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What was the most "successful" Enthusiast Card ever?
- Thread starter 555BUK
- Start date
Yup has to be this.
Yep I agree
Consensus seems to be 9700/9800 Pro's followed by 8800GT's.
8800GTX's have received a few mentions and they were monsters, but I don't think they sold in the same kind of volumes, and did NVidia actually make much money out of them?
My personal preference is for the 9700/9800. This is the card that really put ATI on the map and began the ATI/NVidia wars. I also think the 5850 deserves a few more mentions for price/performance/popularity.
8800GTX's have received a few mentions and they were monsters, but I don't think they sold in the same kind of volumes, and did NVidia actually make much money out of them?
My personal preference is for the 9700/9800. This is the card that really put ATI on the map and began the ATI/NVidia wars. I also think the 5850 deserves a few more mentions for price/performance/popularity.
PowerVR anyone? I remember getting one to try but honestly can't remember what game might have influenced that choice.
The biggest boost to ealry gaming for me was definitely a Matrox for 2D coupled with a Voodoo for 3D. Possibly the last time I had what could be called a top-end system for it's generation.
The biggest boost to ealry gaming for me was definitely a Matrox for 2D coupled with a Voodoo for 3D. Possibly the last time I had what could be called a top-end system for it's generation.
Soldato
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It will have to be either 9800 pro or 8800GTX
Soldato
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9800 pro or a 8800gt/gtx
Soldato
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Agreed on 9800Pro and 8800GT/GTX
The problem is that the OP's question has three different lists based on performance, consumer value and profit for the manufacturer although there are a few cards which might appear near the top in all three lists.
Performance list as follows:
8800GTX - just because it was the faster card for almost two years which is unheard of really. At the time of release it resoundly beat ATI1950 xt in xfire which was fantastic for a single core card and we will probably never see that day again.
3dfx Voodoo1 - The start of 3d gaming on the PC and I even today I have never been as blown away as when I first got my voodoo1 card. Again perhaps we will never see such a big change in computer graphics again. Quake and tombraider were memorable.
3dfx voodoo2 - Is worth a brief mention due to the massive leap in performance over the voodoo1 plus it introduced SLI so you could run two voodoo2 cards in your rig for extreme performance (Nvidia didn't come up with SLI btw
)
9700Pro - Was a long way ahead of Nvidia at the time and ATI were miles ahead on image quality and Nvidia didn't catch up until the 8800GTX.
x1950x - Worth a mention due to it's new techniques and memory controller and it's sterling performance.
Consumer Value eg Bang for Buck
8800GTX - despite being the most expensive card every released at the time, the fact that even today people are still using them fine gives the card such good longevity it has to be in the list. Of course a crystal ball is nice as at the time of launch there was no way to tell that a few months later ATI wouldn't come out with a much faster card for less money (which they didn't of course)
8800GT - A steal. A card almost as fast as the 8800GTX but for only £130 which sold out with 24 hours. I sold my 8800GTS 320Mb a week before for £145
4870 - A card which could complete compete with the gtx260 yet cost £100 less. This forced Nvidia to slash the price of their high end cards. Worth being in the list just for that reason.
Geforce 2 MX - A cut down card but mega cheap and gave great performance and sold by the bucket load.
9500pro - just cause it could be soft modded to a 9700.
3dfx voodoo1 - Only cost just over £100 from memory and for a card which totally changed the world of pc gaming like no other, it was quite cheap too. However, we didn't think so at the time but we didn't realise high end cards would soon cost £400.
Profit -
These are never going to be the high end cards as all the profit lies with the mid and low range cards in recent years. However, in the early days it was different.
Voodoo1 & voodoo2 - Made 3dfx so much money that they regularly blew £25,000 on lunch
I can only make a guess for which low/high end cards made good money. The gtx8800 cost £400m to develop and wasn't a cheap card to make so may not have been the most profitable for Nvidia.
Performance list as follows:
8800GTX - just because it was the faster card for almost two years which is unheard of really. At the time of release it resoundly beat ATI1950 xt in xfire which was fantastic for a single core card and we will probably never see that day again.
3dfx Voodoo1 - The start of 3d gaming on the PC and I even today I have never been as blown away as when I first got my voodoo1 card. Again perhaps we will never see such a big change in computer graphics again. Quake and tombraider were memorable.
3dfx voodoo2 - Is worth a brief mention due to the massive leap in performance over the voodoo1 plus it introduced SLI so you could run two voodoo2 cards in your rig for extreme performance (Nvidia didn't come up with SLI btw
)9700Pro - Was a long way ahead of Nvidia at the time and ATI were miles ahead on image quality and Nvidia didn't catch up until the 8800GTX.
x1950x - Worth a mention due to it's new techniques and memory controller and it's sterling performance.
Consumer Value eg Bang for Buck
8800GTX - despite being the most expensive card every released at the time, the fact that even today people are still using them fine gives the card such good longevity it has to be in the list. Of course a crystal ball is nice as at the time of launch there was no way to tell that a few months later ATI wouldn't come out with a much faster card for less money (which they didn't of course)
8800GT - A steal. A card almost as fast as the 8800GTX but for only £130 which sold out with 24 hours. I sold my 8800GTS 320Mb a week before for £145
4870 - A card which could complete compete with the gtx260 yet cost £100 less. This forced Nvidia to slash the price of their high end cards. Worth being in the list just for that reason.
Geforce 2 MX - A cut down card but mega cheap and gave great performance and sold by the bucket load.
9500pro - just cause it could be soft modded to a 9700.
3dfx voodoo1 - Only cost just over £100 from memory and for a card which totally changed the world of pc gaming like no other, it was quite cheap too. However, we didn't think so at the time but we didn't realise high end cards would soon cost £400.
Profit -
These are never going to be the high end cards as all the profit lies with the mid and low range cards in recent years. However, in the early days it was different.
Voodoo1 & voodoo2 - Made 3dfx so much money that they regularly blew £25,000 on lunch
I can only make a guess for which low/high end cards made good money. The gtx8800 cost £400m to develop and wasn't a cheap card to make so may not have been the most profitable for Nvidia.
9700/9800 & 8800GT were fast single slot cards. Perhaps this contributed to their massive success and maybe ATI/Nvidia should not underestimate the value of "standard" form factor. I think the last decent single slot card was the 4850.
Perhaps ATI/NVidia could squeeze a 6850 / GTX 570 into single form.
I guess all graphics cards were single slot in the days of 9700.
Perhaps ATI/NVidia could squeeze a 6850 / GTX 570 into single form.
I guess all graphics cards were single slot in the days of 9700.
Can I give 3DFX a -vote? 3DFX was not the start of the 3Dcard market and it wasn’t a massive jump up in graphic quality in fact in many areas like for Quake it was a step backwards over other 3Dcards. 3DFX was popular due to marketing and was not the giant leap forward people are making out. We had years worth of 3Dgames and 3Dcards before 3DFX. Quake and Tomb raider are two great examples, both where in 3D a good year or more before 3DFX.
Take Quake and Unreal as an example. Quake and Unreal both didn’t look best on 3DFX and 3DFX was something like a year after others else to get support in Quake. Yet people are using Quake as an example of how good 3DFX was?
3DFX was only memorable for many as it was their first 3Dcard. That’s like saying a Neon250 was the best card as you had never seen such a big change before. Just because it was your first card and the jump from software to 3D was massive does not mean it’s the best card. If you already had a 3D card the jump to 3DFX was tiny and sometimes worse.
As much as I like the Kyro I would have to vote for either the ATI 9700pro or GTX8800 both of which gave a massive jump over older generations and both lasted ages.
Take Quake and Unreal as an example. Quake and Unreal both didn’t look best on 3DFX and 3DFX was something like a year after others else to get support in Quake. Yet people are using Quake as an example of how good 3DFX was?
3DFX was only memorable for many as it was their first 3Dcard. That’s like saying a Neon250 was the best card as you had never seen such a big change before. Just because it was your first card and the jump from software to 3D was massive does not mean it’s the best card. If you already had a 3D card the jump to 3DFX was tiny and sometimes worse.
As much as I like the Kyro I would have to vote for either the ATI 9700pro or GTX8800 both of which gave a massive jump over older generations and both lasted ages.
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