Your GPU progression?

1992 - Oak Tech 067 256k VGA
1993 - Oak Tech 067 512k VGA (Upgraded the RAM myself)
1994 - Trident 9440i VLBUS 1mb
1995 - ATI RAGE 2mb PCI
1996 - ATI RAGE Pro@Play 4mb PCI
1997 - Orchid 3DFX Voodoo 1 4mb PCI
1998 - Orchid 3DFX Voodoo 2 8mb PCI
2000 - ATI RAGE PRO 8mb AGP
2004 - ATI 9800Pro 128mb AGP - BLEW UP
2004 - nVidia GeForce 6600GT 128mb AGP
2007 - nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512mb PCI-x
2012 - AMD HD 6870 1024mb PCI-x
 
Well it started with a 3DFX Voodoo 3000:)
Geforce
Had a couple Nvidia GTS versions (Tribes was so awesome back then):p
Geforce 2
Geforce 3
GeForce 3 Ti200
Geforce 4 mx460
GeForce 4 Ti 4600
Remember having a Radeon 9700 Pro(awesome card when it came out)
Radeon x850 pro(think that was the name)
5800 {leaf blower version}
6600 GT
7850 GTX
8800 GTX
9800 GT
PNY 260 GTX
EVGA 470 gtx
EVGA 670 GTX FTW

I have a couple of other vid cards laying around that I'm not sure of. Man thats alot of cards. Think I had some more radeons in there too.
 
Last edited:
nVidia GeForce 2 MX400
ATI Radeon 9550
nVidia GeForce 7600GT (AGP)
ATI Radeon HD3870
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB
ATI Radeon HD4870X2
ATI Radeon HD5870
ATI Radeon HD5870 Crossfire
ATI Radeon HD5870m (mobile)
AMD Radeon HD6970
nVidia GeForce GTX680
 
ATi Rage
Diamond Viper
nVidia Geforce 2 MX
nVidia Geforce 2 GTS
nVidia Geforce 3
nVidia Geforce 3 Ti 500
ATi 9700 Pro
ATi 9800 Pro
nVidia 6800 Ultra
nVidia 6800 Ultra SLI
nVidia 7800 GT OC SLI
nVidia 7950 GX2
nVidia 8500
nVidia 8600 GT
nVidia 8800 GTX SLI
nVidia 260 GTX SLI
nVidia 480 GTX SLI
nVidia 580 GTX Tri-SLI

God damn I went through a lot of cards over the past decade. I think I have a problem.
 
Savage Pro PCI
Geforce AGP
Geforce 2
Geforce 3 Ti200
Geforce 4 ti4200
ATI 9600 Pro
ATI 9700(flashed to pro)
BFG 6800GT
ATI 9800XT (asus copper one)
Geforce 7800GTX (paid like 450 bones for it, sigh)
AMD HD 5850
AMD HD 6950 2GB Shader unlocked (MSI)
Powercolor 6950 2GB
AMD HD 7970 (XFX, windforce, both terrible coil whine)
GTX 680
back to AMD 7970 DC2T

Somewhere in there I've had a 5850 and another 6850 for the wife's machine... right now she has my MSI 69502GB with a arctic twin turbo on it.
 
GT 130M (notebook GPU, it can run Skyrim on medium with "meh" FPS)
soon to be build PC: Gigabyte or eVGA GTX 670


I think ill be seeing some impressive increases ;)
 
Geforce 2 MX
FX 5700 Ultra
6600GT
x1800xt (LOUD)
8800GTS 640
8800GT
GTX 260
GTX 460
*Hurry up 660ti!!*

I'm a whore for that mid range baby.
260 GTX
 
There have been many over the years.

Diamond Stealth
nVidia Riva TNT2
Matrox variation
.... Some time in between that I can't remember what I got.
Several nVidia cards -- I can't remember which ones I bought
EVGA GeForce 8800GT Superclocked
XFX GeForce GTS 250
EVGA GeForce GTX 260
EVGA GeForce GTX 285 -- used EVGA upgrade program. Not really sure if it is worth it afterall.
MSI Radeon HD 6850 Cyclone PE/OC

Next one may be nVidia.
 
Last edited:
Year:1998, summer
GPU: Matrox Millennium 2MB, PCI
Notable features:
1024x768@60Hz,32bpp, drove my original 14" CRT monitor pretty well. Didn't really accelerate much, but StarCraft played awesomely, as did Diablo 1.
Reason retired: No 3d support, could not go above 1024x768 without dropping to 16-bit color (insufficient vRAM)

Year: 1998
GPU: Nvidia RIVA TNT2 16MB, AGP 2x
Notable features:
Quake 1 ran well on the TNT2 but I don't remember much beyond that.
Reason retired: Sucked, honestly. Anything would have been better.

Year: 1999
GPU: ATI Rage Fury MAXX 64MB, AGP 2x/4x
Notable features:
Dual GPU. First 64MB card to market.This card was 2x Rage 128 32MB cards stuffed onto a single board. When configured correctly, it bested the Geforce 256.
Reason retired: Drivers were specific to Win98/Win2k. XP drivers were never released.

Year: 2000
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 2 MX 32MB, AGP 2x/4x
Notable features:
Hardware T&L. Direct3D 7.
Reason retired: Performance insufficient for Q3A at 1280x1024@85Hz,32BPP. Antialiasing desired.

Year: Early 2002
GPU: ATI Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, AGP 8x
Notable features:
Direct3D 8.1, Tesselation Engine (TruForm)
Reason retired: Radeon 9700 was released, DirectX 9 was released, games needed more horsepower. Lust <3

Year: Early 2003
GPU: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB, AGP 8x
Notable features:
Direct3D 9, Vastly improved AA and AF performance. Crazy memory bandwidth. vBIOS hacking begins.
Reason retired: Rig died before a programming final exam, needed to replace CPU and motherboard, decided it was time to make the switch to PCIe

Year: 2006, May
GPU: ATI Radeon 1800 GTO 256MB, PCIe 1.0 x16
Notable features:
Ran WoW really well at 1280x1024, vastly improved AA and AF, could keep pace with games for a good many years. Last "good" generation from ATI-proper (before AMD merger caused difficulties).
Reason retired: two years later, I felt it was time for another overhaul, and to migrate to Vista. DirectX10 games were finally launching. Wanted to build credit score, so got a credit card and built a rig, paid off in full within 2 weeks. Best decision made in a long time.

Year: 2008, June
GPU: ATI Radeon HD4870 512MB, PCIe 2.0 x16
Notable features:
first solid DirectX10 card from ATI/AMD. Performance reached parity with Nvidia once again. Crossfire began to make sense. Could play games at 1920x1080p@60Hz consistently. HDMI output w/ Audio.
Reason retired: Wanted a little more performance, buddy wanted a new GPU but didn't want to spend much. Sold him my 4870 when I got my 4890s.

Year: 2009, March
GPU: AMD Radeon HD4890 1GB, PCIe 2.0 x16 (owned a pair, occasionally Crossfired them)
Notable features:
1GB of GDDR5. 1GHz core clock. Smoked the hell out of most games. Birthday present to myself.
Reason retired: Windows 7, DirectX11, Bad Company 2 Performance, lusted after Eyefinity.

Year: 2010, March
GPU: AMD Radeon HD5870 2GB E6-Edition, PCIe 2.0 x16 (2x Crossfire)
Notable features:
2GB of GDDR5. 6x Mini DisplayPorts, for incredibly easy insertion/removal. Favorite card of all time, by far.
Reason retired: 2x 5870 @ 5760x1200 wasn't able to maintain 60 FPS in many Eyefinity-ready titles.

Year: 2011, December
GPU: AMD Radeon HD6970 2GB, PCIe 2.0 x16 (2x Crossfire)
Notable features:
100% improvement to Crossfire scaling, despite only 10% performance gain over 5870 per card. Net improvement was approximately 60% FPS, greater than adding a third 5870.
Reason retired: Still in use. Waiting for another Eyefinity6 edition card to be released. I absolutely loathe my 6970s for their lack of mDP ports. All my equipment is displayport. 7970 w/ 4x mDP exists but is very expensive, would meet my needs. Waiting on 8000-series / Kepler
 
Last edited:
My upgrade list is pretty obscene. During high school and college, i was averaging a new computer ever 3-4 weeks - just kept buying, building, and selling. There's alot of upgrading and downgrading and obscure cards here or there. This might not be in order as i'm just remember cards i know for sure i used for my own computer for at least a few weeks before i sold and was either looking for the same card or upgrading again.

s3 virge
ati rage
voodoo 1
voodoo 2
tnt
tnt2 vanta m64
tnt2 ultra
voodoo 3 3000
voodoo 3 3500
creative geforce 256 annihilator pro
voodoo 5 5500
geforce 2 gts
geforce 2 ultra
geforce 3
radeon 7500
radeon 8500
kyro and kyro ii (somewhere along the way i had this card a couple times)
geforce 3 ti 500
geforce 4 ti 4200
geforce 4 ti 4600
sis xabre (can't remember if i had the 400 or 600...)
radeon 9600pro
radeon 9600xt
radeon 9500 (unlocked to 9700)
radeon 9700 pro
radeon 9800 (modded to pro)
radeon 9800 pro
radeon 9800 xt
geforce 5600
geforce 5800
geforce 5950
geforce 6600
geforce 6800 gt (both agp and pci-e variant)
geforce 6800 xt *modded to ultra (agp)
geforce 6800 ultra
radeon x800xt
radeon x800xl
geforce 7600gt
geforce 7800gtx
geforce 7950gt
radeon x1850 platinum
radeon x1900 aiw
geforce 8800 320mb
geforce 8800 640mb
radeon x2900xt
geforce 8800gt
geforce 9800gt
geforce 9800gtx
radeon 3850
radeon 4830/4850/4870 cfx in some various shape of form
geforce 260 w/ 216
geforce 5770 cfx
radeon 5850 cfx
geforce 470
radeon 5870
radeon 6950 2gb (modded to 6970)
radeon 6970
geforce 560ti *currently in htpc*
geforce 670 *currently in main computer*

there are some cards obscurely in there somewhere geforce 2 mx, geforce 3 ti 200, a few more all-in-wonder cards, geforce 275, etc. but i didn't "use" them as these were intentionally bought or purchased for resale.

props to anyone who remembers/had the kyros and the xabre gpus.
 
Geforce 4 mx 420
Geforce 5200
ati x800pro
geforce 7950gt
Geforce 8800gts
Geforce 8600m gt
Nvidia 6800gt
AMD hd 4850
Intel HD 4000

I've had a weird jump around in gpu strength
 
Creative TNT 2 Ultra
Radeon 7200
Geforce 4 Ti200
Geforce FX5200
Geforce FX5600
Radeon 7200
Radeon 9800 Pro
Geforce 6800 Ultra OC
Geforce 7600 GS (rma'd the 6800)
Geforce 8800 GTS 512MB
Geforce GTX 260 216 core
Radeon 4890
Radeon 4890 Crossfire
Geforce GTX 580
Geforce GTX 570 SLI (on thier way)

Not sure what the order was exactly between the TNT 2 Ultra and the 6800 Ultra
 
1. S3 Virge
2. Riva TNT (Viper 550)
3. Riva TNT 2 M64 (for a whole few hours before I replaced it to..)
4. Riva TNT 2 (Viper 770)
5. Geforce 256 Pro (DDR)
6. Geforce 2 GTS 64MB
7. Geforce 4 Ti 4200
>>very long break cuz I don't like ATI and FX was...well lets forget about it<<
8. Geforce 6800 (BFG, awesome card)
>>this where it gets a bit confusing becasue I had 2 PCs, HTPC and Tower<<
9a. Geforce 7300
9b. Geforce 7800
10a Geforce 8600
10b. Geforce 7900GS
11. Geforce 8800GT 512
12. Radeon 5770 - yup.. I'm still ashamed
13. GTX 560Ti
14. GTX 670
 
Yawnald said:
These are from my "main machine". Around the time geforce emerged, I started owning multiple machines so friends could come play without hauling their machines around. So, lots of these cards, I owned multiples.

S3 Virge
Diamond monster 3d 4mb (I was floored, I would never be the same after witnessing what this thing could do. Let the obsession begin!)
2X 3dfx Branded STB voodoo2 12mb SLI
Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Voodoo 4 4500
Voodoo 5 5500
Creative Geforce 256 DDR
Geforce 2 ULTRA
Geforce 3 non-ti
Geforce 4 TI4600
Geforce FX 5800 non-ultra
Radeon 9800XT
Geforce 6800 Ultra AGP
2X Evga Geforce 7800GTX ACS3 256
2X Geforce 7900GTX 512
2X Geforce 8800GTX

Around this time, I was pissed at SLI. I ended up selling all of my computers and vowing to use consoles ONLY for my gaming needs. I bought 4 xbox 360s for my computer room. This lasted 6 months, and I started buying computer hardware again. I swore I was done with high end hardware, and started up slowly...

Geforce 8800GT
Geforce 8800GTS 512
2X GTX 260
2X GTX 280
3X GTX 285
1X GTX 275 (to test)
Radeon 5870 XXX
Radeon 5970
3X GTX 480 is where I am now. Not for long!

The gpus I have in the non-primary machines ATM are:
Gtx 460 768
Gtx 465
Gtx 470
9800GT
and another GTX 480
Click to expand...


Since I posted this, my 6 machines are currently:

media 1: 7770
media 2: 7770

gaming 4: 7850
gaming 3: 7870
gaming 2: 7970
gaming 1: 3X 7970
 
3DFX Voodoo 2
Geforce 3 Ti 200
Radeon 9600 Pro
Geforce 7800GT
Geforce 8800GTS 512
Radeon 6950
Geforce 670GTX
 
STB Horizon 64 1MB
Diamond Stealth II S220 4MB
3Dfx Voodoo3 2000 16MB
Abit Geforce4 Ti4200 64MB
Abit Radeon 9550 Guru 128MB
EVGA Geforce 6800GS 256MB
BFG Geforce 8800GTS 512MB
BFG Geforce GTX260-216 55nm 896MB
EVGA Geforce GTX460 1GB
EVGA Geforce GTX570 1.28GB
EVGA Geforce GTX670 FTW 2GB

The 9550 Guru was basically in between a 9600Pro and XT. Just move a jumper.
The STB card was an upgraded card that came with my first computer, a Gateway.
The Stealth S220 was a huge mistake.
 
Some 8bit ISA Monochrome with 9 D-type connector
Diamond Speedstar Pro 1MB VLB (cirus logic)
Matrox G100 / Matrox M3D
Nvidia Riva TNT 2 Ultra / 3DFX Voodoo 2 SLI
Geforce 2 GTS
Geforce 4 Ti 4600
Geforce FX 5900 XT
Radeon 9800 Pro
Radeon 9800 XT
Geforce 6800 GT
Geforce 7800 GTX
Geforce 8800 GTX
Radeon HD 4870
Geforce GTX 285
Geforce GTX 460
Geforce GTX 560 ti
Geforce GTX 570
Geforce GTX 670

Various other cards in there like the Geforce 256 and Geforce 3 ti 500 and some others, but they never went into my main computer just because i never felt like taking apart my main rig to install them so they went into my secndary computer insted even though they were better cards.

My favorite card to this day was my Matrox M3D (PowerVR) 3D Accelerator. Not only was it powerful enough to run most anything the voodoo did (while maybe not as good of texture quality, for those days anything 3D was amazing) and it even ran some games at 1024x768 with playable framerates. The Voodoo could not even set to that resolution. But i think the main reason i fell in love with this card so much was i picked it up at Comp-USA for $10 after a rebate that i actually got back.

A close second was the FX 5900 XT, mostly because of all the Nvidia haters at the time. It was quite the amazing card for the pricepoint. Not quite as strong as the 9700/9800 pro's but way less money and overclocked very well for the time. Even ran cool and quiet which was unheard of in the FX 5800/5900 "Leaf Blower" series.
 
Last edited:
voodoo banshee (diamond brand)
voodoo 5500pci
geforce 5900 ultra agp (BFG Tech)
xfx 7950gt agp
some ati agp card after my xfx card died and they sent me a pci-e rma that i couldnt use (saphire hd3850)
diamond 7970

I still have everything except for the banshee, the 5900ultra died though, rest still work
 
Last edited:
S3 Virge
RIVA TNT
Matrox G400
--------------------------------- life took over ---------------------------------
x1 8800GTS
x1 4870
x1 4870x2
x4 7970
x4 680 (x3 now - sound card)
 
You really, really don't want to see my list. I'll have a page all to myself.

Off the top of my head with 5 seconds to think about it, I can think of 30 GPUs I've had.
 
I think the only people with a shorter list than mine are non-gamers :(

Computer 1: GeForce 6600GT > GeForce 9600GT

Computer 2: (Integrated) > GeForce 7900GS > GeForce GTX 560
 
GeForce 2 MX 400
Radeon 9500 Pro
(whatever the fuck was on my Sony Vaio for onboard video; only used it for Counter-Strike coming out of high school)
XFX Radeon 5850
Sapphire Vapor-X 7970 GHZ Edition 3GB
 
6800 GT
7900 GT
7900 GT SLI
8800 GTS G92 (Favorite card of all time)
HD 4770
HD 5770
HD 5770 CF (Worse setup, CF sucked)
GTX 560 Ti
HD 7950
 
S3 Virge DX/GX with 12mb Voodoo 2
GeForce 2 MX
GeForce FX 5200
GeForce 8500 GT
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 version
Radeon HD 7850
 
Last edited:
Zenith data systems (gpu is still a mystery to me, but the hard drive was an awesome 38Mb)
ATI mach2 (gateway 2000 486DX2/66)
Matrox millennium 2 PCI
S3 Virge GX PCI w/ 2mb video upgrade (4MB total :) )
Creative Voodoo Banshee 16MB PCI
3DFX Voodoo 3 3500 TV AGP
Nvidia Geforce2 GTS 32MB
ATI Radeon 7000 64MB w/ TV out (another shitty card, another dollar wasted)
Nvidia Geforce4 440 MX 64MB (card was a turd, had it for less than a day and tossed it aside, put back in the GTS)
ATI Radeon 9800 AIW 128MB
ASUS V9999 AGP (Nvidia 6800GT 256MB)
Biostar AMD 785GX Onboard video
ATI Radeon 3450 (for CrossfireX with onboard, honestly wasn't expecting a lot of performance but it work out better than expected)
ATI Radeon 4770 1GB
ATI Radeon 4670 1GB (traded my PC for my pickup, came across this a day later for $20 to make a new system)
XFX AMD Radeon 6970 2GB (about damn time)
(next card goes here, artifacting on 3rd monitor is driving me f*ing nuts)
 
Last edited:
Ati Radeon 850XT
Ati Radeon 1950XTX (that was one beautiful card back then!)
Nvidia 8600GT M (HP Laptop, fried itself once)
XFX Radeon 4870
HIS 4890
HIS 4890 CF (hated crossfire, probably never doing dual gpu again until microstutter is 100% gone)
XFX 6970
EVGA GTX 680 SC+ (Switched camps! Let's see if the grass is greener on the green side)
 
ATi RAGE Pro
Voodoo 3 200
GeForce 2 MX
GeForce 4 Ti 4600
Radeon 9800 Pro (soft mod to XT)
Radeon x800
GeForce 6600gt
Geforce 8800gt
GeForce GTX 460
2nd GeForce GTX 460 for SLi
 
creative 440 mx
creative 5600
ati 9800
bfg 7600gt
msi gtx260
gainward gtx570 goes like hell
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top