PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:45:

Best for retro? Sure, I didn't say otherwise.

Just don't cool them passively. Bumpgate chips (anything between GF6-GF8 era, some GF9 but mainly 6-8 series) don't like being used at temps higher than 70.

The 7800GTX-7900GTX cards are very well cooled. I posted pictures earlier. They are also in modern cases, with 12cm fans front and back.

Benchmarking old IDE hard drives from the mid-2000s using HD Tune, HD Tach and Roadkil's Disk speed. I found that most of them performed about the same, with read/write speeds between 20-70MB/s, and access times between 12-15ms. I'd like to get hold of a SCSI drive to compare as I've heard that they had the best performance back in the day.

Of course an SSD would wipe the floor with all of them but I choose not to use those in my DOS/9x machines, it just doesn't feel right. Besides that's not retro is it? 😀

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:17:

Geforce 6 and 7 have no business being passive period. Those are bumpgate era.

Yep, i absolutely agree. The only reason i like cards like this is that if they are still alive they can be easily modded to have very good and quiet cooling. This one even has fan connector.

Cards with small inadequate active coolers are harder to fix because finding good coolers for this cards is not easy at this point...

DarthSun wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:58:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:45:

Best for retro? Sure, I didn't say otherwise.

Just don't cool them passively. Bumpgate chips (anything between GF6-GF8 era, some GF9 but mainly 6-8 series) don't like being used at temps higher than 70.

The 7800GTX-7900GTX cards are very well cooled. I posted pictures earlier. They are also in modern cases, with 12cm fans front and back.

7800GTX and 7900GTX are always active cooled. Geforce 6/7 in its entirety should NEVER be passively cooled.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-13, 00:18:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:58:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:45:

Best for retro? Sure, I didn't say otherwise.

Just don't cool them passively. Bumpgate chips (anything between GF6-GF8 era, some GF9 but mainly 6-8 series) don't like being used at temps higher than 70.

The 7800GTX-7900GTX cards are very well cooled. I posted pictures earlier. They are also in modern cases, with 12cm fans front and back.

7800GTX and 7900GTX are always active cooled. Geforce 6/7 in its entirety should NEVER be passively cooled.

I think even the 6800GT has pretty good cooling, and it's also in a semi-modern case, with 12cm fans. It would break down sooner in an old, poorly ventilated case.

My point is that the silent made GF6 and 7 cards (like a 7600GS Gigabyte AGP I recently scored, model GV-N76G256D-RH) need to have an active cooling installed ASAP. They come from the bumpgate era and as such must not hit more than 65-70*C, which requires active (fan) cooling. Similarly Archer57's 7300 AGP should have a HSF solution installed IMO.

Rebuilt the IBM model 70 from type 2 to type 3 motherboard that now 25MHz 386DX with 64K cache. I was lucky to find this board for good price with set of 4x 2MB SIMMs installed. Need to make a adapter cable to reuse the battery/speaker wire plug assembly. Have pinouts of both types pin type and edge connector from the famous website.

Cheers,

I thought bumpgate was from the GeForce 8 era.

Wavetable Pi PCBs arrived today from PCBWay! Ordered 10, they sent 11! Not going to complain.

I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Can't wait to get this built, attached to my PicoGUS, and back in my DOS system!

I've got enough parts on hand to build 4 of these (4 unused Pi Zero 2W on the shelf)....going to have seven extra PCBs. Oh well, I'll figure out something. 🤣

Kahenraz wrote on 2025-08-14, 16:08:

I thought bumpgate was from the GeForce 8 era.

6 and 7 too. Seen a lot of duds of the eras, similar in symptoms to GF8.

StriderTR wrote on 2025-08-14, 16:43:

Wavetable Pi PCBs arrived today from PCBWay! Ordered 10, they sent 11! Not going to complain. […]
Show full quote

Wavetable Pi PCBs arrived today from PCBWay! Ordered 10, they sent 11! Not going to complain.

I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Can't wait to get this built, attached to my PicoGUS, and back in my DOS system!

I've got enough parts on hand to build 4 of these (4 unused Pi Zero 2W on the shelf)....going to have seven extra PCBs. Oh well, I'll figure out something. 🤣

That purple board, is it an amplifier?

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-14, 18:42:

Kahenraz wrote on 2025-08-14, 16:08:

I thought bumpgate was from the GeForce 8 era.

6 and 7 too. Seen a lot of duds of the eras, similar in symptoms to GF8.

With the exception of 130nm IBM manufactured GF6 chips, so most of 6800 cards.

dominusprog wrote on 2025-08-14, 22:30:

That purple board, is it an amplifier?

Stereo I2S DAC. 😀

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09C5QX228?ref=ppx_ … _fed_asin_title

Cards manufactured with good cooling, 6800GT-AGP, PCIe QFX4500(NV7800GTX), PCIe NV7900GTX are fine, but they should not be installed in a contemporary case, but in a good, modern/semi-modern case with a 12cm fan.

Will have to abandon the original cooling on this one for a proper active cooling (heatsink + fan). Not taking my chances with GF7, especially AGP.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-15, 10:10:

Will have to abandon the original cooling on this one for a proper active cooling (heatsink + fan). Not taking my chances with G […]
Show full quote

Will have to abandon the original cooling on this one for a proper active cooling (heatsink + fan). Not taking my chances with GF7, especially AGP.

Well, i've played around with my card which is somewhat similar and there is one way to deal with it - if you put a fan next to it in case side cover it is incredibly effective. Like stays at 45C under load. It is a large heatsink after all... not sure replacing it with smaller heatsink + a fan is a good idea.

But yeah, i've never seen any of this passive cards stay at reasonable temperature without good airflow. They always cook themselves...

Also getting trolled by junk sellers today.

First i received AGP HD3850 "tested, worked, cleaned". Looked fine, clean and everything. Powered on, was way too hot, powered off, opened and it was indeed cleaned and assembled with no thermal compound at all. What the hell...

Then got 8800GT "used a decade ago, not tested, not cleaned, as is" with thermaltake duorb (got it for the price of the cooler because i wanted the cooler). Opened it up right away remembering previous one and... yeah, fresh "mayonnaise", probably applied with a spoon:

Interestingly the card is in pretty good state, probably works, have not tested yet. Regardless i am happy with the cooler for the price, will probably go onto those HD3850 and 8800GT will get one of the coolers salvaged from random modern dead cards.

And then another 8800GT, "tested, working, perfect condition":

Yeah... The fan is completely seized, hopeless and is a part of the shroud too. This one is getting a one star review for sure, hope the card works after i swap this "the most dead caps i've ever seen"...

Honestly i do not get it, this card was cheap, why lie like this? Does not it feel bad to be a jerk? And for what? So little money that i can not even be bothered to package it back for a return... people are weird...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-08-15, 10:39:

I loved the "orb" series. This one looked very nice.
The XGI Volari had a nice cooler design (not as effective).

Nexxen wrote on 2025-08-15, 11:20:

I loved the "orb" series. This one looked very nice.
The XGI Volari had a nice cooler design (not as effective).

Yep, i like this coolers too, they look different from everything else which is so rare nowadays. Was looking for one for a long time...

Also this temperatures are nice!

That's what i like to see, it gives me hope that the card was not abused and would last.

I have one of those Zalman coolers (with a GB logo no less) but I'll need to figure why is it still noisy. Failing that I'll need to improvise a new one in place of the old fan.

Polished up these two 550 MHz / 2MB workhorses:

The old cooling paste looked more like dried up toothpaste and it was quite tedious to get off. Alcohol, white spirit and sticker remover did the trick eventually.