What about ATI FireGL T2-64 ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUIoZ_LEOi8
It's low profile 128 bit Radeon 9600.

First of all, what is the purpose of needing a low-profile GeForce FX 5200? Fog table and 8-bit palette textures support (this one is blown out of proportion)? Better DOS compatibility? If neither of them, then the ATI FireGL T2-64 mentioned above is a much better choice.

Any compatibility issues with the 9600 in terms of older win9x games and/or DOS (not pure DOS, but DOS games in windows...like Duke Nukem 3D and such)? That was the main reason I was sticking with Nvidia.

But I'd also like to be able to run games such as Expendable with a decent framerate.

Quick glance on ebay shows that most of the low profile ATI FireGL T2-64 64MB DDR AGP take the LFH-60 connectors. Which I believe I have a few of, but they output to DVI (don't think I have any that output to VGA and those seem to be a bit pricey).

_tk wrote on 2023-02-14, 15:44:

Quick glance on ebay shows that most of the low profile ATI FireGL T2-64 64MB DDR AGP take the LFH-60 connectors. Which I believe I have a few of, but they output to DVI (don't think I have any that output to VGA and those seem to be a bit pricey).

don't they convert to DVI-I? you can just stick a DVI-I to VGA dongle on there

A low profile Nvidia FX5200 is usually the 64bit variant. I've seen 64bit versions also with full height, you can tell from the way that the traces are cramped together on half of the PCB and the other half is plain ground lane.

Typical SOJ memory chips (the one with many pins at the side) only provide 16 bits per chip. If the card has only 4 of those chips, the memory interface will be 64 bits. Looking at https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item … geforce-fx-5200 , all low-profile cards either have 2 chips on the front side and two chips on the back side, or 4 chips on the front and no way to mount chips on the back. Either way, that will be 64 bits.

There are BGA memory chips (smaller, square, no pins at the side) that provide 32 bits in a single chip, but on vgamuseum, I didn't see a low profile GF5200 with BGA chips, so those seem to be rare on those cards.

Not always. You can have a FX5200 with 8 chips but 4 chips on each side and is truly 128 bits. The important thing to watch for is unsoldered pads. If the card has one side of solder pads with 4 chips and other 4 more are not occupied by memory chips, then you have 64 bits. Again if you have a card with no soldering pads but just 4 chips on one side, and none on back (no pads), then you have 64 bits as well.

There is one more trick to the 128bits using just 4 chips. These ones have finer pitch chips and have "32" in the chip markings means 4 x 32bit chips for 128 bits.

Cheers,

If you don't mind the 64-bit bus, look at the Quadro NVS 280 and 55 64MB versions of the FX5200. The NVS 55 has DVI, the 280 has DMS-59 for outputs. I have a few of the NVS 55 cards and they can be BIOS modded and overclocked fairly well. One of mine with Hynix memory and a fan blowing over it's passive heatsink with do 325MHz core, and 325MHz memory. Runs OK for what it is! These are low profile, but can have either a high or low profile bracket on them.

Edit: I just reread and saw OP needs AGP, the cards above are PCI! There is an NVS 280 AGP as well though!

_tk wrote on 2023-02-14, 15:24:

Any compatibility issues with the 9600 in terms of older win9x games and/or DOS (not pure DOS, but DOS games in windows...like Duke Nukem 3D and such)? That was the main reason I was sticking with Nvidia.

Regarding DOS compatibility, the issue with Radeon cards is largely with 2D scrolling games.

For Windows 9x, check the following links:

• List of games with 8-bit paletted texture support
• List of games with Table Fog support

The lists aren't complete but should provide enough information and it depends if you want to play any of the mentioned games.

The agp Quadro NVS 280 is low profile and has a 128bit bus, the Quadro NVS 280 SD has a 64bit bus. Both have 64Mb, so you can look for a AGP Quadro NVS 280.

Here's the exact card in question (HP OEM fx5200, 128mb ram). That's the best angle they have, unfortunately. Likely a 64-bit, but was hoping I might get lucky.

This is same card using connector DMS-59 but the PCB is made for either DMS-59 or VGA port and both are 64 bits.

Better views by looking at this ebay listing.
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/224509945587?hash=ite … ABk9SR4iZ-_jKYQ

Cheers,

zyga64 wrote on 2023-02-14, 08:40:

What about ATI FireGL T2-64 ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUIoZ_LEOi8
It's low profile 128 bit Radeon 9600.

For the people who own this card, can I use a DMS-59 to VGA connector or do I need the LFH-60 to dual DVI (or VGA) to make it work?

Was hoping I could get away with this:

The point is nearly all low profile AGP cards I seen are 64 bits cards. Just get the one you can find with VGA port. Or NVS 280 is fine if you use adapter as shown.

Cheers,

_tk wrote on 2023-02-14, 08:32:

Is there any sure fire way to tell what memory bus an FX 5200 has? If it's an OEM card it's next to impossible to find info on (as are some of the more off-brands from back in the day). Memory quantity, memory chips present, mem chip speed, etc? Anything?

Or is it simply a crapshoot?

I need a low profile AGP card and my choices are mostly limited to an MX440 or FX5200. Would prefer the 128-bit version of the FX5200 but either would work I suppose.

it's extremly simple! Count the memory chips.
- 4 chips = 64 bit
- 8 chips = 128 bit

Most 5200 cards have chips on both sides.

Socket3 wrote on 2023-02-17, 13:39:

it's extremly simple! Count the memory chips. - 4 chips = 64 bit - 8 chips = 128 bit […]
Show full quote

it's extremly simple! Count the memory chips.
- 4 chips = 64 bit
- 8 chips = 128 bit

Most 5200 cards have chips on both sides.

This is not 100% accurate, because theoretically, you can have low profile, 128-bit version, where the manufacturer used 32-bit memory chips. But it didn't happened very often. As general rule, it can be used in 95% cases I would say.

From all my 8 FX5200 I own (one Quadro version), all of them apply this rule. 4 chips - 64-bit, 8 chips- 128 bit, so this will be most common rule.

When you buy wide (not lowprofile) version of PCB, just check empty memory chips. If 4 are populated and 8 positions are empty, it will be almost for sure 64-bit version. But again, some manufacturer could use just 4 32-bit memory chips, and make 64MB or 128MB version, while with 8 memory chips populated, he could use 16-bit chips and double the size of memory rather.

Btw, in case everybody is interested, I've made benchmarks in GLQuake, how much difference is in performance between FX5200 64-bit and 128-bit.
Both stock 250/200 mhz (core/mem)

demo3, GLQuake 1024x768x32

FX5200 64-bit - 85 fps
FX5200 128-bit - 139 fps

demo3 GLQuake 1024x768x32 4xAA

FX5200 64-bit - 23 fps
FX5200 128-bit - 44 fps
FX5200 128-bit OC(275/280) - 57.1 fps OC(290/280) - 57.1 fps (raising core didn't help).

(290mhz mem I've got freeze ... I had only 3.6ns Samsung memory)