Actually, thinking about it, it wasnt a Voodoo Rush I had. My mate got a Voodoo Rush and a while later I got a Voodoo 2. It was by far the best card ever made. I think it still is the biggest jump in tech. Playing games like Need for speed 2 in software at something like 8fps then putting in a Voodoo 2 and playing special edition at 30fps with added effects was incredible. That and of course things like Unreal with reflections, the first proper water effects, huge areas, lighting...
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PC Videocards - how times have changed....
- Thread starter iv-tecman
- Start date
I had a Creative Labs Voodoo 2 12MB, I thought it was an 8MB but I remember it was a 12MB version. It was the version that allowed Need for Speed Hot Pursuit with Glide to run with an in car dashboard….
Thought that racing game would never be beaten in graphics… If you were lucky and had enough memory you could run the game at 800 x 600, ideally you’d be looking at 640 x 480.
Today, Need for Speed Shift can be played across three screens with ATI cards, or at the very least most will play the game at 1920 x 1080 HD…. Amazing lol
The Voodoo 2 boards were quite large. I also had a Sound Blaster Awe 32, I also had an Awe 64 for a short while, and they were also quite large boards. Reason I had a full tower case at that time.
Problem is with Video Cards today, is that for a while they seemed to be reducing in size, but now they’ve gone silly and the card sizes are not just big in length, its also depth. Nearly all decent GPU take up two back plates, and most are now as long as the mainboard they sit into….
Thought that racing game would never be beaten in graphics… If you were lucky and had enough memory you could run the game at 800 x 600, ideally you’d be looking at 640 x 480.
Today, Need for Speed Shift can be played across three screens with ATI cards, or at the very least most will play the game at 1920 x 1080 HD…. Amazing lol
The Voodoo 2 boards were quite large. I also had a Sound Blaster Awe 32, I also had an Awe 64 for a short while, and they were also quite large boards. Reason I had a full tower case at that time.
Problem is with Video Cards today, is that for a while they seemed to be reducing in size, but now they’ve gone silly and the card sizes are not just big in length, its also depth. Nearly all decent GPU take up two back plates, and most are now as long as the mainboard they sit into….
Those were the good old days!! My first dedicated card was a 16MB voodoo banshee. I remember it came with a demo of the original Half-Life and I played through the demo finding it sluggish until I found the graphics settings and enabled openGL 
then it was great. After that came many hours of CounterStrike beta's 
Would be nice to see peoples lists of past to present cards as well. Mine looks like:
4mb unknown card ??
16mb Voodoo Banshee
32MB Geforce MX - I overclocked this by about 10mhz!
128MB Radeon 9800 Pro
Geforce 8800 GTX
Geforce 280GTX
That ATi radeon looks like it was thrown in just for good measure amongst those nvidias but it was actually a very fast card at the time and I had it watercooled.
Still have my old voodoo and MX cards and for some reason couldn't bring myself to bin them!
then it was great. After that came many hours of CounterStrike beta's Would be nice to see peoples lists of past to present cards as well. Mine looks like:
4mb unknown card ??
16mb Voodoo Banshee
32MB Geforce MX - I overclocked this by about 10mhz!
128MB Radeon 9800 Pro
Geforce 8800 GTX
Geforce 280GTX
That ATi radeon looks like it was thrown in just for good measure amongst those nvidias but it was actually a very fast card at the time and I had it watercooled.
Still have my old voodoo and MX cards and for some reason couldn't bring myself to bin them!
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Ooo my past video cards…
Erm.. Well let me see.
Some VGA adaptor that I can’t remember on a 386 system.
Cirrus Logic 1MB on a 486 SX25 with 2MB of memory
Video Logic 2MB on a 486 DX2 66 with 4MB of memory (upgraded to 8MB)
Video Logic 3Dx (power VR chipset) on a Pentium system 166 I think. Used it with a 4MB Video Logic 2D card
Moved over to a 3Dfx orchid righteous a few months later on the same system
Voodoo 2 12MB on a Pentium II (I honestly can’t remember which one) think it was 16MB of memory, upgrade to 32MB a few months after, remember that.
Nvidia TNT 2 32MB ultra on a Pentium III 400Mhz, can’t remember memory (think it was 512MB)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB on a Pentium 4 2Ghz with 1GB of memory
Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX 512MB Ultra Core 2 Duo 2.4 @ 3.0 ghz with 2GB of memory
ATI Radeon 5870 Vapor-x 1024MB Core i5 750 2.66Ghz @ 3.60GHz with 4GB of memory
I do believe that is about all the systems I’ve owned since 1993. 17 years of PC gaming..
Erm.. Well let me see.
Some VGA adaptor that I can’t remember on a 386 system.
Cirrus Logic 1MB on a 486 SX25 with 2MB of memory
Video Logic 2MB on a 486 DX2 66 with 4MB of memory (upgraded to 8MB)
Video Logic 3Dx (power VR chipset) on a Pentium system 166 I think. Used it with a 4MB Video Logic 2D card
Moved over to a 3Dfx orchid righteous a few months later on the same system
Voodoo 2 12MB on a Pentium II (I honestly can’t remember which one) think it was 16MB of memory, upgrade to 32MB a few months after, remember that.
Nvidia TNT 2 32MB ultra on a Pentium III 400Mhz, can’t remember memory (think it was 512MB)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB on a Pentium 4 2Ghz with 1GB of memory
Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX 512MB Ultra Core 2 Duo 2.4 @ 3.0 ghz with 2GB of memory
ATI Radeon 5870 Vapor-x 1024MB Core i5 750 2.66Ghz @ 3.60GHz with 4GB of memory
I do believe that is about all the systems I’ve owned since 1993. 17 years of PC gaming..
you upgrade less than me.
since 96:
some dodgy thing in a mac
ati rage (or rage II pro or something) in an Imac
Geforce 2 in first PC 32mb?
Geforce 4 mx 420 64mb (scum, came in a dell)
Geforce 4 mx 440 128mb (again, scum, but was swapped with the 64mb version and a fiver)
geforce 5600xt 256mb (shameful, first build, made a mistake and thought it was of the same chipset as the 5700)
Ati Radeon 7000 (5600 died or something, borrowed it off a mate, it ran UT2k4!)
Geforce 6600gt 256mb (awesome, loved it)
Geforce 7950gt 512mb (upgrade before i moved over to PCI-E)
Geforce 8800gts 640mb (bought for spare but died shortly afterward, rma'd for a 9600gt that i sold to house mate on the cheap)
Geforce 8800gtx 768mb (bought for my spare to replace above card)
Geforce GTX280 SLI 1gb (played nicely, for a short while till they met my first ever water cooling attempt)
Geforce gtx 295 Quad SLI (4 gpus, 2 cards) 896mb, sorta better than the 280s, but not in the end where the aa is lacking compared to tri sli
Edit:I may have just realised i might be a little biased to nvidia.
since 96:
some dodgy thing in a mac
ati rage (or rage II pro or something) in an Imac
Geforce 2 in first PC 32mb?
Geforce 4 mx 420 64mb (scum, came in a dell)
Geforce 4 mx 440 128mb (again, scum, but was swapped with the 64mb version and a fiver)
geforce 5600xt 256mb (shameful, first build, made a mistake and thought it was of the same chipset as the 5700)
Ati Radeon 7000 (5600 died or something, borrowed it off a mate, it ran UT2k4!)
Geforce 6600gt 256mb (awesome, loved it)
Geforce 7950gt 512mb (upgrade before i moved over to PCI-E)
Geforce 8800gts 640mb (bought for spare but died shortly afterward, rma'd for a 9600gt that i sold to house mate on the cheap)
Geforce 8800gtx 768mb (bought for my spare to replace above card)
Geforce GTX280 SLI 1gb (played nicely, for a short while till they met my first ever water cooling attempt)
Geforce gtx 295 Quad SLI (4 gpus, 2 cards) 896mb, sorta better than the 280s, but not in the end where the aa is lacking compared to tri sli
Edit:I may have just realised i might be a little biased to nvidia.
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I do agree with you, in that I don't think that I have been as impressed since those days
+1
hehe.....the best moment I ever had with any card ever was seeing the difference this card made to Quake
cards I can remember.....memory not so good these days!..had a few more cards than this
matrox millenium
3dfx Righteous 3d
Voodoo 2 (sli)
voodoo 3
geforce 2/3/4/5
radeon x800
x1850 pro
nvidia 8800 gts 320
nvidia 8800 gts 512
ati hd4850 512 xfire
ati 5870 vapor-x
The 3Dfx Righteous 3D was maybe the first time I was like – wow..!! I think what did it with quake was that we’d all maybe played the game on release at 640 x 480 and managed a measly 15fps lol but we still played it..
Then 3Dfx released their 3D add on accelerators and when we upgraded to this and re-played Quake using Open GL using bilinear filtering at 640 x 480 at a solid 30fps for most of the game, well it just became obvious we’d moved into a whole new level of graphics…
Never had one component in a PC changed so much about PC gaming…. You could clearly see, and feel the difference it made.
Still think the Radeon 9700 Pro was the pinnacle for me. Half Life 2 and Doom III at 1024 x 768 with some AA was just pure awesomeness. I don’t know what it was about that card, it just moved the whole way games looked, everything looked so crisp and clean….. and boy on a good setup was that card quick..!!
I still remember running 3D mark 05 on a 9700 Pro at 1280 x 1024 and I was just picking my jaw up off the floor…
I have recently been impressed with the Heaven 2.0 demo using tessellation, but at 1920 x 1080 using extreme tessellation, just kicked the nuts out of my system. But then 3D Mark 2006 kicked the heck out of my 9700 Pro….
Dx11 is rather new, tessellation seems to make graphics pop again, so maybe the next gen cards will move it on. I don’t think this gen cards have moved on much since the 9700 pro, just upped the screen res, introduced 2 or more screens and allowed for more AA etc… We’ll see…
Then 3Dfx released their 3D add on accelerators and when we upgraded to this and re-played Quake using Open GL using bilinear filtering at 640 x 480 at a solid 30fps for most of the game, well it just became obvious we’d moved into a whole new level of graphics…
Never had one component in a PC changed so much about PC gaming…. You could clearly see, and feel the difference it made.
Still think the Radeon 9700 Pro was the pinnacle for me. Half Life 2 and Doom III at 1024 x 768 with some AA was just pure awesomeness. I don’t know what it was about that card, it just moved the whole way games looked, everything looked so crisp and clean….. and boy on a good setup was that card quick..!!
I still remember running 3D mark 05 on a 9700 Pro at 1280 x 1024 and I was just picking my jaw up off the floor…
I have recently been impressed with the Heaven 2.0 demo using tessellation, but at 1920 x 1080 using extreme tessellation, just kicked the nuts out of my system. But then 3D Mark 2006 kicked the heck out of my 9700 Pro….
Dx11 is rather new, tessellation seems to make graphics pop again, so maybe the next gen cards will move it on. I don’t think this gen cards have moved on much since the 9700 pro, just upped the screen res, introduced 2 or more screens and allowed for more AA etc… We’ll see…
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- 21 Nov 2009
- Posts
- 39
Matrox mystique 8mb?
12 mb Voodoo2 SLI
Creative TNT ultra 2 32mb
Generic Geforce 2 32mb
Hercules ATI 9800 128mb pro AIW and nope it didnt softmod proper and was artifact city , shame as the performance increase was uber
XFX Geforce 6600gt
Gigabyte Geforce 8800GT
Sparkle Geforce GTX 275
Only bought the 275 as the 8800 blew up.
2 days after the 275 arrived from OC'ers gigabyte decides to return my RMA request and i got the 8800 RMA'ed could have saved myself £150 and would prob have a ATI card again at mo but as they say **** happens.
My m8 uses the 8800 and my dad still uses the 9800pro on a daily basis
12 mb Voodoo2 SLI
Creative TNT ultra 2 32mb
Generic Geforce 2 32mb
Hercules ATI 9800 128mb pro AIW and nope it didnt softmod proper and was artifact city , shame as the performance increase was uber
XFX Geforce 6600gt
Gigabyte Geforce 8800GT
Sparkle Geforce GTX 275
Only bought the 275 as the 8800 blew up.
2 days after the 275 arrived from OC'ers gigabyte decides to return my RMA request and i got the 8800 RMA'ed could have saved myself £150 and would prob have a ATI card again at mo but as they say **** happens.
My m8 uses the 8800 and my dad still uses the 9800pro on a daily basis
it never helps when they always keep the latest software just out of reach..... even for the latest hardware...I had a 5970 for a few days & realised quite quickly it wasn`t going to be good enough in the near future so I went to the 5870 & save myself about £230. I don`t remember many cards that could run the current software of it`s time at full whack - nevermind future software. Looking back at my list of cards (just realised I missed the 9800 out as well ) it`s amazing how much hardware I`ve got through in a small space of time really - FUTUREPROOF simply doesn`t exist....
..also a few of those cards on the list crapped out on me so I always doubt the longevity of any card.....even at stock settings....
I want a 3dfx T-shirt!
) it`s amazing how much hardware I`ve got through in a small space of time really - FUTUREPROOF simply doesn`t exist......also a few of those cards on the list crapped out on me so I always doubt the longevity of any card.....even at stock settings....
I want a 3dfx T-shirt!
Let's see...
Amiga AGAD)
Matrox Millennium 2
Voodoo 2
Xentor TNT2 Ultra
Hercules Ti200
Sparkle FX 5900
Leadtek 6800 GT
BFG 8800 GTS
BFG 8800 GTX (RMA for above)
Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X
Also, I've always kept an Excel sheet of components for each major system change I make, handy to keep warranty/specs/firmware rev./serials etc. all in one place.
It has a summary sheet that pulls data from each of them - growth row showing the raw speed/capacity/power/size changes over the years.
Amiga AGA
D)Matrox Millennium 2
Voodoo 2
Xentor TNT2 Ultra
Hercules Ti200
Sparkle FX 5900
Leadtek 6800 GT
BFG 8800 GTS
BFG 8800 GTX (RMA for above)
Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X
Also, I've always kept an Excel sheet of components for each major system change I make, handy to keep warranty/specs/firmware rev./serials etc. all in one place.
It has a summary sheet that pulls data from each of them - growth row showing the raw speed/capacity/power/size changes over the years.
I dont agree. I think my Voodoo 2 was bigger than my new 5770. 5770 is only single slot, has a big fan for the size of the card and is about 4" shorter in length than my 8800GT. My 8800GT was also dual slot.
5770 is smaller than any card I have ever owned i think (except onboard and maybe matrox mystique 220) Actually, it looks about the same size as the Matrox, just with a fan
I think its that people gradually tend to move up from low end cards, to the mid range, to the top as they get older and get monies. I "remember" all graphics cards since my 7950 having dual slot coolers, but this is only because of the fact that ive moved into the top range of cards, not the mid range which are still single slot solutions
Not for me. Ive always been a fan of the mid range. Even though I have the money, id rather spend it on something better than a £600 graphics card, like going out, clothes, beer, festivals or saving. After all, in a years time it will dump maybe £200 and all you have to show for it is a few games at 100fps when everyone else was at 60fps. That and a huge benchmark score
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- Posts
- 12
I remember getting my first Voodoo1 to go along side my Matrox Millenium. First game i had was Hexen 2. Was stunned by it, remember thinking 'wow, its so realistic' .. kinda funny looking at it now and comparing it to Crysis
I also remember enjoying a breif spell of having an advantage in quake as the few people that could run GLquake could see through the water
Yes, i first saw 3dfx(not on my computer) and OpenGL with true 3d graphic in Quake, after HeXen II. And these games i like everytime =)
Now i am use "Darkplaces" for Quake, and "Hammer of Thyrion" for HeXen II.
Best wrapper for 3dfx is "nGlide" for windows uses direct3d, quake and hexen2 works too with this.
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- 1 Apr 2010
- Posts
- 145
- Location
- Ryton, Near Newcastle
i remember putting my 3dfx voodoo 1 in and playing tomb raider and was amazed at the difference going to 3d, id had a matrox mystique in, it had some 3d capabilities but not much, and then quake 2 and unreal on voodoo 1 and voodoo 2 were great
all in all i had
S3 or something crap 2d card cant really remember came with my first pentium pc
Matrox millenium
Matrox mystique
Voodoo 1
2 Voodoo 2's sli 12mb each
Voodoo 3 pci and agp
Tnt 1
Tnt 2
Geforce 1 256
Geforce 2 was given this later didnt buy it at the time
Geforce 4 mx 400 (same as above)
Geforce fx 5200
Geforce fx 5700 le
Geforce 6800 gt (first good card since the geforce 1)
Geforce 7800gs
Geforce 8800gtx
gtx 260 216 cores
all in all i had
S3 or something crap 2d card cant really remember came with my first pentium pc
Matrox millenium
Matrox mystique
Voodoo 1
2 Voodoo 2's sli 12mb each
Voodoo 3 pci and agp
Tnt 1
Tnt 2
Geforce 1 256
Geforce 2 was given this later didnt buy it at the time
Geforce 4 mx 400 (same as above)
Geforce fx 5200
Geforce fx 5700 le
Geforce 6800 gt (first good card since the geforce 1)
Geforce 7800gs
Geforce 8800gtx
gtx 260 216 cores
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This is a real walk down memory lane.
I started of on a Tandy Color Computer. Whopping 16K RAM in 1981
Moved on to a Commodore C64 with a gargantuan 64K RAM
Anyone else remember spending countless hours typing in program listing from magazines only to substitute a "." for a "," and then spend more countless hours trying to find the syntax error
Commodore Amiga 500 then 1200
Then went to the dark side with a Packard Bell SX33. I remember having to send to Holland I think for some L2 Cache chips that I had to plug into the MoBo.
Dx2 - 50 to a DX4 - 100
Which then led to the graphics cards.
Started of with the Matrox millenium
Matrox also did a sister card that I had ( cant remember the name )
3dfx Righteous 3d
Then onto a myriad of mainly Nvidia based cards with the odd ATI thrown in for good measure.
The younger generation can't really appreciate how much technology & performance have moved on in one generation. It's astounding compared to when I started
( Removes rose tinted spectacles and returns to real world )
I started of on a Tandy Color Computer. Whopping 16K RAM in 1981
Moved on to a Commodore C64 with a gargantuan 64K RAM
Anyone else remember spending countless hours typing in program listing from magazines only to substitute a "." for a "," and then spend more countless hours trying to find the syntax error
Commodore Amiga 500 then 1200
Then went to the dark side with a Packard Bell SX33. I remember having to send to Holland I think for some L2 Cache chips that I had to plug into the MoBo.
Dx2 - 50 to a DX4 - 100
Which then led to the graphics cards.
Started of with the Matrox millenium
Matrox also did a sister card that I had ( cant remember the name )
3dfx Righteous 3d
Then onto a myriad of mainly Nvidia based cards with the odd ATI thrown in for good measure.
The younger generation can't really appreciate how much technology & performance have moved on in one generation. It's astounding compared to when I started
( Removes rose tinted spectacles and returns to real world )
can't remember what I had in my first PC it was some old p1 thing
anyway my first card (parents brought most of them till I was 16-17)
it was a herc 32 Mb
than we got a Creative MX440 Nvidia( don't ask)
Than a FX5700LE (crap)
than a 9200 all in wonder(no better)
than a 9550 (Great card)
than a ATI X1650
these are the cards I brought
ATI HD2600XT overclocked ( I know but I couldn't afford Nvidia)
ATI HD3870 not a bad card
ATI 4870 *2
NOW hd4890 *2
anyway my first card (parents brought most of them till I was 16-17)
it was a herc 32 Mb
than we got a Creative MX440 Nvidia( don't ask)
Than a FX5700LE (crap)
than a 9200 all in wonder(no better)
than a 9550 (Great card)
than a ATI X1650
these are the cards I brought
ATI HD2600XT overclocked ( I know but I couldn't afford Nvidia)
ATI HD3870 not a bad card
ATI 4870 *2
NOW hd4890 *2