I had an identical Sapphire HD6870 ran it 2013-2018 myself, then went to a teen in the family, and as far as I know still gets run for COD, BF2, Rocket League, inquired last year if he was looking for an upgrade yet, and not really it was still doing decent FPS for the monitor/res he's using. So based on a sample of one, that model is seeming reliable to me.

This was not a recent purchase. I bought it in the early 90s from All Electronics as a new surplus item that didn't even have the labeling. Perhaps Mouse Systems had a pile of these things that they weren't going to sell. It's been in my electronics parts box until maybe 2 years ago when I realized it's an interesting item and don't want to scrap it out for parts. Luckily I didn't remove anything from it all those years and it's still pristine with the bag it came in.

I never tried making it work until today. And it works! I printed the pattern in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCT89n-fvkI

It's not ideal though. The movement is pretty choppy. Anyone else have a design that looks more like the grid the original mousepad had?

Just got this little bit more uncommon GeForce card, Medion GF4 MX460. I quite like these 440s and 460s as if you are not aiming for something specifically period correct, these are a great alternative for top-end GF2 cards: they offer similar performance as they are just tweaked NV15 (with even passive cooling) and still far better image quality.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-10-09, 10:49:

Just got this little bit more uncommon GeForce card, Medion GF4 MX460. I quite like these 440s and 460s as if you are not aiming for something specifically period correct, these are a great alternative for top-end GF2 cards: they offer similar performance as they are just tweaked NV15 (with even passive cooling) and still far better image quality.

IMG_1952.jpeg

i should have the same (or similar lower spec) card from a medion pc.
the yellow connector on the end is for the frontpanel.
if i remember correctly its s-video input or something. i can take a picture of the frontpanel if you want.

DerBaum wrote on 2023-10-09, 10:54:

i should have the same (or similar lower spec) card from a medion pc.
the yellow connector on the end is for the frontpanel.
if i remember correctly its s-video input or something. i can take a picture of the frontpanel if you want.

I was wondering what that connector is as there is no description of it on the PCB silkscreen. Sure, pic wouldn't hurt if there is not too much trouble.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-10-09, 12:03:

I was wondering what that connector is as there is no description of it on the PCB silkscreen. Sure, pic wouldn't hurt if there is not too much trouble.

Composite and S-Video in.
Just some passive components on the board.

The flat cable is USB, the next cable is for audio input, next cable is video input (our cable), and the last one is fire wire.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-10-09, 10:49:

Just got this little bit more uncommon GeForce card, Medion GF4 MX460. I quite like these 440s and 460s as if you are not aiming for something specifically period correct, these are a great alternative for top-end GF2 cards: they offer similar performance as they are just tweaked NV15 (with even passive cooling) and still far better image quality.

IMG_1952.jpeg

Yah 460 weren't very common, bit of a hard sell, a high performance budget card, when the pricing crossed into cheap 4200 land.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-10-09, 10:49:

Just got this little bit more uncommon GeForce card, Medion GF4 MX460. I quite like these 440s and 460s as if you are not aiming for something specifically period correct, these are a great alternative for top-end GF2 cards: they offer similar performance as they are just tweaked NV15 (with even passive cooling) and still far better image quality.

IMG_1952.jpeg

I have the exact same one, unfortunately not working.
But I agree. These 440 and 460 are very decent cards. And generally (relatively) cheap too.

Socket3 wrote on 2023-10-07, 07:33:

Went to the flea market today and picked up some power supplies and a Radeon 6870. The video card isn't exactly retro, but it sh […]
Show full quote

Went to the flea market today and picked up some power supplies and a Radeon 6870. The video card isn't exactly retro, but it should work pretty well in a Windows XP rig - and I have just the system for it - IF it works.

IMG_20231007_100514470.jpg

The power supplies all work. The 500w antec had a sliced ground cable on the PCI-E 6 pin line, but I'm going to solder it back up good as new. The gold psu - I've never heard of this brand, but it weighs a ton and has a pretty beefy 5v rail. No SATA or PCI-E connectors and it sais pentium iv on the label 😁 - might be a great unit for a fast socket A PC, alltrough 500w is a bit overkill for that.

I'm going to take all of them apart, clean them and check the capacitors.

All in all not bad for 24 euro.

[UPDATE]

The 6870 works! Kind of hard to believe since it's been sitting on god knows what for god knows how long, no anti static bag. People here sell this stuff from blankets laid out on the ground outside. There was a 6850 there too, and some DDR3, but I didn't pick any of it up since the 6850 had some wierd aftermarket zalman cooler that was missing the cover, and the asking price for the DDR3 was a bit much.

This video card will have brittle plastic where screws goes into. I had this break over the years when undoing and doing the screws during cleaning. Heatsink has to be taken off the card first to get gain to the screws that holds plastic shroud on.

acl wrote on 2023-10-09, 17:36:

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-10-09, 10:49:

Just got this little bit more uncommon GeForce card, Medion GF4 MX460. I quite like these 440s and 460s as if you are not aiming for something specifically period correct, these are a great alternative for top-end GF2 cards: they offer similar performance as they are just tweaked NV15 (with even passive cooling) and still far better image quality.

I have the exact same one, unfortunately not working.
But I agree. These 440 and 460 are very decent cards. And generally (relatively) cheap too.

I agree. Passively cooled GeForce 4 MXs (make sure it's 128-bit) are highly underrated and easily obtainable compared to a high end GeForce 2, and perform similarly or better. They are also a better fit for underpowered CPUs which may actually perform worse with an FX series CPU, which are driver optimized for faster processors.

I suspect that some of what used to be hardware acceleration was moved back onto the CPU for these later generations to save on silicon, but there is a noticable impact when paired with pre-Coppermine (SSE) processors. This is one of the reasons older drivers may perform better; the optimizations may be using a code path that is less of a burden on the CPU.

Logitech z623. Meh, klipsch promedia 2.1 pack a bigger punch

Still waiting for MSI via kt266 motherboard in the post. Want to test voodoo3 agp in an environment with a little more leg room. Kt400 is nice but doesn't accept 3.3v agp

gmaverick2k wrote on 2023-10-10, 06:20:

Logitech z623. Meh, klipsch promedia 2.1 pack a bigger punch

I have a set of old Z680's wonder how they would compare.

acl wrote on 2023-10-09, 17:36:

But I agree. These 440 and 460 are very decent cards. And generally (relatively) cheap too.

Exactly. Compared to GF2 ti or Ultra cards, these are very affordable. I paid 14€+shipping of this and nowadays it is difficult to find any GF2 except MX200/400 cards for similar price. And you literally get the performance of high-end GF2 from these added with better image quality, so if you don't want to specifically have a GF2 for a 100% period correct build, these are IMO actually better option.

dormcat wrote on 2023-10-01, 11:56:

Is that price tested or untested? If untested then it's quite a gamble. […]
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H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-10-01, 10:23:

Couldn't help myself today at the recycling station's shop ... GTX285 1GiB for DKK 50, that's less than US$ 7.50. Don't know I'll be using it for, but too cheap to ignore 🤣

Is that price tested or untested? If untested then it's quite a gamble.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-10-01, 10:23:

The guy at the counter told me that if I'm into older hardware, I should come by more often, as they sometimes throw stuff out (well recycle it) because it's been sitting on the shelf for too long 😮

Living near such a place is always a nice thing. 😄

It did however work - at least for the "all reference" test ... It's power supply circuitry is a bit noisy, though 🤣

[edit] tested on my daily driver i7-9700

I just scored a Wind Tunnel.. Erm sorry, a Power Mac G4 MDD, dual-CPU 1GHz. Also had a SCSI and a USB2.0 card present. GPU is still unknown as of yet.

Although there is a catch: it has a lot of missing parts, the HDD/ODD carriers are gone, the PSU has went God-knows-where, it's a basket case, but I'm always down for a good challenge, so I'll try resurrecting this little fella.

Bought this nice CRT Olivetti monochrome monitor for 15€.

Image quality is better than I expected.

I'm using it for my UNIX System V/386 build.

Nice, yeah I remember Olivettis being really crisp and good for WYSYWIG word processing.

i wanted something other than a geforce 256 for my dell precision 220.
so i finally joined the voodoo5 club.
i wasn't planning on going boxed but, this one popped up for less than what the non-boxed ones were going for.
i shouldn't be happy about paying $300 for this but, you guys know how it is.
sellers photos. one heatsink seems a bit crooked, not really sure why. guess we'll see.
super excited and i'll post more photos once it's finally installed.

I've seen them a couple of degrees off straight from the factory, but that one looks a bit more than that. It's like, of course you overpaid, Voodoo prices are crazy, but if you were bound and determined to get one, I think you did well.