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Jeff Chen edited this page Sep 15, 2023 · 2 revisions

Diamond Monster 3D 3Dfx Voodoo 1 VRAM Expansion Mod

Introduction

The Diamond Monster 3D card is a 3Dfx Voodoo 1.

The Voodoo 1 normally comes with 4MB of RAM in total - 2MB for each of the main chip on the card - FBI (frame buffer interface) and TMU (texture mapping unit).

However, according to 3Dfx documentation, these chips support more than just 2MB of RAM. Expecially for the FBI, 2MB and 4MB means differences in capabilities, including higher resolution (800x600x16bit) with hardware-accelerated depth-buffering. Therefore, it makes sense to mod the card for the better.

Thanks to BitsUndBolts, Voodoo 1 cards with socket-spacing RAM chips can be modded with his 3Dfx Voodoo Memory Mod.

However, on the Diamond card, the FBI RAM chips were spaced too close to each others. The TMU chips also appear to be spaced slightly closer than the socketable one. Luckily, pin definition on the 3Dfx chips were the same. So I only had to design a solution to lead the signals off of the main board and interface with expansion RAM modules.


Special Thanks

BitsUndBolts


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CC BY-SA 4.0