 2_superquad.htm

Thanks for the link but that’s made me more confused 🤣. The SQ2500 is a SuperQuad card. I wonder if it his card was the prototype for the SQ2500.

On another note, are you happy with the card? Any issues?

ratfink wrote on 2024-10-11, 11:08:

zuldan wrote on 2024-10-11, 09:31:

Got this card. Sold as “Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500” but the SQ2500 had the B0 revision not the A2. Does anyone know what it is?

The attachment ABD9BC06-6ED4-47A5-8C71-AD263862D036.jpeg is no longer available

That looks the same as my first aureal vortex card which I decided must be this http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/aureal_vor … 2_superquad.htm

I found the card! It’s a Videologic SonicVortex 2.

Scroll to the end of this post Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Here’s a review http://www.mpcc.org.uk/hardreview1.htm
Here’s a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ0ausvw2to

Bought this dirty IBM 5160.
Nothing unusual, very late model, the date on sticker is 3/12/87. It is interesting that it was produced in Australia and then somehow was sold in Hungary. CGA card, MFM controller and HDD are not original. Was unable to identify CGA card, may be somebody can recognize the Logo?
The whole PC is very dirty and need a good cleanup.

Got this nice socket 7 Abit AB-IT5V board, jumperless 'Soft Menu' is quite cool, that makes overclocking really easy. A ceramic Pentium MMX 166 + 4x 8 Megs of 60ns EDO can also be seen.

And I've never seen this retention mechanism before:

166@233 MHz with 2.9V;

zuldan wrote on 2024-10-11, 11:59:

I found the card! It’s a Videologic SonicVortex 2.

Nice, thanks, always confused me about what was or wasn't a Superquad so it's good to get to the bottom of it.

When I used the card it worked fine, drivers installed, 3D audio worked. Think I switched from a Santa Cruz to this and then stopped using it when I got an MX300 but I didn't notice any change in quality or anything.

Pretty sure mine didn't support EAX (would that be a driver thing?) although I would have been mainly on Diablo2 at that time - the Santa Cruz gives both the 3D and EAX options though. (And I seem to recall the Sonic Fury is a Santa Cruz with a different firmware?)