VOGONS


First post, by Hamby

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So after getting some great advice for the video card to get for my 486 build, I'm most likely going to go with either an S3 Virge, or a Tseng ET4000 w32p.
(and I've decided to get an ET3000 for my upcoming 286 build, if I can find one I can afford 🤣).

But, most all the cards of these makes I've seen come with 1 or 2mb of ram, but have empty sockets to expand the ram up to 4mb. Which would be nice.

Are such chips still available aside from cannibalizing them from another card?
Or should I give up on the idea of expanding the video ram?

Reply 2 of 5, by dionb

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Are you talking VLB or PCI here?

VLB cards with 1MB and sockets for a second MB are quite common, cards with 2MB are uncommon, but 2MB with sockets for 2 more is exceedingly rare. If you know where they can be gotten affordably, let me know 😜

Also be aware that a lot of VLB chipsets can work with 2MB/4MB, but frequently are limited in the added value - many can only do obscure interlaced modes with the extra RAM, making it almost pointless.

If it's PCI, you hace more choice, but it's also easy to find 4MB cards, so not a huge point there. In general you can cannibalize other cards, ideally dead ones. Almost all expandable cards have the same DRAM chips, either 1Mb/128kB DIP or 4Mb/512kB SOJ package. Ensure the latency (the -x number at the end of the model string) is the same or lower than on the chips already on the card and you are good.

Reply 3 of 5, by acl

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Vogons user Tiido recommended me utsource for additional memory chips for my ATI Mach64 CT.
It is usually much cheaper than ebay/aliExpress with tons of parts.

At first, i wanted to steal modules from ram sticks, but it was a silly idea (refresh issue)
(original topic : ATi Mach64 WinBoost - Memory expansion chips)

"Hello, my friend. Stay awhile and listen..."
My collection (not up to date)

Reply 4 of 5, by BloodyCactus

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unless your running windows, probably not worth it. games and such dont use the memory, its really only for hires images. a 1024x768 16bit image is 1.5mb..
and doing games that need vesa 800x600 or something on a 486 is probably not a good idea either 😀

--/\-[ Stu : Bloody Cactus :: [ https://bloodycactus.com :: http://kråketær.com ]-/\--

Reply 5 of 5, by mkarcher

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acl wrote on 2023-01-26, 15:18:

Vogons user Tiido recommended me utsource for additional memory chips for my ATI Mach64 CT.

I keep my fingers crossed that you can actually get a decent amount of chips for the price listed on the web page. You might need it. Furthermore, utsource has a considerable order fee for "low-volume" orders, so just ordering 8 chips at utsource is quite expensive, even if you can get the chips at a low item price.