Diamond Edge (Nvidia NV1) on eBay

dexvx

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Since Erek has been posting some vintage stuff, guess I should too. These are NOT mine. I'm looking for one, but obviously can't pay THOSE kinds of prices :(

A bit of history is that NV1 was a pretty big flop that almost cratered Nvidia. It featured quadratic texture mapping (not compatible with Direct3D, which is polygon rendering), playback only sound processing, and a joystick port. Basically meant to be an all in one gaming card. NV2 was a followup, but Nvidia canceled that project. NV3 was the Riva 128, which changed to polygon rendering for Direct3D support, and the rest is history.

There are 2 versions...

This is the higher tier version, it has connectors to take an additional memory (4MB total)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-NV1...-RARE-Original-NVIDIA-Video-Card/223037121781

This is the value version, it has already been upgraded (via dimm sockets) to 2MB
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Diamond-Edge-3D-2120-NVIDIA-NV1-PCI-Graphics-Card-Rare/323323935266
 
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This YouTuber has the NV1 as one of his Holy Grails sought after currently:

PixelPipes-Today at 11:24 PM

My holy grail graphics cards are NVIDIA NV1 Rendition V1000 Volari Duo V8 Ultra Voodoo5 5500 Mac PCI GeForce 256 64MB DDR
 
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I really need to go digging in boxes and drawers. I'm a packrat and have tons of old crap around. Then again, both of those in the OP are just things for sale and not an indication of value. What someone is trying to sell something for versus what something actually sells for (or people are willing to pay at any given point in time) are two very different things. Most recent one sold on eBay for $214 (permanent non-upgradeable memory). I've seen that a lot over the years with buying certain collectible things - some says well they are $xxxx on eBay! Yes, and they are still on there

Regardless - interesting to see the prices some of this old hardware fetches. I know I have probably a couple of dozen various PCI, AGP, and probably even a few ISA and EISA video and other cards around.
 
This card might not have supported DirectX if not OpenGL either, but it's significant because it was one of the first cards that could hardware accelerate quads at least for the consumer. The price is to high for me right now though, so I'm watching it until I have enough if it doesn't sell before then.
 
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This card might not have supported DirectX if not OpenGL either, but it's significant because it was one of the first cards that could hardware accelerate quads at least for the consumer. The price is to high for me right now though, so I'm watching it until I have enough if it doesn't sell before then.

As explained in my post, it does not support Direct3D because the rendering model is inherently incompatible. I assume the same for OpenGL.
 
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I had one of these in 1996 - my first video card. I actually got Diamond to give me a refund because of false advertising on the card's Direct3D capabilities.

Your have to pay me to take another.
 
You want to talk about other rare video cards talk about the HIS ATI Radeon 3850 AGP with 512MB of Video RAM or an Nvidia 7800GS AGP with 512 MB of VRAM that I can usually only find an Axle3D version of.
 
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I had one of these in 1996 - my first video card. I actually got Diamond to give me a refund because of false advertising on the card's Direct3D capabilities.

Your have to pay me to take another.

You might be or are definitely right, but it's noteworthyness comes from it's ability to do quads and maybe even emulate Sega Saturn better than other cards. The price is whats keeping me from buying it, even if it might be rare enough to make it worth that much and considering what I previously said in this reply.
 
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You want to talk about other rare video cards talk about the HIS ATI Radeon 3850 AGP with 512MB of Video RAM or an Nvidia 7800GS AGP with 512 MB of VRAM that I can usually only find an Axle3D version of.

Is there something special about HIS? I have a sapphire HD 3850 AGP with 512MB.

7800GS isn’t terribly uncommon.
 
You want to talk about other rare video cards talk about the HIS ATI Radeon 3850 AGP with 512MB of Video RAM or an Nvidia 7800GS AGP with 512 MB of VRAM that I can usually only find an Axle3D version of.
There was a 512MB version of the 7800GS?
Is there something special about HIS? I have a sapphire HD 3850 AGP with 512MB.

7800GS isn’t terribly uncommon.
The 256MB version isn't uncommon, but I've never heard of a 512MB version. I still have a BFGTech 7800GS 256MB in my Athlon XP machine.
 
noteworthyness comes from it's ability to do quads and maybe even emulate Sega Saturn better than other cards.

Yeah, the only 3D game I ever saw that worked on the NV1 was Virtua Fighter that came with the Edge3D.

It was also supposed to be a "multifunction" card, able to do both video and sound. That didn't work, either. Apparently Windows 95 couldn't deal with multifunction cards. I had to get a Sound Blaster 16 anyway, and used my refund from Diamond to get a Rendition Verite V1000 card. Ah, VQuake with edge antialiasing...
 
It was also supposed to be a "multifunction" card, able to do both video and sound. That didn't work, either. Apparently Windows 95 couldn't deal with multifunction cards. I had to get a Sound Blaster 16 anyway, and used my refund from Diamond to get a Rendition Verite V1000 card. Ah, VQuake with edge antialiasing...

Nitpicking here, but pretty sure Diamond never released a Rendition V1000 card. They only had a V2100 card (Stealth II S220).
 
I did have a V2x00 card when I upgraded from the V1000 (can't remember if it was the Diamond V2100 card or the Hercules V2200). The V1000 card was a Canopus Total 3D, which I probably bought with a credit card so I could send the Edge 3D back to Diamond, then paid off when I received the refund check.

I also had a Voodoo 1 beside the V1000 because it got more gaming support, but always preferred VQuake to GLQuake. After the V2x00 upgrade, a Voodoo 2 followed, and eventually another for SLI. Colored lighting in Quake 2 was a big deal.

After the Rendition cards, I'm pretty sure my next was a Riva TNT. I was in college, had a credit card, and overclocking and gaming were much more interesting than classes.
 
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I know my father has a box of his old parts and in pretty sure I saw some voodoo cards and matrox stuff in one of them when I was rooting around for my old ati rage. A few just looked like duplicates and one had a ton of fans. I'll see if he'll let me sift through it.
 
I did have a V2x00 card when I upgraded from the V1000 (can't remember if it was the Diamond V2100 card or the Hercules V2200). The V1000 card was a Canopus Total 3D, which I probably bought with a credit card so I could send the Edge 3D back to Diamond, then paid off when I received the refund check.

I also had a Voodoo 1 beside the V1000 because it got more gaming support, but always preferred VQuake to GLQuake. After the V2x00 upgrade, a Voodoo 2 followed, and eventually another for SLI. Colored lighting in Quake 2 was a big deal.

After the Rendition cards, I'm pretty sure my next was a Riva TNT. I was in college, had a credit card, and overclocking and gaming were much more interesting than classes.

Damn... a Canopus Total 3D. I would like one of those.
 
Just nabbed one. There's one left.. seller accepted lowball. Probably dead, but should be fixable. erek

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Diamond-Edge-3D-2120-NV1-NVIDIA-NOS-mit-Software-UNTESTED/193255374859?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648

Got 10% ebay bucks too. :D

sURKx5ah.jpg
 
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Update.. Received it last week and it works just fine.

Now you just need the Sega Saturn controller port breakout board, it allows two Sega Saturn controllers to be connected to the "PORT A and PORT B" headers at the top of the card.

STG.png


And the Sega Saturn emulator to go with the card, which I can't find a download for.
 
I plan on making the breakout board and game port adapter. As for the original disc, it came with a burned copy. I will put it on archive.org.
 
That pic shows it working better than the card I had when they were released - no BSOD;)
 
As explained in my post, it does not support Direct3D because the rendering model is inherently incompatible. I assume the same for OpenGL.

The NV1 was released before DirectX existed.

That pic shows it working better than the card I had when they were released - no BSOD;)

Late NV1 drivers fixed a lot of issues with the card, as well as adding very basic DirectX support, rendered in software.
 
That card is a rare, historic piece of shit.
It was the only video card that did quadratic texture mapping on PC, as far as I'm aware. That technique was more common on early 3D consoles and 3D textured arcade games, though I don't know of any emulator that reproduces this technique or attempts to natively should the hardware support it. Not that the NV1 is powerful enough to emulate anything to begin with, anyway, but still interesting nonetheless.
 
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