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Message started by ALT-F13 on 05.09.05 at 23:36:35

Title: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+info
Post by ALT-F13 on 05.09.05 at 23:36:35
Maybe most of you saw small blank PCB for AGP Banshee, that Gary has on his site. Well, that's not the smallest Banshee out there :)))

I have a Supergrace SG-3DVBP card, which I never saw anywhere in the collector's lists neither there any ANY mentions about it in the Net. But in spite of these facts, the board exists :) Well, maybe that's even the most rare production Banshee ever ;)



Now that's a tight fit! PCB dimensions are 5.3" x 3" and as you see literally every millimeter on the PCB is used for placing details.
The board has huge old BIOS chip, which is typical for Supergrace and other lo-end manufacturers of that time.
Heatsink/fan assembly is original detail, not added by end-use as it commonly happens to passive-cooled Banshees.



Memory configuration is quite unusual for Banshee - 4 of 8 SGRAM chips (total of 16 MB RAM) are placed on the back site of PCB.
Notice that there is lack of IC marking - chips are absolutely blank, with no vendor and model information. I only can explain that Supergrace cut the production price of the card to the minimum and that included using some kind of untested chips (they are usually left blank by manufacturer).

PCB production date is week 37 of 1999.



Card comes in a generic Supergrace VGA box with appropriate stickers on it. S/N of the card is equal to S/N on the box. Other sticker (see lower right corner of picture) informs us about official name of the product: Supergrace SG-3DVBP AGP 16 MB.

As I told above, Google and other search systems don't have any mentions about this index. Though search for "Supergrace Banshee" shows quite a lot of mentions on Russian and Polish websites/forums, mostly from 2000-2002. No photos, etc. Looks like this is a region-specific item for East Europe/ex-USSR.

I obtained this card from a person, who buy it in 1999 and had worked on PC with this card almost everyday until December 2004! Fortunately he saved the original box for these five years!

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by NitroX infinity on 05.09.05 at 23:46:57
Beautifull!
May I use the images for a new FAQ on a Dutch forum?

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by ALT-F13 on 06.09.05 at 00:03:56
Of course, feel free to use it!

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by gamma742 on 06.09.05 at 00:30:58
Nice find ;)

That Baby is small!!


Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by BFG3dfx on 06.09.05 at 03:15:51
nice, guy kept the box, that was cool

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 06.09.05 at 11:50:23
Good lord it's even shorter than a Velocity 100  :o :o :o

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by Eye-Q on 06.09.05 at 12:15:34
The Velocity 100 has very much free (wasted) PCB-space so it's not really remarkable that there are shorter cards. ;)

I found another Banshee which has exactly the same PCB as the Supergrace: the Axle Banshee.
Does anyone know if Axle or Supergrace was the manufacturer?

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 06.09.05 at 12:39:08
well we could at least compare them:)

the Super Grace Banshee has a sticker on it's Bios chip and different memory brand. and the Axel does not have those details.  

Take a good look:

here the Axel:
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/4679/axxelbansheefront3ul.th.jpg

and here the SuperGrace:
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6417/supergracebanshee14en.th.jpg
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/8453/supergracebanshee20mq.th.jpg

But yes the PCB is indeed the same and exactly the same layout aswell, I have compared every component on both cards and they come accros 100%.

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by paulpsomiadis on 06.09.05 at 19:49:40
Aww! Innit cute - it's a micro-banshee! :-*

Very nice @ALT-F13 8)

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by TM30 on 06.09.05 at 20:41:06
very nice card... gotta look for one for me too  ;D

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by goriath on 09.09.05 at 22:13:54
What a love! It is sooo sweet!! I fall in love!!

Title: Re: Supergrace SG-3DVBP (tiny AGP Banshee) - pics+
Post by Obi-Wan_Kenobi on 12.09.05 at 13:41:22
@ Goriath

OMG it's only a piece of PCB dude lol

but yeah it's a nice small thing, wierd that it doesn't have 8MB, I wonder if there is a Banshee Prototype with 4MB, I mean they can handle 4MB.

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