UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > Specific Vintage Equipment > Vintage Computers

Notices

Vintage Computers Any vintage computer systems, calculators, video games etc., but with an emphasis on 1980s and earlier equipment.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 25th Jun 2019, 11:19 pm   #1
ViperSan
Tetrode
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 81
Default The rarest graphics card I own.

about 12 months ago I bought a box of crap from a flea market ..
paid about a tenner ..for what looked like old pcbs.
I figured I could harvest them for chips.
Lurking at the bottom of the box was a graphics card I had never seen before.
Hardly surprising cos it was extremly hi end back in the day.
Suffice to say it was damaged ..surface mount components ripped off ..
traces broken etc ..and seriously dirty.
Well it avoided the harvest when I did my research.
...then came the job of repair and restoration.
and some months later I tried it in a windows 98se computer.
Ooo ..it started up ..and informed me that a Voodoo 5 5500 was presnt ..
Agp vesions are more common and regularly appear on ebay for anything between £300 and £500 depending on condition and if it is boxed with drivers etc.
Well ..mine is even rarer ..
A PCI version..
I keep it stored safe in an antistatic padded bag.
The last one I saw change hands on ebay went for almost £600
and no I wont be selling it.
lol
here is a photo of it.
No box or driver CD of course..but I think you'll agree ...
in very nice condition now.
rgds
VS
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	DSCF0001.jpg
Views:	204
Size:	87.1 KB
ID:	185709  
ViperSan is offline  
Old 26th Jun 2019, 12:05 pm   #2
arjoll
Dekatron
 
arjoll's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
Posts: 3,440
Default Re: The rarest graphics card I own.

The rarest card I have is an IBM PGC. It came out of one of my biggest regrets - my brother in law (now estranged, families can be "fun") picked up a 5170 PC/AT in an auction in the mid 90s, and I gutted it to put in an old 386 board. No idea what happened to the ooriginal motherboard, case or monitor, but the monitor and card would have been scarce as hens' teeth. I have the PGC, hard drive and controller out in the workshop.

The next regret would be giving away a stack of 5160s a couple of years later.... Oh the things we do in that gap between "old rubbish" and "vintage."
arjoll is offline  
Old 26th Jun 2019, 12:15 pm   #3
ViperSan
Tetrode
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 81
Default Re: The rarest graphics card I own.

I totally concur arjoll..
So many regrets about the things I have binned over the years.
As I aged I got wise..and now I consign nothing to the bin ..unless it is totally past saving.
One day I will shrug off this mortal coil ..but hopefully leave a legacy of working retro computers.
I just hope they will live on after I'm gone.
lol
ViperSan is offline  
Old 26th Jun 2019, 3:12 pm   #4
Refugee
Dekatron
 
Refugee's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,549
Default Re: The rarest graphics card I own.

Does anyone remember those NEC word processor monitors that rotated so that you could view an A4 page in portrait.
They had a special card that was wired through the video cable to a switch to sense the position of the screen.
The most common fault was that the owner had upgraded the computer and the fancy monitor had stopped working. The fancy video card was usually long gone in the old computer by the time the job was on the bench.
The owner would have to have a pink flush of embarrassment as a result.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	digital_loo.jpg
Views:	132
Size:	49.0 KB
ID:	185754  
Refugee is offline  
Old 26th Jun 2019, 6:26 pm   #5
TonyDuell
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,188
Default Re: The rarest graphics card I own.

I'd love a PC, but I've never seen one. I do have the original (on paper) IBM Technical Reference manuals for the PGC and its monitor though.

I'd also like to find one of those TMS34010-based ISA video cards.

The rarest graphics 'card' I own is, I suspect, an I2S Model 70/E. I put 'card' in quotes as this thing is 3 rack-mounted card cages (I forget if they're 7U or 8U high) packed with boards. There's over 3000 4Kbit DRAMs in there and probably more TTL. Fortunately I have the binder of circuit diagrams for it. It dates from 1979 I think and is a rather high-end for the time graphics peripheral for PDP11s, VAXen, HP2100s, etc. I suspect it could be interfaced to a PC, but why??
TonyDuell is offline  
Old 26th Jun 2019, 6:49 pm   #6
electronicskip
Nonode
 
electronicskip's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
Posts: 2,149
Default Re: The rarest graphics card I own.

Was the Voodoo card a 3DFX Card? if so I have one installed in my original windows 95 Computer long consigned to my Tardis like loft somewhere.
electronicskip is online now  
Old 26th Jun 2019, 7:28 pm   #7
SiriusHardware
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 11,482
Default Re: The rarest graphics card I own.

I think the brand was 3DFX, the 'range' name was Voodoo. I have a 3DFX Voodoo 2 'somewhere', not quite as exotic as VS's Voodoo 5.
SiriusHardware is online now  
Old 26th Jun 2019, 9:16 pm   #8
ViperSan
Tetrode
 
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 81
Default Re: The rarest graphics card I own.

Yes the voodoo came in various flavours/revsions ..I too have a voodoo 3 in my win98se machine.
Voodoo 1s and 2s were for older PCs and had either internal or external video pass through cables to integrate 2D and 3D ..
I believe there was a voodoo 6 in the pipeline at the point they were bought out absorbed and dumped by Nvidia.
If you ever find one ..buy some lottery tickets on the same day.
lol
ViperSan is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 2:59 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.