What video card has served you the longest before upgrading?

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brinstar117

Limp Gawd
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Mar 11, 2010
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Some video cards have been phenomenal in value. When released they were vastly more powerful than their predecessors. These video cards stuck around as games eventually became demanding enough to push these video cards. Name the video card(s) that stayed relevant the longest for you.

My list:

3DFX Voodoo 3 2000 16MB (lasted me 3 years)

ATi Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB (lasted me at least 3 years)

Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB (would have lasted me way more than 4 years if it didn't die)
 
I had an x700 Pro 256MB Variant that lasted me like 2-3 years. After that, I upgraded basically every year, mostly because I wanted to. But damn if I don't miss my x700 Pro. Gave it to some guy I knew in college for free when his card crapped out.
 
TNT 2 Ultra

Geforce 2 GTS

Geforce 4 TI 4200

Radeon 9500 pro (flashed to 9700 non-pro)

x800xtx

7900gs

9800gt

hd5850
 
My wife has been rocking a GTX 260 for 5 years since release in 2008. She plays Borderlands 2, CS:GO, and FFXIV just fine.

CPU's have had much more staying power for me:
E6600 on 680i SLI: 2 years (Nov 06 - Nov 08)
i7 920 on X58: 3 years (Nov 08 - Nov 11)
3930k on X79: 2 years and counting (Nov 11 - TBD)
 
im surprised that 680i lasted that long, i went through 3 of them in that 2 yeas span,,,

they ran hot as the hubs of hell, and the sata controllers were garbage,,,
 
For just me, it was my Sapphire 5870. I could still be using it if I didn't get itchy when Crysis 3 came out because it just crushed it.

However I got a few years out of a Powercolor 4850 and it's been in the computer I built for my wife and little boy handling gaming duties at 1680x1050 for a couple years now.
 
8800GTS 512

Probably the card with the longest useful lifespan that I have ever owned.

My current GTX 570 with a bit of an OC is still going strong (just about max in every game) 2 years after purchase.

I'm probably going to upgrade long before it becomes obsolete though.
 
Definately my PNY 8800 GTX
bought it in late december 2006/early jan 2007 and didnt replace it until early spring 2010.
Prolly would have kept it a year or more longer if i had not had to RMA it for the classic Solder Reflow fix at the absolute end of its warranty period.
 
WinSomeLoseNone said:
8800GTS 512

Probably the card with the longest useful lifespan that I have ever owned.

My current GTX 570 with a bit of an OC is still going strong (just about max in every game) 2 years after purchase.

I'm probably going to upgrade long before it becomes obsolete though.
Click to expand...

What's "just about max". Also what games? :confused:
 
I don't have the actual dates, but the one that sticks in my mind as being a viable gaming card for the longest time was my Radeon 9700Pro. That card was literally a game-changer. If a later card managed to stick around longer, it's only because I stopped gaming as much as I had been previously, and thus didn't feel the need to keep my system on the bleeding edge.
 
Voodoo3 2000 PCI from 99-2004, about when I got an ATI Radeon 9800 XT, which I sold maybe a year later for $150 + Longhorn to a dude with one hand who was trying to hook me up with his daughter.

Nothing lasted as long as the Voodoo3 because I finally achieved disposable income levels.
 
Geforce 2 GTS
Geforce 4 TI 4200
Radeon 9800 Pro
Radeon 3850
AMD 6950

(These are all the cards that have seen over two years in my rig etc.)
 
My Geforce GTS (32MB AGP 4X version) served me for at least 5 years, now I barely make it 3 months without changing my video card.
 
Riva TNT2 M64
GeForce2 MX, 32MB, AGP, Retail (5,5ns) - Guillemot / Hercules 3D Prophet II MX
 
9700 Pro and X1900XTX both lasted me 3 years. All runners up were 2 years, which my GTX680 2gb is probably about to pull off.

As a point of interest: Shortest was about 6 months, which was my 5870.
 
I bought a Radeon in 2009, and kept it in my main PC until this month, so 4 years.
Even then, I think that it could have gone a lot longer. I mostly upgraded because of getting the upgrade itch, but the old card was still functional for everything that I wanted to run on it.


...But looking back, the card that I definitely spent the most time with is the Media Vision Thunder & Lightning card. I don't recall when exactly I first got the card, but it was in the early 90s, and attempts at replacing it usually ended up with the new card going bad for some reason, and I had to fall back to it (I recall a generic PCI card, a Voodoo Rush, and a few other ISA video cards as attempted replacements). I never liked it, since ISA is a "last resort" thing for video, but it lasted until I purchased a Voodoo 3.
 
My 9600GSO was a day one buy, lasted for quite a while actually. Until I had upgraded to my 6850 which lasted me a year and a half I think, now I have a 7970.
 
my current 7970 is my longest lasting card. Jan 2012 to Oct 2013, so 1 year 9 months.
i owned a Geforce4 MX440 from November-ish 2002 to May 2005, but that doesn't really count since i was in college and stopped gaming entirely.
 
My 9600GSO was a day one buy, lasted for quite a while actually. Until I had upgraded to my 6850 which lasted me a year and a half I think, now I have a 7970.
Click to expand...

I forgot my 9600gso. It had it in my wifes system for probably 3 years. I don't know if it counts, but it played WoW and the sims well enough where my wife never wanted to upgrade.
 
*3dfx Voodoo3

*RIVA TNT2 Ultra

*Geforce 4TI 4800

*Geforce 8800GTX

*Geforce 9800GTX+

*GTX 480SLI.
 
Hrmm, I used to upgrade about once a year. I think I may actually have had either my ATU HD3870 or HD4850 the longest.

I am guessing that my CFX 6870s are going to be the longest though as I have had them for a decent while. I can still play everything with almost everything maxed out at 1080p.
 
BFG 8800GTX Ultra 768MB RAM and I've still got the bare card in water-proof packaging in storage.
 
I <3'd my 9700 Pro / 9800 Pro long time. Then i had a 7600GT for a while, until a cap blew.
 
GTX295 bar none. I honestly wouldn't of upgraded had I not went to a higher resolution display.
 
I'm still regularly using the Voodoo5-5500 AGP in my MAME machine, it's thirteen years old.

The next longest card I've used is probably the Sapphire 9800 Non Pro, that thing is a beast. I upgraded from a GF4-Ti4200 and used it for four solid years 2003 to 2007 when I got a X1950 XTX. Haven't booted it up in many years but it's working in an Athlon XP PC and would be about ten years old now.
 
Nvidia 6800GT. From 2004 through 2008. My next upgrade after that was an 8800GT 512mb.
 
9600XT (2003-2006)
7900GS (2006-2007)
8000GT (2008-2010) SLI in 2009
GTX 275 (2010-2011)
HD 5870 (2011-2012) CF in 2011; Sold to bitcoiners for profit
HD 6950 (2012-2013) CF in 2012
GTX 680 (2013-???) SLI in 2013

So I guess the 9600XT lasted me the longest but also because I was broke and couldn't afford upgrades lol...
 
9800GT w/ 1 gigs vram, I'm still using it, and it's 5 years old, it still runs games at higher than console settings. There's very few games that really warrant an upgrade. Really the only game I really want to play at higher settings is Witcher 2. It has not limited my gaming experience yet.
 
I've had plenty on graphic cards serve a extended tour in one rig or another, but I think my current 7950, which I have had since launch has lasted the longest in my main gaming rig without seeing replacement. Most of the time I replace cards at least once a year, but generally sooner than that.

My 9800 Pro and 5850 x-fire setup also had a fairly long life cycle.
 
I think my current card has served me the longest (GTX 480), and oddly enough, probably got the least use. It's been about 3 years I would guess.

I'm going backwards... I used to upgrade every generation... $1000 on upgrades this month? Done! Now, the irony is, I make a whole lot more money than I used to, but I have a whole lot less to spend.... $5 for this game that looks cool? Hmm.. maybe not.. kinda steep... lol.

The really sad thing is.. except for the GPU, my work computer is much faster than my home computer. lol.
 
Probably my Geforce 3. I got a lot of mileage out of it paired with my Athlon XP 1800+ and ABIT KG-7.
 
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