Video card (no-name Nvidia NV18) help please

L

LTR12101B

1
Just got hold of a (very cheap) card from a computer fair...

ANV18A2P-128M or A4-NV18DDR-A2-ZH
Green PCB, Made in China, silver unfanned heatsink, large sized RAM chips (JT).

In the bag, was a jumper, which may have come from.
1. J11 - near the video out
2. J10 - near the AGP

It may have been parked on one pin only, or it may just have strayed into the bag.

I'd also be interested if anyone could actually name this, as well as finding where this jumper should go (otherwise trial and error).

The NV18 is a Geforce 4 MX440-8x - so it's not a hyper-powered card, but if it'll run, it's better than the 32Mb Geforce 2MX in at the moment.

The jumper may even be an enable/disable 8x mode?
 
L

LTR12101B

1
Looked at toms's, and the ones at the end, no luck, I'll take a couple of snaps tomorrow - vaguely similar, to the 440MX-8x pictured, with RAM like the Ti4200 - large chips, not BGA.

One of the positions is by the Video out, the other is to the left of the AGP (where some of them seem to plug a fan) - no missing fan, but if that's a fan option point, putting a shorting jumper on there would be a VERY bad idea.

Some use that size of heatsink with a fan, others without.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
years ago i had a Leadtek GF2 MX where the TV output standard (PAL/NTSC) was switchable via Jumper;
about the AGP near pins i think they aren't a fan connector, because they wouldn't marked as J10 at the layout;

and if your current card is not a GF2 MX200, then i wouldn't expect real improvements by swapping the card; only profit is more texture RAM, rest is the same as a GF2 MX or GF2 MX400 beside the fact the GPU is manufactured in GF4's 150 nm technology;

Greetings from
Duracell
 
L

LTR12101B

1
Current card is MX2 original, with slow DDR - 175 core / 143 ram - slower than a standard SDRAM version.

The Geforce 4MX is basically a full Geforce 2 - I'd expect to double the benchmark scores, as it's a faster card, but no new features, it's still only DX7 hardware - but as the star piece in an "anything a tenner" selection...
Well, the alternatives were TNT2, Radeon (no number), Rage 128, and 64Mb versions of the same.

Beginning to wonder if it'll work in a 1x/2x 3.3v slot, though it IS keyed dual.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
O.K. so you can hope for increasing;
about the AGP voltage: it's a risk to try, so i won't recommend anything; :p ;)
 
L

LTR12101B

1
According to Tom's writeup, it supports 1x/2x/4x/8x - and the way the AGP specifications seem to go - 1x/2x are 3.3v, 4x (AGP 2.0) is 1.5v and 8x (AGP 3.0) is 0.8v - though there are other cases where a "universal keyed" card is not compatible with older systems - I guess it's suck it and see - been round ebay, search engines, image serach and still not found a match.

I don't have the guy's number (but he is a show regular) so If I don't get to the next, I'll try and get hold of a number for the venue, and if there's any of the 64M ones left, perhaps he can check the jumper position on them.

I'm betting that it was probably one-pinned on the one by the AGP, and is probably for 8x mode disable - since I've NEVER known a jumper to fall off from TWO pins.
 
L

LTR12101B

1
Well, after failing to get any info (saw the guy on Sunday, but all the similar ones gad gone), I threw it in anyway.....

Switch on.....


Damn! this monitor takes its time to ... AHA - It says NV18, it says updating NVRAM / ESCD or whatever it calls it.

Windows detects it, and the monitor - It's a Geforce4 MX440 with 8x - PCI ID (AGP cards appear in the PCI ID section) 0181 rev A4
Seems to be happy - engage coolbits reg tweak so I can see more about it.

Operating at AGP 1x - I used to have a working 2x hack, but neither "EnableIronGate2x" or "ReqAgpRate = 2" work in the current drivers, nor does setting the AGP tab to 2x - it goes back to 1x - yet the AMD751 revision I have SHOULD be good for it. Creative AGP Wizard (which could force 2x), won't work, as it's not an AGP card - I've tried a hexeditor, but I can't see where it makes that determination.

Clock speed registers as 261 core, 266 RAM - the MX440 8x should be higher - maybe this is running at "SE" speed, even though not identified as an SE version (SE is a 0182, and MX4000 is a 0185) - it could be that it needs a driver clean and reinstall before I can trust that result.

Anyway, 3DMark 2001 use to be auot 2200 with the slow-RAM Creative GF2MX, and it's now around 3500 - not bad for a tenner - though if I'd got there earlier, there were some 5200's in the pile - 2 of which came back as faulty (beginning to wish I'd offered a tenner for the pair/no return, as I wonder if they really were faulty, or just incompetent users).
 
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