Retro cards preview

A bunch of video cards I'll test in the future. Just a quick preview of what's coming.

Macronix MX86200AFC PCI
S3 Trio64 V2/DX PCI
Savage4 8MB
SIS 6215 PCI
SIS 6326 PCI
SIS 6326 AGP M16
ALI M3147V AZ PCI

MX440
MX440 64MB 64bit
MX400 32MB
MX400 64MB 64bit
MX400 64MB
FX5200
FX5600 XT 128MB
6200 128MB 64bit
6600 256MB
TNT2 M64 32MB
GF2 MX 32MB

ATI RAGE Pro
ATI RAGE IIC
Radeon 8500LE 64MB
Radeon 9200LE 128MB
Radeon 9600
Radeon 9600XT 128MB
Radeon 9550
Radeon 9550GE
HD3450

[conbotonesnadamas]

A couple months ago I bought a GeForce 4ti 4400 (from a USA eBay seller). Arrived totally destroyed, like smashed with a hammer, some capacitors broken, heatsink retention broken, etc. Not as damaged as your TNT though. Maybe someone knowledgeable in electronics could fix it one day. Seller refund me without hesitation. Still it is a sad episode, I really wanted that card. I can´t understand how the Post Office could be so uncaring.

I remember having played Unreal with an onboard SIS 6326 (8MB shared "vram") back in the day. PC Chips motherboard, Celeron Mendocino 333MHZ.
Not that bad a performer as I recall. It will be interesting to see how your dedicated one performs.

I vote for the Ati Rage Pro review, it would be interesting some benchmarks againts TNT 2 and Voodoo 2/3 on the PIII 600mhz.
Also the Ati 8500LE test will be interesting.


Regards!

[paulpaudel]

I had a SiS 6215 PCI card with 1 MB VRAM installed (had slots for further 1 MB to a total of 2 MB) in my late late 90's Windows PC. Was our family computer and gaming on it was really quite a thing. First was installed in a Pemtium MMX 233 Mhz with 32 MB RAM. That iteration of the PC didn't survive a bonked RAM upgrade attempt by one of my father's colleagues a couple years later. And we didnt have a working PC at home for months/years!?

Later the Motherboard and CPU were upgraded - Some VIA motherboard and Intel Celeron 500 Mhz, but the graphics card remained the same! And the weakest link I suppose. It also showed some weird bars around the mouse pointer all the time! Driver issue?

Ran the old DOS-ish games fine. Doom, Duke Nukem. though didnt have much appetite for fast paced horror FPS games then. Also ran FIFA 1998 upto FIFA 2001 I think, though wasnt into those either. Need for Speed II SE and Virtrua Cop 2 (a police sniping game) I fondly remember. And the numerous miniclip games lol.

The limited 1 MB VRAM (of which I had no way of upgrading to 2 MB - outdated card in a developing country where I lived and as I was a kid too, no money) limited desktop to 800x600 if I wanted 16bit color at least. Would bump up to 1024x768 which was only supported in 256 colors if I needed to do productivity/internet type stuff. Looked horrible.

Pretty sure the SiS 6215 had no 3d acceleration at all, and all 3d action was done on software by the CPU. Low resolution with lower bits of color if possible, made some games playable, and my childhood bearable. I dont remeber the card fondly, but I am familiar... and I scourge the internet for anyone who went through any experience with it, forever doomed to turn up empty.

[aaron]

That is an awful way to treat these old retro parts. Shame on that seller. I love your videos. Keep it up!

[ThePCPitChannel]

We’re running out of these cards, they should be packaged properly :(

[paulpaudel]

BTW Why did you stop posting? And where are all the reviews? Are you OK?