Quote:i think it's a normal production card because it was sold in a big hardware store... and it has CE stamp on it...
and such late engineering samples do not make sense to me...
and yes, its a copy of the reference layout of a PCI banshee card...
An
exact copy with all the 'engineering sample'-thingies on it. That's unusual since normal boards (i.e. Diamond Monster Fusion, some Creative boards, etc.) based upon the reference model look the same but don't have the Test Points nor JP7 installed.
Quote:but where is that TP# ? or do you mean TP2, the point over the RAM Chip on the middle right?
Yes, TP2 is Test Point 2. If you look carefully you'll see TP3 on the left of the D-SUB (above the MOSFET). TP1 can be found near the right-bottom of the feature-connector. TP4 is located on the right-bottom of the card. Near the right/center of a RAM chip.
Quote:And do you know what is that J7 Jumper supposed to do?
I'm not sure about JP7. Several strapping options can be changed with JP7. If I'm not mistaken it would be possible to change the device to 'VGA Device' or 'Multimedia PCI Device'. Maybe it depends on a configuration with resistors. If so it would be possible to change the memory size configuration, disabling the PCI IRQ register, enable PCI or AGP, the size of the BIOS and some other things. If not then those changes can only be made by changing resisters (and not use the jumper).
By the way: Your new Banshee chip might be a good overclocker. Newer chips often clock better and the integrated heatspreader (see the circle?) might help too
.