eBay is your friend. 2MB should be easy. 4MB not so much. I have planty 2MB VLB cards but only one 4MB.

There are basic 2MB cards - like Cirrus logic 542X/30, S3 805, Tseng ET4000AX/w32, S3 Trio32 that don't support memory interleaving and newer like Cirrus logic 5434, S3 86X/96X, Tseng ET4000/w32i(p), Ati Mach64... that support it and almost double performance in Windows with proper drivers. DOS doesn't take any advantage.

You can definitely find 2MB VLB cards on eBay often enough (I've grabbed a couple myself this way). I don't know of any specific source that would be easier to find them from... as with anything else retro hardware, it's about patience really. Just gotta keep checking the usual places like eBay, craigslist, local thrift stores, etc... eventually you get lucky.

Here are a few: Can't say for sure if they actually have at least 2MB, but that is what they are listed as having, and/or are upgradeable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Daewoo-9910102800-VL … rd/192358637014 (ATI Mach 32)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cirrus-Logic-CL-GD54 … rd/182798335641 (CL)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cirrus-Logic-VGA-A3B … rd/182662907325 (CL)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PALM-VL-BUS-REV-B-3- … rd/182402389480 (CL) I/O + VGA
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cirrus-Logic-CL-GD54 … rd/182366723211 (CL)

cyclone3d wrote:

Here are a few: Can't say for sure if they actually have at least 2MB, but that is what they are listed as having, and/or are up […]
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Here are a few: Can't say for sure if they actually have at least 2MB, but that is what they are listed as having, and/or are upgradeable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Daewoo-9910102800-VL … rd/192358637014 (ATI Mach 32)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cirrus-Logic-CL-GD54 … rd/182798335641 (CL)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cirrus-Logic-VGA-A3B … rd/182662907325 (CL)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PALM-VL-BUS-REV-B-3- … rd/182402389480 (CL) I/O + VGA
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cirrus-Logic-CL-GD54 … rd/182366723211 (CL)

I've looked at all those and it looks like they're all actually 1Mb cards (from what I can tell using tiny thumbnails).
Lots of empty sockets on some of them, or solder pads for more DRAM chips.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. The search continues :'(

At least the 2nd, 3th and the last one has 8x 256k chips of ram and look like 2mb cards to me?

2MB cards with interleaving are out there, just be patient. I'm waiting for one with a fair price to fall into my lap since I've been using windows quite a bit on my machine. I think plenty of us search for them and not enough get posted for our collections these days.

If you're using ebay I suggest you search up the models you want i.e. mach 64 VLB and "follow" them. I get notifications for decent things now and then this way. I think the issue is they sell quite fast. Usually the better cards sell in under a day if the price is reasonable enough. So you really have to be on top of it when using the net. Lots of ISA sound cards and voodoo cards go this way too.. Follow them and sit back.

4MB cards are unicorns as far as my searches go. At that point I think it's best to just grab a PCI board now.

meljor wrote:

At least the 2nd, 3th and the last one has 8x 256k chips of ram and look like 2mb cards to me?

Those are all 1MB cards.

kixs wrote:

meljor wrote:

At least the 2nd, 3th and the last one has 8x 256k chips of ram and look like 2mb cards to me?

Those are all 1MB cards.

That daewoo mach 32 seems to have a pair of sockets for an upgrade to 2mb, but do they do interleaving? I need to get a list together of cards supporting it as well.

Mach32 doesn't support memory interleaving.

I feel like I remember seeing a ton of these things a few years back. Now they've become uncommon/expensive like everything else from the era. 😵

kixs wrote:

meljor wrote:

At least the 2nd, 3th and the last one has 8x 256k chips of ram and look like 2mb cards to me?

Those are all 1MB cards.

Ok, my bad.

meljor wrote:

kixs wrote:

meljor wrote:

At least the 2nd, 3th and the last one has 8x 256k chips of ram and look like 2mb cards to me?

Those are all 1MB cards.

Ok, my bad.

Haha Meljor you got my hopes up. I was trying to zoom in to read the chips.

You definitely need to check the chips. But those are 256x4bit. You multi by 8 chips and divide by 8 to get bytes (in this case they cancel out). You end up with 1024KB.

2MB VLB cards are common, but they usually have only 1MB installed and you have to find matching RAM (DRAM or VRAM depending on the board).

4MB VLB cards are rare, and unless you really need 16bit or greater color depth under higher then normal resolution then why bother.

I do have a lot VLB graphic cards laying around.. I think i have two 4MB versions of the diamond stealth 64 VLB.. Also got 2MB models..

Most are S3 cards (guess two 805chip, one 829 chip, and most others are better then those.)
Got one WD-6000VL WD90C33-ZZ
Got CLxx28
Also a lot of Tseng ET4000 / W32
Two tseng normal ET4000.
Two or three ATI Mach 32VLB

And its true that the 4MB versions wont add more to a dos gaming pc.. Those are only in advanced when running an OS like windows 95

kixs wrote:

You definitely need to check the chips. But those are 256x4bit. You multi by 8 chips and divide by 8 to get bytes (in this case they cancel out). You end up with 1024KB.

Ok, so if i take for example the second card from those links: It has the 1mb memory like you said. It also has 4 pads next to it that says 256kx16.

If you would populate these would it be: 256x16 (=4096) multi by 4 (pads) = 16384 divide by 8 = 2048kb upgradeable? Am i doing it right?

3mb total doesn't seem right so it's probably not meant to be used together?

Teach me 🤣

Trident 9400CXi is also an option, comes with 1 Mb on board, expandable to 2 Mb. It also doesn't suck(TM).

meljor wrote:

Ok, so if i take for example the second card from those links: It has the 1mb memory like you said. It also has 4 pads next to i […]
Show full quote

kixs wrote:

You definitely need to check the chips. But those are 256x4bit. You multi by 8 chips and divide by 8 to get bytes (in this case they cancel out). You end up with 1024KB.

Ok, so if i take for example the second card from those links: It has the 1mb memory like you said. It also has 4 pads next to it that says 256kx16.

If you would populate these would it be: 256x16 (=4096) multi by 4 (pads) = 16384 divide by 8 = 2048kb upgradeable? Am i doing it right?

3mb total doesn't seem right so it's probably not meant to be used together?

Teach me 🤣

Your math is right 😉

In that case some banks would stayed empty - without sockets. Although I have one S3 805 that has sockets for 8 DIP chips - 256x4 and 4 sockets for SOJ chips - 256x16. At the moment populated with 1MB dips and 1MB of SOJ. Might try to populate all to see what happens as 3MB isn't possible and I don't think these chipsets support more then 2MB.

Thank you, learn something new everyday!