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Your GPU history tree and potential next card

Associate
Joined
22 May 2015
Posts
1,956
Location
Manchester
From what I can remember..

Intel 810 crapset 4mb
Voodoo 2 12mb 3dfx
GeForce 2 GTS 32mb
GeForce 4 4200ti 128mb
Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb
Radeon X800 GTO 256mb I think, unlocked to Pro
Radeon X1950 Pro 512mb I think
Radeon 3870 512mb
Radeon 4850 512mb
Radeon 5850 1gb
Radeon 290
GeForce GTX 980 4gb - bought first G-Sync monitor
GeForce GTX 1070 8gb
GeForce RTX 2080 8gb
GeForce RTX 3080 10gb

The only real bad 'un out of that lot being the Radeon 3870 IMO.

Next card, really no idea. I got lucky with this one but unsure as to what the 4000 series pricing will be, that might ne me out unless this 3080 is still worth something reasonable by then.
 
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Permabanned
Joined
7 Oct 2018
Posts
2,170
Location
Behind Pluto
Sega Mega Drive II, Not in use.
3 DSP geometry processors: 2× SH-2 DSP, SCU DSP
2 VDP rendering processors: VDP1 for sprites/textures/polygons, VDP2 for planes/backgrounds/textures (Sega Saturn) Not in use.
Geometry Transformation Engine (PS1) Technically still in use, hardware is in the PS2 Slim and Fat I own.
64-bit SGI co-processor "Reality Co-Processor" (Nintendo 64) Not in use.
NEC PowerVR SG (Sega Dreamcast) Not in use.
Emotion Engine (Playstation 2) Still in use.
Xenos Xenon - ATi Crayola 6 (XBOX 360) Still in use.
ATi x1300 (First PC) Not in use.
HD 4670. Not in use.
8800 GTS. Not in use.
9800 GT. Not in Use.
9800 GTX+ Not in use.
9800 GTX+ (SLi)
HD 4870. Not in use.
HD 5770. Not in use.
GTX 480. Not in use.
GTX 480 (SLi)
RSX-60NM Nvidia Curie (J03 Playstation 3) Not in use.
HD 7770 (Replaced dead GTX 480, died 1 year later)
HD 5850. Not in use.
NV2A (Original XBOX) Still in use, late adopter. Modified console.
GTX 670. Not in use.
GTX 580. Not in use.
Rx 570 4GB. Not in use.
RX 480 4GB. Not in use.
R9 Fury. Not in use.
GTX 650-Ti. In use in Windows XP PC.
RX 5700-XT. Not in use.
GTX 970. Not in use.
RTX 2060. In use, given to brother.
Scorpio - AMD Sea Islands GCN 2.0 (XBOX One X) In use.
RTX 3070, current daily driver.


Worst of them is the 5700-XT hands down.
The best was the GTX 480.

I don't have any card I aspire to purchase after my RTX 3070 at the moment.
 
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Soldato
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Posts
4,504
Location
Wales
Voodoo 3dfx
S3 virge
Mx440
9200
9500
9600 Pro
9700pro
9800pro
9800xt
X800 Pro flashed to xt
3870
4850
4890 x2
5870 x2
5970
6870 x2
6950 x2
7970 Ghz edition x2
280X
290x x2
R9 Fury X x2
GTX 980 X2
GTX 980 TI X2
GTX 1080 X2
GTX 1080 TI X3
RTX 2070 SUPER
RTX 2080TI
6900 XT

Almost makes me sick thinking how much that lot has cost me over the years, but outside of racing pc gaming is the only hobby I have, no drinking or going out on weekends.
I've enjoyed every card, some have been better than others, I'm incredibly impressed with the 6900xt that I'm using currently.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Sep 2009
Posts
2,745
Location
Riedquat system
3DFX Voodoo Banshee
Geforce 256 SDR
Geforce 2 Ultra
Ti4600

Radeon X800 Pro
7800 GT
8800 GT
GTX 295
GTX 580 SLI
GTX 970 SLI
GTX 1080 Ti
RTX 3080


When I got the 3080 still had a GSync only monitor which kind of locked me in, but now got the LG OLED so options are open for next time round :)
 
Associate
Joined
3 May 2021
Posts
1,228
Location
Italy
Before GPU age:
i286 12,5 MHZ - 1988
i486 DX2 50 MHZ - 1994

GPU age:
Matrox Mistique 220 - 1997
3DFX Vodoo 2 - 1998
Geforce 2 (forgot the exact model) - 2001
ATI Radeon 9700 - 2004
ATI Radeon HD 4870 - 2008
ATI Radeon HD 7970 (my wife still games on this) - 2013
AMD Radeon RX590 (my current card) - 2019

Next GPU: Waiting for prices to be back to something close to normal, whatever I can afford with at least 12GB RAM/RX6600 in case of sudden GPU death.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Sep 2020
Posts
18
30 years of Graphics Card history - having to think about this one:

Early 1990s - some kind of 8-bit ISA card with 256KB Memory. Was pretty rubbish even back then. Used with a 386DX-25.
1995 - Cirrus Logic 1MB VLB
1997 - Matrox Mystique 220
1998 - 3DFX Voodoo 2 (Classic card!!)
1999 - Matrox Millenium G400
1999 - ATI All-in-Wonder (forgotten the specs but was also a video capture card)
2001 - GeForce 3
2003 - Geforce FX 5800
2006 - Geforce 7800 (famed for memory faults causing artefacts. Did not have it long)
2007 - Geforce 8800 GTS 640
2009 - GTX 285
2011 - GTX 580
2013 - Geforce Titan
2016 - GTX 1080
2020 - RTX 3080
 
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Associate
Joined
11 Mar 2008
Posts
460
The order may not quite be correct, and I may have missed a few but it looks something like this

Cirrus Logic of some kind
Matrox Millenium
S3 Virge
Matrox Millenium + 3dfx Voodoo
Rage 128
TNT 2
GeForce 2
Radeon 8000 series
GeForce 4 Ti 4400
Radeon X850 XT
GeForce 6800 GTS
GeForce 8800 GTS
AMD 7950
AMD 7990
980 Ti
1080 Ti
3090

Pretty sure I had a PowerVR card as well at some point, though not sure where that fits in.

When it comes to the ones that actually felt like they had taken me to the 'next level', those would have to be:
Matrox Millenium + 3dfx Voodoo
TNT2
GeForce 4 Ti 4400
AMD 7950

These probably stand out due to the performance gap to the previous card (and possibly due to the games I was playing at the time). I feel like the 3090 should feel like a bigger step than it does, but that may be due to the games I've been playing recently not being too demanding - will need to actually play Control and Cyberpunk to really see what the card can do.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2009
Posts
16,589
Location
Greater London
Mine is a small list.

ATi Radeon HD 4870 (accidentally killed while cleaning)
ATi Radeon HD 5770 (sold)
AMD Radeon HD 6850 (won in an AMD sweepstake)
AMD Radeon HD 7950 (RMA'd)
AMD Radeon HD 7950 Boost (warranty replacement of above)
Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti (handed down to a family member)
Nvidia RTX 3070

I have no idea what I'll be going for next but it certainly won't be the flagship card, spending nearly a grand on a GPU I won't be able to fully take advantage of feels wasteful.

AMD's 7950 was my longest card and newer drivers optimisation with the arrival of mantle/DX12/vulkan kept it going further. Even swapped the cooler with an AIO which kept things nice and quiet while overclocked. I was hoping the 1080 Ti to last me as long but these days I don't game as much and wanted to "downgrade" to something a little more power efficient while still being able to take advantage of RT.
 
Associate
Joined
11 Mar 2008
Posts
460
Not sure about the GPU but the Cyrix CPUs used to be great at the time it was released. Was quite an improvement over my 75mz pentium!

I'm pretty sure the first PC I built for home used a Cyrix CPU (forget the model, think it was the one to match the Pentium 166) - IIRC they did pretty well on general usage but their floating point logic was quite a bit slower than Intel so had an impact in Doom and Quake. Still, given the price difference between them and the equivalent Intel, they were pretty good CPUs
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2009
Posts
24,841
Location
Planet Earth
I have forgotten some of the earliest ones.
Geforce 4 MX440
Geforce 4 Go440
Geforce 4 TI4400
Radeon 9500 PRO
Radeon X300
Radeon X1600XT
Geforce 6200
Geforce 6600LE
Geforce 6600GT
Geforce 6800LE(2)
Geforce 7300GT
Geforce 7900GS
Radeon X1900GT
Geforce 8500GT
Geforce 8800GTS 320MB
Geforce 8800GTS 512MB
Geforce HD4830
Radeon HD5670 GDDR5
Radeon HD5850
Radeon HD6870
Geforce GTX660
Radeon HD7850 2GB
Geforce GTX960 4GB
Radeon RX470 4GB
Geforce GTX1080

Will see what is out this generation before considering an upgrade.

Now:
Geforce 4 MX440
Geforce 4 Go440
Geforce 4 TI4400
Radeon 9500 PRO
Radeon 9600 PRO
Radeon X300
Radeon X1600XT
Geforce 6200
Geforce 6600LE
Geforce 6600GT
Geforce 6800LE(2)
Geforce 7300GT
Geforce 7900GS
Radeon X1900GT
Geforce 8500GT
Geforce 8800GTS 320MB
Geforce 8800GTS 512MB
Geforce HD4830
Radeon HD5670 GDDR5
Radeon HD5850
Radeon HD6870
Geforce GTX660
Radeon HD7850 2GB
Geforce GTX960 4GB
Radeon RX470 4GB
Geforce GTX1080
Geforce RTX3060TI

Added the 9600 Pro I had forgotten about!
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Nov 2010
Posts
23,956
Location
Hertfordshire
Unsure on my next GPU. But will certainly be when prices return to something a little more 'normal'. Unless my 3080 goes pop then **** knows what i'll do.

Voodoo 3 3000
nVidia GeForce 256 DDR
Voodoo 5 5500
ATi Radeon 9600
nVidia FX5*** (forget which)
nVidia 6600GT
nVidia 9300GT
ATi HD3870 (Sapphire Atomic HD3870)
ATi HD4870
nVidia GTX470
nVidia GTX580 (ASUS Matrix Platinum)
AMD 7970 (ASUS Matrix Platinum)
AMD 7970 2x (ASUS Matrix Platinum in Crossfire)
nVidia GTX690
nVidia GTX980Ti
nVidia GTX1080Ti
nVidia RTX3080
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2007
Posts
5,740
Location
from the internet
Let's see...

Some kind of horrible pentium 3-era intel IGP thing.
X1650 Pro - cheap!
8800 GTS 320 - absolute casualty of the great price war of 2007. When everyone was picking up the 8800 GT I got this dirt cheap. The memory became an issue kind of quickly, though.
4870 1GB - My favourite card, if I could time travel back to 2009 I would buy two.

... various boring laptop IGPs as I couldn't be bothered to have a desktop when I was moving quite frequently for a while.

R9 Nano - Interesting card, very noisy. Got it second hand, only had it for a few months.
RTX3060 - lots of people slated it when it launched but I can't complain too much, it does what I want it to and I didn't pay over the odds for it which is a miracle in this market.
 
Associate
Joined
28 Jan 2021
Posts
420
Location
UK
Something 3DFX, I can't remember (I remember playing EF2000 / Total Air War by DID with 3DFX enabled, circa 1997)
~20 year gap (non-gaming / console)
XFX Radeon R7 360 2GB
2060
2080S
3090FE

No plans to buy a new card until this falls apart.
 
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Associate
Joined
4 Jun 2003
Posts
96
Location
North East
iirc
ATi Rage Fury Pro (y2000 or so)
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro (y2001 or so)
ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (y2003 or so)
Geforce GTS 8800 (y2005 or so)
nVidia GTX 275-216 (y2007 or so)
nVidia GTX 780 3gb the old faithful, lasted me a long time - it had to! (y2010 or so)
Gainward 3080Ti 12gb (y2021)
 
Man of Honour
Joined
25 Oct 2002
Posts
31,742
Location
Hampshire
To extend my list from the previous copy-paste thread:

-Cirrus Logic 5446 2meg
-Guillemot Maxi Gamer Voodoo Graphics 4meg (passthrough to above)
-3dfx Voodoo3 2000 AGP 16meg
-Hercules Prophet Geforce 2 MX 32meg (faster ram than reference)
-3dfx Voodoo3 3000 PCI 16meg (swapped for the AGP v3 and ran alongside the above for dual monitor support)
-Abit Siluro Geforce 4 Ti4200 64meg (faster memory than 128meg version)
-Hercules Radeon 9800SE AIW (softmodded to Pro)
-XFX Geforce 6800 AGP 128meg (softmodded to 6vp)
-Leadtek Geforce 6800GT PCI-E 256meg
-MSI Geforce 7900GTO 512meg
-BFG 8800GTS OC 320meg (used for testing new builds)
-Leadtek GTX280 1GB (annoying I see to have lost this)
-MSI GTX470 1.25GB (currently in my backup rig)
-XFX Radeon 7950 3GB (currently in my son's PC)
-Powercolor RX480 8GB
-Gigabyte Geforce 1070Ti G1 8GB
-Nvidia Geforce RTX3090 24GB
-Gigabyte Geforce RTX3070 Vision OC 8GB

Next card not sure, maybe a RTX3050 for my son.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Sep 2009
Posts
1,414
Location
London
Hmm... let's see what I can remember...

Unknown brand GeForce 4 MX 440
Probably an ATI card here...
Albatron nVidia something-or-other (AGP) - I miss Albatron - they were a great brand.
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 XT (AGP)
Asus Radeon HD 5870
XFX Radeon R9 285
MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Ventus OC
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Suprim X

No real brand loyalty here :D
 
Associate
Joined
16 May 2012
Posts
421
iirc
ATi Rage Fury Pro (y2000 or so)
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro (y2001 or so)
ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (y2003 or so)
Geforce GTS 8800 (y2005 or so)
nVidia GTX 275-216 (y2007 or so)
nVidia GTX 780 3gb the old faithful, lasted me a long time - it had to! (y2010 or so)
Gainward 3080Ti 12gb (y2021)

I remember benching my 9700 pro with my nvidia loving mate. He was like wtf. Epic card.
 
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