anthony wrote:

Arctic wrote:

@Anthony DOS 3dfx games came with a "driver" for the Voodoo1 (sometimes also rush and voodoo2) that "communicates" with the card […]
Show full quote

@Anthony
DOS 3dfx games came with a "driver" for the Voodoo1 (sometimes also rush and voodoo2) that "communicates" with the card directly.
For example GTA 1 or the Glide Tomb Raider version.

I dont know if you can "manipulate" any variables in these cases.

just cheked both games, and either of them obeying sst variables according to glide log

seriously, i'd like to see example where 4mb tmu mem will be an issue to run game

I couldnt get GTA1 to work with the Miro HiScore 6MB (Voodoo1) but I didn't change the SST variables.

Okay guys, I finally found a v2 with 12x 1mb (v2 1000). It came from a scrapper and had some terminal damage on the chips (legs) and both vga ports were broken off. Ram chips seemed fine so I had a perfect donor for the mod!

Used a heatgun to simply take all the ramchips off both cards and because my soldering isn't great I used a heatgun (and a lot of patience! to allign them perfectly again) to put the 1mb chips on the v1.

The card is still recognised and even tries to run the direct x diagnostics and the voodoo tab is present in display properties. However, the spinning cube is completely garbled and unrecognisable but at least it tries to do something.
At dxdiag it reports 5 mb of ram.... other benchis or games simply refuse to start, even the glide ones under windows.

So my question is: Are the chips really pin compatible and do I simply have bad connections? (most probably...)

Can you destroy the chips by using a heatgun (had it on low)?

Or do I need some mod to make these chips work on the v1?

Do I need an old or latest drivers? Or a third party one?

And finally: If I can't get it to work then should the card work with only 4 pieces of 1mb chips and if so, which locations do they need to be? That way I can try and see if it all functions by taking 4 chips off and go from there...

Thanx!

meljor wrote on 2020-02-24, 16:58:

Okay guys, I finally found a v2 with 12x 1mb (v2 1000).

I'm not sure the chips are compatible. So far on standard V1 I've only ever seen the piggyback mod where you stack two 512kb chips and solder wires from TMU/FBI to RAS pins of the upper chip.
What chips were on the donor card? I think the V2 1000 uses v53c819hk27?
I have attatched the pinout of both original and 1m chips (512k left, 1m right) and marked differences in the picture for easy reference.
To find out wether the PCB accepts the chips check for continuity with a multimeter between RAS pins on TMU/FBI and RAM solder pads. You need both RAS0 and RAS1 to be connected for 8mb.
Also Vss and Vcc are only used once less in the original chip. I don't know how the new chip is wired internally and wether it needs the extra ones or can do without. I guess it needs both though. Check on your card wether Vss nd Vcc are present on both locations and if not run a botch wire.

Can you destroy the chips by using a heatgun (had it on low)?

Of course you can. What heat setting did you use and for how long?

Do I need an old or latest drivers? Or a third party one?

All 3dfx V1 drivers should work.

now I want to know how the story ends

schlang wrote on 2022-03-07, 23:36:

now I want to know how the story ends

Ha, me too. Piggyback a ic isnt too hard, but getting a wire on a tqfp can be tricky (ive had bridges myself on other mods).

piggyback by Nitton Åttiofyra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RarLJNsz93A

Hey!
I replaced the memory ICs in the TMU 0.5MB-->1MB.
4xIS41C16256-35K --> 4xV53C819HK27.
Mod 6MB is 8% faster in 3DMark-99 than the stock Voodoo1 4MB.

Postman5 wrote on 2025-02-01, 18:38:

Hey! I replaced the memory ICs in the TMU 0.5MB-->1MB. 4xIS41C16256-35K --> 4xV53C819HK27. Mod 6MB is 8% faster in 3DMark-99 tha […]
Show full quote

Hey!
I replaced the memory ICs in the TMU 0.5MB-->1MB.
4xIS41C16256-35K --> 4xV53C819HK27.
Mod 6MB is 8% faster in 3DMark-99 than the stock Voodoo1 4MB.

Such a clean upgrade, well done!
Great to know that just adding in higher density chips that are 1MB (2-bank) in place of the 512KB single bank chips works with a minor modification. I might try this on my Colormax VP503 card.

Under each memory chip you need to check if there is a connection between pins 1<-->30 (Vcc) and 11<-->21 (Vss)

Postman5, are there any real benefits from doubling the TMU's memory? According to some of BitsUndBolts YT-videos with Voodoo1 memory upgrade experiments, the only useful memory doubling upgrade is for FBI, so the card would support 800 x 600 resolution in some games.

I also watched BuB's video and didn't see any performance gain at 640x480 when doubling the FBI memory. At 800x600 the FPS is very low. In my opinion the only point in increasing the FBI memory is the ability to enable Triple Frame Buffer.
The 8-10% performance gain is only from increasing the TMU memory to 4 MB

Yep, in the BuB's YT-videos the Voodoo1 card with 4 MB VRAM for the frame buffer also literally choked with Unreal at 800 x 600 resolution. I don't recall if the triple buffering is supported by Voodoo1 drivers. I think, in the BuB's video with the tests for 4 MB VRAM on the TMU the Unreal demo at 640 x 480 resolution managed to gain about 10% increase in FPS too. So, BuB's results are now confirmed by your test with 4 MB VRAM on Voodoo's TMU.

I made 6MB mod A-Trend Helios 3D ATC-2465 ver2.0

Postman5 wrote on 2025-02-14, 16:22:

I made 6MB mod A-Trend Helios 3D ATC-2465 ver2.0

Good job. This one looks better with partially hidden wire under the VRAM chips.

Yes, this looks better the connection of the pins /RAS1 (pin 15 V53C819HK27) --> 47 Ohm resistor --> /RAS1 (pin 130 TMU)