Last time I messed with socket 939 I found it was tweaky as all hell and only liked certain RAM sticks installed during the right lunar alignments.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Today, 03:27:

I was testing some video cards today and I've been running into a really annoying problem when using Wintune97. Sometimes it lists the wrong Video Card as being in the system and I can't seem to find any way to make it list the right one. When this happens it will list some different card that I have had in the system at some point. Right now it keeps saying I have a Trident Blade3D even though I'm testing an SIS 6326 (all drivers installed and Windows lists it properly). I have tried deleting all references to the one it is detecting from the Windows registry, and I have even tried starting Wintune with the database file deleted\moved so it has to start a fresh database... it still finds the same wrong video card.

Anyone have any idea where it is finding the video card and what I can do to delete or reset this? I wouldn't even care that it gets it wrong once in a while if I could just correct it manually or have it detect it again... but I don't want benchmark runs to be tainted with incorrect specs that can't be fixed.

This is all under Windows 98SE.

The ghost in the machine.

I may have just found the slowest AGP video card I've ever come across.

It is a generic S3 Trio3D/2X that is only 4MB... and I think it is configured for only half the usual memory bus width. The card's memory is also clocked at 83Mhz, vs 100Mhz for better cards (like the Diamond Speedstar A55).

All of the other Trio3D/2X cards I have found were 8MB and had memory chips on both sides (either two on each or four on each). This one just has four on the front side with nothing on the back. Performance is ridiculously bad... Even in Wintune97, it manages only 20mp vs the 32mp I get with the Speedstar A55 or another generic 3D/2X card, both of which have two chips on each side. So I am inclined to say this one has half the memory bus.

The memory chips on the card are shorter than most SDRAM chips (not sure what this package is called) and are super generic looking. They say 9915 USA 616181-8.

Anyway, in some fairly light games it is an unusable slide show at 640x480, where as the other 3D/2X cards are not great but are totally playable.

I am going to set this gem aside, just in case I find any other contenders for the slowest AGP card. If I find a few, I may have to do some more benchmarks... 😅

(I'm not counting pro-oriented cards that are obviously way more powerful but are only barely able to run games due drivers not being meant for it.)

EDIT: Definitely something extra slow about this card. SIV was able to tell me that it has a core clock of 66Mhz and a memory clock of 83Mhz. Another generic card (8MB with 4 chips on each side) I have also has those same clocks and manages 25mp in Wintune97. So, something is making this thing 25% slower. The Speedstar A55 is clocked at 80Mhz core, 100Mhz memory, and scores 32mp by comparison... which seems about right for the difference over the 25mp card, but is nowhere near enough to account for a 60% performance improvement over the slow card.

Not really a retro activity, but something that made me smile. In out local newspaper (https://www.lenouvelliste.ch/suisse/pfas-dans … romande-1484222) the image used for this article's illustration published today is an AMD K7 😉

Minutemanqvs wrote on Today, 06:43:

Not really a retro activity, but something that made me smile. In out local newspaper (https://www.lenouvelliste.ch/suisse/pfas- […]
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Not really a retro activity, but something that made me smile. In out local newspaper (https://www.lenouvelliste.ch/suisse/pfas-dans … romande-1484222) the image used for this article's illustration published today is an AMD K7 😉

Haha! I love it!

Hey, if they can reduce pollutants by keeping all the K7 processors out of landfills, that's great. Not sure how much of an impact that will have, but more Slot A retro PCs and lest waste is always good. Maybe they are planning to produce Slot A motherboards to satisfy demand? (I'm kidding btw.) 😁

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 18:16:

AppleSauce wrote on Yesterday, 01:43:

I've mostly been mucking about with my FM Towns computer that i acquired about a year ago, I went through a whole journey of acq […]
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I've mostly been mucking about with my FM Towns computer that i acquired about a year ago, I went through a whole journey of acquiring parts , doing lots of repair work , especially on the Towns crt that got damaged in transit , and dealing with OS stuff.

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These ase seriously cool computers, it is awesome that you got it fixed. Looks stunning!

Cheers , I'm just glad its all up and running.

BitWrangler wrote on Today, 04:43:

Last time I messed with socket 939 I found it was tweaky as all hell and only liked certain RAM sticks installed during the right lunar alignments.

HEHEHEH indeed it is that finicky! it seems the planet were not aligned correctly for me

Ozzuneoj wrote on Today, 05:28:

I think it is configured for only half the usual memory bus width. The card's memory is also clocked at 83Mhz... I am going to set this gem aside, just in case I find any other contenders for the slowest AGP card. If I find a few, I may have to do some more benchmarks... 😅

Congratulations.

That is a challenge. If you play fair and install actual S3 Trio3D drivers, are those drivers going to push 3D rendering the CPU? Would S3 ViRGE 3D divers inflict even more pain by directing that workload to the VPU?

I do have a ViRGE DX with removable VRAM, but alas it's a PCI card so I'm out. Best of luck! 😀