So this is more like: "I discovered I had these (retro) hardware a mere four days ago."
I was delighted to find a really nice, factory overclocked Asus GTX 750 Ti with two fans atop an oversized (for a 750 TI) heatsink. I don't remember where it came from, why or when I bought it, and how it ended up in a Radeon HD 4890 box on my shelf. You know you have way too much stuff when...

Anyway, with the card in hand I decided to give my Pentium M a little upgrade! That machine was somewhat ironically rocking a GTX 280 a few days ago. Yeah, a 25w CPU paired with a 250w GPU. Now, with the much more efficient GTX 750 Ti installed, it just feels like a much better-balanced rig & it definitely produces less heat! Windows XP D3D 8-9c gaming performance at 1600x1200 feels about the same as before (which is to say, absolutely great).

Since the 750 Ti is Maxwell-based and supports WDDM 2.7 drivers, I decided to throw Win10 on a spare SSD just to see how an overclocked and fully video-accelerated Pentium M would handle it. The answer: surprisingly well! Win10 actually does a fine job of shrinking its footprint on 2 GB systems, and idle memory usage at the desktop is only about 5% higher than a fully patched Win7 on the same config.

I was more than surprised to see the latest Edge work on Pentium M. After all, Chrome started requiring SSE3 ages ago, and as you probably all know by now, Edge is a Chromium-based browser. And not only did it work, but web browsing wasn't even all that bad for a single core processor. I had included a Firefox installer on my flash drive just in case Edge refused to start on SSE2-only Dothan, but I didn't even need it! In fact, Edge felt faster than Firefox, and with the h264ify extension installed, the system even handled 1080p, 60 fps YouTube content just fine. I could even semi-smoothly scroll the web page whilst a video was playing! Bonkers man, just bonkers.

Everyone says that modern software is terribly slow and unoptimized, but you know, after seeing this setup in action today, I beg to differ. Now of course, had I tried Win10 on the original GTX 280 video card (which I believe is limited to WDDM 1.0 or 1.1), I'd probably be telling a different story. Hell, had I not gone ahead and disabled Windows Update before plugging in the ethernet cable, I'd likely still be waiting for the .NET 4.8 March 2023 Security Update to hand back control of my single core CPU.

ODwilly wrote on 2023-03-28, 07:17:

Didn't buy this today but just happened to check prices and availability. The Zalmann USA store has it in stock for $32. https://zalmanusa.com/products/cnps9900-max

Nice find! I see they also have the 9500 in stock which covers socket 939 and 775! Picked one up for my 939 build, thanks

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-28, 14:09:

Wow, fantastic find!

I hope you're able to get it working.

If you don't normally do chip replacements like that, I would suggest practicing on less rare cards first. If you know what you're doing though, have at it! 😀

Well the ram chip arrived:

two tiny 100nf caps are back at their places:

now it's a happy Volari v5 completely artifact free, yay.

How did you figure out which RAM chip to replace? Did you replace them all or one at a time until the problem went away?

Karbist wrote on 2023-03-29, 12:22:

Well the ram chip arrived: […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-28, 14:09:

Wow, fantastic find!

I hope you're able to get it working.

If you don't normally do chip replacements like that, I would suggest practicing on less rare cards first. If you know what you're doing though, have at it! 😀

Well the ram chip arrived:

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

two tiny 100nf caps are back at their places:

The attachment 2.jpg is no longer available

now it's a happy Volari v5 completely artifact free, yay.

The attachment 3.JPG is no longer available

Awesome! Great find and good thing it went into the hands of a capable collector!👍👍

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-03-29, 13:12:

How did you figure out which RAM chip to replace? Did you replace them all or one at a time until the problem went away?

One chip was visibly damaged. See Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

ATi_Loyalist wrote on 2023-03-29, 04:40:

ODwilly wrote on 2023-03-28, 07:17:

Didn't buy this today but just happened to check prices and availability. The Zalmann USA store has it in stock for $32. https://zalmanusa.com/products/cnps9900-max

Nice find! I see they also have the 9500 in stock which covers socket 939 and 775! Picked one up for my 939 build, thanks

Awesome! Btw if it lists am2-3+ support it should work for 754 and 939 as well. At least in the past Iv robbed stock 754 brackets to use with a Am3+ board

The result with the Volaris.. Is it ok ? I remeber back then the annoucment of the "vaporware" volari duo ".

nuno14272 wrote on 2023-03-29, 15:20:

The result with the Volaris.. Is it ok ? I remeber back then the annoucment of the "vaporware" volari duo ".

Well, seems like someone actually tested it at one point, so who knows.....
http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/volari-duo/index-part2.html

nuno14272 wrote on 2023-03-29, 15:20:

The result with the Volaris.. Is it ok ? I remeber back then the annoucment of the "vaporware" volari duo ".

They V8 duo cards weren't vaporware at all they were released for sale. The computer shop by my house had their whole line up for sale. They weren't even that bad the hardware was solid they were let down by their drivers.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-29, 19:17:

nuno14272 wrote on 2023-03-29, 15:20:

The result with the Volaris.. Is it ok ? I remeber back then the annoucment of the "vaporware" volari duo ".

They V8 duo cards weren't vaporware at all they were released for sale. The computer shop by my house had their whole line up for sale. They weren't even that bad the hardware was solid they were let down by their drivers.

Correct - not vaporware. Here’s mine.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-29, 19:17:

nuno14272 wrote on 2023-03-29, 15:20:

The result with the Volaris.. Is it ok ? I remeber back then the annoucment of the "vaporware" volari duo ".

They V8 duo cards weren't vaporware at all they were released for sale. The computer shop by my house had their whole line up for sale. They weren't even that bad the hardware was solid they were let down by their drivers.

I remember being really interested in these at the time because the hardware looked so promising. If they had been able to get the drivers in order they could have been a pretty serious contender at a crucial time in the GPU industry.

We had already lost 3dfx, Rendition, Trident, PowerVR, NumberNine and probably a dozen other smaller players in the desktop 3D gaming card market by 2001, but when the Matrox Parhelia, SIS Xabre and XGI Volari lines all flopped within a couple of years it was REAL sad to watch.

And then you had S3 (VIA) putting out pretty decent hardware with the Chrome cards for years and yet seemingly no one had them... I don't know what was going on there and who was funding all that development if no one bought the cards and the drivers were only so-so. I don't think I was even aware that they were putting cards out until several years later looking at the history of S3. I mean, they have DX10.1 level discrete cards out there somewhere, and DX11 level integrated graphics. Out of the hundreds of cards I've handled and the thousands I've looked at, the latest S3 card that has been within my price range to purchase (and I did) was a Savage 2000 64MB DDR, and yet they made hardware for more than 10 years after that. 🤷

(Also... Artex, what don't you have? 😁)

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-03-29, 20:10:

I remember being really interested in these at the time because the hardware looked so promising. If they had been able to get t […]
Show full quote

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-29, 19:17:

nuno14272 wrote on 2023-03-29, 15:20:

The result with the Volaris.. Is it ok ? I remeber back then the annoucment of the "vaporware" volari duo ".

They V8 duo cards weren't vaporware at all they were released for sale. The computer shop by my house had their whole line up for sale. They weren't even that bad the hardware was solid they were let down by their drivers.

I remember being really interested in these at the time because the hardware looked so promising. If they had been able to get the drivers in order they could have been a pretty serious contender at a crucial time in the GPU industry.

We had already lost 3dfx, Rendition, Trident, PowerVR, NumberNine and probably a dozen other smaller players in the desktop 3D gaming card market by 2001, but when the Matrox Parhelia, SIS Xabre and XGI Volari lines all flopped within a couple of years it was REAL sad to watch.

And then you had S3 (VIA) putting out pretty decent hardware with the Chrome cards for years and yet seemingly no one had them... I don't know what was going on there and who was funding all that development if no one bought the cards and the drivers were only so-so. I don't think I was even aware that they were putting cards out until several years later looking at the history of S3. I mean, they have DX10.1 level discrete cards out there somewhere, and DX11 level integrated graphics. Out of the hundreds of cards I've handled and the thousands I've looked at, the latest S3 card that has been within my price range to purchase (and I did) was a Savage 2000 64MB DDR, and yet they made hardware for more than 10 years after that. 🤷

(Also... Artex, what don't you have? 😁)

I seriously wanted a volari V8 back when they were released. All of the review sites back then all said the hardware was solid and it just needed the software side refined and they would be good cards.

ExpertMedia MED1600

Doornkaat wrote on 2023-03-28, 09:57:

Meatball wrote on 2023-03-28, 00:50:

What is going on with the prices of these things now? I happened to snag this Vortex 2 on eBay for $30 shipped just a few days ago, but I'm seeing them go for over $100 regularly now... there's one up right now that is going to sell for at least $200.

What?🧐 I recently bought five of them NOS in bulk packaging for 75€ shipped.🤷‍♂️ Since when are they in such high demand?

Weird, just a few months ago I bought a Diamond MX300 for like $35 shipped, and I have a couple other Vortex cards laying around. Had no idea they were worth much of anything. Maybe the listings you guys are seeing are a fluke, or being manipulated?

Brawndo wrote on 2023-03-30, 04:34:

Doornkaat wrote on 2023-03-28, 09:57:

Meatball wrote on 2023-03-28, 00:50:

What is going on with the prices of these things now? I happened to snag this Vortex 2 on eBay for $30 shipped just a few days ago, but I'm seeing them go for over $100 regularly now... there's one up right now that is going to sell for at least $200.

What?🧐 I recently bought five of them NOS in bulk packaging for 75€ shipped.🤷‍♂️ Since when are they in such high demand?

Weird, just a few months ago I bought a Diamond MX300 for like $35 shipped, and I have a couple other Vortex cards laying around. Had no idea they were worth much of anything. Maybe the listings you guys are seeing are a fluke, or being manipulated?

The MX300 has always been a pricier model. I would love to find one for only $35 shipped. They usually go for a lot more and have for for quite a few years.

I do have multiple other Vortex 2 cards, just not that one.

ATi_Loyalist wrote on 2023-03-29, 04:40:

ODwilly wrote on 2023-03-28, 07:17:

Didn't buy this today but just happened to check prices and availability. The Zalmann USA store has it in stock for $32. https://zalmanusa.com/products/cnps9900-max

Nice find! I see they also have the 9500 in stock which covers socket 939 and 775! Picked one up for my 939 build, thanks

Oh, that link .. all ... that ... beautiful ... copper ... must ... resist ... 🤣

Bought this NIB Gigabyte Iram today, seems like a pretty cool way to use spare DDR to act as a SSD like device. Seller sates the battery seems fine but I will likely buy a new one for it as a spare, not sure if these can be recharged or not. (Yes they can be, says right on the battery doh)

Since this appears to the system as a normal HDD I wonder if 98 would install and run from it, would make for a fast 98 setup if so.

I love the Volari card's look - a real monster. I remember seeing them back in the day when I was working as a repair technician for a large IT hardware importer. They were larger and heavier then any other consumer GPU in production. We also got quite a few of them for RMA. There was nothing wrong with the cards, the issue actually was the client's PC. I remember a case where a client purchased a Volari Duo and installed it in a 933MHz pentium 3 with a 250w no-name power supply. The whole system would freeze as soon as it booted into windows.

At first he sent in the card alone - I tested the card it was perfectly fine and sent it back. Then he came into one of our stores and started complaining, so I had to drive to said store and have a look at his setup. He did not understand that the power supply was insufficient. I had to run his machine off a 550w Antec Truepower test PSU they had in the shop - and then he complained about how it got the same score as the Geforce 2 Pro he had before updating. I spent the better part of the day explaining CPU bottlenecks and power requirements. At the end of the day we setup a test rig consisting of an athlon XP 2200+ and his volari card, with predictable results -the test rig scored twice in 3dmark. He then bough a 2.5Ghz pentium 4 CPU and motherboard. What annoyed me is that the (substantial) sales commission went to one of the store workers despite me spending half the day with the client.

Don't know how retro this is, but I just got my hands on a complete in original box, MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition. That's HD 6950, not RX 6950, that was one of the fastest factory overclocked HD 6950 cards, AND had the added bonus of being unlockable to a full HD 6970. I didn't even really want it that badly, but I was the only ebay bidder, and got it for like $35 shipped. I had to settle for a HD 6870 during that time period, because I couldn't afford a 6900 series card, and a power supply that could handle it. 😒

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-03-30, 10:43:

Bought this NIB Gigabyte Iram today, seems like a pretty cool way to use spare DDR to act as a SSD like device. Seller sates the battery seems fine but I will likely buy a new one for it as a spare, not sure if these can be recharged or not. (Yes they can be, says right on the battery doh)

That's intriguing. I didn't know anything like this was produced for such a modern system. (If it's not ISA or *maybe* PCI it's "modern" ha ha)