Who remembers these?

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Pitbully

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 29, 2011
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I've been online gaming for the better part of the last 10 years. When I look back at all the money I've spent on video cards alone, it would probably fill a nice size swimming pool!

Riva 128 - My first Video card/gaming machine, AGP 1x and a 233mhz Intel MMX I believe rocking Quake with 4mb of memory on the card and I think 32mb of memory in my computer.

Riva TNT2 - think I wasted nearly a whole paycheck to get the first one at my local computer store, AGP 4x!! I had upgrade my motherboard and CPU as well, (I think it was a 400Mhz Intel, from my 333 Celeron! Who remembers O/Cing those!

GeForce 256 - ahh yes, the FIRST GeForce card and I got the first one my local computer shop got in the door. 32mb of memory and we we're in haven! I think it cost me nearly $400 but it was leaps and bounds ahead of everything else on the market and I got me one of those new Pentium2 450s as well.

GeForce 2MX400 - A nice step up, I didn't get the Ultra card, had a new baby and couldn't talk my wife into letting me have the ultra, (I informed her that it was a fair trade for my second son, which she didn't think was funny).

GeForce 3 Ti200 - Again couldn't quite flip the $500 for the Ti500 card. I think this was my first 1Ghz CPU as well as my first venture into Water Cooling.

GeForce ti4200 - Yes the 4800 was faster, but I O/Ced the piss outta mine!

GeForce 5600 Ultra - AGP 8x! This is about where the truly mid-stream cards started coming into play, Rocking an Athlon 64-754 2000+. My Dust Buster was quieter!

GeForce 6800 Ultra - This card was a beast and the fan on full was nearly as loud as a jet aircraft taking off. Cost me a pretty penny too, upwards of $600 if memory serves.

GeForce 7800 GT/SLI - First PCI-X cards and first venture into SLI, with a Athlon x2! All ran off ONE 550W power supply (imagine that)!

GeForce 8800GTS - Another monster of a card, never could get the fan working correctly though, this card still resides in my youngest son's machine.

GeForce 9800GTX - This card is still in my machine. Maybe its because I'm getting older or I just don't care anymore but I no longer HAVE to have the latest and greatest hardware or maybe its just because I'm too damn cheap :D
I'm still happy to see there's alot of people out there that have to have the latest/fastest stuff, (just send me your old shit and I'll be happy)

I've skipped a few generations of Nvidia cards now, I suppose I'll have to break down and buy a new one this Christmas. Hell, after all the money I've spent with Nvidia they should give me a free T-shirt or something?!
 
I remember being overjoyed at spending a few hundred dollars for an 8MB Voodoo, and that wasn't even a full video card, it piggybacked off of your 2D card.

S3 Virge was my first "zomgpretty quake" card, felt like going from 640x480 to 1600x1200 with openGL.

Matrox Millenium (iirc) tried to break through with bump mapping, which was unfortunately a one trick pony that failed at everything else 3D.

TNT, TNT2, Ti4200 were next for me, but after that, the innovation started to slow down, and you could get by being a generation or two behind.

Also had the Celeron 300A for beastly overclocking, then coppermine, then the 1.6 Northwood.

God I feel old.
 
Lol your an "old timer"!! I started with a 6600gt and then upgraded to 6600gt's in sli.
 
I can't even remember what video card was in my first machine.

1) Pentium 166mhz, 96mb of system RAM. Used for playing Duke3D Co-Op with my Dad over serial cable haha. Windows 3.1, then 95, then 98. I even tried installing XP on this beast later on, but took about three hours to install.

2) AMD Duron 1.2ghz, unknown video card, probably 512mb of memory. I was venturing into Starcraft, Quake3, and it's mod, Urban Terror. I was really into that game.

3) Intel Celeron, maybe 1.8ghz? Unkown video card, unkown RAM.

4) Athlon XP 2600+, I think. This machine had the first gaming card that I can remember. A Radeon 9600XT. I was jealous of people with the 9800Pro/XT cards, but man did this card fly. This computer was ultimately stolen from me in 2005 or 2006.

Since then, these are the graphics cards I had. Most recent at the bottom.

- Radeon 9550 (placeholder, hand-me-down)
- BFG 6800 GTOC (Bought used from fellow LANer in 2007, missing PCI retention bracket, still have it)
- Foxconn 8800 GTS 512 (Bought used, this card was faster than anything I've ever had, also still have it)
- BFG GTX 260 Maxcore55 (First card I've ever bought brand new, loved it!!)
- EVGA GTX 570 (Current card)

As you can see, I've jumped between ATI and Nvidia, but have always loved whatever Nvidia cards I've had. I also skipped quite a few generations.
 
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First ever PC home build had the Geforce 256 Pro version, had that for about two years before I replaced it with a Geforece 2 MX400, the second build had a ATi 9700 Pro, eventually artifacting after a trip across the atlantic, then the X700 did the same thing, the replacement X800 had the fan bearing wear out, and then my current system with the 260's, almost 3 years old already, still does everything I throw at it.
 
adi said:
I remember being overjoyed at spending a few hundred dollars for an 8MB Voodoo, and that wasn't even a full video card, it piggybacked off of your 2D card.

S3 Virge was my first "zomgpretty quake" card, felt like going from 640x480 to 1600x1200 with openGL.

Matrox Millenium (iirc) tried to break through with bump mapping, which was unfortunately a one trick pony that failed at everything else 3D.

TNT, TNT2, Ti4200 were next for me, but after that, the innovation started to slow down, and you could get by being a generation or two behind.

Also had the Celeron 300A for beastly overclocking, then coppermine, then the 1.6 Northwood.

God I feel old.
Click to expand...

Dude, that's a lot of nostalgia for one post! Sounds exactly like my timeline. Coppermine and northwood, man....Have not heard those names in so long..
 
adi said:
I remember being overjoyed at spending a few hundred dollars for an 8MB Voodoo, and that wasn't even a full video card, it piggybacked off of your 2D card.

S3 Virge was my first "zomgpretty quake" card, felt like going from 640x480 to 1600x1200 with openGL.

Matrox Millenium (iirc) tried to break through with bump mapping, which was unfortunately a one trick pony that failed at everything else 3D.

TNT, TNT2, Ti4200 were next for me, but after that, the innovation started to slow down, and you could get by being a generation or two behind.

Also had the Celeron 300A for beastly overclocking, then coppermine, then the 1.6 Northwood.

God I feel old.
Click to expand...

Those Voodoo Cards we're crazy, I saw one in another guys machine, then thing had to be 12" long, pretty funny looking back then.

Haha! Me and a friend each bought 300A's off Ebay and O/Ced the heck out of them! I also had a coppermine, then went to AMD with a Thunderbird and a Barton I believe.
 
My first graphics card was a ISA bus card. None of that PCI nonsense.
 
The Riva 128 was my first video card, but I had the PCI version which was a lot slower than the AGP. I remember FF7 was never properly accelerated by it.
 
This thread again? Some of you guys need to learn to use the search function. It really does work.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1101956&highlight=Video+graphics+card+upgrade+path
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1419492&highlight=Video+card+progression

Anyway, your hardly an old timer. I know people that go back farther than I do but my first video card wasn't a 3D accelerator. In fact, they didn't exist at all in the consumer market.

My list of video cards:

Diamond SpeedStar 24 Tseng Labs ET4000 ISA
ATI 512k VGA
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5420
Diamond SpeedStar 64 Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434 PCI
Diamond S3 Vision 964
Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 S3-ViRGE PCI
Diamond Stealth 3D 3000 S3-ViRGE/DX PCI
Hercules 3DFX Voodoo Rush
NEC PowerVR
Diamond Monster 3D 3DFX Voodoo1 4MB PCI (combined with above)
Diamond Monster 3D II 3DFX Voodoo2 8MB PCI
Diamond Monster 3D II 3DFX Voodoo2 8MB PCI (combined with above)
Diamond Monster 3D II 3DFX Voodoo2 12MB PCI
Diamond Monster 3D II 3DFX Voodoo2 12MB PCI (combined with above)
Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro 3Dlabs Permedia2 AGP
Matrox G200 4MB AGP
Matrox G200 8MB AGP
3DFX Voodoo 3 2000 AGP
3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Diamond Viper V330 nVidia Riva 128 AGP
Diamond Viper V550 nVidia Riva TNT AGP
Diamond Viper V770 nVidia Riva TNT2 Ultra AGP
Herecules Geforce 2 GTS 64MB AGP
Geforce 2 MX (Unknown brand)
PNY Geforce 3 Ti500
PNY Geforce 4 Ti4600
PNY Geforce 4 Ti4600 (To replace the above that I smoked while overclocking)
ATI Radeon 9600Pro
ATI Radeon X800Pro
PNY Geforce 6800GT AGP
ATI Radeon 7000 PCI 32MB
ATI Radeon X700Pro PCI-Express
PNY Geforce 6600GT
BFG Geforce 6600GT
EVGA Geforce 6800GT PCI-Express
EVGA Geforce 6800GT PCI-Express
BFG Geforce 7800GTX PCI-Express
BFG Geforce 7800GTX PCI-Express
BFG Geforce 7900GTX PCI-Express
BFG Geforce 7900GTX PCI-Express (Combined with above in SLI)
Mad Dog Geforce FX 5200 Plus PCI 128MB (Sitting in a box)
ATI Radeon X1950XTX PCI-Express
ATI Radeon X1950XTX PCI-Express (combined with the above in Crossfire)
ATI Radeon X1950Pro PCI-Express
ATI Radeon X1950Pro PCI-Express (combined with above in Crossfire)
BFG Technologies 8600GTS (Separate systems, non-SLI)
BFG Technologies 8600GTS (Separate systems, non-SLI)
EVGA Geforce 8800GTX
EVGA Geforce 8800GTX
BFG Technologies 8800GTX (combined with the above cards in 3-Way SLI)
EVGA Geforce 9800GX2
EVGA Geforce 9800GX2 (combined with the above in Quad-SLI)
NVIDIA Reference Design 9800GX2 (For Quad-SLI in my girlfriends machine)
EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked (HTPC)
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossfireX
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossfireX (combined with the above in CrossfireX)
BFG Technologies Geforce GTX 280 OC
BFG Technologies Geforce GTX 280 OC
BFG Technologies Geforce GTX 280 OC (combined with the above cards in 3-Way SLI)
EVGA 8800GT 512MB Superclocked (Used to be in my HTPC)
EVGA GeForce GT 520 (HTPC)
XFX Geforce GTX 280 XXX Edition (Girlfriend's current video card.)
Galaxy GeForce 9500GT (Used in my Server)
Diamond Multimedia ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB
Galaxy GeForce GTX 580
Galaxy GeForce GTX 580 (combined with the above in SLI)
Galaxy GeForce GTX 580 (RMA replacement for one of the above that died.)
 
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I blame Kings Quest, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for EVERYTHING:

Hercules MDA
Plantronics ColorPlus CGA
IBM EGA (built into an IBM 5170)
Trident TVGA9000 (386sx-25, first machine I built myself)
ELSA XVGA Winner 1000
Diamond Stealth 24 VLB
Integrated Cirrus Logic CL-GD5420
ATI 3D Xpression II+
Matrox Mystique 220
Matrox m3D
Canopus Pure3D Voodoo1
Matrox Millenium
Creative Voodoo Banshee
ATI All-in-Wonder 128
Creative Graphics Blaster RivaTNT
STB Black Magic Voodoo2
3Dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV
Creative Annihilator GeForce2 GTS
Gainward GeForce3 ti200
ATI Radeon 8500
Inno3D GeForce4 ti4200
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
ABit Siluro FX5800 Ultra
PowerColor Radeon X850XT PE
PNY GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI
ATI Radeon X1800 XT Crossfire
EVGA 8800 GTX SLI
VisionTek Radeon 4870 512MB Crossfire
BFG GTX285 OC SLI with BFG GTX275 OC2 for dedicated PhysX
EVGA GTX480 SC

Had I just stuck with Super Star Trek on VAX instead of wondering what other games were out there .... I hope the 600 series sucks for my wallet's sake! :D
 
800mhz HP computer with 128mb of RAM and a Geforce 2mx when I finally switched from to OpenGL in Counter strike 1.3 OMGG BROSSSSSSSS
 
Pretty sure I still have a Diamond S3 Virge sitting in a box somewhere in my basement collecting dust. It's probably right next to my old ATI 3D Rage. :cool:
 
My second video card was a Riva TNT. I was building my first computer and two of my friends worked at the same computer shop. There was a computer there playing Unreal on a Riva TNT. That sold me on it.

However, I've not gone through that many cards over the years. I think eight in total.

daglesj said:
My first graphics card was a ISA bus card. None of that PCI nonsense.
Click to expand...

:D

Yep, first video card was an old Cirrus Logic ISA.
 
I've owned an Rage 128 a Radeon 64 mb Raedon 9600 pro 128 GeForce 8800 gts an Radeon 6870 and my current Gtx 580
 
Don't remember what i had in my first computer to start with but eventually I got:

-Cirrus Logic 5xxx PCI (ran half life at like 7 FPS in software mode. I was rocking at Firearms)
-Matrox Mystique? Came with a "3d" version of MechWarrior
-Diamond Multimedia Voodoo2 something or other (seeing games in glide, oh man)
-ATi Rage Pro 8MB (biggest piece of shit ever. Blue screens abound)
- Creative Annihilator GeForce 2 Ultra
- Albatron GeForce 4 "4200"
- BFG 6800 OC
- BFG 8800 GTS
- BFG 9800 GT (well, technically a side grade but I got it for cheap when they had the trade in promo for the old AGP (6800) cards)
- HIS 5850
- Sapphire Xtreme 5850 (to crossfire with my reference 5850)
 
I like to run my systems until the frustration from the lag becomes too much to bear. Three PCs lasted me from fourth grade to today.

Voodoo2 8MB version with a 350mhz Pentium II in Q4 of 1998

Radeon 9700 Pro with a Palomino 2000+ in Q4 of 2002

Geforce 8600GT with a E6600 in Q4 of 2007

I had the most fun with the 9700 Pro even thought that system ran extremely hot even at stock speeds. Still have all three of them and they all still work the last time I checked.
 
my first machine didnt have a video card or windows. it ran on msdos. though you could still play games. my first video card was a Trident TVGA9000. i think i still have it, with some othr older isa cards in a box somewhere.
 
Riva TNT2 - My first nvidia card

GeForce 2 GTS - The first I got with my own money

GeForce 3 Ti200 - One of the best cards I've ever owned. It overclocked like crazy. I friend of mine had a Ti500 and couldn't overclock the same.

GeForce ti4200 - It was pretty much as fast as my brother's Ti 4600

GeForce 5900 - Doom3, enough said.

GeForce 6800 Ultra - I got this card for free as the guy I bought it from cancelled the paypal payment and never heard of him again.

GeForce 8600 GTS - I won this card on a contest so I can't complain.

Not much of a gamer anymore, but I'm thinking of going back in the game (pun inteded). My options range from the GTX 460 to the GTX570. I'll probably wait to see what kepler brings to the table.
 
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The first video card I ever bought was a 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 PCI. Threw that bad boy in a K6-2 system.
 
I start to play games in 1980, I remember I wrote something with bouncing ball in basic , we get the code in magazine as no Internet at the time, all true we have the BBS , but the first real game I really enjoy was Doom on a 386, around 1992-1993 don't even ask me witch video card I use at the time , probably a VESA as it was the top of the line at that time. Please don’t call me Grand-Pa , lol
 
Ahhh... Monster Voodoo 3dfx, the pioneer of SLI. Then for some reason the whole SLI thing died for many years. Now look where we are with quad SLI!
 
I'm pretty sure the first card I bought with my own money was a Voodoo 3000. I know I had a GeForce MX400 some where down the line as well.
 
MarkedOne said:
I start to play games in 1980, I remember I wrote something with bouncing ball in basic , we get the code in magazine as no Internet at the time, all true we have the BBS , but the first real game I really enjoy was Doom on a 386, around 1992-1993 don't even ask me witch video card I use at the time , probably a VESA as it was the top of the line at that time. Please don’t call me Grand-Pa , lol
Click to expand...

Grandpa!
 
lol, first time I was on the 'net (fidonet) on an amiga I used a 200 baud modem, and my xerox 8088 workstation had an optical mouse. I remember spending 500$ for a zyxel 14.4 modem which was a speed demon - My friends were over oohing as we watched a 50kb text file download in mere hours - It was awesome!

Genie, compuserve, fidonet and a 700$ matrox video card with 4 freaking MEGABYTES of ram. Good times!

Almost forgot writing basic on commodore PETS and a vic-20, saving programs onto cassette tape. We were cool.
 
Geforce 2 GTX--- Pwning n00bs in Unreal Tournament!

Geforce 4 Ti 4600 ---- America's Army at 1600x1200!!!

Radeon 9600 pro 256mb ----- Turn up those textures in Doom 3!

Geforce 7800 GS 256mb -------- Whoo hoo! Far Cry is bleeding edge!

Radeon 4830 512mb ------ Crysis on high! Maybe even Higher in some areas!

Radeon 6950 2gb ------ Skyrim across 3 screens: social life=none.

What waits beyond the horizon.....
 
Noobs. What about the 486 machines? What was that miner game?

I remember taking a 1mb chip off of a Rage(?) card and putting it on another. 2mb BABY! Pure power!
 
cwarehouse said:
Noobs. What about the 486 machines? What was that miner game?

I remember taking a 1mb chip off of a Rage(?) card and putting it on another. 2mb BABY! Pure power!
Click to expand...

I upgraded my Cirrus Logic 1MB PCI card to 2MB of VRAM. I also upgraded a Matrox Millenium 4MB to an 8MB card once.
 
I remember it being a huge thing for me to upgrade to a Geforce MX440 so I could completely dominate Age of Empires 2. I even painstakingly epoxied heatsinks to the memory chips for max performance!

Then an MSI 5700GT came packed with Morrowind...good times were had...replacements for better fans were mandatory,

The 6600GT blew me away playing Far Cry..then two 7800 GT in SLI for S.T.A.L.K.E.R....then the 8800GTX landed first as a single card, then crammed into SLI...for Oblivion..GTX280 came down for
Crysis and later Just Cause 2, and now my GTX580 is taking on Mass Effect 2 and Skyrim. The fight rages on...
 
Man I feel YOUNG.

Got my dads 8800gt when he upgraded to the 260.
Gave me his 260 when he realized he didnt need it.
I bought 2 570s and will be buying every generation x2 here on out! (For my surround of course) and thats my story :D
 
MiG29TangentBoy said:
I remember it being a huge thing for me to upgrade to a Geforce MX440 so I could completely dominate Age of Empires 2. I even painstakingly epoxied heatsinks to the memory chips for max performance!

Then an MSI 5700GT came packed with Morrowind...good times were had...replacements for better fans were mandatory,

The 6600GT blew me away playing Far Cry..then two 7800 GT in SLI for S.T.A.L.K.E.R....then the 8800GTX landed first as a single card, then crammed into SLI...for Oblivion..GTX280 came down for
Crysis and later Just Cause 2, and now my GTX580 is taking on Mass Effect 2 and Skyrim. The fight rages on...
Click to expand...

The GTX 580 can max out Mass Effect 2 with all settings on high at 2560x1600 smooth as butter. (I freaking love that game.)
 
Let's take it back before the good ole TNT2 even before the TNT

Who remembers the Matrox Mystique?

Mystique.jpg


I remember rocking this w/an OC'd Pentium 133 w/64MB of RAM!
 
My list starts in 1993 with my Amiga 3000 computer
Video Toaster 4000 Card
Picasso II Video Card
These 2 cards cost me $3100 :eek: in 1993/1994.

On the PC,
ATI AIW PRo AGP
ATI 7k series
Matrox Millienium II PCI
ATI 9600XT AGP
NV 6800 AGP
NV 7800GS AGP
ATI X1950 Pro AGP
ATI X850XT AGP
NV 9800GT
NV 260GTX
NV 285GTX
AMD HD5850

These are the cards I remember, there were other cards I had but most were just display cards and not gaming cards.
 
MiG29TangentBoy said:
I remember it being a huge thing for me to upgrade to a Geforce MX440 so I could completely dominate Age of Empires 2. I even painstakingly epoxied heatsinks to the memory chips for max performance!

Then an MSI 5700GT came packed with Morrowind...good times were had...replacements for better fans were mandatory,

The 6600GT blew me away playing Far Cry..then two 7800 GT in SLI for S.T.A.L.K.E.R....then the 8800GTX landed first as a single card, then crammed into SLI...for Oblivion..GTX280 came down for
Crysis and later Just Cause 2, and now my GTX580 is taking on Mass Effect 2 and Skyrim. The fight rages on...
Click to expand...

MX440 and Age of Empires 2 is what I am talking about. On the 478 p4. Sorry as I am young in age I am not a proud former owner of a lot of this tech but I appreciate what it meant to every one in the day. Also it seems that games used to challenge hardware and not just "clog it up"
 
Early 80s is when i got my start. haha. Damn, i'm getting old!

I was so excited when i got my first VGA-capable PC. I had a few PCs before it, but this was in Intel 286 12Mhz, 1mb RAM, 40mb HDD. Two floppies, a 5-1/4" plus a 3-1/2". It was HIGH TECH. Added a Sound Blaster card later. BLEW my mind.

My first real 3D card... i gotta think about that. I seem to remember getting something before the Voodoo2 card, but i can't recall what. I think it was a Rendition card because i remember playing vQuake, then getting a Voodoo2 12mb. I can't remember them all after that, i went through a card or two (or three) per year. I don't go through video cards today nearly as fast as i did in those early days of 3D.

I've probably had 5 or 6 GeForce cards, plus i had a TNT2 before those. I just got my first ATI card early this year. An HD 6870 1GB.

Edit: Just because i got curious, i went and looked at my Newegg order history. I bought a 512MB stick of DDR memory in 2002 for $164! It is still ticking in the rig i put it in all those years ago. I eventually gave it to my mom and she still has it to this day! They still carry the same stick today for $14.99! lol.
 
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cwarehouse said:
Noobs. What about the 486 machines? What was that miner game?

I remember taking a 1mb chip off of a Rage(?) card and putting it on another. 2mb BABY! Pure power!
Click to expand...

I remember trying to run Dune 2000 on my old i386. Didn't turn out too well. That's about the time I decided to do my first PC upgrade, lol.

333MHz! :eek: 1998 was such a great year... :cool:
 
Gods... hard for me to remember that far back. I seem to remember the first card I bought with the intention of gaming with it was a Cirrus Logic based card with four megs of ram? It was back in the original Quake days, as the original Doom didn't really require much. I think that was about a year before the 3DFX cards hit, and I bought a pair of those puppies. I couldn't even begin to name all the cards I've bought since then.
 
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