what do you do with old video cards

i keep them, unless i can give (or sell if they have $) to someone who will make use of them.

atm sitting on | (if you want pm me.)
ati firegl 9500
ati x1950 512mn agp
amd 6950/70

// also have plenty of other parts.
 
I hear there is even a market for old SCSI optical drives over in Europe? I probably still have a couple of old Plextor SCSI internal drives up in my attic PC parts corner somewhere.

Old modems too -- Old US Robotics modems (300,1200, 2400 baud), ISDN modems....etc.

I didn't even know SCSI optical drives existed. Can discs even be read fast enough to see a benefit with SCSI over IDE?
 
I didn't even know SCSI optical drives existed. Can discs even be read fast enough to see a benefit with SCSI over IDE?

From a performance standpoint, SCSI optical drives didn't have that much separation from their IDE counterparts. There were significant benefits from SCSI models however...

  • Better build quality - SCSI models were generally premium components. IDE models were mass produced to meet a lower price point at the sacrifice of quality.
  • SCSI allowed for higher number of utilized devices off one controller. 8, I believe.
  • Optimized interface for disc copies - allowed for simultaneous read and writes. Synchronous read/write capability reduced the chance of burn errors (overruns, etc).
  • Lower CPU utilization vs IDE controllers.
 
What's so desired about the old Voodoo cards? I think I had one of them when HL1 had released. At the time I think I was running IGPU.
 
What's so desired about the old Voodoo cards? I think I had one of them when HL1 had released. At the time I think I was running IGPU.

They are good for building classic gaming boxes for playing glide games like Interstate '76 and Mechwarrior 2. Games that won't run on modern PCs at all
 
What's so desired about the old Voodoo cards? I think I had one of them when HL1 had released. At the time I think I was running IGPU.

As mentioned, 3dfx voodoo/voodoo2 cards are popular for their ability to run classic milestone games that were optimized for their Glide 3D API. Glide optimized he's would render better performance due to their code and lower CPU usage.

Some of the greatest Glide games, aside from I76 and Mechwarrior 2 (already mentioned) was Quake 2, Unreal, Diablo 2, Catmageddon, etc. Some popular games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider can still be played today without building a retro box, but many don't very well with modern DX acceleration.

3dfx voodoo glide was popular because it's competition of ATI Rage and nVidia TNT struggled at keeping up to popular voodoo and sli voodoo setups.

I should go up and try to find my old pair of Diamond Monster and Canopus cards. Lol.
 
Generally when i upgrade my PC, (Which is about every 3-4 years it seems) i usually sell the old system and GPU's to one of my family. Sold my last system to my brother and the one before that to my niece, which considering their existing systems were like 10+ years old at the time made them very happy. (I usually put in $2500+ or so to build them and then sell them for around $500 after 3-4 years) :sneaky:
 
...every time I wind up with a "spare" core component like CPU or GPU, I wind up looking for inexpensive ways to build a computer around it. Craigslist deals, older hardware, additional spares from my inventory. It all gets used. Eventually I wind up with too many computers and some get sold or given away, then the cycle starts anew.

I have a problem, please help me.
 
Sell them or put them on a wall
Just a brief look on eBay -- there is a selling market for them! People are fething $80-$200 for some models.

I have the old school 2x Plexwriters too - this is before Plextor started using disc trays. My model used the disc case for the disc then inserting the case into the drive. Pretty old school.
I don't even remember what happened to my SCSI optical drivers.
 
...every time I wind up with a "spare" core component like CPU or GPU, I wind up looking for inexpensive ways to build a computer around it. Craigslist deals, older hardware, additional spares from my inventory. It all gets used. Eventually I wind up with too many computers and some get sold or given away, then the cycle starts anew.

I have a problem, please help me.
I have 6 desktops right now... We should start a support group, lol.
 
I typically keep the last generation and toss the rest though I have kept my 3DFX Voodoo cards as they were my first ones.
 
I've sold items that are still relevant for people wanting some budget gear, like maybe 2-3 generation old gpus. Anything that old, I've generally donated/recycled. Ebay can be annoying but they do have some free listings promotion so you can measure interest.
 
I usually sell my current in-use card to try and recoup some expenses when I upgrade. I got really lucky with a few of them thanks to BTC rushes and crashes, especially nabbing a 1070 for the cost of shipping after selling a 390 for way more than I paid, right before people realized that 1070s were more efficient for mining.

I like to keep a couple cards as diagnostic backups including a Voodoo 3 3000 PCI card for older desktops. Edit: Looking at eBay now I should probably try selling this one.
Unfortunately I missed the worthwhile dates to sell some of the cards, like the unlocked 6950 or the 4870 which would be more effort to ship than it's worth at this point. I really need to go through my boxes and dump a bunch of the AGP and low-end PCI-Express cards which I accumulated somehow.
 
Are people fixing old voodoos and getting them running in old PCs or just “collecting” ona shelf / box?
 
AGP cards are making a comeback with many people doing retro builds. I would even make offers on those cards OP. always worth selling.
 
Are people fixing old voodoos and getting them running in old PCs or just “collecting” ona shelf / box?
Both. but mostly using them. lotta people building win98 gaming machines with the voodoo cards. I did with my Banshee
 
...every time I wind up with a "spare" core component like CPU or GPU, I wind up looking for inexpensive ways to build a computer around it. Craigslist deals, older hardware, additional spares from my inventory. It all gets used. Eventually I wind up with too many computers and some get sold or given away, then the cycle starts anew.

I have a problem, please help me.

I do the same, and I'll install an older game that I never got around to playing or finishing. Then I think "why the heck am I doing this?"
 
...every time I wind up with a "spare" core component like CPU or GPU, I wind up looking for inexpensive ways to build a computer around it. Craigslist deals, older hardware, additional spares from my inventory. It all gets used. Eventually I wind up with too many computers and some get sold or given away, then the cycle starts anew.

I have a problem, please help me.

I intentionally try to give people upgrades, sell things, or give things away.

I am going to box up my R9 390 8gb and send it to my little brother so he can update his PC that we build together in 2016. But he needs to set up his computer first! I also took out some RAM and a 240gb SSD....

I let a kid in my church borrow one of my SFF PC's that was collecting dust (it has a i5-4590s/GTX 750ti) and found an old Dell monitor for free, so he can play some free to play stuff.

Since I recently got married, my wife doesnt want me to be a hoarder!
 
I threw away a 32bit pci Intel Gig Nic I could.kick my self in the ass for doing. Dont shitcan the 3dfx man.
 
It's not much help if you already have a stockpile, but I usually sell my current video card to take the sting off buying a new one. Basically as soon as I have a new one on order, I'll toss whatever I have up on Craigslist for 15-20% less than anybody else. I've moved my last few in less than a day and the people that bought 'em were ecstatic, too. I don't get rich, but it's an additional $200-250 back in my bank account.

If you're looking to make a little more money and don't mind doing without a new card for a bit - sell your current just before a new one is about to be released.
 
I have four 290x graphic cards attached to each other on waterblocks sitting on display in my living room. I payed $700 a piece on those bad boys during the mining craze, so I'll just keep them as a decoration (I no longer have the original coolers, or I'd sell).
 
I like to trickle them down through my systems (I have several PCs) and then to my kids, and then those ones out to other family or friends if they need them. I like to keep my dad up to date on a PC or two within a couple of year span for example.

Generally goes like this:

Main gaming desktop>Second gaming desktop>Living room PC>Kids (whichever needs it most)>Other kids>Other family/friends. I keep my main gaming PC up to date more to keep the trickle going than out of any actual need sometimes. :D
 
I sell or give them away before they get too old. I'm stuck with an 8800GS 320Mb and a 4870 because I didn't get rid of them quick enough.
 
I sell or give them away before they get too old. I'm stuck with an 8800GS 320Mb and a 4870 because I didn't get rid of them quick enough.

Maybe build a nice emulation system, or classic game machine for a spare TV or something?
 
Maybe build a nice emulation system, or classic game machine for a spare TV or something?

I don't know about the Nvidia card, but I know the AMD card isn't supported by Windows 10. The cut off is the Radeon HD 5XXX series.

I have a retro build already for WinXP. It's the first computer I ever personally built with a few minor upgrades. P4 3.06 (w/HT), 2GB of DDR1 400, GeForce4 Ti4200...etc.

I don't know if I really need a Windows Vista retro build for anything :p.
 
Hi All

I give them away with the exception of my GTX 8800 which is My favorite graphics card. This card was Awesome for a very long time. For me at least it has sentimental value
 
telane-gpu-dead-dead-dead.png
 
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If my old parts are still useful, I sell them. If they're not worth much if anything, give them away. Besides that it's the scrap heap. Unless it's worth something, I don't want the extra junk around the house.
 
I don't know about the Nvidia card, but I know the AMD card isn't supported by Windows 10. The cut off is the Radeon HD 5XXX series.

I have a retro build already for WinXP. It's the first computer I ever personally built with a few minor upgrades. P4 3.06 (w/HT), 2GB of DDR1 400, GeForce4 Ti4200...etc.

I don't know if I really need a Windows Vista retro build for anything :p.

Old cards not supported by current versions of Windows can still be excellent cards for a light-weight Linux distro; I still have an ATI 4890 in my old Debian box (Xfce window manager).
 
I used to sell them, but now I hang onto things. I do pass them along to family members, but get them back when they upgrade. My old gaming PC with a Q6600, DFI Lan Party board and 9800GT just came back to me last year. Still runs good.
 
I've kept all of mine. Too many good memories with them. My Powercolor 4850 is still my favorite. It's the first card I really got into GPU overclocking with and I overclcocked the guts out of that thing and it never so much as whimpered. Lots of good memories.
 
unfortunately, I usually throw
Mine out... didn’t really know a used market for really old stuff existed

I threw out the originally monster 3D accelerator with box that I bought to play Turok recently lol
 
Give them away or throw them away. I usually get my money's worth on a video card.
 
What's so desired about the old Voodoo cards? I think I had one of them when HL1 had released. At the time I think I was running IGPU.

There were dozens of games in the mid to late 90s which only had a Glide renderer for 3D acceleration, and more which had extra features in Glide that weren't present on DirectX.

My first 3dfx card was a Diamond Monster3D Voodoo1 paired with a Matrox G200, and it had pretty decent performance compared to other solutions at the time. The Voodoo1 quickly became obsolete unfortunately because of the tiny 4 MB of RAM it had, split evenly between the frame buffer and textures was quickly used up. 512x384 was the highest resolution it could do with a Z buffer, or 640x480 without. There is a way to modify the card to have up to 8 MB, but I have no reason to since I have a range of other 3dfx cards.

They are good for building classic gaming boxes for playing glide games like Interstate '76 and Mechwarrior 2. Games that won't run on modern PCs at all

You can build a classic man box that will play Glide games without needing to spend eye watering amounts of money to ebay scum for a 3dfx card.

There are several Glide wrappers which cumulatively cover the majority of Glide games in both Dos and Windows. Wrappers also allow things not normally possible on a 3dfx card, like 32 bit rendering, better frame rates and higher resolution modes. The dithered 16 bit color mode that 3dfx used until the Voodoo4/5 was always an annoyance because of color banding and color corruption. This wasn't often a problem in Glide games, but it was a real eyesore on OpenGL and DirectX games.
 
When I upgraded to a 1080ti a couple of years back, I donated my MSI 980ti to the American War Veterans.
 
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