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Coveted Translucent / Neon Green nVidia GeForce FX 5800 Ultra

erek

erek

[H]F Junkie
2FA
Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Messages
12,839
I wasn't going to post this, but seems to already be getting out of control... to me the Translucent Green (Typically Review Sample) FX 5800 Ultras are the best looking cards of all time. i'd love to have one, or get the shroud and put it on my working card.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-Gef...409561?hash=item4b455f2159:g:FlUAAOSwWDBbFDE2

Beautiful:

s-l1600.jpg
 
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/3DFX-VOODO...462162?hash=item3f9f887e12:g:RREAAOSw0wtavjRv

that is one of the clone voodoo 5 5500 cards that pops up occasionally. look at the AGP fingers, they look brand new. also play spot the difference with a known v5 and you will start to see how they just can not be original. i have tried asking the seller some questions about the cards, how they were used, just very generic things, and i never get a response.

same guy is selling this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/A-TRAY-OF-...152276?hash=item3f9f653f14:g:irMAAOSwOh9au6gF
 
Last edited:
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I guess i just don't understand....why is this coveted

I mean it doesn't even work.
 
it is rare. to collectors it is relatively sought after. to a non-collector it is just a broken piece of non-working tech bound for the scrap heap.

same in the car world, a K5 blazer is worth a pretty penny in some circles. however i see a fair share of them used as hunting wagons, cut up, beat on, until they are barely scrap metal.

one mans trash... so it goes.
 
Zedicus said:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3DFX-VOODO...462162?hash=item3f9f887e12:g:RREAAOSw0wtavjRv

that is one of the clone voodoo 5 5500 cards that pops up occasionally. look at the AGP fingers, they look brand new. also play spot the difference with a known v5 and you will start to see how they just can not be original. i have tried asking the seller some questions about the cards, how they were used, just very generic things, and i never get a response.

same guy is selling this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/A-TRAY-OF-...152276?hash=item3f9f653f14:g:irMAAOSwOh9au6gF
Click to expand...

Okay I looked for 5 minutes, whats the difference? Compared against:

https://images.anandtech.com/old/video/3dfx/v5-5500/voodoo5front.jpg

And just because the AGP fingers are 'new' doesn't mean anything. I have some very old cards that have very new 'fingers'. Only thing somewhat strange is C35 (under the left GPU) is a little crooked.
 
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dexvx said:
Okay I looked for 5 minutes, whats the difference? Compared against:
https://images.anandtech.com/old/video/3dfx/v5-5500/voodoo5front.jpg
And just because the AGP fingers are 'new' doesn't mean anything. I have some very old cards that have very new 'fingers'. Only thing somewhat strange is C35 (under the left GPU) is a little crooked.
Click to expand...

the easiest thing is the RAM. from my research they are NEW chips.

other things are several surface mount components facing different directions than known real cards, VGA port is from a different manufacturer, memory controller chip is different.
OR, the fact that you can order them in bulk from AliExpress.

i thought all those were good signs that they were clones, not original.
 
Zedicus said:
the easiest thing is the RAM. from my research they are NEW chips.

other things are several surface mount components facing different directions than known real cards, VGA port is from a different manufacturer, memory controller chip is different.
OR, the fact that you can order them in bulk from AliExpress.

i thought all those were good signs that they were clones, not original.
Click to expand...

The memory modules are not new they have a manufacturing date of 0021 which is withing the production cycle of Voodoo5 5500 RevA AGP cards. You see multiple production cards with those memory moules example here: http://tdfx.de/pic/voodoo5_agp_01.JPG
3dfx used memory modules from various manufactures like Hynix, Hyunday, Samsung, Toshiba and MT (Micron) for VSA100 based cards.
The card from anandtech picture is a preview sample with a pre-release BIOS and pcb date and so there would of course be differences compared to a production run.

They started the run at week 18 of year 2000 then they recalled those cards and re-release the new batch date 1900 with BIOS version 1.06 they ended the run with 2500 for V5 AGP and started the V5 PCI version on 2700 and ended 3100.

There are spare VSA100 and TSOP memory available on AliExpress but that doesn't mean the card from China is a clone and it doesn't look new at all from all the scratches to the pcb and damaged stickers. And all other mentioned differences are withing the variance of manufacturing process and supply of parts.
If someone were to build a clone they would use faster rated memory modules, better cooling and faster clocks than just the standard cards.

Just my 2 cents on the matter.
 
G1nX said:
The memory modules are not new they have a manufacturing date of 0021 which is withing the production cycle of Voodoo5 5500 RevA AGP cards. You see multiple production cards with those memory moules example here: http://tdfx.de/pic/voodoo5_agp_01.JPG
3dfx used memory modules from various manufactures like Hynix, Hyunday, Samsung, Toshiba and MT (Micron) for VSA100 based cards.
The card from anandtech picture is a preview sample with a pre-release BIOS and pcb date and so there would of course be differences compared to a production run.

They started the run at week 18 of year 2000 then they recalled those cards and re-release the new batch date 1900 with BIOS version 1.06 they ended the run with 2500 for V5 AGP and started the V5 PCI version on 2700 and ended 3100.

There are spare VSA100 and TSOP memory available on AliExpress but that doesn't mean the card from China is a clone and it doesn't look new at all from all the scratches to the pcb and damaged stickers. And all other mentioned differences are withing the variance of manufacturing process and supply of parts.
If someone were to build a clone they would use faster rated memory modules, better cooling and faster clocks than just the standard cards.

Just my 2 cents on the matter.
Click to expand...

if they were building a clone with the intention of selling it as a real card for profit, then no, they would most certainly NOT use faster memory or do anything to make it different. and while the differences are within the spec of what could be manufacturing differences, the real cards i have seen never actually had any manufacturing differences. And that is coming from someone that has owned a V5 6000, and a couple of pre-production v5 5500 cards, and a TON of release variance 3dfx cards.

the v5 5500 was already at the very END of 3dfx history, and was produced in a single facility after the acquisition of STB.

history also states that quantum3d held the VSA 100 license post 3dfx and they owned ALL of the remaining chips. sure, some of them might have made it to ebay, quantum 3d produced the alchemy render boxes and cards for YEARS and i can not imagine much old stock was not used knowing how strapped production was.

it is not impossible for the variance to be legit, however i would assume the cloning house is relying on that fact. none of the original cards were ever produced in china, so how did so many of the minimal amount ever produced get there, and coincidentally they all have some minor differences than the ones that weren't stored over there for 20 years?

it all smells like fish to me.

even if the VSA100 chip is original, the board and parts in the auction i posted could be a clone with an original chip mounted to it. that is probably the most likely scenario. as the ebay linked card looks BRAND NEW. even the stickers look freshly printed.
 
Last edited:
Zedicus said:
if they were building a clone with the intention of selling it as a real card for profit, then no, they would most certainly NOT use faster memory or do anything to make it different. and while the differences are within the spec of what could be manufacturing differences, the real cards i have seen never actually had any manufacturing differences. And that is coming from someone that has owned a V5 6000, and a couple of pre-production v5 5500 cards, and a TON of release variance 3dfx cards.

the v5 5500 was already at the very END of 3dfx history, and was produced in a single facility after the acquisition of STB.

history also states that quantum3d held the VSA 100 license post 3dfx and they owned ALL of the remaining chips. sure, some of them might have made it to ebay, quantum 3d produced the alchemy render boxes and cards for YEARS and i can not imagine much old stock was not used knowing how strapped production was.

it is not impossible for the variance to be legit, however i would assume the cloning house is relying on that fact. none of the original cards were ever produced in china, so how did so many of the minimal amount ever produced get there, and coincidentally they all have some minor differences than the ones that weren't stored over there for 20 years?

it all smells like fish to me.

even if the VSA100 chip is original, the board and parts in the auction i posted could be a clone with an original chip mounted to it. that is probably the most likely scenario. as the ebay linked card looks BRAND NEW. even the stickers look freshly printed.
Click to expand...

I still have my V5 6000 and other V5 prototypes and I'm interested in cloned or fake cards as well for my collection reason why your post caught my eye. I'm curious about things that are still being developed with new old stock 3dfx chips like: https://zxc64.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/advanced-3dfx-voodoo-graphics-replica/

With all the financial issues the STB factory in Mexico was sold off in late 2000 and 3dfx did allow other manufactures to produce cards based on VSA100 in the Asia market as per this article:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/article_29788
There were single VSA100 chip cards released from Powercolor, Evate and others.... http://tdfx.de/eng/evilking4_tv.shtml ; http://tdfx.de/eng/evate_v4.shtml

Also to get an additional infusion of cash the SLI technology was sold of to Quantum3D not the VSA100 chips (patent) which were build by TSMC. This is the reason why only Quantum3D had sold VSA100 based cards with SLI technology after 3dfx was bought by nVidia.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/664/3

The unused VSA100 chips that are on the market today are old stocks from TSMC which had factories in Asia and they usually got sold by the 1000s.
Another reason why you find many cards in Asia is because of recycling and many old and mildly used cards got sent there. The seller isn't selling cloned cards but stocks from his own collection and others he got locally: https://voodoo6000.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.3.6c2361e3QHSr5U
I'm not doing advertising for him just that it wouldn't be a good idea to presume that the cards he's selling are fake without more tangible evidence other than they look like new. The pictures aren't the best quality but if you look closely you will notice the scratches on the memory modules on the back, the not so perfect "Product of Mexico" sticker, the scratches to the pcb. In the end you could just ask him for better pictures and more details about the card's origin if you still have doubts.

Cheers,
G1nX
 
G1nX said:
I still have my V5 6000 and other V5 prototypes and I'm interested in cloned or fake cards as well for my collection reason why your post caught my eye. I'm curious about things that are still being developed with new old stock 3dfx chips like: https://zxc64.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/advanced-3dfx-voodoo-graphics-replica/

With all the financial issues the STB factory in Mexico was sold off in late 2000 and 3dfx did allow other manufactures to produce cards based on VSA100 in the Asia market as per this article:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/article_29788
There were single VSA100 chip cards released from Powercolor, Evate and others.... http://tdfx.de/eng/evilking4_tv.shtml ; http://tdfx.de/eng/evate_v4.shtml

Also to get an additional infusion of cash the SLI technology was sold of to Quantum3D not the VSA100 chips (patent) which were build by TSMC. This is the reason why only Quantum3D had sold VSA100 based cards with SLI technology after 3dfx was bought by nVidia.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/664/3

The unused VSA100 chips that are on the market today are old stocks from TSMC which had factories in Asia and they usually got sold by the 1000s.
Another reason why you find many cards in Asia is because of recycling and many old and mildly used cards got sent there. The seller isn't selling cloned cards but stocks from his own collection and others he got locally: https://voodoo6000.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.3.6c2361e3QHSr5U
I'm not doing advertising for him just that it wouldn't be a good idea to presume that the cards he's selling are fake without more tangible evidence other than they look like new. The pictures aren't the best quality but if you look closely you will notice the scratches on the memory modules on the back, the not so perfect "Product of Mexico" sticker, the scratches to the pcb. In the end you could just ask him for better pictures and more details about the card's origin if you still have doubts.

Cheers,
G1nX
Click to expand...

How much to part with that 6000?
 
G1nX said:
The seller isn't selling cloned cards but stocks from his own collection and others he got locally: https://voodoo6000.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.3.6c2361e3QHSr5U
I'm not doing advertising for him just that it wouldn't be a good idea to presume that the cards he's selling are fake without more tangible evidence other than they look like new. The pictures aren't the best quality but if you look closely you will notice the scratches on the memory modules on the back, the not so perfect "Product of Mexico" sticker, the scratches to the pcb. In the end you could just ask him for better pictures and more details about the card's origin if you still have doubts.
Click to expand...

Hey, I'm in China right now. Anything worth buying? I tried searching for 'old' computer stores, but I did not have any luck. If you know where to go (I'm in Shanghai), maybe we can work something out in terms of searching for vintage stuff.
 
Last edited:
erek said:
How much to part with that 6000?
Click to expand...
Not looking to sell at this time but here's a picture of the RevA2 I have: http://postimg.cc/image/wakxu3w2j/

dexvx said:
Hey, I'm in China right now. Anything worth buying? I tried searching for 'old' computer stores, but I did not have any luck. If you know where to go (I'm in Shanghai), maybe we can work something out in terms of searching for vintage stuff.
Click to expand...

I don't know Shanghai but it depends what you're looking for and where you look. I presume you'd have more luck at flea markets and recycling centers but it might be harder to find old hw components there since new laws that limit imports of electronic waste: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...cleanup-bolstered-by-import-ban-idUSKBN1FD043

Good luck
 
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Yup crazy town.

This darn thing has a 500 dollar reserve. CRAZY:


New message from: miles556 (203
iconTealStar_25x25.gif
)
500"
 
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I'm shocked... Those FX cards have a lot of value... even broken.. this auction just sold for $585... broken
 
such a beauty, she even glows in the right light
card.jpg
 
Got some history information on this card:

New message from: miles556 (203)
It is ... i absolutly love FX series cards. I was college student when it came out & empty my credit card & partially my student loan to get it to enjoy playing doom 3, farcry. I managed to beat both games at 1024x768...nothing felt better on this planet than beinf in those games. I'm 34 now and kept this card with me to hold on to my memories. But card somehow start having issues after sitting in plastic bag for 15 years
 
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catogtp said:
Is it just me or did this guy sell the same card twice?
Click to expand...
he did, apparently it got relisted as someone internationally won the first listing and he's only selling to US region
 
erek said:
Got some history information on this card:

New message from: miles556 (203)
It is ... i absolutly love FX series cards. I was college student when it came out & empty my credit card & partially my student loan to get it to enjoy playing doom 3, farcry. I managed to beat both games at 1024x768...nothing felt better on this planet than beinf in those games. I'm 34 now and kept this card with me to hold on to my memories. But card somehow start having issues after sitting in plastic bag for 15 years
Click to expand...

I thought there were no retail cards with translucent shroud?
 
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dexvx said:
I thought there were no retail cards with translucent shroud?
Click to expand...

that's what i thought too... only review samples were translucent green? also how'd you get your translucent green one anyhow?
 
With that pending sticker, it's hard to consider this being a Retail card...

upload_2018-6-11_21-46-43.png
 
The green shrouded FX 5800 Ultra is an engineering sample version as far as I remember. Nvidia sent them to places like Anandtech and Hexus (I think Hexus actually had to go to Nvidia's regional HQ to test theirs).. I wanted the green shroud version back in the day, but I never saw it get released, and later settled for a FX 5950 Ultra. All the 5800 Ultra's I saw released back then had clear shrouds with stickers on them.
 
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there's a post on these forums somewhere that has someone or someone's wife actually "somehow" getting a FX 5800 Ultra more or so direct from NVIDIA? i'm trying to locate it, but the card arrived i believe in a really nice plastic shell / case and the card might be the green translucent variety? it's the only that i know of that might be an example of non-ES / non-Review Sample released otherwise the Ebay seller has a suspicious story and i'll find out later today if i got what was pictured in the auction.
 
Nope, not even that "other post" was green translucent, so yah, i have no evidence of those cards being released other than ES/Review Samples...

gffx1_zpse3a0fda6.jpg
 
Swap the cooler with a working 5800 Ultra and sell it as fully tested/working for a profit. :p
 
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w1retap said:
Swap the cooler with a working 5800 Ultra and sell it as fully tested/working for a profit. :p
Click to expand...
i started feeling weird about doing that and making unoriginal ... i did swap the coolers already, but if i can get the ES working it's all going back. i can note that the retail cards are using cast copies of the backplate heatsink. the ES sample doesn't have any deformities and is sleak whereas my BFG Asylum retail card definitely seems like a cast copy with a texture to it
 
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