TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Ruru]

Great timing from Iceberg as I thought that I'll play around with X58 maybe tomorrow

This is the original GPU (despite looking like the older 7800 - because it actually uses that same PCB). The PCB layout I posted it earlier I think - it matches most of Gainward's 7800 AGP and 6800GS cards, with the bridge closely below the core.
View attachment 408464

6800GS on the left, 7950GT on the right.

I guess they ran out of NV40s since those were also somewhat common in AGP 6800 GS cards. Gotta love those Arctic coolers which Gainward used on their late AGP cards

6800 GS was a good card in overall back in the day, I actually finished Crysis the first time with such a card (pencil-voltmodded, overclocked pretty heavily and had an NV Silencer 5(?) on it. C2D E4300 @ 3GHz made sure to push everything the card could offer.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

9500 Pro was pretty dope, practically just a 9700 but with a 128-bit bus. A 9500 with 256-bit bus was an excellent purchase those days if its disabled pipelines were working. 9800 SE 256-bit was a similar story later, I had one with unlocked pipes (didn't even use Omega drivers but a modded .dll for the normal drivers), overclocked to over XT clocks and cooled with a Zalman VF-700AlCu. Great times.

I have a retail boxed 9600xt which is a cool card

I also have 2 of these X1950XTX

 

[Athlonite]

Nice GPUs tose 9600XT's were great cards I had one then went to X800XT for PCIe and then onto the HD2600XT's x 2 for CF
Watchout for the fans on the HIS cards chances are you won't be able to re lube it because HIS were cheap bastards when it came to who made the fans and once they're put together in the factory there's no way to get to the bearing without destructive means leaving the fan unusable

 

[MaxiPro800]

Sunday haul.

- ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 R1.02 + Pentium D 805 + A$U$ X1550 RV370 - despite me not wanting to do anything with ASRock and A$U$ again, it seems this one is popular enough to warrant a keep - AGP and PCI-E, as well as vast support in more ways than one. GPU will be sold as I do not want any A$U$ product in any way or shape.
- ECS NFORCE3-A939 - crap 939 board that may or may not work.
- GB G41MT-S2PT - needs pin straightening on the socket
- several HDDs - Samsung HD103SJ 1TB, IBM Deskstar 120GXP x2, 250GB Seagate (e-waste)

 

[Maxihell]

Long years before there is a time were every1 used Intel Core®2 Duo 2/4GB RAM with 256/512MB Graphic Card which we less care about Power Consumption, Fans blah blah blah. Think i had Gigabyte GT9800 but aint remember which can run games like America Army Proving Ground,Counter Strike,Hitman,Need For Speed,Prince of Persia,Max Payne,True crime and Mafia etc.... without any issues or worrying but now all changed. Now we need to bother about PSU,GPU,FANS (Intake,Exhaust)Compatibility & some time even afraid the Computer may get heat or blown. Need to regularly changed the parts just to play one game we liked unless you spend huge money which upgrade the whole things or two for years to come. Sigh.....Time does changed alot. What you all think or which Rig you had back then ?

 

[Radical Vision]

Welp that ECS s939 may be on the bad spectrum, but still it is s939 also NF3 + AGP, how cool is that... Ofc i prefer myself the MSI s939 NF3 Platinum Neo mobo, but i did not have the luck finding it so far... Tho having Platinum 462 and 478 MSI Core Cell mobos is enough i guess.... But that ECS u have is fine, if it is working is usable, till u find the MSI NF3 Platinum....

Always funny to me, that they left so much UNpopulated stuff below the BIOS part, and this is the top end model too lmao.... But on other hand i like that they have the CEO sign on the board, also kinda nasty they did not do the same for the AMD part (yeah the usual shit many vendors did over the years, unbtill Ryzen and specially Ryzen 5000, when everything changed hah...)

I have a retail boxed 9600xt which is a cool card View attachment 408577View attachment 408578


I also have 2 of these X1950XTX
View attachment 408579View attachment 408580

Always love the box art of the ATi cards from that era, they look sick and strong too.... Not to even mention how much i like the ATi plasma/ magma when i install old drivers huh..... AMD had a driver installation that had insane animation, when u install the driver, some super nova explodes, amazing... Meanwhile geforce is boring af...




There it is, the Radeon Software Adrenaline 2020 i think... Insane animation, when u install the driver, that star did explode, i found it fascinating....

 

[MaxiPro800]

Welp that ECS s939 may be on the bad spectrum, but still it is s939 also NF3 + AGP, how cool is that... Ofc i prefer myself the MSI s939 NF3 Platinum Neo mobo, but i did not have the luck finding it so far... Tho having Platinum 462 and 478 MSI Core Cell mobos is enough i guess.... But that ECS u have is fine, if it is working is usable, till u find the MSI NF3 Platinum....

Always funny to me, that they left so much UNpopulated stuff below the BIOS part, and this is the top end model too lmao.... But on other hand i like that they have the CEO sign on the board, also kinda nasty they did not do the same for the AMD part (yeah the usual shit many vendors did over the years, unbtill Ryzen and specially Ryzen 5000, when everything changed hah...)
View attachment 408781View attachment 408782



Always love the box art of the ATi cards from that era, they look sick and strong too.... Not to even mention how much i like the ATi plasma/ magma when i install old drivers huh.....

View attachment 408783View attachment 408784

Nothing good about the ECS. It's trash, simple as.

 

[Radical Vision]

Usually yes bad brand, but i love the testing boards i have, since i dont give 2 fks about them, but also they "just work", and if they die is whatever, so it is win-win for me at least... Testing new old HW on premium/ rare parts is no go for me, and foolish to do....

 

[MaxiPro800]

It's still trash any other way. ECS is, was and will always be trash, period. Will throw it back in the trash where every ECS belongs. I will always test my GPUs with MSI/Gigabyte/DFI/ABIT - I at least know these won't screw anything up during testing - something ECS fails miserably at.

 

[Radical Vision]

s939 mobos, are rare AF (like most things these days), but the good stuff like the MSI NF3 NEO Platinum + AGP, ABIT Fatal1ty AN8, GIGAbyte GA-K8NSC-939, Soltek SL-K8TPro, not sure what other brands (naa DFI LanParty is no go, since they had bad build quality, i can tell since i have few LP boards)... EPoX maybe too, but i dont like their stuff after socket 462, they look industrial wooden like boards huh... Also hard to find high end 939 CPUs like Opteron 185, Athlon 64 FX... I have seen some of these, but never the ABIT Fatal1ty board, have myself x2 DFI LanParty NF4, but no ABIT....

 

[MaxiPro800]

ECS is bottom of the barrel trash regardless if it has S939 and AGP. That's why its only place is back in the trash.

 

[gwync]

I had an ECS Photon PF3 extreme for a while when i was playing around with high end socket 478, it held up fine, never really gave me any issues.
I dont view ECS as bad, theyre just in the same boat as biostar to me, where theyre mostly just an oem for other companies but they make some fun stuff from time to time.
And their LGA 1150 era was fun, i wish i had a gank machine just because its funny

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Ease up on the brand bashing. Last warning.

 

[Ruru]

Damn BBO has posted videos recently. HD 7970 is a true legend!

Ease up on the brand bashing. Last warning.

I hope your warning works, that bashing is hella childish.

 

[Retrorockit]

I had a program I really liked back in the W95 days. It came on a 3.5 floppy so that makes it nostalgic "hardware"
Desktop Dyno. It was an Engine simulator. Punch in your basic engine specs and it would produce a power curve. On my Evergreen 586 adapted 486 16MB computer it took it's time.
It also had a camshaft search function. Pick an RPM range, and ask for maximum torque or maximum HP and it would iterate for the best possible camshaft. That really took a while on my computer.
A later version was Dyno 2000. on CD, with an Optional camshaft library on another disc. A companion program was a dragstrip simulator. Import you engine file and add the car specs. (you needed to know the location of the cars CG). and it would give you the best possible ET and speed for that car.. On an AMD K6-3+ 400 it ran a lot better.

 

[Radical Vision]

Lenovo Thinkpad T60, yeah right no thanks...... Fixed that for IBM, hello IBM Thinkpad VO T60 lmao.... Dont have stickers for the back and insides, and the IBM badges i have are insane, and will prob damage the display if i put one above the Thinpad logo, so pass for now, until i get plastic sticker..... For now the permanent marker will do fine, and erase the annoying Lenovo branding.... I still have it on the BIOS post screen lmao, but will fix that too prob some day and begone....

Still waiting to find dirt cheap C2D T7600 or at least T7200, and WI-FI card that is faster then the stock one... I think there is nothing else i can upgrade, as i think i will skip the SSD for now, as SSD is not reliable, if is not powered for long time, it will erase data...




Like to power on from time to time the T60 to run for few min NFS Most Wanted, to heat up the old hardware.......

Damn BBO has posted videos recently. HD 7970 is a true legend!

I hope your warning works, that bashing is hella childish.

Da hell i did not bash this time crap, i said ECS is fine for testing, i love mah testing ECS boards.. But whatever...................


Yes the HD7970/ R9 280x is a Legend, same goes for R9 290/x...... Insane cards... I have VaporX and Toxic cards, they are made so well... Had before ASUS MatriX, but that card was overheating, and lower clocks, so i sold it... HD7970 for sure stood the test of time, it is still amazing card... So fun to run GTA V on the x58/ R9 280x system, or Prototype II hah insane game....

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I had a program I really liked back in the W95 days. It came on a 3.5 floppy so that makes it nostalgic "hardware"
Desktop Dyno. It was an Engine simulator. Punch in your basic engine specs and it would produce a power curve. On my Evergreen 586 adapted 486 16MB computer it took it's time.
It also had a camshaft search function. Pick an RPM range, and ask for maximum torque or maximum HP and it would iterate for the best possible camshaft. That really took a while on my computer.
A later version was Dyno 2000. on CD, with an Optional camshaft library on another disc. A companion program was a dragstrip simulator. Import you engine file and add the car specs. (you needed to know the location of the cars CG). and it would give you the best possible ET and speed for that car.. On an AMD K6-3+ 400 it ran a lot better.

I remember those. Also Comp had a program for chosing cams for your engine specs which I still have that and it is still installed on my FX rig.

 

[Ruru]

Yes the HD7970/ R9 280x is a Legend, same goes for R9 290/x...... Insane cards... I have VaporX and Toxic cards, they are made so well... Had before ASUS MatriX, but that card was overheating, and lower clocks, so i sold it... HD7970 for sure stood the test of time, it is still amazing card... So fun to run GTA V on the x58/ R9 280x system, or Prototype II hah insane game....

View attachment 409065View attachment 409066View attachment 409067

My 290X Matrix Platinum suffered from sagging, overheated as well but when the card was supported, my temps were equal to the reviews during the era when that was a new card.

I have a 7970 Matrix as well and that rocks just as fine, a huge 3-slot brick before those became a thing.

 

[wolf]

I have a 7970 Matrix as well and that rocks just as fine, a huge 3-slot brick before those became a thing.

Same! the ROG Matrix HD 7970 Platinum, what an absolute chonker. Looking forward to a build where I'll be using cards of this vintage.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yes the HD7970/ R9 280x is a Legend

I have a 7970 Matrix as well and that rocks just as fine, a huge 3-slot brick before those became a thing.

Same! the ROG Matrix HD 7970 Platinum, what an absolute chonker. Looking forward to a build where I'll be using cards of this vintage.

Still holds up today as well, within reasonable expectations.

 

[Ruru]

Same! the ROG Matrix HD 7970 Platinum, what an absolute chonker. Looking forward to a build where I'll be using cards of this vintage.

Sucks that mine doesn't OC to the Platinum clocks, tried its BIOS on my non-Platinum but the VRAM clocks were too much with random artifacting. :/

Still holds up today as well, within reasonable expectations.

I guess that the lack of proper DX12 support is worse than the 3GB VRAM I guess that's one reason why the R9 290 and its siblings worked for longer in newer titles.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I guess that's one reason why the R9 290 and its siblings worked for longer in newer titles.

Very likely.

 

[wolf]

I guess that's one reason why the R9 290 and its siblings worked for longer in newer titles.

A 290x or 390x with 8GB would have been a ripper of a card to get in the day in terms of longevity.