My GTX 8600. I had it until I got myself a GTX 560 Ti. That one lasted for 2 years, however. Before my 8600 I had a GTX 4200 Ti, but I'm not sure if I should count that since I lived with my mom back then. I was just in my early teens. I did get my 8600 for my own cash, however, I saved it up and got an entirely new PC, too. Looking back I should have invested in a 8800, it would have been worth it, but to be honest, most games I played back then were games like CS:S or Freelancer and some MMORPGs who tend to be bigger on the CPU.
I can't prove this, but my general sense is that you could last longer on GPUs back in the day even if the progress was very fast, probably because the games that were released were typically very polished. Freelancer, for example, was amazingly stable for a 1.0 version.
I can't prove this, but my general sense is that you could last longer on GPUs back in the day even if the progress was very fast, probably because the games that were released were typically very polished. Freelancer, for example, was amazingly stable for a 1.0 version.