VOGONS


Are GeForce 256 DDR cards that rare?

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First post, by dexvx

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I bought one back in the day, and was looking to re-purchase a GeForce 256 DDR. Surprisingly, none showed up on eBay (active or sold save for a box of an Asus V6800). Are they truly that rare? I see more TNT/Voodoo cards on eBay. Or maybe my search parameters are off?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_ … rocessing_units

So I checked the history. Looks like GeForce 256 DDR was released Feb 2000 (I actually found an Anandtech review of one in Dec 1999, so that seems a little inaccurate). Whereas the followup GeForce 2MX and GeForce 2 GTS was released just 6 months later. Since the product cycle was so fast, I would assume that would account for why the GeForce 256 has low quantities. But still... it just seems odd.

Reply 1 of 318, by Tetrium

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I've understood they weren't, but I never actually found any in the wild. But I found many more GF2 and MX cards. Also found much more TNT2 (which in a way could be described as a GF0).

I do have to say I never specifically looked for them and I assume I did miss a couple opportunities to acquire one but I reckoned I was better of using a 2MX.

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Reply 2 of 318, by vetz

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There are relative easy to find if you extend your search. I own two DDR cards and one SDR. The trick is to search for the card names, like Creative Annihilator, or Canopus Spectra 7400

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Reply 3 of 318, by PhilsComputerLab

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I found the same when I reviewed the SDR and DDR versions of those cards. I got mine years ago, and even they I had to pay significanlty more than other cards.

A good substitute is the GeForce2 MX 400, in performance at least and should be super easy to find 😀

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Reply 4 of 318, by TheAbandonwareGuy

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I've been searching for a year right now. Still haven't found one state side. The only card I do know of for sale currently is an SDR (ELSA Erazor X) for 45 euros and it's in Europe.

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Reply 5 of 318, by sprcorreia

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I've had about 6/7 of those cards, boxed and unboxed. They weren't that difficult to find in the past. Now I only have one, an Elsa Erazor X2.

Reply 6 of 318, by deleted_Rc

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The 256 are hard to find because they were to expensive, released to fast after the legacy riva (minimal improvement) and another was released soon after it, making the 256 not well liked.
I still have active searches for the v6800, to replace my current sd version with it (couldn't find one, had to buy a full system to get one.

Reply 7 of 318, by Jo22

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By the way what does the "256" stand for ? That's not the amount of colours it supports, I suppose. 😉

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Reply 8 of 318, by dexvx

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No idea what the "256" stands for for GeForce 256. Memory bus is 128 bit. Nothing else seems to match 256.

From what I remember, the SDR version was barely an improvement over an overclocked TNT2, mainly because it was memory bandwidth limited. So its fill rate was more or less under-utilized. GeForce 256 DDR greatly improved the memory bandwidth, and even without T&L, would stomp the current competition. It debuted at $300 retail, but I remember picking it a Creative Annihilator Pro OEM in the spring for $175. In hindsight, it wasn't a great idea because GeForce 2 GTS and the cheaper MX variants came out just a few months later. But it did prove good enough for me that I didn't upgrade until a GeForce 4 Ti.

Reply 10 of 318, by Scali

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lazibayer wrote:
Jo22 wrote:

By the way what does the "256" stand for ? That's not the amount of colours it supports, I suppose. 😉

GeForce 256 has a 256-bit rendering engine.

More specifically, it has 4 pipelines of 64-bit each, 'Quadpipe Rendering Engine'.

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Reply 11 of 318, by kanecvr

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dexvx wrote:

From what I remember, the SDR version was barely an improvement over an overclocked TNT2, mainly because it was memory bandwidth limited. So its fill rate was more or less under-utilized. GeForce 256 DDR greatly improved the memory bandwidth, and even without T&L, would stomp the current competition. It debuted at $300 retail, but I remember picking it a Creative Annihilator Pro OEM in the spring for $175.

... nope.

On average the GF 256 SDR is 2-2.5 times faster then a TNT2 Ultra.

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They are quite rare. I had to go to quite a few lengths to get my GF 256 SRD sample, witch seems to a be an OEM card made by creative. I've yet to find a DDR version.

Reply 12 of 318, by meljor

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At the time the features of the geforce were not widely used in games and so the card wasn't much faster back then and felt as expensive. It was a good product, just a bit ahead of it's time.

By the time geforce2 came and people could actually see it was much faster (using 3dmark2000 for example with hardware tnl support) it was a much easier sell for Nvidia.

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Reply 13 of 318, by PhilsComputerLab

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These also don't help for availability and prices 😁

256 DDR review: https://youtu.be/Ndm1hjrE-Pw

256 SDR review: https://youtu.be/wuV3H0pzc4g

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Reply 14 of 318, by swaaye

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Something I've noticed about GF256 is that it doesn't run as smoothly as the frame rate would seem to indicate. Frame time issues I suppose. When I swap in a GeForce2 or TNT2, the gameplay is smoother.

NV15 is really just a tweaked and bug fixed NV10 so who knows what's up.

Reply 15 of 318, by PhilsComputerLab

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swaaye wrote:

Something I've noticed about GF256 is that it doesn't run as smoothly as the frame rate would seem to indicate. Frame time issues I suppose. When I swap in a GeForce2 or TNT2, the gameplay is smoother.

NV15 is really just a tweaked and bug fixed NV10 so who knows what's up.

Very interesting. Something to keep an eye out for!

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Reply 16 of 318, by Jo22

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Dagoth Moor Zoological Gardens - GeForce 256 T&L demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0jJwGaAIc4

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Reply 17 of 318, by melbar

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I am sad that i've scrapped this Asus card years ago.... 😢

It would be a nice card today and not cheap anymore...

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Reply 18 of 318, by Darkman

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its not necessarily rare , just hard to find on ebay and such .
searching for "geforce 256" , will just give you a whole bunch of much later cards, its much better to look for a specific model

Reply 19 of 318, by kanecvr

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The GF256 is rare because the chances of finding one at a recycling center, flea market or the average sales / trade website are almost nought. Yes, they do occasionally pop up on ebay, but so do Voodoo 5 cards and those are considered rare. A 256 is rarer then a voodoo 2 or voodoo 3, and in my neck of the woods even the voodoo 1. As I see it, the geforce 256 is rarer then a V5 - the DDR version even more so, since I've come across V5 cards a few times, but have only been able to get one working GF 256 (SDR) and one dead 64 bit Asus gf256 (also SDR). Never came across a DDR equipped card so far.

It's interesting to have one to complete your nvidia lineup if you collect, but it's not really worth using. A geforce 2 MX400 will perform similarly and is much easier to source.