1CHIP SNES picture quality – quick comparison
I did this a while ago and thought it might be interesting. The 1CHIP SNES (1995~), with S-CPU, S-PPU1 and S-PPU2 united in a single chip (S-CPUN), has vastly improved picture quality over the old versions. Most notably the rising edges of the output signal are much steeper, resulting in sharper dark->bright transitions.
This is not an issue of the video encoder, it looks exactly the same via RGB (save for color balance).
Here are some examples to show the difference.
Sorry the pictures turned out quite big but it’s important not to lose any detail here. 😉
The images below show three frame captures from a “regular” SNES. Roll over them to see the 1CHIP version.
Wow that is quite a difference indeed. Do you have any idea if there is some way to spot SNES units that use the new chip ? Would be nice to have one but buying tons of units and hoping to accidentally get a single chip variant is not really an option hehe.
gilligan
PS: i am *so* looking forward to see sd2snes as finished product some day 🙂
I have no idea. 😀 With German consoles you can kind of go by the color of the bottom label (black print -> likely to be a 1CHIP) but I don’t know about their distribution in USA+Japan. There might be some research going on based on serial numbers…
EDIT: Found this: http://kyorune.com/modding/article.php?id=13
For those with the PAL region SNES console (Especially in AUS and NZ) To find out that you got a 1-CHIP SNES revision is
1. open the bottom Expansion door on your PAL SNES, If there is the “Ring of glory” and none of the 3 solder dots, then it’s 100% LEGIT that it’s a 1-CHIP SNES console.
2. Another way of knowing as well is if the Serial Number of the SNES PAL console is the later models with the serial Number from UP176XXXXX onwards.
Does the 1chip version of the “regular” snes need modding for rgb and svideo like the snesjr?
I can only speak for PAL 1chip consoles where RGB and S-Video are already available on the multi out.
I have a small board SNES but its not a 1CHIP, I may go ahead and open it and take some pictures. Maybe you all can help me out.
Here is the picture.
I have a model 1 SNES with a 1995 revision board.
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4742/dscf5497s.jpg
as you can see from the pic the chipset is the same as the large board.
http://kyorune.com/modding/file.php?art=1&file=1
As seen here the model 1 1CHIP board from a PAL system.
There probably isnt a 1CHIP NTSC/U Model1 SNES. I am planning on buying another SNES to see what’s up.
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wow, seriously. impressive screenshots of… a title screen?
hahah
thank you still ; ) still useful
im wondering, might the 2 chip version actually make the games look more retro?
new one looks like an emulator!
by the way, how did you make those screen shots?