Considering that it would be smart to keep a second one as backup, at that point why get rid of the 3rd one? So My advice would be keep all three. Gun to my head I'd keep the Monster 3D 'B' for sentimentality's sake - but there is no gun, and sentimentality needn't be the guide here:)

I'd keep all three if space isn't an issue, mostly because these are old and may not be so easy to replace on-demand. Otherwise I'd probably keep "B" too. The clicking sound is mechanical relays firing (you can see them on the card) - nothing wrong there, but it may be unpleasant to listen to depending on your feelings about noise.

In a perfect world... yeah, I'd keep them all 😁 But as I need money for my other retro "needs" 😊 I have to make some sacrifices 😠

On a side note... I'm still not 100% sure that I'll go through with it and sell at least one.

What is so special about Rev B?

Only Orchid makes this clicking sound and is quite more compact (smaller) then the Monster. Even the backside is empty.

Fair enough. Just remember that one day one of your retro "needs" may well be a replacement V1...

kixs wrote:

In a perfect world... yeah, I'd keep them all :D But as I need money for my other retro "needs" :blush: I have to make some sa […]
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In a perfect world... yeah, I'd keep them all 😁 But as I need money for my other retro "needs" 😊 I have to make some sacrifices 😠

On a side note... I'm still not 100% sure that I'll go through with it and sell at least one.

What is so special about Rev B?

Only Orchid makes this clicking sound and is quite more compact (smaller) then the Monster. Even the backside is empty.

B has the best memory - that's why people are voting for it. 😀 The relays are the black boxes right by the VGA connectors on the Orchid; can't quite make out who made them, but can see the word "JAPAN" on them. 😊

Jep, B has 12ns memory chips. At first I thought this is some kind of error. Because G has 50ns. I'll try to do some benchmarks and OCing later and see if that makes any difference.

Are we sure the -12 means 12nS ... and not 120 nS - did they have 12nS RAM back then, at a price where 2-4MB could be used?

No, I'm not sure. But 120ns would definitely be too slow.

I'd keep them all!

The Diamond Rev B board seems to actually have 40ns chips. I haven't been able to find data sheets on the 44017 chips, only the 44016 chips, but the speed is actually marked after the first dash on those, and not the second. For example, the GLT44016-40J4 chips are 40ns ram chips. From what I've been reading, they are both 256k x 16 bit chips (512K per chip, 2 chips = 1M) As are the EM614163A chips on the other 2 boards. I'm assuming the 2 Diamond cards have RAM chips that aren't shown - as I didn't think there were 2M Voodoo cards out there - could be mistaken about that though. The Orchid card shows a full 4M of RAM. Would be interesting if it has 4 or 8 more chips that couldn't be seen, 6M & 8M Voodoo 1 cards seem to be fairly rare.

If you can tolerate the clicking, I'd keep the 40ns & 35ns boards just on general principle. Though, from what I've been reading the Voodoo 1 boards didn't really need anything faster than the 50ns chips anyways. If any of the cards actually has more than 4M, I'd be strongly tempted to keep one of those, though I've heard that the 6M Voodoo 1 cards have had issues. I'd research that myself before making a final decision.

P.S. - I meant to also add that the clicking is definitely a relay switch for switching between 2D pass through and 3D mode. I've heard that they provide a crisper 2D image, but I would think they would have a shorter in-use life myself. I could wrong on both counts there, though. I've never actually owned a Voodoo card with relay switches.

kixs wrote:

Only Orchid makes this clicking sound and is quite more compact (smaller) then the Monster.

The Orchid R3D uses a mechanical relay switch when mux'ing between pass-through VGA output and 3Dfx output. The mechanical switch has the advantage of better signal integrity at the expense of moving parts, ie. the "click". And, moving parts also means that the switch will more likely to fail as the frequency with switching increases over time.

All Diamond M3D use solid-state switch for mux'ing between pass-through VGA output and 3Dfx output. There is no moving parts. I have had Diamond M3D myself back then and I felt the Diamond retailed 3Dfx drivers are newer and better. I would also presume that Diamond M3D will sell for higher price.

As others have already said the clicking comes from relay switches on the board. Here is your image again with the source of the "clicky" sound circled in red.

Keep all of them of course!

Righteous 3D all the way, it's a shorter card and will fit in more slots than the reference design used by the Monster 3D.
The relay click is cool in my book 😀

OK, seems I wasn't seeing the entire pictures. Had to "save" the images then look at them locally to see the whole things. They are all 4M cards after all 😀 I still haven't actually seen a 6M or 8M card (were they really that rare.)

I'd have to say, go with the Diamond B and the Orchid now. Best RAM speeds. Though if you don't want to risk the relays going out on you, go with the 2 Diamonds, as the 50ns probably isn't going to make that big a difference (if any.)

I've done some benchmarks in Windows 95 with PCPlayer for Windows only. Quake 2 demo won't run Timedemos. I overclocked all cards to 60MHz (didn't want to go higher) and they all worked without glitches and performed the same. I guess memory speed isn't an issue after all.

Display quality over the same pass-through cable is the same. No difference between Diamond and Orchid. But I do like Orchid one because it's more compact.

For now I'm keeping them all... but if the things don't change to the end of the month, then I'll part with one of the Monsters.

FeedingDragon wrote:

I still haven't actually seen a 6M or 8M card (were they really that rare.)

I had a Miro Hiscore 3D with 6MB. Miro was a popular german manufacturer at the time, and AFAIK they only had a 6MB version of the Voodoo 1. So I think they weren't that rare at least in certain parts of the world.

oerk wrote:

FeedingDragon wrote:

I still haven't actually seen a 6M or 8M card (were they really that rare.)

I had a Miro Hiscore 3D with 6MB. Miro was a popular german manufacturer at the time, and AFAIK they only had a 6MB version of the Voodoo 1. So I think they weren't that rare at least in certain parts of the world.

did the extra VRAM actually help at all? I can imagine it would let you run at a higher resolution , but then the Voodoo1 would have struggled to run alot of games at 800X600, at least the kind of games that needed more than 4Mb

The Miro Highscore 3D was identical to the Canopus Pure 3D, both had 6MB RAM. See http://www.ebay.com/itm/171262683586 for an example (ignore the price and the fan).
Regarding memory speed: Voodoo1 (and Voodoo2) cards used EDO RAM, and I don't think there ever was 12ns EDO RAM. 25ns should be the fastest ever used, for example on Voodoo2 cards.
Regarding advantage of more VRAM: The RAM on Voodoo1/2 cards is split. The Miro/Canopus still has 2MB frame buffer, but it has 4MB instead of 2MB texture memory. This can make a difference depending on the game, but for most games which are suitable for a Voodoo1 at all it probably won't. IIRC in glQuake/Quake2 with higher detail texture setting and netplay or a multiplayer demo you should note a difference. (Similar with Voodoo2 8MB/12MB cards.)
I don't think this will apply for any game where a Voodoo1 is preferable for compatibility reasons.