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Your favourite gpu, ever? Blast from the past..

3dfx Voodoo 3 - my first proper 2d and 3d intergrated card, before that they were seperate cards. And it played everything i threw at it at full wack.

My 8800GFX's in SLi - Rock solid and was so far ahead of it's time there wasn't a need for an upgrade until one blew up and i had to replace it with e 460GTX, and even then the performace was only 10% more!
 
I can't believe how few GPU's some people have owned... I get through GPU's like toilet paper >_<

Trident 512K
Cirrus Logic 1MB
S3 Virge 4MB
S3 Virge 8MB
Matrox Millenium G200 8MB (was horrible, so went straight back and got)
Diamond nVidia Riva 128ZX 4MB (with a...)
Diamond Monster Voodoo 4MB (amazing!)
Creative Voodoo Banshee 16MB
Voodoo 3 2000 16MB
Hercules GeForce 2MX 32MB
Inno3d GeForce 2 Pro 64MB
ATi 8500LE 64MB (drivers were utterly awful so returned it and got)
GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB
Creative GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB
Powercolor ATi 9000Pro 64MB
Sapphire ATi 9500Pro 128MB
nVidia FX5800 Ultra 128MB
Sapphire ATi 9600Pro 128MB
ASUS ATi 9600XT 128MB (was a monster overclocker)
MSI GeForce FX5900 XT (as they were flashing to FX5950 Ultra's! Was a bag of turd though)
Powercolor 9800 Non-Pro 128MB (flashed to Pro)
Club3d X800 Pro 256MB (flashed to XT, most expensive card I have ever bought @ £280)
Sapphire X850 XTX 256MB
nVidia 7800GT 256MB
nVidia 7800GT 256MB (in SLi, awesome setup)
ATi X1900XTX 512MB
nVidia 8800GTS 640MB (monster!)
nVidia 8800GTX 768MB
ATi 3870X2 1GB (but was too loud, and driver issues)
HIS 3870 512MB (for Tri-Fire, but was terrible due to drivers)
nVidia 8800GTX 768MB (which I sold for a big profit)
nVidia 8800GTS 512MB
nVidia 9800GTX 512MB
ATi HD4850 512MB
ATi HD4850 512MB (in crossfire, great setup)
nVidia GTX260 896MB (sold before price drops, then rebought cheaper)
nVidia GTX260 896MB
ATi HD5770 1GB
ATi HD5770 1GB (in crossfire, which I barely used as there were no games!, so downgraded)
ATi HD5770 1GB (Vapor-X, for quietness, and better overclocking)
nVidia GTX460 1GB
nVidia GTX480 1.5GB (tooooo loud!!!)
nVidia GTX560Ti 1GB (lovely card!)
ATi HD6850 1GB
ATi HD6850 1GB (in crossfire)
ATi HD7850 2GB (epic overclocker! 50% OC)
 
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...ah I see . Still a long and endless list though ;)
I can't imagine that many people would have changed gpu's as often as you have done !
Is the one you have got now a keeper ?
And which was your favourite ?
 
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Vimes said:
Is the one you have got now a keeper ?
And which was your favourite ?
Click to expand...

The 7850 is a superb GPU, and its totally wasted at the clock speed ATi ship them at. Why they clocked them so very very low I have no idea, i've yet to see one that couldn't do at least 1000 core on stock volts... would have made them much more competitive in reviews. At their current pricing they are the best mid range GPU by far.


As for my favourite, the biggest WOW factors are the Voodoo 1, I'll never forget playing Quake 2 and seeing coloured lighting! It was like an entirely different game! And Unreal with the green smoke in the vent shaft... amazing.

The GF3 Ti200 was probably the first 'modern' GPU, using proper 'shaders', Anisotropic filtering and MSAA.

Then the 9700/9800Pro, ATi just snuck up on everyone and dropped one of the best gaming cards ever (for the time obviously), a crown it'd keep if nVidia hadn't done the same thing only better with the 8800GTX, which was just so far ahead of its time. I've never seen a GPU last so long at the top of the pile.

Since the 8800GTX GPU technology doesn't seem to have moved on much, obviously its faster, but its just incremental refinements. Other than Tessellation, but that isn't turning out to be so big of a deal just yet. Due to the longevity of the current gen consoles, and the prevalence of 'ports' GPU designers just haven't got the incentive to push the boundaries like they used to. Uber-GPU's just aren't needed yet. The games need to catch up.
 
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I very much agree with what you have written with the only exception being about the 8800GTX as I never owned one.
I remember buying a Power VR type card before the 3dfx OR but that was pretty bad with very little support.
The ATI cards I owned...
9700pro
X800 GTO --- bios flashed to X850 iirc.
4870
...were all great cards in their days.

But for me the 3dfx OR or Diamond Monster would still be at the top of the pile.
 
Marshy said:
Righteous Orchid 3Dfx, going from VGA graphics to full on smooth 3Dfx Glide was a total game changer :)
Click to expand...


Freddie1980 said:
+1

Looking at the replies it would appear some folk really don't know how much of a game changer this card was.
Click to expand...


That is because it was launched in 1996, and a lot of the posters on here are fairly young, I mean even a 30 year old would have only been 14 when these things came out.
 
My best ever upgrade was the 9800 pro for sof 2. I was using a mx420 before this and was barely seeing 30 fps, which as you can imagine was no good for online gaming. Upgraded to a brand new p4 with a 9800 pro and the difference was amazing in my scores and the game itself.

The next major upgrade was for cod 2. My frames on the 9800 pro were to low again so i upgraded my whole machine with a e6600 and x1900xtx which gave me the same boost in cod as the 9800 had for sof2.

These 2 cards are the ones that stand out the most for me in that they gave me a whole new gaming experience which was like night and day. They also lasted a long time.
 
VIA onboard -> 6200 -> 6600GT -> 2900PRO -> 3870 -> 4870 -> 4870CF -> 5870 -> 5870CF -> 7970

The 4870 was the first card I had that really made me smile with how powerful it was, the 5870 was the first card to actually make me giggle uncontrollably when I found it could run games well on 3 screens.

My favourite GPU is definitely the 7970 though. Not just because it's the newest/most powerful, but I am simply in awe of how well it plays games at high settings at 5760x1080 resolution. It will be a great card that makes me part with this little beauty. :)
 
XFX Voodoo 5 5500 - just for the sheer size, multiple fans and the feeling that I really shouldn't have bought it when I left the shop...
2nd place has to go the the two 8800GTS' I have in SLI, still going strong!

Very sad when XFX had to be taken over - I think it was shortly after they had a massive website relaunch planned. I'd been watching the countdown for weeks then it was all for nothing!
 
Sorry to be boring but it has to be my current card, 7970. Never have i had a card that has such high overclocking possibilities, coupled with faster performance than my previous xfire setup, coupled with ridiculously low power usage when idle.
 
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