OK then. Sorry for the delay, Ssstjy.
I guess that I will do my best to try to help our friend from Asia, allthough I do not know if my English is any better than his...
Remember, dudes, a short time ago, Ssstjy managed to get a Voodoo4 PCI that reported 64Mb of video memory, both at boot-screen and in diagnose programs. In an effort to find if the card has 64Mb RAM for real, and not due to a BIOS hack, he saved it's BIOS for further study and then he even flashed the card with the orriginal 1.15PCI 3DFX BIOS. After the flash, the Voodoo4 continued to report the same amount of memory at post-screen and in diagnose softwares too. The study of the saved BIOS revealed no hack; in fact it was just the default that can be found on Voodoo4 PCI cards with 32Mb.
You should allready know by now that Ssstjy's 64Mb Voodoo4 PCI has serials on the memory modules that indicate 8Mb chips for a total of 32Mb RAM and it has no visible traces for the A11 line adress required for 16Mb memory modules to function at full capacity. Also, one very important fact is that there are no visible signs of any rework on the card, it looks genuine, factory default, but yet it reports 64Mb of video RAM.
Realy not your usual experience, right dudes? Well, there is more to it... And now I am even more puzzled.
But first, let me say that the obvious path to try to solve the mistery with this unusual Voodoo4 PCI was to compare it's performance to another regular 32Mb one. If benchmarked against each-other on the same test-system and conditions, the reported 64Mb card would have showed a boost in performance compared to a regular 32Mb Voodoo4 PCI, then this would be the proof that extra-memory realy is present on the card and plus it is working. And for what we knew about 3DFX'es products it would also be a great leap from faith to fact.
So, Ssstjy was lucky enough to be able to get a second Voodoo4 PCI, this time one that reported the usual 32Mb; and the testing could now begin.
Here is a picture with the two cards -they look identical to my eyes- :
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/3536/dscf0018pn5.jpgAnd here we can see a very nice close-up in great detail showing the RAM chips soldered onto both PCB's:
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/6739/dscf0023zy8.jpgBefore we go into testing results, I ask you for a litle memory training, he-he...
If you dudes still remember it, it happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... I was able to mod a regular Voodoo4 AGP from 32Mb to 64Mb RAM by soldering 4 extra memory modules into the empty places on the PCB and after flashing the card with a modded BIOS. To confirm that the memory was fully used, at your request I benchmarked the Voodoo4 AGP with 64Mb against a Voodoo4 AGP with orriginal 32Mb and against a Voodoo5 5500 AGP and a Voodoo4 PCI too. Thanks for theyr help into this project are renewed to Mikulaish and HankSemenek and the old topic regarding my greatest success can be found here:
http://www.falconfly-central.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=general;action=displa...I only mentioned this sort of off-topic story for a reason: the results after testing the Voodoo4 AGP with 64Mb against the Voodoo4 AGP with 32Mb in 3DMark 2001 were:
Voodoo 4 AGP 64 Mb AGP4x : No FSAA : 1576 3D marks
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/5339/v4agp64mbnoaa8cb.jpgVoodoo 4 AGP 32 Mb AGP 4x : No FSAA : 1471 3D marks
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/19/v4agp32mbnoaa6lq.jpgThat stands for arround 100 3DMark points in performance boost for the extra memory on the 64Mb card.
Now, let us go back to Ssstjy's Voodoo4's PCI and the results after testing both cards with the same 3DMark2001:
Voodoo 4 PCI 64 Mb: 1294 3D marks
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/1667/64mpci2of8.jpgVoodoo 4 PCI 32 Mb: 1210 3D marks
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2227/32mpci2pi5.jpgThat stands for 84 3DMark points in performance boost for the reported 64Mb card against the regular 32Mb one; and this is very close to the results that I got with my modded 64Mb Voodoo4 AGP against the default 32Mb Voodoo4 AGP; allthough the difference is just a little smaller, it can be justified by the fact that Ssstjy's cards were runing at 33Mhz PCI bus that does not scale as well as the AGP 4X 266Mhz.
Now, can you understand why I feel puzzled? There were important clues indicating for a hoax, but all the datas provided by Ssstjy appear to be the confirmation for a real Voodoo4 PCI with 64Mb, fully working.
I know, there is a old say, "seeing is beliving" and I was not able to test the card myself to cast away any doubts, but we have no reason not to take for granted and true the info's received from Ssstjy; and the conclusion that I see after all the proofs has shifted to accepting his Voodoo4 PCI for a real 64Mb card.
It is only my oppinion based on the facts that I am aware of. Dudes, what do you think about the subject?