What retro things have you done today?

I dont suppose any of you cleverer people with the components of the boards could help?

Im working on my adlib clone but the decoupling capacitors do not clearly show the polarity.

The small bead capacitors that go on the rear of the board:



The board markings are just -100n- no indication of + and -
 
Looking for a video card for a SS7 machine, thinking TNT2 Pro or Ultra at the moment, not wanting to go too new due to compatibility in 98SE and some games.

I am however wondering if a Geforce 2ti would be a better choice, i just feel a little too new and will be totally bottle-necked by the K6-2 500.

Edit: oh and i think i'm stuck on a 2x AGP interface.
 
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Firestar_3x said:
Looking for a video card for a SS7 machine, thinking TNT2 Pro or Ultra at the moment, not wanting to go too new due to compatibility in 98SE and some games.

I am however wondering if a Geforce 2ti would be a better choice, i just feel a little too new and will be totally bottle-necked by the K6-2 500.

Edit: oh and i think i'm stuck on a 2x AGP interface.
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Voodoo 3 2000/3000 (or 3500 if you can find one). GF2Ti is massively bottlenecked by even the fastest K6-III+, my Kyro II is bottlenecked by the K6-III hugely also. TNT2 Ultra wouldn't be a bad shout, ironically anything with Hardware TnL (which you would expect to reduce strain on the CPU) seems to be too constrained by bandwidth to actually be a benefit to the system. This would mean GeForce 256 SDR/DDR is probably too new. Original Radeon 64MB DDR would probably be OK (it's TnL is crippled anyway), but the drivers are garbage.

But honestly, 3DFX all the way, mainly due to the fact that at it's heart it's actually a PCI card using an AGP socket, it didn't actually use the AGP extensions properly (much to the dismay of nVidia and ATi at the time), which means the gimped AGP implementation on SS7 actually copes well with all 3DFX cards.
 
In other news, I've got the Kyro II working in the Shuttle, so benchmarking has re-commenced! Turns out you weren't far wrong @hohum, in that it was voltage related, just not AGP signalling voltage, rather core GPU voltage. I've performed a voltage mod on it to bring the core voltage up from 2.08v to 2.45v and now it's benching without issue!

First impressions seem to be that the Kyro is going to be around 80% of the performance in most cases when compared to the GF2 Ti.
 
hohum said:
You could go for something in-between, such as a GF2 MX/MX400? They're quite plentiful and cheap.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elsa-Gla...400-32-Mb-AGP-Graphic-Video-Card/254620180677 (for example)

@LewisRaz Good work on the card!
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I 100% see the value, however part of my retro journey is a emotional connection to the past and i just can't live with an MX.

paradigm said:
Voodoo 3 2000/3000 (or 3500 if you can find one). GF2Ti is massively bottlenecked by even the fastest K6-III+, my Kyro II is bottlenecked by the K6-III hugely also. TNT2 Ultra wouldn't be a bad shout, ironically anything with Hardware TnL (which you would expect to reduce strain on the CPU) seems to be too constrained by bandwidth to actually be a benefit to the system. This would mean GeForce 256 SDR/DDR is probably too new. Original Radeon 64MB DDR would probably be OK (it's TnL is crippled anyway), but the drivers are garbage.

But honestly, 3DFX all the way, mainly due to the fact that at it's heart it's actually a PCI card using an AGP socket, it didn't actually use the AGP extensions properly (much to the dismay of nVidia and ATi at the time), which means the gimped AGP implementation on SS7 actually copes well with all 3DFX cards.
Click to expand...

For compatibility it does seem like a good option, still unsure, my heart is ATI tbh but yes drivers.....

Think i need to sketch out the difference between my S7, SS7 and Socket A machines and see where the games boundary / crossover lies.
 
Depends on how you feel about your machines. I do enjoy "period correctness" or at least try to make configurations that would have been seen back in the day. With the exception of PSUs and CF instead of HDD.
 
I would like them to sit around the correct time period but not married to it. I like the idea of re-owning stuff i once did, problem is i had a lot of stuff, these are the machines as they sit at the moment:

S7 (DOS and early 3d focused in windows)
233mmx
DTK PAM-0070S E1
4GB CF card
S3 Virge DX (2mb) will upgrade to 4mb
Voodoo II (12mb)
128mb EDO
ISA ESS Audiodrive ES1868F
Roland SoundCanvas SC-88vl

SS7 (more windows 98SE 3d focused)
K6-2 500
VIA MVP3 based board
32gb CF card
(Unsure about video card)
128 - 256mb PC100
Soundblaster Live 5.1

Socket A (3d focused dual boot 98SE and XP)
Thunderbird 1.4ghz
Asus A7v-133
MRI SATA raid card and 120gb SSD
Ati X800XT
768mb PC133
Game Theater XP
 
Yeah that SS7 build is screaming either Voodoo3 for faster Glide/OGL performance, or if you anticipate more Direct3D, a Geforce 256 (Either DDR or SDR), even though the 256 will be crippled a bit by the platform.

For me, it’s PIII or Athlon at a minimum for a GF2 or Radeon 8500.
 
Yea i moved to a Radeon DDR then 8500 on my first Socket A build, so that is 100% the transition point.

If i moved the Voodoo II out of the S7 machine and went SLI in the SS7 coupled with a D3D focused card i wonder if that would give me the best of everything.

Unsure how SLI vs v3 stack up performance wise, i have a feeling it may now be GPU bottle-necked?
 
Firestar_3x said:
I 100% see the value, however part of my retro journey is a emotional connection to the past and i just can't live with an MX.
Click to expand...

That's fair enough, I get that! For me personally I have nostalgia towards certain hardware I used to own, but quite honestly some of it is just unobtainable or too expensive these days, hence why I look at alternatives.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Yea i moved to a Radeon DDR then 8500 on my first Socket A build, so that is 100% the transition point.

If i moved the Voodoo II out of the S7 machine and went SLI in the SS7 coupled with a D3D focused card i wonder if that would give me the best of everything.

Unsure how SLI vs v3 stack up performance wise, i have a feeling it may now be GPU bottle-necked?
Click to expand...

Performance is pretty similar (usually the V3 edges out ahead), though image quality and compatibility is slightly better with the Voodoo3. Voodoo I (not a typo, I not II) is actually better for DOS-based Glide games, so that's probably a better fit for the S7 machine anyway. Going V2 SLI means that your AGP slot is free for something that's not only your 2D card, but also a good D3D/OGL card (Voodoo II would need a miniGL wrapper for pure OGL, and they tend to suck a bit), again potentially a Geforce 256 SDR/DDR. Personally I find that the Voodoo 3 3000 is a good match for the K6-III, saves the faffing with MiniGL wrappers, has good image quality (compared with both the Voodoo II and the Geforce/Geforce2), and immense compatibility with everything (software and hardware).
 
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