I may have just found the slowest AGP video card I've ever come across.
It is a generic S3 Trio3D/2X that is only 4MB... and I think it is configured for only half the usual memory bus width. The card's memory is also clocked at 83Mhz, vs 100Mhz for better cards (like the Diamond Speedstar A55).
All of the other Trio3D/2X cards I have found were 8MB and had memory chips on both sides (either two on each or four on each). This one just has four on the front side with nothing on the back. Performance is ridiculously bad... Even in Wintune97, it manages only 20mp vs the 32mp I get with the Speedstar A55 or another generic 3D/2X card, both of which have two chips on each side. So I am inclined to say this one has half the memory bus.
The memory chips on the card are shorter than most SDRAM chips (not sure what this package is called) and are super generic looking. They say 9915 USA 616181-8.
Anyway, in some fairly light games it is an unusable slide show at 640x480, where as the other 3D/2X cards are not great but are totally playable.
I am going to set this gem aside, just in case I find any other contenders for the slowest AGP card. If I find a few, I may have to do some more benchmarks... 😅
(I'm not counting pro-oriented cards that are obviously way more powerful but are only barely able to run games due drivers not being meant for it.)
EDIT: Definitely something extra slow about this card. SIV was able to tell me that it has a core clock of 66Mhz and a memory clock of 83Mhz. Another generic card (8MB with 4 chips on each side) I have also has those same clocks and manages 25mp in Wintune97. So, something is making this thing 25% slower. The Speedstar A55 is clocked at 80Mhz core, 100Mhz memory, and scores 32mp by comparison... which seems about right for the difference over the 25mp card, but is nowhere near enough to account for a 60% performance improvement over the slow card.
