I've tried some S3D games across Virge (325), GX and GX/2. I think the original chip might be the most compatible with S3D games. I saw texturing differences/problems in Mechwarrior 2 for example with newer chips. I don't remember a lot since it's been years since I experimented.

ElectroMan wrote:

Here's the card:

Already see it has the "good" 35ns memory. Is there an "average but fearless joe" test, that could give me an idea about it's memory operation cycles (1-2)?

After reading the datasheet I grabbed my Virge/GX, fired up good 'ol MSDOS 6.22, typed the following code in debug.exe:

1o 3d4 38
2o 3d5 48
3o 3d4 39
4o 3d5 a5
5o 3d4 36
6i 3d5

In theory the 3rd bit of the returned value should indicate operation mode: 0 means 1-cycle and 1 means 2-cycle, however, the return value changes almost every time I ran the code, and I couldn't even read the chip id in register 2E. So something must be wrong. Some S3 guru please tell me what mistake I made. I scratched my head when I read this in the datasheet: setting 48 to register 38 will unlock registers 2D-3F. But 38 is in the middle of 2D-3F! So how can I unlock the register by writing things into a locked register? 😕 😕 😕