Is it feasible to upgrade the video memory on integrated VLB?

[CompaqGuy1993]

I have noticed that most of the integrated VLB video of the mid 90's usually only has 1mb when the chipsets will often support 2mb. Is it feasible just to solder on IC's that have double the capacity in place of the old ones, or are the onboard video bioses fixed on a certain amount of memory? Just curious if anyone has attempted this because I have a spare motherboard and thought it might be an interesting project if possible.

 

[rmay635703]

Only if there are address pins that go somewhere to enable the ram.

Very occasionally you can piggyback chips if there isn’t already an empty socket but given the speed and bandwidth you usually are in for a world of hurt with a noisy picture, especially if you need to bodge wire from the video chip over due to a missing address trace.

Then even if you are successful you also get to deal with a lack of video bios support for the extra ram in most cases and you may even encounter an unforeseen ramdac limitation

 

[CompaqGuy1993]

Only if there are address pins that go somewhere to enable the ram.

Very occasionally you can piggyback chips if there isn’t already an empty socket but given the speed and bandwidth you usually are in for a world of hurt with a noisy picture, especially if you need to bodge wire from the video chip over due to a missing address trace.

Then even if you are successful you also get to deal with a lack of video bios support for the extra ram in most cases and you may even encounter an unforeseen ramdac limitation

Thank you! This is exactly the info I was looking for.