smola wrote on 2024-05-06, 19:05:

Unfortunately I wont recommend any ram chips, due to only ones I found are selling by only one Chinese guy. There is possibility […]
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Unfortunately I wont recommend any ram chips, due to only ones I found are selling by only one Chinese guy. There is possibility they may not work, may be broken/fake, there is not good photos on auction. If you still want modify your velocity card, then take following things into consideration:
* you got most info from previous post from @Thermalwrong
* you have to resolder 4 chips and set few resistors to proper position to unlock missing signals
* you have also re-set additional strap resistors to configure new size of ram and memory banks - I have done this but I wont release solution until I test it in real world
* re-setting straps requires cuting/wiring traces on pcb, also requires removing resistors array + replace some of them to lower size from 603 to 402 - without proper skill/tools and microscope it may be difficult and probably you'll destroy your velocity
* you need to buy new ram chips or gather them from donors

If you still wanna do this upgrade, just do some basic math:
* velo has 8MB vram in 4 chips, it means 8/4=2, actually 2MiB per chip, MB is just marketing, MiB is in realality 1024*1024 bytes
* so each chip has 2MiB, organization is 256Kx32x2, you want to change each to twice more capacity, so you have to look for 512Kx32x2
* find datasheet of your existing chips and find dedicated ram, check pinouts on both chips, size of the chips, raster etc., check params, speed etc.
* when you'll find proper replacements, then search seller on ali/ebay and check description/photos, there is always risk you can buy crap
* now resolder ram chips, move resistors, set straps
* test stuff, if you did all in proper way, and your chips are good, then everything should work from a shot
* this is not easy task, most ppl think it's just like a fart, coz it's just replacing mem chips... well, it's not, just do it yourself 😉

Cheers 😀

Yeah, just my opinion, but I think the 8MB cards are totally fine as-is if you use the fixed glide2x.dll. There are many thousands of 16MB Voodoo3 cards out there if you must have one... and the price premium over an 8MB card will definitely not be enough to offset all of the work (and parts costs) needed to upgrade one. If you are playing older games that don't use a lot of texture memory, the 8MB cards are super fast and have plenty of memory. Also, considering that, to my knowledge, all of these cards are AGP, there are tons of other non-3Dfx options available if you need more than 8MB of VRAM. A Geforce2 MX (128bit) will easily outperform any of these and are extremely abundant and cheap.

If someone is skilled with this kind of thing already and wants to do it as an experiment, then fine... but don't waste a perfectly good 8MB V3 by doing unnecessary Franketstein stuff on a working card that is relatively uncommon.

... a good candidate would be a card with a bad or damaged memory chip since it already requires some work to get it running, but even then, I hope you know what you're doing. 😁

@Ozzuneoj: saint words!

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-05-06, 20:14:

Yeah, just my opinion, but I think the 8MB cards are totally fine as-is if you use the fixed glide2x.dll. There are many thousan […]
Show full quote

smola wrote on 2024-05-06, 19:05:

Unfortunately I wont recommend any ram chips, due to only ones I found are selling by only one Chinese guy. There is possibility […]
Show full quote

Unfortunately I wont recommend any ram chips, due to only ones I found are selling by only one Chinese guy. There is possibility they may not work, may be broken/fake, there is not good photos on auction. If you still want modify your velocity card, then take following things into consideration:
* you got most info from previous post from @Thermalwrong
* you have to resolder 4 chips and set few resistors to proper position to unlock missing signals
* you have also re-set additional strap resistors to configure new size of ram and memory banks - I have done this but I wont release solution until I test it in real world
* re-setting straps requires cuting/wiring traces on pcb, also requires removing resistors array + replace some of them to lower size from 603 to 402 - without proper skill/tools and microscope it may be difficult and probably you'll destroy your velocity
* you need to buy new ram chips or gather them from donors

If you still wanna do this upgrade, just do some basic math:
* velo has 8MB vram in 4 chips, it means 8/4=2, actually 2MiB per chip, MB is just marketing, MiB is in realality 1024*1024 bytes
* so each chip has 2MiB, organization is 256Kx32x2, you want to change each to twice more capacity, so you have to look for 512Kx32x2
* find datasheet of your existing chips and find dedicated ram, check pinouts on both chips, size of the chips, raster etc., check params, speed etc.
* when you'll find proper replacements, then search seller on ali/ebay and check description/photos, there is always risk you can buy crap
* now resolder ram chips, move resistors, set straps
* test stuff, if you did all in proper way, and your chips are good, then everything should work from a shot
* this is not easy task, most ppl think it's just like a fart, coz it's just replacing mem chips... well, it's not, just do it yourself 😉

Cheers 😀

Yeah, just my opinion, but I think the 8MB cards are totally fine as-is if you use the fixed glide2x.dll. There are many thousands of 16MB Voodoo3 cards out there if you must have one... and the price premium over an 8MB card will definitely not be enough to offset all of the work (and parts costs) needed to upgrade one. If you are playing older games that don't use a lot of texture memory, the 8MB cards are super fast and have plenty of memory. Also, considering that, to my knowledge, all of these cards are AGP, there are tons of other non-3Dfx options available if you need more than 8MB of VRAM. A Geforce2 MX (128bit) will easily outperform any of these and are extremely abundant and cheap.

If someone is skilled with this kind of thing already and wants to do it as an experiment, then fine... but don't waste a perfectly good 8MB V3 by doing unnecessary Franketstein stuff on a working card that is relatively uncommon.

... a good candidate would be a card with a bad or damaged memory chip since it already requires some work to get it running, but even then, I hope you know what you're doing. 😁

And I'm somewhat in agreement with this, it's interesting from a technical PoV but from a cost / usage perspective the Voodoo 3 16MB cards are more common. The cost of adding RAM to this Velocity 100 card ain't cheap unless you already have lots of experience with and tools for soldering.
I did it for the MS-6168 because that's been on my bucket list for a while, maybe a 16MB Velocity 100 is on someone's bucket list too 😉

smola wrote on 2024-05-06, 19:05:

Unfortunately I wont recommend any ram chips, due to only ones I found are selling by only one Chinese guy. There is possibility […]
Show full quote

Unfortunately I wont recommend any ram chips, due to only ones I found are selling by only one Chinese guy. There is possibility they may not work, may be broken/fake, there is not good photos on auction. If you still want modify your velocity card, then take following things into consideration:
* you got most info from previous post from @Thermalwrong
* you have to resolder 4 chips and set few resistors to proper position to unlock missing signals
* you have also re-set additional strap resistors to configure new size of ram and memory banks - I have done this but I wont release solution until I test it in real world
* re-setting straps requires cuting/wiring traces on pcb, also requires removing resistors array + replace some of them to lower size from 603 to 402 - without proper skill/tools and microscope it may be difficult and probably you'll destroy your velocity
* you need to buy new ram chips or gather them from donors

If you still wanna do this upgrade, just do some basic math:
* velo has 8MB vram in 4 chips, it means 8/4=2, actually 2MiB per chip, MB is just marketing, MiB is in realality 1024*1024 bytes
* so each chip has 2MiB, organization is 256Kx32x2, you want to change each to twice more capacity, so you have to look for 512Kx32x2
* find datasheet of your existing chips and find dedicated ram, check pinouts on both chips, size of the chips, raster etc., check params, speed etc.
* when you'll find proper replacements, then search seller on ali/ebay and check description/photos, there is always risk you can buy crap
* now resolder ram chips, move resistors, set straps
* test stuff, if you did all in proper way, and your chips are good, then everything should work from a shot
* this is not easy task, most ppl think it's just like a fart, coz it's just replacing mem chips... well, it's not, just do it yourself 😉

Cheers 😀

Ah I thought so, I couldn't see any spot where the resistor for the memory chip count was optional. So it's probably in one of those resistor packs and would require surgery to alter. I don't know, I don't and won't have one of these cards 😀

@smola Thank you for clarifying difficulties during this upgrade. I'm ready to risk and i'm ok if i'm failed, now i'm trying to find chips for good price, if i found i will compare to specs with chips already on velocity. If i complete first stage. Will try next, hoping i'm not failed)
And to others, it's not about performance per dollar story, it's just for fun, but of course i agree it's better to trying this upgrade on Velocity 100 with broken ram chips.

Great! Good luck with upgrade, fingers crossed! 😀