Finally got an ATI Rage Fury MAXX with a broken fan. Swapped one in from a Radeon 7200 that I had lying around, fixed!

It works fine in some games and fails miserably in all others.
Current asking prices on eBay (~600 - 1000€) are completely blown out of proportion.

But it's an interesting piece of history to experience.

schmatzler wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:12:

It works fine in some games and fails miserably in all others.
Current asking prices on eBay (~600 - 1000€) are completely blown out of proportion.

But it's an interesting piece of history to experience.

They don't sell for that price that is for sure. I had a few I scraped not to long ago as no one wanted them even for 25$ a pop. It's a neat card don't get me wrong but its a hot steaming load of garbage up there with the savage 2000. Fun to play around with but not much more.

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:18:

schmatzler wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:12:

It works fine in some games and fails miserably in all others.
Current asking prices on eBay (~600 - 1000€) are completely blown out of proportion.

But it's an interesting piece of history to experience.

They don't sell for that price that is for sure. I had a few I scraped not to long ago as no one wanted them even for 25$ a pop. It's a neat card don't get me wrong but its a hot steaming load of garbage up there with the savage 2000. Fun to play around with but not much more.

I don't know, I have very fond memories of my Viper II Z200. It was as fast or faster than a GeForce 256DDR in 32Bit and got me going in CS, Q3, SoF, UT - everything I had was playable and played great.
There were issues with T&L - I remember having to do something for Need for Speed 3 or 4, but other than that, it was great.
I loved the S3TC.
The only thing I can understand nowadays after testing it is that it scales up to around 800Mhz, and after that there is a wall. Not one fps more with a CPU that has double the power 😁
The GeForce keeps adding frames, albeit not much.

Damnit, I wanted to write GeForce256SDR - the DDR was faster than the Viper II aka Savage 2000 😉
Mea culpa.

schmatzler wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:12:

Finally got an ATI Rage Fury MAXX with a broken fan. Swapped one in from a Radeon 7200 that I had lying around, fixed! […]
Show full quote

Finally got an ATI Rage Fury MAXX with a broken fan. Swapped one in from a Radeon 7200 that I had lying around, fixed!

It works fine in some games and fails miserably in all others.
Current asking prices on eBay (~600 - 1000€) are completely blown out of proportion.

But it's an interesting piece of history to experience.

The attachment IMG_20250729_190048472.jpg is no longer available

Where does it fail miserably? I'd really like to know, because I always wanted such a card, but I do not want to spend the money people are asking for it.

M4cke wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:26:

I don't know, I have very fond memories of my Viper II Z200. It was as fast or faster than a GeForce 256DDR in 32Bit and got me […]
Show full quote

I don't know, I have very fond memories of my Viper II Z200. It was as fast or faster than a GeForce 256DDR in 32Bit and got me going in CS, Q3, SoF, UT - everything I had was playable and played great.
There were issues with T&L - I remember having to do something for Need for Speed 3 or 4, but other than that, it was great.
I loved the S3TC.
The only thing I can understand nowadays after testing it is that it scales up to around 800Mhz, and after that there is a wall. Not one fps more with a CPU that has double the power 😁
The GeForce keeps adding frames, albeit not much.

hmm idk I had a few of them over the years and it all were supper buggy, I mean it was kinda broken right out of the box from s3 and there was only so many bugs that drivers could fix. when it worked it was ok to good but they hardly ever worked. IMO you are better off getting a gf2 or MX card as they are faster and more stable if you goal is to play games. If you are into tinkering and stuff both the maxx and the savage 2000 are wonderful cards given how buggy they both are.

Got the SV 242 throttle (aka Flight Force Fire Control System) from InterAct and after ordering a couple PS/2 to AT (and vice versa) adapters tried it out.
Was amazed that the whole mixed AT/Gameport operation actually held, and even worked fine enough to power wireless PS/2+mouse combo receiver.

On the device itself it seems to offer interesting options: one can use it to directly assign keyboard keypresses to any of the throttle and connected joystick buttons,
including POV hat, but not primary fire button on a Thrustmaster compatible joystick. This can be changed anytime, and there seem to be 4 separate configurations for the bindings that can be cycled through any time and without any additional software.

Build however has not aged very well; the throttle depends on a "suction cup" to stay on the table, rather then weight, and it has a dial for throttle spring adjustment, which just does not feel "linear enough" after all the years and usage (I got used one). While I was only able to get hands on the Mega Zoom software online, I found it useless - or it just does not work very well on my PC, as one can do pretty much everything with the joystick itself, and then calibration you would do in the games anyway.

One small disappointment was that no apparent way to switch the throttle into "digital" mode was found (as in being able to assign key presses to extreme position of the throttle itself), which meant that the device's use was mostly confined to classic flight sims, as opposed to the more "arcadey" games and space sims, which as I understand, with notable exception of Descent, did not offer support for analog throttles back in the days.

So, to conclude, a nice device to introduce oneself to the exciting worlds of flight sims controls of old, but if I enjoy it enough, personally, will be on a look out for a WCS mk II, or something from CH to replace it.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-07-29, 14:22:

Aand it's alive: […]
Show full quote

Aand it's alive:

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Still need to clean the flux, but wanted to test it first...

This felt like brain surgery, waaaay out of my comfort zone, but doable now that i have proper size caps.

Cooler is kind of junk, stays at 100%, noisy and still 60C in single 3dmark run on open stand...

Also knowing which driver is actually functional helps a lot to not waste time with that at least....

That chomped up chip still works?!?!

myne wrote on Yesterday, 03:52:

That chomped up chip still works?!?!

The die is completely fine and yep, it works.

Looking closely at the picture i see what you mean though. It is completely covered in flux and somehow this resulted in what looks like a missing piece on the picture, but that's an illusion. I would not have spent that amount of effort resoldering the caps on a chip with a chunk missing.

You can kind of see its state in the second picture here, though it is not the best picture either: Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Got 3 Pentium Pros for roughly USD 25. Untested and with bent pins. At least 2 of the looks reasonably salvageable from the pictures, though ..

douglar wrote on 2025-07-29, 14:15:

Holy remarks! 23 out of 25 seem to work at the expected speed, but I wish I knew what the original markings were..

How did you test the speed of each chip?

M4cke wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:29:

Where does it fail miserably? I'd really like to know, because I always wanted such a card, but I do not want to spend the money people are asking for it.

It only works on Windows 9x. If you use 2000/XP you have to disable one of the cores, so you basically get a regular Rage 128.
A lot of games in my library just don't launch.
The card is very picky about the motherboard used (although VIA KT133(A) mobos in my collection all seem to be fine).

The worst thing about this card is the microstuttering in so many games. When one of the chips isn't rendering as fast as the other one there is no flow-control or regulation so you get really inconsistent FPS and the image "hitches" when you're playing. Might be fine for slower-paced games, but it totally kills the mood in FPS and racing games.

Last but not least, the card is LOUD. These tiny ATI fans create quite a ruckus and I'm not sure there is a replacement for those, they seem to be purpose-built to fit the heatsink (the backside of the fans slide into a special mold in the heatsink).

Fun to play around with, absolutely not a good card if you want to build a retro system that plays most 9x games.

schmatzler wrote on Yesterday, 06:54:

It only works on Windows 9x. If you use 2000/XP you have to disable one of the cores, so you basically get a regular Rage 128. A […]
Show full quote

M4cke wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:29:

Where does it fail miserably? I'd really like to know, because I always wanted such a card, but I do not want to spend the money people are asking for it.

It only works on Windows 9x. If you use 2000/XP you have to disable one of the cores, so you basically get a regular Rage 128.
A lot of games in my library just don't launch.
The card is very picky about the motherboard used (although VIA KT133(A) mobos in my collection all seem to be fine).

The worst thing about this card is the microstuttering in so many games. When one of the chips isn't rendering as fast as the other one there is no flow-control or regulation so you get really inconsistent FPS and the image "hitches" when you're playing. Might be fine for slower-paced games, but it totally kills the mood in FPS and racing games.

Last but not least, the card is LOUD. These tiny ATI fans create quite a ruckus and I'm not sure there is a replacement for those, they seem to be purpose-built to fit the heatsink (the backside of the fans slide into a special mold in the heatsink).

Fun to play around with, absolutely not a good card if you want to build a retro system that plays most 9x games.

Yeah, I knew about "only 98", that is unfortunate. Only VIA sounds bad, I just tested the MVP3 and the ALi on Socket7 oder the Tualatin Apollo and the SiS635... VIA kills so much Speed that it is sometimes on the brink of noticeable and not only benchable - not my first choice.
Loudness does not bother me, thank u for the info about stuttering - that and that Games outright do not launch sounds quite bad.
So nothing to throw money at, if it comes to me I will be happy and that's it.

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:42:

M4cke wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:26:

I don't know, I have very fond memories of my Viper II Z200. It was as fast or faster than a GeForce 256DDR in 32Bit and got me […]
Show full quote

I don't know, I have very fond memories of my Viper II Z200. It was as fast or faster than a GeForce 256DDR in 32Bit and got me going in CS, Q3, SoF, UT - everything I had was playable and played great.
There were issues with T&L - I remember having to do something for Need for Speed 3 or 4, but other than that, it was great.
I loved the S3TC.
The only thing I can understand nowadays after testing it is that it scales up to around 800Mhz, and after that there is a wall. Not one fps more with a CPU that has double the power 😁
The GeForce keeps adding frames, albeit not much.

hmm idk I had a few of them over the years and it all were supper buggy, I mean it was kinda broken right out of the box from s3 and there was only so many bugs that drivers could fix. when it worked it was ok to good but they hardly ever worked. IMO you are better off getting a gf2 or MX card as they are faster and more stable if you goal is to play games. If you are into tinkering and stuff both the maxx and the savage 2000 are wonderful cards given how buggy they both are.

I really do not remember if my point is valid, but for the paid price, if you played the games that worked, value for the savage 2000 was great.
The GF2MX was a "lame" but working option with good drivers, that is true.
I still do not understand why there was not more Investment in the driver department in some companies (3dlabs, S3, SiS, Trident, XGI) that could have been great.
I own a 3dlabs VP990, and it can run GTA:SA(!), but has driver issues. I recently played through a whole Retro LAN (CS, NfS, Q3, UT, UT2004 to name a few) with that thing, and I only had to change PCs/graphic card for BF2 if I remember correctly.
Unbelievable Hardware for 2003 - with something like Hyper-Z and the deferred renderer of its little brother, this thing could have been a nightmare for ATi and nVidia (if not too costly).
But anyway, nice dreams, still nice to have the hardware.

And for back to topic:
I got myself an:
Asus A8N-E
AMD 3800+ X2 2Ghz
Arctic Cooling 64 Silencer Ultra TCL
2GB DDR400 CL3
GF 6600GT
with a "Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Tower Case" today.
Nice and shiny blue LEDs, once it is cleaned and the little "Northbridge"-Fan overhauled I might even make some photos 😉

keropi wrote on 2017-05-15, 19:03:

finally got that Olivetti 286 EGA setup, what I wanted from the set was the color EGA monitor 🤣

(...)

I had to replace a single filtering capacitor on the PSU (X2 one) but other than that it's great. The monitor is a Hyundai HCM-1420 with great build quality and nippon-chemicon eletrolytic caps - these I won't touch 😎

I won HCM-1420 on an auction few days ago. Seller wasn't sure if it works as he couldn't test it but showed a picture with it displaying white screen which for me was a dead giveaway it probably works as EGA monitors usually do that when no signal is present (plus it was a confirmation the flyback is OK and synchronization is not collapsed).

It didn't had an original stand and needs the stickers removed, but the picture quality is perfect! At least for 35 years old monitor.

schmatzler wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:12:

Finally got an ATI Rage Fury MAXX with a broken fan. Swapped one in from a Radeon 7200 that I had lying around, fixed! […]
Show full quote

Finally got an ATI Rage Fury MAXX with a broken fan. Swapped one in from a Radeon 7200 that I had lying around, fixed!

It works fine in some games and fails miserably in all others.
Current asking prices on eBay (~600 - 1000€) are completely blown out of proportion.

But it's an interesting piece of history to experience.

The attachment IMG_20250729_190048472.jpg is no longer available

I have one too in a perfect condition... and I got it for free from a friend last year. I like how it looks and overall layout with two chips, but other than that I don't have much respect for ATI/AMD cards though (beside earlier releases for ISA and PC Bus). Is it really that unique or are those just prices people like this vintage-cave/st3250b_x86_retro/whatever-else-name-he-uses scalper-type guys from ebay put hoping somebody will buy it?

HanJammer wrote on Yesterday, 23:02:

keropi wrote on 2017-05-15, 19:03:

finally got that Olivetti 286 EGA setup, what I wanted from the set was the color EGA monitor 🤣

(...)

I had to replace a single filtering capacitor on the PSU (X2 one) but other than that it's great. The monitor is a Hyundai HCM-1420 with great build quality and nippon-chemicon eletrolytic caps - these I won't touch 😎

I won HCM-1420 on an auction few days ago. Seller wasn't sure if it works as he couldn't test it but showed a picture with it displaying white screen which for me was a dead giveaway it probably works as EGA monitors usually do that when no signal is present (plus it was a confirmation the flyback is OK and synchronization is not collapsed).

It didn't had an original stand and needs the stickers removed, but the picture quality is perfect! At least for 35 years old monitor.

You will have to do a retrobright after removing the stickers. I hate this by the way, putting stickers willy-nilly on the monitor.

M4cke wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:29:

schmatzler wrote on 2025-07-29, 17:12:

Finally got an ATI Rage Fury MAXX with a broken fan. Swapped one in from a Radeon 7200 that I had lying around, fixed! […]
Show full quote

Finally got an ATI Rage Fury MAXX with a broken fan. Swapped one in from a Radeon 7200 that I had lying around, fixed!

It works fine in some games and fails miserably in all others.
Current asking prices on eBay (~600 - 1000€) are completely blown out of proportion.

But it's an interesting piece of history to experience.

The attachment IMG_20250729_190048472.jpg is no longer available

Where does it fail miserably? I'd really like to know, because I always wanted such a card, but I do not want to spend the money people are asking for it.

IDK about fails of it's own, but probably has all the general problems of Rage 128 class, sometimes doesn't do shadows, smoke and dust either working and hellish opaque and blocky, or absent, polygons not rendering right and getting jaggies going off or being missing. Some of these can be mitigated/tuned per game, but it's not very plug and play.