Lapping the POS M64

Budginator · 31st December 2001, 6:54 AM

I got bored today, decided i'm gonna buy a new vid card anyway and pulled out my M64.

This POS does 149core (from 125) and 150mem (from 143) with the stock little HSF.

I pulled the HSF off and found only the edges of it were making contact with the GPU. Surprised I then thought, what have you got to loose?

Grabbed some fine sandpaper and sanded it down using the base of another larger heatsink to keep it level. Took off about 1.5mil and its came out almost 100% flat (no Nvidia logo anymore though). Put some thermal grease on (after cleaning the core and GPU with nail polish remover) and stuck her all back together.

Now runs stable at 160 core, and i got 2 more mhz out of the ram as well due to the core now heating up the ram less.

So to anyone still running one of these cards, check how much contact the HSF is making with the GPU, and if its shit, lap the bastard... These slow cards need all the speed boosts they can get!

Cryogenic · 31st December 2001, 1:33 PM

good work. Im not sure many people would dare do this to their video card, but as ya said, it is only an m64. Good to see the results turned out good as well. It truly is a pity that manufacturers ship out cards like this

was it a name brand m64 or generic?

Budginator · 1st January 2002, 2:43 PM

Its 100% generic, kinda low profile as well. Still running fine, i've pushed it too 165 core and still not one artifact...

winoseti · 1st January 2002, 5:04 PM

has a high profile fan which bugs me because I lose one pci port.
Are the low profile ones at dick smith a good replacement? they have no plug on them.
meanwhile i notice that there is a kyro 4000xt for sale at $120 on the sponsers site. can you tell me is this a good price?

Budginator · 3rd January 2002, 6:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by winoseti
meanwhile i notice that there is a kyro 4000xt for sale at $120 on the sponsers site. can you tell me is this a good price?

You know thats the 'first' kyro right? Not a Kyro 2...

For $30 more you can get a 64MB Kyro 2 with Tv/Out and it will perform alot better.

JuStDaN · 3rd January 2002, 9:06 PM

Ahh the ol M64... brings back memories...

Now this might shock a few people (bit lame compared to lapping gpu though), i dont recomend doing it yourself, but it worked for me...
i used to own (no it didnt die,i upgraded) an sniper2 tnt2 M64 and i noticed it used to get pretty warm with stock heatsink (overclocking didnt help)
i had a 60mm x 20mm HS in cupboard and it actually just fit without hitting any of the big resistors, although it wasnt dead centre.
had no way of attachin this sucker so i grabbed some good ol gap filler (silastic) put big dob on four corners of HS and pushed onto card (thermal paste on gpu of course) and put a little bit of weight on it till it dried (round 5 hours).

Now this little 'excersize' covered a few small resistors and so forth with silastic but i figured once it dried it cant conduct electricity, just have to make sure its dry...
slapped an 60mm x 25mm fan on it too... what a sight

After all this i got too overclock the core heaps further (core 170, mem 160) only to discover that altering core on m64 doesnt really do much because of the 64bit memory limitations. HS was always cool to touch after this little mod though....

mazdarx88 · 3rd January 2002, 10:35 PM

guess what guys, just got my bros video card TNT2 Vanta 8MB and does she overclock well whoa:

All standard cooling:

stock no artifacts artifacts

Core: 125MHz 170MHz 180MHz
Mem: 143MHz 200MHz 220MHz

you're right about gives no speed gain though

stock speed 3dmark2001: 936
170/200: 952

pffft, better off standard

Budginator · 4th January 2002, 12:36 PM

Well my poor old M64 is struggling to run AvP-2 smoothly, even with the shitty RAM pushed a bit further. I have a 32MB Savage-4 Pro PCI in my AMD machine (which does nothing but crunch DivX data) would this card be faster than my M64?

I'm guessing not as it is an S3 card, and the last driver update was from '98...lol

Hibba · 4th January 2002, 4:26 PM

i have a savage 4 and it kills a m64

31st December 2001, 6:54 AM	#1
Budginator Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Geelong. Aus Posts: 871	Lapping the POS M64 I got bored today, decided i'm gonna buy a new vid card anyway and pulled out my M64. This POS does 149core (from 125) and 150mem (from 143) with the stock little HSF. I pulled the HSF off and found only the edges of it were making contact with the GPU. Surprised I then thought, what have you got to loose? Grabbed some fine sandpaper and sanded it down using the base of another larger heatsink to keep it level. Took off about 1.5mil and its came out almost 100% flat (no Nvidia logo anymore though). Put some thermal grease on (after cleaning the core and GPU with nail polish remover) and stuck her all back together. Now runs stable at 160 core, and i got 2 more mhz out of the ram as well due to the core now heating up the ram less. So to anyone still running one of these cards, check how much contact the HSF is making with the GPU, and if its shit, lap the bastard... These slow cards need all the speed boosts they can get!

31st December 2001, 1:33 PM	#2
Cryogenic News Monkey Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Salisbury North, SA, 5108 Posts: 6,406	good work. Im not sure many people would dare do this to their video card, but as ya said, it is only an m64. Good to see the results turned out good as well. It truly is a pity that manufacturers ship out cards like this was it a name brand m64 or generic? __________________ Regards, Dr. John

1st January 2002, 5:04 PM	#4
winoseti Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: brisbane Posts: 84	my generic m64 has a high profile fan which bugs me because I lose one pci port. Are the low profile ones at dick smith a good replacement? they have no plug on them. meanwhile i notice that there is a kyro 4000xt for sale at $120 on the sponsers site. can you tell me is this a good price?

3rd January 2002, 9:06 PM	#6
JuStDaN Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Bald Hills,QLD Posts: 530	Ahh the ol M64... brings back memories... Now this might shock a few people (bit lame compared to lapping gpu though), i dont recomend doing it yourself, but it worked for me... i used to own (no it didnt die,i upgraded) an sniper2 tnt2 M64 and i noticed it used to get pretty warm with stock heatsink (overclocking didnt help) i had a 60mm x 20mm HS in cupboard and it actually just fit without hitting any of the big resistors, although it wasnt dead centre. had no way of attachin this sucker so i grabbed some good ol gap filler (silastic) put big dob on four corners of HS and pushed onto card (thermal paste on gpu of course) and put a little bit of weight on it till it dried (round 5 hours). Now this little 'excersize' covered a few small resistors and so forth with silastic but i figured once it dried it cant conduct electricity, just have to make sure its dry... slapped an 60mm x 25mm fan on it too... what a sight After all this i got too overclock the core heaps further (core 170, mem 160) only to discover that altering core on m64 doesnt really do much because of the 64bit memory limitations. HS was always cool to touch after this little mod though.... __________________ "Two goldfish were in their tank. One turns to the other and says "You man the gun's, I'll drive" http://www.wot-tracker.com Last edited by ->>JuSt DaN<<-; 3rd January 2002 at 9:10 PM.

4th January 2002, 4:26 PM	#9
Hibba Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: llandilo.syd.nsw.au Posts: 1,797	i have a savage 4 and it kills a m64 __________________ PC: Core I5-750 2.67Ghz @ 3.78Ghz \| Corsair H100i \|Asus Maximus III Extreme \| 16Gb G.Skill RipJaw's \| Gigabyte GTX590 3Gb \| Xonar Essence STX \|2x 160Gb VRaptors in Raid-0 \| 2x 1Tb WD \| Fractal Design Define R4 \| Antec TruePower Quattro 1200w \| Asus VH242H 24" LCD \| 2x Acer X243HQ 24" LCD

1st January 2002, 2:43 PM	#3
Budginator Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Geelong. Aus Posts: 871	Its 100% generic, kinda low profile as well. Still running fine, i've pushed it too 165 core and still not one artifact...

3rd January 2002, 10:35 PM	#7
mazdarx88 Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: BrisVegas Posts: 105	guess what guys, just got my bros video card TNT2 Vanta 8MB and does she overclock well whoa: All standard cooling: stock no artifacts artifacts Core: 125MHz 170MHz 180MHz Mem: 143MHz 200MHz 220MHz you're right about gives no speed gain though stock speed 3dmark2001: 936 170/200: 952 pffft, better off standard

4th January 2002, 12:36 PM	#8
Budginator Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Geelong. Aus Posts: 871	Well my poor old M64 is struggling to run AvP-2 smoothly, even with the shitty RAM pushed a bit further. I have a 32MB Savage-4 Pro PCI in my AMD machine (which does nothing but crunch DivX data) would this card be faster than my M64? I'm guessing not as it is an S3 card, and the last driver update was from '98...lol