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First post, by HansZ

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I recently acquired Geforce 256 SDR Guillemot 3d Prophet which only shows 16Mb of ram... All the info researched online points out there was no 16MB version, only 32 and up. Is this broken card or not?

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Last edited by HansZ on 2020-05-28, 19:27. Edited 4 times in total.

Reply 3 of 24, by darry

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Maybe somebody harvested some RAM for other purposes .

EDIT : I cannot find a single other example of a board with that lettering and only a VGA port . Maybe it's an OEM version or a counterfeit .
EDIT2 : 16MB matches up with the RAM that's on the board .

Reply 4 of 24, by imi

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if there are no chips on the back it's definitely 16MB as those are 2MB chips, are there unpopulated pads or nothing at all?

e: ok just found a picture of the back, apparently there's supposed to be memory there ^^
are there markings on the back? cause the one I found says "3D Prophet SE 32M"

picture of the back would be nice ^^

and the card works otherwise?

Reply 5 of 24, by darry

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imi wrote on 2020-05-28, 02:27:

if there are no chips on the back it's definitely 16MB as those are 2MB chips, are there unpopulated pads or nothing at all?

e: ok just found a picture of the back, apparently there's supposed to be memory there ^^
are there markings on the back? cause the one I found says "3D Prophet SE 32M"

Could you post a link ? I could not find a single one exactly like OP's on Google .

Reply 7 of 24, by imi

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http://vgamuseum.info/images/palcal/nvidia/86 … r_bottom_hq.jpg

the silkscreen differs slightly and it's branded guillemot instead of hercules, but otherwise it's the same.
guillemot bought hercules in 1999, and only reintroduced the branding in 2000 I believe, so that isn't all too strange I think.
http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/cards/item/23 … dia-geforce-256

OPs card is probably just an earlier model (PCB date seems to suggest so), while the pads don't all look super clean I can't say it looks like the RAM was removed after the fact, if so whoever did it did a good job, but if the card works fine I can't see why that would be the case anyways.

e: I can find a few references online to a 16MB version, also the same hercules card:
https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/ … /image/s_z1.jpg
https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/ … /image/s_z2.jpg

Reply 8 of 24, by darry

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imi wrote on 2020-05-28, 10:09:
http://vgamuseum.info/images/palcal/nvidia/86 … r_bottom_hq.jpg […]
Show full quote

http://vgamuseum.info/images/palcal/nvidia/86 … r_bottom_hq.jpg

the silkscreen differs slightly and it's branded guillemot instead of hercules, but otherwise it's the same.
guillemot bought hercules in 1999, and only reintroduced the branding in 2000 I believe, so that isn't all too strange I think.
http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/cards/item/23 … dia-geforce-256

OPs card is probably just an earlier model (PCB date seems to suggest so), while the pads don't all look super clean I can't say it looks like the RAM was removed after the fact, if so whoever did it did a good job, but if the card works fine I can't see why that would be the case anyways.

e: I can find a few references online to a 16MB version, also the same hercules card:
https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/ … /image/s_z1.jpg
https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/ … /image/s_z2.jpg

Thank you .

If it was sold in a plastic shrink packaging and is poorly documented, it may well be a limited run from some OEM deal that fell through .

Interesting .

EDIT: The one on vgamuseum has a different fan connector orientation too .

Reply 9 of 24, by havli

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The photos show 7ns memory - so rated only for 143 MHz. Reference GF 256 SDR has 166 MHz memory. I believe some cheaper GF256 are underclocked to 110/143, so this is probably one of them and on top of that reduced memory to 16 MB.

Quite rare card I think.

HW museum.cz - my collection of PC hardware

Reply 10 of 24, by imi

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darry wrote on 2020-05-28, 11:25:

EDIT: The one on vgamuseum has a different fan connector orientation too .

not really different orientation as such, it's just a different plug soldered to different pins, both cards have both of them, I can only see differences in the silkscreen.

it's also funny that the akiba one has a guillemot branded fan but the older hercules silkscreen, it seems like this card came out exactly during the hercules/guillemot acquisition ^^

Reply 11 of 24, by HansZ

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Quick update: I've run 3DMark 2000 (1024x768. 16 bit and 32 bit textures) on my WinXP Pentium 4 3.2Ghz system. No issues at all. Memory chips where not desoldered afaik (surface looks untouched).

Heatsink/fan is brand new... Original had no "HercuIes" sticker in the middle. I've owned similar card back in late 99', purchased it from official Guillemot website/company based in Montreal. Card had warranty for a year or so, and original fan failed so after emailing their tech support i was given brand new heatsink/fan which i never installed back then as i upgraded to Geforce 2 GTS...

Reply 12 of 24, by imi

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well guillemot bought hercules and used the hercules brand for graphics and audio products afaik, I guess that is what makes this version of the card most interesting, that it is still an original "Guillemot 3D Prophet" even if the fan says otherwise ^^

Reply 14 of 24, by The Serpent Rider

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I wonder which is overall worse: ASUS V6600 with 64-bit bus (also 7ns I think), but 32Mb, or this abomination.

Can you make BIOS image for science?

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 15 of 24, by HansZ

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The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-05-28, 22:17:

I wonder which is overall worse: ASUS V6600 with 64-bit bus (also 7ns I think), but 32Mb, or this abomination.

Can you make BIOS image for science?

Sure I can. What's the best software for WinXP to get BIOS?

Reply 17 of 24, by HansZ

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Here it is.

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Reply 18 of 24, by Ozzuneoj

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Wow, this must be quite a rare card. I have never heard any mention of a 16MB Geforce 256... ever.

For what it's worth, this doesn't really hurt the card's usefulness as a retro gaming card. Anything that needs more than 16MB of RAM is going to run significantly better on something faster than a Geforce 256 SDR anyway. This would be an awesome card for 1998-1999 games.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 19 of 24, by Katmai500

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I came across another GeForce 256 SDR with 16 MB of RAM. It looks like it could be an OEM card.

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