The real question is if this will stop Morrowind from secretly rebooting the XBOX at certain load screens.
https://kotaku.com/morrowind-completely-rebooted-your-xbox-d...
For those who don't know
Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
21–30 of 38 posts
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#22Since it was mentioned in the Macho Nacho video, this was quite a hurdle. But it does bring up the question, what is the theoretical maximum possible? I know the CPU was 32-bit, so 4GiB is the upper limit in that regard. I don't know if the CPU has limited address lanes or any other physical limitation though. The max I've seen discussed is 1.5GB for a similar cpu on a normal desktop and 640MB for the test design of…
In theory the chipset max is 2GB, but the physical motherboard does not have enough address lines traced to support more than 256MB. Adding more memory would require a PCB redesign
... or one crazy rework.
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#23Amazing that this is possible. Also saw a video of upgrading a Nintendo Switch to 8GB of RAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4oXmQGZgzU
The Switch memory expansion is probably much more useful than this, for general users. No standing software is able to utilize this memory expansion, only homebrew software specifically coded for it can. In contrast, the Switch OS manages memory for apps and would be able to allocate additional memory automatically, as long as it's been made aware.
I don't know for sure about 256MB, but some Xbox prototype games require a debug BIOS and the extra RAM in the debug kit.
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Switch memory expansion is probably much more useful than this, for general users. No standing software is able to utilize this memory expansion, only homebrew software specifically coded for it can. In contrast, the Switch OS manages memory for apps and would be able to allocate additional memory automatically, as long as it's been made aware.
I don't know for sure about 256MB, but some Xbox prototype games require a debug BIOS and the extra RAM in the debug kit.
Correct, there are some applications that can take advantage because they were built only on the devkit or for the arcade configuration. I just meant to say standard Xbox software and a good chunk of homebrew will not benefit from the expanded memory.
I also believe (but could be misinformed) that the arcade configuration and Devkit had an even larger memory space, so you might still have issues in that regard.
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't figure out if the xbox processor supports PAE or not. But references say most Intel processors after pentium pro, including Pentium III support PAE. Probably with 36 bits of physical addressing. But it's a mobile socket; no idea if they put all the address pins out on those.
OT: Like you mentioned PAE was introduced with the Pentium Pro in '95. That was the same year my family got its first PC, with a whopping 8MB of RAM. It's wild to think that Intel was looking at 4GB and saying, "This probably isn't going to be enough."
at the time the original xbox was designed and its same generation of intel CPUs, the absolute practical maximum you would be able to put into a single socket desktop motherboard would be 768MB of PC100 or PC133 SDRAM (3 x 256MB DIMMs). If you actually saw a system with 768MB of RAM in it, that would be some very high-end CAD workstation.
There was no practical way to get anywhere near 4GB of RAM within the dollar cost that a person purchasing a $200 CPU on a $150 motherboard would be able to bear.
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you kidding? It's a Bethesda game, of course it won't fix any bugs. It's 2024 and the exact same sort of issues exist in Skyrim and Fallout 4 (even after the remasters/anniversary editions)! I've run into issues recently (in June) with Fallout 4 where if your saved game data starts approaching 2GB on Xbox One x, saving the game will fail in weird ways (may hang the game, may crash the game). Once the game gets in…
I remember buying Skyrim VR, only for it to be unplayable without modding because the physics is tied to the FPS and anything above 60 Hz would send objects flying everywhere (including the carriage in the intro sequence).
Sounds like a Bethesda feature to me. Morrowind was a fun game in its own right, but the outright janky stuff you could do was the main reason I loved it.
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#27Amazing that this is possible. Also saw a video of upgrading a Nintendo Switch to 8GB of RAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4oXmQGZgzU
The Switch memory expansion is probably much more useful than this, for general users. No standing software is able to utilize this memory expansion, only homebrew software specifically coded for it can. In contrast, the Switch OS manages memory for apps and would be able to allocate additional memory automatically, as long as it's been made aware.
Also, if my YouTube recommended is any indication there's a healthy Linux ecosystem for the Switch and the X1 now - some people have even shown Switch games playing on Switch via emulator in Ubuntu [0]
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know for sure about 256MB, but some Xbox prototype games require a debug BIOS and the extra RAM in the debug kit.
Correct, there are some applications that can take advantage because they were built only on the devkit or for the arcade configuration. I just meant to say standard Xbox software and a good chunk of homebrew will not benefit from the expanded memory. I also believe (but could be misinformed) that the arcade configuration and Devkit had an even larger memory space, so you might still have issues in that regard.
The dev kits had 128MB of RAM. It's been possible for decades to upgrade the Xbox to 128MB of RAM by just populating the empty RAM using the same modules as the rest of the system. It allowed booting Chihiro games, and dev builds. But this hack replaces all the original modules with ones sporting twice the capacity to allow 256MB.
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct, there are some applications that can take advantage because they were built only on the devkit or for the arcade configuration. I just meant to say standard Xbox software and a good chunk of homebrew will not benefit from the expanded memory. I also believe (but could be misinformed) that the arcade configuration and Devkit had an even larger memory space, so you might still have issues in that regard.
The dev kits had 128MB of RAM. It's been possible for decades to upgrade the Xbox to 128MB of RAM by just populating the empty RAM using the same modules as the rest of the system. It allowed booting Chihiro games, and dev builds. But this hack replaces all the original modules with ones sporting twice the capacity to allow 256MB.
Gotcha, for some reason I was under the impression that the Arcade kit or DevKit had an odd memory setup of 640mb or something like that.
Thanks for the correction!
Re: Modifying the OG Xbox to have 256M of RAM [video]
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
OT: Like you mentioned PAE was introduced with the Pentium Pro in '95. That was the same year my family got its first PC, with a whopping 8MB of RAM. It's wild to think that Intel was looking at 4GB and saying, "This probably isn't going to be enough."
>It's wild to think that Intel was looking at 4GB and saying, "This probably isn't going to be enough." Not really. While consumers at home had 8MB, Intel was already looking to compete with PowerPC, DEC Alpha, MIPS systems where 4GB wasn't really out of the ordinary, so they knew where things were going.
As far as I know, there were only 5 PPro computers that could take >4GB:
Axil Northbridge NX801, Data General AV8600, HP NetServer LXr Pro8, NCR Worldmark 4380, or Unisys XR/6
Interestingly, while the Intel 450GX chipset was designed to daisy-chain DRAM controllers (1 controller chip per 4GB of RAM), none of the boards that actually could take >4GB used that, instead building their own solutions. Presumably that meant that there was a bug in the chipset.
Anyway, each of those 5 computers would have run you at least $500k in 1998.
(I've been on-and-off trying to acquire one of those boxes for a few years now.)