VOGONS


First post, by bergqvistjl

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I have what are three supposedly 12MB Creative Voodoo2 cards, however all 3 are showing as only having 8MB of RAM in the 3dfx info panel in Windows display properties?

Is this normal? Is there any way of checking on the card whether i've actually got an 8MB or 12MB device?

Reply 1 of 10, by Errius

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

IIRC you should see 8 MB frame buffer memory plus 4 MB texture memory, for 12 MB total. An 8 MB card will have only 4 MB of each.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 2 of 10, by Thandor

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Do you have RAM chips on the back of the card? If you don't have RAM chips on the back of the card chances are that you have an 8MB version. However, some 12MB cards use RAM chips with a higher density and can still get 12MB with the RAM chips on the front. I don't recall seeing cards from Creative with 12MB and no RAM chips on the back so for your cards this visual measure should probably indicate how many RAM you have. Cards like PowerColor tend to have high density chips. To be absolutely certain you should read the productcodes on the RAM chip and find out how many KB they are (and then multiply by the number of chips ... and there you go 😀).

Otherwise check using software and keep in mind what Errius said.

thandor.net - hardware
And the rest of us would be carousing the aisles, stuffing baloney.

Reply 3 of 10, by bergqvistjl

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Thandor wrote:

Do you have RAM chips on the back of the card? If you don't have RAM chips on the back of the card chances are that you have an 8MB version. However, some 12MB cards use RAM chips with a higher density and can still get 12MB with the RAM chips on the front. I don't recall seeing cards from Creative with 12MB and no RAM chips on the back so for your cards this visual measure should probably indicate how many RAM you have. Cards like PowerColor tend to have high density chips. To be absolutely certain you should read the productcodes on the RAM chip and find out how many KB they are (and then multiply by the number of chips ... and there you go 😀).

Otherwise check using software and keep in mind what Errius said.

All my cards have RAM chips on both the back and front yeah. I've just read that the V3.02.02 drivers are supposed to: "Fixed issue with the control panel. Incorrect memory configurations were getting reported." So that might be it.

Reply 4 of 10, by lazibayer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Thandor wrote:

Do you have RAM chips on the back of the card? If you don't have RAM chips on the back of the card chances are that you have an 8MB version. However, some 12MB cards use RAM chips with a higher density and can still get 12MB with the RAM chips on the front. I don't recall seeing cards from Creative with 12MB and no RAM chips on the back so for your cards this visual measure should probably indicate how many RAM you have. Cards like PowerColor tend to have high density chips. To be absolutely certain you should read the productcodes on the RAM chip and find out how many KB they are (and then multiply by the number of chips ... and there you go 😀).

Otherwise check using software and keep in mind what Errius said.

All the 8MB creative v2s I've seen have 4 RAM chips on the back side. I'd be enlightened to see a 8MB v2 with no RAM on the back side.

Reply 5 of 10, by konc

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Thandor wrote:

Do you have RAM chips on the back of the card? If you don't have RAM chips on the back of the card chances are that you have an 8MB version.

Just wanted to comment that this is just a possibility, not really "conclusive" or "chances are" scenario. There are plenty of 12MB V2s having only one side populated with memory.

Reply 6 of 10, by peklop

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Most 12MB V2 use 24 pieces of 0,5 MB memory chips on both sides but some only 12 pieces of 1MB chips.

Reply 7 of 10, by bergqvistjl

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Well I definitely have the requisite number of RAM chips on both sides of each card, however whatever combination of the three i put in, the 3DFX info panel still shows a total of 16MB memory, despite me using the latest drivers. This screenshot is identical to what I get:
IMG_02371_zpsb7ba0157.jpg

Reply 8 of 10, by PhilsComputerLab

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Sometimes you can over-engineer a problem.

ID the memory chips, google the capacity, count them and add it all up. If you get 12 MB you can sleep sound again 🤣

YouTube, Facebook, Website

Reply 9 of 10, by lazibayer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
bergqvistjl wrote:
Well I definitely have the requisite number of RAM chips on both sides of each card, however whatever combination of the three i […]
Show full quote

Well I definitely have the requisite number of RAM chips on both sides of each card, however whatever combination of the three i put in, the 3DFX info panel still shows a total of 16MB memory, despite me using the latest drivers. This screenshot is identical to what I get:
IMG_02371_zpsb7ba0157.jpg

This is correctly showing a total of 24MB memory: 8MB frame buffer + 16MB texture.

Reply 10 of 10, by Thandor

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
lazibayer wrote:

All the 8MB creative v2s I've seen have 4 RAM chips on the back side. I'd be enlightened to see a 8MB v2 with no RAM on the back side.

Yes, you're right. 8MB models indeed have 4 chips on the back.

thandor.net - hardware
And the rest of us would be carousing the aisles, stuffing baloney.