Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-24, 05:22

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I picked up a couple of Radeon X1950 XTs - one as a backup and the other for an XP machine. It seems even a Dual Core E8600 isn't enough CPU for this card. When I switched the card over into a 3700K machine, I got another 14000 points on 3DMark 2001 and 5000 more points on 3DMark 2003 at default …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-22, 12:53

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well the 3rd 9700 Pro arrived, same story as the others, massive artifacting. Refunded. I give up, I actually don't think there are any working 9700 Pro cards left in the wild. Unless I find a fellow enthusiast selling one, this is clearly a waste of time.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-17, 17:15

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This just goes to show that you don't need audio-grade caps to get good sound. It can help in certain scenarios. My understanding is audio grade caps have much tighter manufacturing tolerances, and are supposed to be more stable in terms of fluctuating as they age. I doubt you'd ever hear the …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-11, 18:08

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So the sketchy ass board only Radeon X800XL showed up. Didn't post, removed the little aluminum heat sinks that had been put on the memory chips which got it to post but with massive artifacting. I think those aluminum coolers were shorting out a couple of resistors near the memory chips, which …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-09, 05:49

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought *another* 9700 Pro off eBay. This time to the tune of $60 USD. Hopefully this one works. 3rd times the charm right? It is remarkable how difficult it is to find a working example of a card that sold like hotcakes. Even considering how comprehensively the cooling solution on them seems to …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-08, 19:37

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought *another* 9700 Pro off eBay. This time to the tune of $60 USD. Hopefully this one works. 3rd times the charm right? It is remarkable how difficult it is to find a working example of a card that sold like hotcakes. Even considering how comprehensively the cooling solution on them seems to suck …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-05, 01:33

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well crap, I'm obviously gonna have to be a lot more careful buying GPUs on eBay now if you guys are done with vacuuming off all the bad ones lol Though if we are crusading, start recording yourself checking the large caps on stuff for charge when things come in, if they are sold as "untested" or …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-04, 22:23

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well the "pulled from a working enviroment" FX5700 showed up... with obvious damage to the card in the form of a missing capacitor. It doesn't work, and I finally snapped and sent the seller a scathing message with my demand for a refund. I don't care if this pisses him off and it takes me longer to …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-04, 03:12

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have 204; and I consider that light compared to what I think the heavy hitters own. At this point, when something interesting or a deal too good to pass up appears I'll splurge, otherwise I've stopped buying. 204 and you consider that light? Compared to the big guns, yes. I'm betting there are …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-03, 23:42

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So serious question, who owns the most GPUs on VOGONs? I'm up to around 140 working units. I have 204; and I consider that light compared to what I think the heavy hitters own. At this point, when something interesting or a deal too good to pass up appears I'll splurge, otherwise I've stopped …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-03, 22:09

by

by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So serious question, who owns the most GPUs on VOGONs? Im up to around 140 working units.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-08-03, 16:25

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Something hankypanky going on with the usb-headers/usbpwr -jumpers. Might involve your PSU too, you need 2A 5V standby to enable those features, to get USB power in standby, former basic ATX spec was only 0.5A/500mA I will have to look into that. My testbench PSU is not most optimal, as it has a …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-03, 06:24

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked up two GPUs recently: Caught a ASUS GeForce FX 5700 256MB (normal version, not LE nor Ultra) right as it was listed for $30. "Working enviroment" pull so we will see how that plays out. I also bought the "ATI Rage 128 Pro 32MB AGP VGA ATI-128 PRO/ULTRA Vintage Video Graphics Card" https://i. …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-08-01, 23:48

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Back in the day when these cards came out beige boxes were pretty much thing of the past, with silver and charcoal/black boxes ruling the scene. Also most modders/tweakers/overclockers were never putting side panel on the case anyway and the "gaming" cases already started to feature small acrylic …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-07-28, 06:15

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, if it sells for $130 then he isn't inflating the price artificially, the other seller is underpricing.. Just a thought. That all depends. If you own one > under If you want one > over Im sure we all have hardware that we like to think it very expensive that others wouldnt give you any money …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-07-27, 08:53

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, the Radeon 8500DV arrived today. Except its not an 8500DV. Despite having a factory label that clearly says "AIW 8500DV 64MB". The BIOs and Drivers both report it as a Radeon 7500 AIW, and the board layout aside from that label matches. Weirdly GPU-Z reports it has having 2 vertex shaders, …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-07-25, 21:26

by

by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, the Radeon 8500DV arrived today. Except its not an 8500DV. Despite having a factory label that clearly says "AIW 8500DV 64MB". The BIOs and Drivers both report it as a Radeon 7500 AIW, and the board layout aside from that label matches. Weirdly GPU-Z reports it has having 2 vertex shaders, …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-07-21, 19:23

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Recent adventures in 3D graphics card collecting. * Bought an ATI X1300 AGP. Didn't work, returned and refunded. Seems to be the median card buying experience on eBay lately. I'd say every other card I buy shows up dead. Annoying but the X1300 is well the X1300 so another will show up a good price …

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Re: About 7800 GS AGP (BIOS Version 5.70.02.46.01)

Posted on 2023-07-21, 19:05

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by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I'm sorry but my guess is that your card is probably defective. When booting or when in the bios, (without the driver loaded), the card works but it fails as soon as the driver is loaded. Windows 7 is probably recent enough to include a GeForce 7 driver by default, so it is loaded automatically and …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2023-07-05, 06:38

by

by TheAbandonwareGuy

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today, after a particularly geeky argument with a coworker, I loaded up an AAC encoded audio file and realized, for the very first time, that lossy audio compression is actually Good Enough. Perhaps it's because a part of me is still stuck in 1999, but I honestly didn't think that lossy compression …

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