What video card from the past do you remember most?

Hello and this is another excellent question from UltimateGamer. Anyway I'd like to know what video card was most rememorable to you and why? Personally I always look back to 2003 and the heated battle between the ATI 9800 XT and the Nvidia Geforce 5950 Ultra, however I'll never forget my Geforce 6800 which was the first higher end video card I ever got.

VS

Nvidia GeForce 6600GT. It's what I'm using right now.

The ATI 9800 Pro was an awesome card as well.

Nvidia GeForce 6600GT. It's what I'm using right now.

The ATI 9800 Pro was an awesome card as well.

CStheGreat

ATi Radeon 9800Pro 256mb ...FTW ! ....I loved that card. It's still running perfect in my wifes PC as I speak and still have all the original packaging it came in from when I bought it new.......8)

*+

I loved the 9800 Pro and the 7600GT. Both those cards were wonderful! Those guys chugged along for a good while.

My good ol' Geforce 5950 Ultra because I bought it and returned my Geforce4 TI 4200 in its place. Epic.

the good old 6600gt cuz its the only card i ever had lol. i think its startin to die on me now

the good old 6600gt cuz its the only card i ever had lol. i think its startin to die on me now

halokillerz

[QUOTE="halokillerz"]

the good old 6600gt cuz its the only card i ever had lol. i think its startin to die on me now

UltimateGamer95

[QUOTE="UltimateGamer95"][QUOTE="halokillerz"]

the good old 6600gt cuz its the only card i ever had lol. i think its startin to die on me now

JigglyWiggly_

[QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"]

[QUOTE="UltimateGamer95"] If you need advice to build yourself a new PC then you know where to come ;)UltimateGamer95

I didn't know Alienware had a forum...

Goodbye Gamespot :P

I remember my 3dfx voodoo2 cards being the end all be all of video cards. Heh. But the one that stuck with me the longest and I thought was the biggest leap was my ATI 9800xt. I got it in the first week of its release. if only I knew then that I would have to wait years to use the free half life 2 coupon that came with it....

[QUOTE="UltimateGamer95"][QUOTE="JigglyWiggly_"] Alienware am I rite?

smc91352

I didn't know Alienware had a forum...

Goodbye Gamespot :P

Its not a card worthy of praise, but it was the video card in the first PC I owned myself. It was an FX5200.

lol dw i came here b4 for advice, plan to build a pc in winter break hopefully. then its RIP 6600gt + pentium D. tear tear

7600GT for the highest mainstream gpu i ad : then 3 year right after ATI HD4870x2 lol but the most gamut i ad was from Gefroce 5700LE low Price but did the job for game back there : then Geforce 6200GS right after that i stoped to buy cheap video card i Looked foward maxing every game at 1280x1024 : now it 1920x1200 ;)

But can't deny Nvidia ad at very least 3x more ad in magazine / premium pc build then ati ever did from 2003 to current because of pre-build alway found more friendly with nvidia over ati ? perhap nvidia will get sued for somestuff in future lol who know :P they already trying to make sure Hydra 200's + Nvidia Gpu Driver not working anymore at release of Hydra 200's ;) let see if it happen : if it happen there 99.9% chance we dont' see PhsyX when using hydra 200's being it single card or sli ;)

Its not a card worthy of praise, but it was the video card in the first PC I owned myself. It was an FX5200.

oxygenis4losers

Gforce FX 5200 128MB GDDR on the PCI Bus. that card rocked. i used it for years in a custom build with an Athlon XP 2600+ and 768MB of DDR on a Gigabyte motherboard (will never forget that system) it died due to a faulty PSU and to much overclocking. Also in a PC before that we had an MX 400 then it died then an MX 440 (wuts the diff lol?)

I remember how awsome the 6600GT was and just how much of an improvement the 7600GT was over it, I had an PNY 6600GT and went to a POV 7600GT both great cards that both cost under £100.

the first card for me was an s3 pro savage and playing midtown madness was fun with it

9800pro ... my baby ... what an insane card for its day ... ran HL2 EP1 almost maxed out ... my lord.ColdfireTrilogy

you got a game that lag with ur system ? weird well not like i could know ealier lol you don't have ims :Pmarcthpro

Everyone seems to be bigging up the ATI 9800 pro. I have one of them still in an old Mesh pc! Anyone interested? XD

you got a game that lag with ur system ? weird well not like i could know ealier lol you don't have ims :Pmarcthpro

Okay, here is a short(there are more) list of some games in which I experience stutter or low fps that ruin my experience:

WIC - As I mentioned a hundred times, this game ran better with my 8800GT. FPS is really nice, but the game microstutters a lot until I enable vsync and triple buffer which reduce it quite a bit. Also, when I zoom into explosions or smoke (this happens in many games, not just WIC), it dips to 20ish range.

COH - Not such bad fps, around 40 all the time, except for that huuuuge microstutter happening each time I rotate the camera. This is in DX9 mode. The main reason why I moved to AMD (well, I was AMD's fan even when I had Intel) was to reduce microstutter, which was especially noticeable in this game. When I had a rig with E4600 (3.42GHz) and 8800GT + 4GB RAM, the game behaved the same, but I noticed that the game flies like a fly on my friend's rig with 9600GT and AMD Athlon 5000+. It seems AMD+nVidia ftw... Also, Anand's experience with Intel CPUs (they even used a much more powerful one, Q9550) confirmed mine, and thus I thought getting the cra**y PII 955 would fix it. :evil:

Borderlands - Fast at times, but sluggish most of the time (around 30ish area). The problem solves itself when I disable shadows, but fhs, 4890 should at least handle some stupid shadows! Great game by the way.

Oblivion - About the same story as Borderlands, though most of the time it runs okay.

Prototype - If there is a synonym to microstutter, it is called Prototype. Even when the framerate is over 100 (and it is rarely over 100), the game stutters like hell. It is also very sluggish no matter the settings. When there is only a little action or a single explosion going on the fps differentiates between 20-40. Really laggy.

Heroes of Might and Magic V - ... What to say... I'm speechless.

NFS Shift - On the tracks when I'm alone or with another racer, I get around 50fps. When there is more than 3-4 drivers, the game runs at a constant 40. At least it doesn't stutter...

Sid Meier's Civilization IV BTS - Yup, this game too. It runs fine first 10 minutes, but when I meet the first foreign civilization it starts lagging.

Stronghold Crusader - No, it isn't that bad, I'm poking you :D

Rise&Fall Civilizations at War - Runs smooth, but when I zoom into smoke created by catapults etc. it lags.

ARMA II - Runs very, very badly, But that game is demanding anyways so I can't complain.

Far Cry 2 - Without AA on Ultra High @ 1680x1050, it runs at around 35-40fps most of the time with occasional unbearable stutter. When even the slightest AA is introduced, the framerates stay the same but it starts microstuttering.

To be continued...

[QUOTE="marcthpro"]you got a game that lag with ur system ? weird well not like i could know ealier lol you don't have ims :PSlig0

Okay, here is a short(there are more) list of some games in which I experience stutter or low fps that ruin my experience:

WIC - As I mentioned a hundred times, this game ran better with my 8800GT. FPS is really nice, but the game microstutters a lot until I enable vsync and triple buffer which reduce it quite a bit. Also, when I zoom into explosions or smoke (this happens in many games, not just WIC), it dips to 20ish range.

COH - Not such bad fps, around 40 all the time, except for that huuuuge microstutter happening each time I rotate the camera. This is in DX9 mode. The main reason why I moved to AMD (well, I was AMD's fan even when I had Intel) was to reduce microstutter, which was especially noticeable in this game. When I had a rig with E4600 (3.42GHz) and 8800GT + 4GB RAM, the game behaved the same, but I noticed that the game flies like a fly on my friend's rig with 9600GT and AMD Athlon 5000+. It seems AMD+nVidia ftw... Also, Anand's experience with Intel CPUs (they even used a much more powerful one, Q9550) confirmed mine, and thus I thought getting the cra**y PII 955 would fix it. :evil:

Borderlands - Fast at times, but sluggish most of the time (around 30ish area). The problem solves itself when I disable shadows, but fhs, 4890 should at least handle some stupid shadows! Great game by the way.

Oblivion - About the same story as Borderlands, though most of the time it runs okay.

Prototype - If there is a synonym to microstutter, it is called Prototype. Even when the framerate is over 100 (and it is rarely over 100), the game stutters like hell. It is also very sluggish no matter the settings. When there is only a little action or a single explosion going on the fps differentiates between 20-40. Really laggy.

Heroes of Might and Magic V - ... What to say... I'm speechless.

NFS Shift - On the tracks when I'm alone or with another racer, I get around 50fps. When there is more than 3-4 drivers, the game runs at a constant 40. At least it doesn't stutter...

Sid Meier's Civilization IV BTS - Yup, this game too. It runs fine first 10 minutes, but when I meet the first foreign civilization it starts lagging.

Stronghold Crusader - No, it isn't that bad, I'm poking you :D

Rise&Fall Civilizations at War - Runs smooth, but when I zoom into smoke created by catapults etc. it lags.

ARMA II - Runs very, very badly, But that game is demanding anyways so I can't complain.

Far Cry 2 - Without AA on Ultra High @ 1680x1050, it runs at around 35-40fps most of the time with occasional unbearable stutter. When even the slightest AA is introduced, the frramerates stay the same but it start microstuttering.

To be continued...

[QUOTE="Slig0"]

[QUOTE="marcthpro"]you got a game that lag with ur system ? weird well not like i could know ealier lol you don't have ims :Pkraken2109

Okay, here is a short(there are more) list of some games in which I experience stutter or low fps that ruin my experience:

WIC - As I mentioned a hundred times, this game ran better with my 8800GT. FPS is really nice, but the game microstutters a lot until I enable vsync and triple buffer which reduce it quite a bit. Also, when I zoom into explosions or smoke (this happens in many games, not just WIC), it dips to 20ish range.

COH - Not such bad fps, around 40 all the time, except for that huuuuge microstutter happening each time I rotate the camera. This is in DX9 mode. The main reason why I moved to AMD (well, I was AMD's fan even when I had Intel) was to reduce microstutter, which was especially noticeable in this game. When I had a rig with E4600 (3.42GHz) and 8800GT + 4GB RAM, the game behaved the same, but I noticed that the game flies like a fly on my friend's rig with 9600GT and AMD Athlon 5000+. It seems AMD+nVidia ftw... Also, Anand's experience with Intel CPUs (they even used a much more powerful one, Q9550) confirmed mine, and thus I thought getting the cra**y PII 955 would fix it. :evil:

Borderlands - Fast at times, but sluggish most of the time (around 30ish area). The problem solves itself when I disable shadows, but fhs, 4890 should at least handle some stupid shadows! Great game by the way.

Oblivion - About the same story as Borderlands, though most of the time it runs okay.

Prototype - If there is a synonym to microstutter, it is called Prototype. Even when the framerate is over 100 (and it is rarely over 100), the game stutters like hell. It is also very sluggish no matter the settings. When there is only a little action or a single explosion going on the fps differentiates between 20-40. Really laggy.

Heroes of Might and Magic V - ... What to say... I'm speechless.

NFS Shift - On the tracks when I'm alone or with another racer, I get around 50fps. When there is more than 3-4 drivers, the game runs at a constant 40. At least it doesn't stutter...

Sid Meier's Civilization IV BTS - Yup, this game too. It runs fine first 10 minutes, but when I meet the first foreign civilization it starts lagging.

Stronghold Crusader - No, it isn't that bad, I'm poking you :D

Rise&Fall Civilizations at War - Runs smooth, but when I zoom into smoke created by catapults etc. it lags.

ARMA II - Runs very, very badly, But that game is demanding anyways so I can't complain.

Far Cry 2 - Without AA on Ultra High @ 1680x1050, it runs at around 35-40fps most of the time with occasional unbearable stutter. When even the slightest AA is introduced, the frramerates stay the same but it start microstuttering.

To be continued...

this is very odd.. specially for Far cry 2 mate
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_5870_CrossFire/11.html y
ou sure at the moment of lag ? the fps dont' drop ? it just keep display via fraps some high fps ? and beside what i find more odd over all that is 8800GT performing better then 4890 on WIC

this is very odd.. specially for Far cry 2 mate
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_5870_CrossFire/11.html y
ou sure at the moment of lag ? the fps dont' drop ? it just keep display via fraps some high fps ? and beside what i find more odd over all that is 8800GT performing better then 4890 on WIC

marcthpro

Well this benchie just proves my story that the game is so horribly AMD/ATI optimized that it even runs better on GTX260. But I also find it strange that the game lags with AA. About WIC, well the same story as most of the games. My 8800GT handled filters (AA/AF) and explosions/smoke MUCH better. It didn't even feel when I put 16xAA in WIC (it actually improved the fps, lol but true). Yup, no performance drop.

My Voodoo Banshee 16mb comes to mind.

If not that then my Geforce 2 64mb Ultra (which cost $600 and came with 3d glasses lol)

9800xt was awesome. Unlockable shaders!

x850 was a beast and is still listed in PC specs on game boxes (albeit the minimum ones).

Nvidia Geforce 7500LE

I'm also looking at a graphics card right now dating back to 1998, it's a SIS 6326 AGP, it has nothing but a single VGA port on the side, there is no fan either, it's about 5 inches long.

I also have an AMD K6 in my draw also dating back from '98.

EDIT: Back to the 7500 LE, I only upgraded it within the last few months, ah, I remember playing Oblivion on 640 x 400 with 10-20 fps. Great card!

Everyone seems to be bigging up the ATI 9800 pro. I have one of them still in an old Mesh pc! Anyone interested? XD

kraken2109

[QUOTE="NamelessPlayer"]The most memorable graphics cards I can think of over the years: -3dfx Voodoo2 (The original Voodoo Graphics really kicked off the move from software to hardware 3D rendering, and this card expanded 3dfx's performance lead even further-especially when you paired two of them in SLI mode! You still needed a 2D graphics card, however.) -3dfx Voodoo5 5500/6000 (They introduced anti-aliasing and were one of the earlier, albeit not the earliest, experiments in multi-GPU graphics cards. The 6000 had a whopping FOUR VSA-100 GPUs and was long enough that people doubted whether they could even fit it in any computer case of the day, long before we started seeing the HD Radeon X2 cards.) -ATI Radeon 8500 (ATI's first card that supported programmable shaders, albeit not the first ever, and it also debuted TRUFORM-an early attempt at hardware tessellation. Unfortunately, TRUFORM gained little support, being ATI-specific, and hardware tesselation would be largely overlooked-at least until DirectX 11 made it vendor-agnostic.) -NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4200/4600 (I remember reading about these in a magazine and was just plain itching to get one for their astounding-at-the-time performance. Unfortunately, they were all too easily mixed up with the MX line, which were basically glorified GeForce 2s with no shader support whatsoever.) -ATI Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 (The 9700 was the first card to support DX9/SM 2.0, and it showed an astounding lead over earlier cards. The 9800 expanded that lead even further. The 9600 kept things affordable, and of special note were the modifications to turn 9500s into 9700s or R360-cored 9800 Pros into 9800 XTs.) -NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (After the NV30/GeForce FX disaster, this single card is what made NVIDIA relevant again. It supported SM 3.0, UnrealEngine3 was first demonstrated on it using Gears of War assets, and it at least DOUBLED performance over the previous generation! Furthermore, it was so powerful that even top-of-the-line CPUs would frequently bottleneck the 6800, even after piling on high resolutions, AA, AND AF.) -NVIDIA GeForce 8800 (This was another landmark release for NVIDIA, almost being as much of a bombshell as the 6800 was except for that the 7 Series was still respectable, unlike the failure that was GeForce FX. First to support DX10, another practical doubling in performance, and the new architecture would soon prove versatile as applications started supporting CUDA and OpenCL.) -ATI HD Radeon 5800 (ATI stumbled hard with the HD Radeon 2900 and caught up with the HD 3800 and 4800 lines, but it wasn't until the recent HD 5800 series release that they would enjoy a resurgence like the old Radeon 9700 days. First to support DX11, along with the usual massive performance increase such cards tend to bring, and it does that while being more energy-efficient than the HD 4800 line! Too bad TSMC can't keep up...) These are the cards that I'm pretty sure will make it in the history books (though the later ones are pretty recent). Also, I have a spare ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB that I don't know what to do with. The system I was going to use it in ended up getting a GeForce 6800 Ultra instead when I found a good deal on one. Anyone interested?UltimateGamer95

Heh, why didn't you ask earlier, I had 9800 Pro sitting in my closet for quite some time, but it died when I tried it:(. Lol just kidding, anyway I wouldn't be able to send it to you :P

Oh and if any of you fine people are willing to part with some old cards of yours just let me know. Hopefully you'll send them to me for free (I could pay shipping if you'd like). I'm in need of some cards for education tools as well as perhaps setting up a gaming rig with some other parts I have lying around ;) :)

Oh and if any of you fine people are willing to part with some old cards of yours just let me know. Hopefully you'll send them to me for free (I could pay shipping if you'd like). I'm in need of some cards for education tools as well as perhaps setting up a gaming rig with some other parts I have lying around ;) :)

UltimateGamer95

[QUOTE="UltimateGamer95"]

Oh and if any of you fine people are willing to part with some old cards of yours just let me know. Hopefully you'll send them to me for free (I could pay shipping if you'd like). I'm in need of some cards for education tools as well as perhaps setting up a gaming rig with some other parts I have lying around ;) :)

NamelessPlayer

My good old RIVA TNT2 Ultra. It was a beast.

I would like some more replys to the thread please! Come on the forum has been so dull today :(. How come none of you are posting? :x

I should congratulate Sparticus for showing some effort today! This award goes to sparticus! (oh and there are other important video cards in history that have not been mentioned yet so let's see if you can name them ;) )