I'm not aware of any mainstream VGA chips (as in the graphics standard, not the umbrella term for all graphics adapters) which *required* heatsinks for normal operation. The Olivetti Mach32 cards must have been in systems that had really poor ventilation for the OEM to feel a heatsink was necessary.
I think the heatsink on the Cardex was likely stuck on there by an end user. In the late 90s it became trendy to stick heatsinks on everything, especially if you were trying to overclock your hand me down 486 to "Pentium" level performance.

Heatsinks on consumer level graphics cards weren't really a thing until 3D cards came around. I didn't get a 3D card until 1999, so the first one I personally know of was the Voodoo3 2000/3000. I remember my i740 had one too. From what I've seen, I don't believe many voodoo1 or voodoo2s had them from the factory...and no idea about early Nvidia products. From what I can tell Riva 128[ZX] normally didn't have one, but sometimes did...so probably not required by the IC manufacturer. I think the TNT/TNT2 was when heatsink became common on Nvidia cards, especially depending on which flavour you had. The first Nvidia card I owned was a GeForce2 GTS, and it had *active* cooling...the first card I owned with a fan. The Voodoo3-3000 probably should have had a fan from the factory, but for some reason didn't.

Heatsinks became a must for highly integrated chips of 1998- G200, TNT, Savage 3D, Banshee, Rage128...
Smaller ones like Voodoo2 set, i740, or G200 die shrinked could do without them.
Construction of the card itself is a factor of cooling. Enough surface metal can be an alternative to on-chip heatsink.

It is weird that the Olivetti card has those vent holes in the bracket. You don't do that without a reason. Perhaps was used in some ultra compact computer?

Removing the "mainstream VGA" rule, I am sure we would find more examples. Technically, Even my C64C had a "heatsink/RF shield" on the VIC chip...

aaronkatrini wrote on 2020-05-10, 11:06:

If your VLB Mach32 runs hot than I presume the heatsink was put there by the factory.

The previous owner said to me, that he applied the heatsink because the chips got too hot 😉
And your Olivetti Mach32 is now on ebay ...

Ahh, and i found several pictures from the CARDEX ET4000/W32 VLB, all with applied, same looking heatsink. And i found one on ebay Australia - for 198 AU$ ...
Seems to be a series heatsink. And i have a Gainward, formerly CARDEX Voodoo2 (Dragon 3000), with series heatsink.

I had no use for it and decided to put it for sale 😀

Which card are you saying that the owner said it was applied by him? It seems so weird that random people across the globe put the same exact heatsink on the same exact Video Card! I suppose it was like that from the factory...

BTW, there was another listing, now sold, of a guy selling the same Video Card from Latvia (mine is the listing from Italy).
Link of the sold card: https://www.ebay.it/itm/Ati-Mach32-AX-PCI-Oli … qUAAOSwja5euS6j

Ahh, and i found several pictures from the CARDEX ET4000/W32 VLB, all with applied, same looking heatsink. And i found one on ebay Australia - for 198 AU$ ...
Seems to be a series heatsink. And i have a Gainward, formerly CARDEX Voodoo2 (Dragon 3000), with series heatsink.

I have a slightly newer Cardex VLB card that uses ET4000/32P chip, and it definitely never had a heatsink. Pretty much every Cardex VLB with an ET4000 series chip I have ever seen did not have a heatsink, so it seems strange that it would have been put there by the factory. A bad batch of ICs that ran out of spec?

Intergraph G91 with weitek 9100 had passive cooling - 1994...

http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/cards/item/47 … itek-power-9100

Looks like that one might be even older than the Olivetti card.

I don't want to insist on this, as it would seem I want to say "look, my card is the first card with a heatsink on", I honestly don't care about it. But for "scientific" purposes we need to clarify. According to VGA-Museum website, the Weitek 9100 is from 1994 where the Ati Mach32 is from 1992. 😀

That's right. I misread datecodes on those cards.

Weitek 9100 is a 1993 chip though.

The IBM XGA-2 must have been one of the early ones with heatsinks.
Released about 1992 .
For the fan, my first one was a Riva TNT, probably an ASUS V3400.

The Hercules TNT cards came with a heatsink and fan as well. From what it looks like on archive.org Hercules first had mention of their card and a review featured on their site. Maybe they actually had their card on the market first?
But I'm pretty convinced now Riva TNT was the first graphics chip that came with a stock HSF on some cards.