Favorite GPU you have owned?

lucked out on 2x 6800 ultra PCIe I had preordered, the two cards simply blew my mind and destroyed the 9800 Pro they replaced. The investment on almost all new hardware was too much so quickly sold both for a hefty profit (gotta love those old vapor launches) then I replaced them with a single slot 6800 GT. Nvidia had to pull out all the stops after the 5xxx fiasco, and they did 8) Doom 3 anyone?
 
buying a voodoo3 to replace a 4MB ATI rage card. Was playing loads of UT then and the voodoo worked like a dream at 1024x768.... that was max res!

Also, busting the bank on a PNY ti4600 - top of the range card at the time and truly brilliant in every respect.

Honourable mention for my current 7950GT - never had an issue and it plays everything i need!
 
skwayb said:
My Quantum 3d Obsidian X-24 (Voodeoo 2 SLI on a single Card). Running 1024x768 when most cards barely could do 640x480...That card kicked some serious ass back in the day. Still have the thing...
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"It's arcade-perfect!"
ah, the good ol' days. Now, the kids are saying "it almost runs Crysis!"
 
I do think one of the nicest upgrades I ever did was coming from an 800Pro (unlocked to the XT with all 16 pixel pipelines!) to a pair of 8800 GTS 512s (G92s). Twas awesome.
 
My eVGA 6800 Ultra was amazing back in the day. So was my Ti 4600. I miss those days. This 5870 is pretty kick ass too.
 
Hard question.There have been so many over the years. I think my voodoo 2 in sli or the voodoo 5 are pretty close to my fav cards of all time. That is what got me into 3d gaming and fps. Next would have to be my xtasy ti4600.
 
GeForce2 MX...it was the first video card I ever installed by myself...fond memories...
 
8800gt was my favorite. When i got into computers i started off with a 8500gt and play gta:sa and other low games, then i wanted to play grid and 100 bucks later 8800gt:) Good Times Good Times
 
BOW DOWN!!! I have 2MB more texture memory than you do.
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Quantum 3D Raven PCI. First one I bought. I was younger, less jaded. Games were magical. 3D was heaven.
 
3DFx Voodoo3 3000 AGP.

Everything ran amazing. Didn't even replace it until after Half-Life. Hell, near the end of it's life It even ran well in a game that "required" 32mb of video memory to play, and it only had 16mb. Sure a couple textures lost their color, but the FPS were still good! :) (Strangely, they kept their shading... so things didn't look "graphical glitch" white, they looked like they were just supposed to be painted white in-game)

Still have it in all of it's passively-cooled glory, box and all. :D
 
my current card, an eVGA 9600GT SSC.

I bought it for about $60 after rebate in September of 2008. It came out about six months earlier with a msrp of $180. It has been able to handle almost everything I played at my native resolution (1920x1080) up until I bought Bad Company 2. I'm sad now cause I know its time is coming up soon...
 
As far as a "does it all" card, the Asus Ti4200 that was basically a 4600.... 6 layer pcb, beefier circuitry, faster memory, etc., it was great.
 
my favorite card was my ATI Radeon 9800 SE soft modded to a 9800PRO.. friggin awesome card.. but my favorite overclocking card is my EVGA 8800GT which did 760/1890/1050 with a simple bios voltage mod and a 60 dollar duorb cooler..
 
Gotta say my original 3dfx Voodoo (the add on card) and the nVidia TNT were pretty earth shattering in their day, but my absolute longest lasting has been the nVidia 8800 GTX. I just sent my eVGA 295 in for the (second) RMA and I am blown away that the 8800 STILL plays today's games great.
 
My first computer was a P133MHz with 16mb ram... it came with a trident 1MB vidcard! Then a few months later I bought a Diamond Monster 3D 3dfx Voodoo1 4MB... I remember that I received the card in the early hours, about 4 am, of a school day and I stayed up installing it so that I could see it working before I go to school. Man, I remember firing up quake2 (my favorite game at the time, and for an entire year or two after!) and changing the video mode from software to openGL... it was such a magical moment to be able to see those graphics for the first time! The yellow-orange ambient lights were so beautiful, the colors so rich and vibrant... the whole atmosphere war simply organic - the entire game just felt so more "real", more alive and inviting! I just wanted to stay there, playing the game, wandering around all the familiar levels just to appreciate the changes (and that beautiful and organic yellow-orange-ish atmosphere!)... but it was time to go to school :(

Almost two years later I did an entire components upgrade and got a PII 300 with a Diamond Viper V770 nVidia Riva TNT2 AGP 32MB! Man, that thing could fly... being able to play UT in 1024x768 was a moment almost just as magical (almost)! :D
 
Starting to think my 5870 with Eyefinity is trumping my old favorite 9800pro ( it replaced a mx440..)
 
My all time fav was probably an MSI TI4200. That was the first card I used anti aliasing with!

That did it for me, I was sold on PC gaming.

Then second would be a 6600GT

I overclocked that card really hard and am very surprised I never smoked it. I benched that card the most. Everyday I'd bench it always hoping for a higher score.
 
I don't know how I afforded them, but my dual Voodoo 2s had me in gaming bliss. I don't even remember what games I was playing back them, but I'm sure they were beautiful.

I got the most life out of my 9800 Pro.
 
I love these discussions! I have lots of retro PC gear and I would have to say that my 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP that is running in my Asus P3B-F PIII 750MHz Win98 box has to be my favorite. I bought the card new when they first came out and it's still going strong even with frequent use playing all my old DOS and Glide based favorites. Still think UT99 seems to work best on a Voodoo. I have definitely gotten my money's worth from it. :D
 
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I would have to say, my 8800 GTX. I installed an aftermarket Zalman air cooler on it, and has been rock steady since I bought it. It is no longer part of my main rig, but it is still working hard and folding for team 33. That card was a huge jump from my 6800 GT.
 
Definitely my first TNT2. I was sporting that while all my friends were telling me a I should be using 2 voodoo 2's.
 
9700pro. I must have used it for 4 or 5 years. One of the all time greats.

Honorable mention: My current 8800GT part of Nvidias greatest winning family and my Voodoo 3, my first real 3d card.
 
Mine will be the Intel (zxt)**Pi.

Off course it is in the future, but the card will be so powerfull it allowed me to travel back in time to come here and post.

It was a great card as long as you did not turn up AA in Crysis**Pi
 
EVGA 8800GTS 320. Got it back in 2007 and still use it to this day in my main gaming rig, pretty damn good I say!
 
my was the 6800 ultra i paid $550 for it, and i returned it later because i broke it. it's kind of strange how today that video card is so slow.
 
My 9600GT has treated me very, very well. Since I have a monitor that tops out at 1280x1024 it does everything I need, and paired with an Athlon X2 5050e it does it all without heating my office. GPGPU apps, Glide emulation (!), brand new games, the odd workstation app - all fine, and without issues.

Past cards of note include my Voodoo Graphics board, which was utterly rock-solid for years; my Voodoo3, an unkillable brute that's STILL running in a friend's Linux server eleven years after purchase; the Geforce3 that still works in that friend's MythTV system; and the x800XL All-in-Wonder that's being used to back up my VHS collection.
 
ATI RAGE 128!!! I had a cable modem and Quake III and that. All those nights we spent together with a bottle of something 33% caffiene. Childhood was so innocent. Damn you ATI!!!
 
Just ran across this thread. It's not that old so I'm gonna go ahead and revive it...

My absolute favorite GPU that I've owned is the SimFusion 6000q that's sitting behind me on a shelf. 4 Radeon 9700 Pros on two PCBs, using one PCI and one AGP slot. It took me years to find one for sale. Here's an article about it; maybe I'll post some pictures of mine later when I have a camera handy if anyone really wants to see it. All I have right now is a couple of pictures of the aftermath of one of the heatsinks coming loose in shipping. :( (this being the only one that you can actually see enough of the card to tell what it is [fair warning: it's a 2500x1667 picture]) I haven't fixed it yet-I may never bother, I may just frame it and hang it up the way it is.

Besides that thing... My Radeon 8500 (upgraded from a rage 128; first "fast" card I bought; used and abused it for years), my Voodoo 5 5500s, and my GeForce FX 5800 Ultra (bought it off ebay a few years back just to play with. It's so awful that I love it).

I saw a lot of people mention the 6800; that thing deserves an honorable mention here too, simply because I have never owned and used a GPU for as long as I've had that thing without feeling any real need to upgrade. (part of that is because I don't game anymore really, but still... :p)
 
RevMen said:
I don't know how I afforded them, but my dual Voodoo 2s had me in gaming bliss. I don't even remember what games I was playing back them, but I'm sure they were beautiful.

I got the most life out of my 9800 Pro.
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I have to agree with the Voodoo 2 in SLI! I ran these with an ATI card and a Pentium 2 450. I had the King setup at the time and made all of my friends jealous. Man did those Voodoo's make a difference on Rainbow 6... it was day and night. I also remember paying over $200 for 2 128 mb sticks of RAM at that time! WOW!
 
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