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Rare GPUs / Unreleased GPUs

well the thing is the entire GF4 line up in general were kinda lackluster. The R300, 9500/9700 Pros were just utterly dominate. The scores below are from what I've tested so far on my 3.6Ghz P4 northwood. Even the FX line up struggled to compete with the ATI cards back then. It took the 6800 series to finally get nvidia back the crown.

3DMark01SE
GF3 Ti 500 - 9918
GF4 Ti4200 - 11471
GF4 Ti4600 - 13216
9500 Pro -14274
9700 Pro - 16408
9800 Pro - 17616
9800 XT - 18802

3DMark03
GF3 Ti 500 - 1558
GF4 Ti4200 - 1663
GF4 Ti4600 - 1992
9500 Pro -5265
9700 Pro - 6891
9800 Pro - 7634
9800 XT - 8222

Keep in mind as well that R300 came out later. Only a few months later, but NV25 did hit the scene first and was considered the benchmark to beat, so R300 had to be faster. The GeForce FX series was a disaster from the start due to nVidia trying to cash in on the 3Dfx acquisition by pushing that design team to create a "feature rich" architecture on a new node that could stretch enough to beat R300. They completely fucked themselves with their SM2.0 implementation and giving ATi time to refine R350 and R360 by waiting for 130nm.
 
I miss the 9600/9700/9800 days. :)

I played a lot of Quake 3 lol
 
Oh yeah this style was the thing for awhile. 2002 - 2004 saw Soltek, Sparkle, Leadtek, Gainward, BFG Tech, Albatron, Chaintech and even ASUS put a bunch of tiny fans all over their cards.

The most insane of which was of course Albatron's Gigi GeForce FX 5950 Ultra:

Followed closely by The Gigi FX 5700 Ultra:


Which was followed in third by the Chaintech FX 5700 Ultra Apogee:


Honorary mention, and actually one of my favorites, Leadtek WinFast A350 TDH:

My Gainward 5950U
5950u.JPG
 
Front.jpg

PCB.jpg

PCB.jpg

Few things to note :

Gigabyte card did work on my Rampage II Extreme, however only in Single GPU mode (I forced PCIe "x8" from BIOS), and with second card for POST screen and driver install (GPU "starts" only from Windows Desktop).
Sadly, I don't have MB with native support for it (yet) :(

Zotac : Here's the thing that boggled my mind a bit : It's got 3 VRM phases per GPU (which is crazy considering standard GTX 275 has 6) :E
vGPU is 1,05V. Also, thermal pads for GPUs VRMs, NF200 chip, and "visual chip" for GT200 - had cookied flexibility :) (so I replaced them).
 
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Right on the heels of selling my 1070 ES I picked up this poor guy:

5770front.png5770side.png

Radeon HD 5770 ES from around May 25, 2009. The card itself has suffered some extreme damages; missing caps, busted vreg, gouged PCB, torn up traces, bent crossfire finger. It's a mess, and well above my skill level to repair. The most interesting (and still functional) part if this card is the cooler. Below is a comparison to the similar in style but completely different Radeon HD 4770 reference cooler.

IMG_20180125_133940565_HDR.jpgIMG_20180125_134329892_HDR.jpgIMG_20180125_134609664_HDR.jpgIMG_20180125_134639628.jpg

The heatsink design of this sample is the same as the final revision 5770; a finstack on top of a thin vapor chamber. The fan housing is physically the same as the 4770 reference, however the fan, air channel, and shroud have all been changed. This card gives a glimpse into the design work behind even a low-end product. While it'll probably never function again as a GPU I'll be keeping this one in the
collection.

Edit: Upon reassembly of both cards I noticed that the 4770 shown is actually newer than the 5770 ES with a PCB date of 0926 and ASIC date of 0933, 6 weeks and 11 weeks newer respectively. The 5770 ES was labeled by June 29, 2009 (week 27) almost a month and a half before the 4770's ASIC would be fused. Interesting trivia.
 
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New old card :)
GTX 275 CoOp.jpg


And all my cards in one photo :
Rare collection 1.jpg
 
Hmm... comparing all (loudest to quitest) :
3D1 > 7900 GX2 >> GTX 275 CoOp.

3D1 has two fans and it's noisy, 7900 GX2 can get loud after it get's heated while playing.
GTX 275 is a bit quiter than single PCB GTX 295 (since it uses the same coolling and mostly PCB, while not using SLI).
I don't have a sound meter, so can't tell you exact dB.
 
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New old card :)
-snip-
And all my cards in one photo :
-snip-
Lucky! It's hard to find a 275 co-op nowadays. Last time I saw one, it was on Amazon for like £100 :P And lucky once more to have a working 7900 GX2. I have the faulty Quadro variant, missing a load of surface mount caps and such. Which actually brings up a nice question, would you mind helping me in a while if I sent pictures of what was missing and you could measure the values of what I needed?
 
you can use the link on my sig to the discord server if you all wish to talk about these things in real time
 
I have the faulty Quadro variant, missing a load of surface mount caps and such. Which actually brings up a nice question, would you mind helping me in a while if I sent pictures of what was missing and you could measure the values of what I needed?
OK. Upload them to imgur, and sent me link.
Here's VRM section of my bottom card.
VRM.jpg
 
Debating if R9 Fury will be rare since it's a bit of an oddball but a powerhouse.
 
Grabbed up another sample, this time it's a GTX 295 V2! Very late sample that appears to have undergone quite a few revisions on its own.

IMG_20180314_220149671.jpgIMG_20180314_211110688.jpgIMG_20180314_212229036_HDR.jpgIMG_20180314_212351349.jpgIMG_20180314_212415319.jpg

BIOS date is May 2, 2009 which means it's not got any special cut features packed in or anything. The ASICs on the other hand are from well before the original GTX 295 retail release, having a date stamp around November 24 - 30, 2008. The ASICs also carry a few different numbers written on, the most visible of which is 127. Both carry another number that does not match, although those are not legible. So far a stable card that has had no irregular performance compared to a retail card.
 
I seem to have found a listing on eBay for a potential review/engineering sample HD 6990. Problem is, it's £190. Shall I try persuade the seller to lower the price to £120 or less?
 
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I seem to have found a listing on eBay for a potential review/engineering sample HD 6990. Problem is, it's £190. Shall I try persuade the buyer to lower the price to £120 or less?
try it!
 
I seem to have found a listing on eBay for a potential review/engineering sample HD 6990. Problem is, it's £190. Shall I try persuade the buyer to lower the price to £120 or less?

I paid around $200 for my sample 6990, but I know prices haven't changed much in the last 4 years. I think it could be worth it, they tend to be cherry picked and plenty of fun to play with.
 
I love this thread. :love:

Damn, I had a 970 blower from EVGA, not THAT rare, but a cool sight from all those two or three fan AIB models. Had that in SLI with a Gbyte G1 Gaming 970.

edit: I guess that a photo is also welcome. Sorry for that boxed cooler, but I had a Pentium G4560 back then and it rocked with that old copper-core stock cooler. :D

sugVsVK.jpg
 
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I love this thread. :love:

Damn, I had a 970 blower from EVGA, not THAT rare, but a cool sight from all those two or three fan AIB models. Had that in SLI with a Gbyte G1 Gaming 970.

edit: I guess that a photo is also welcome. Sorry for that boxed cooler, but I had a Pentium G4560 back then and it rocked with that old copper-core stock cooler. :D

sugVsVK.jpg
'Back then'
'G4560'
Make your mind up :P
You mean G3258?
 
'Back then'
'G4560'
Make your mind up :p
You mean G3258?
Nope, G4560. I'm still using the same Z170 mobo. I had a Sabertooth Z87 when I had a G3258.
 
Hey guys, new to the forums here.
Can anyone tell me what this is? All I know is it's AMD, and it's a 2GB Card.
Let me know if you know!

Thanks!
 

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Hey guys, new to the forums here.
Can anyone tell me what this is? All I know is it's AMD, and it's a 2GB Card.
Let me know if you know!

Thanks!
Looks Barts GPU based its all i can say, and possible HIS and OEM HIS at that, which i didnt think they did.
 
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