What is the most expensive Video Card you ever bought?

Zepher

[H]ipster Replacement
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For me the most expensive video card was the Newtek Video Toaster 4000.
I paid $2,500 for the card in 1993 and had to upgrade my Amiga 3000 with more ram and a second hard drive
since the software was about 100MB and my main drive was only a 120MB.
So I bought a 345MB Maxtor for $345 and 8MB of Ram for $300 for a grand total of $3,145 in 1993.

I didn't even own a car at the time, but I had a $7,000 computer, lol.

When I bought the GTX980 for $560 14 months ago, I was thinking. damn, that is kind of expensive.
I guess now that I am older I look at money differently, especially since I don't have any anymore, lol
 
$500ish I think. The very first desktop I built I put a gtx 480 in which i later added a 2nd. They ran at a cool 105c! I bought a 7970 on its release for around the same price. Since those I have been buying mid grade cards.
 
The 980 Ti I just bought a week ago for $640. Before that I never spent more than $350 on a GPU.
 
I feel like it was probably the geforce gtx 295.
 
On a single card: My Superclocked Titan X was $1,049.99.

Most expensive single upgrade purchase was a pair of BFG Tech 8800 GTX OC2 that were $599.99 each at the time, for a total of $1,199.98.
 
I used one of those inflation calculators, this is what that upgrade cost in 2015 dollars,
$3,145 of 1993 dollars would be worth: $5,215.59 in 2015

And this is what the computer system would cost,
$7,000 of 1993 dollars would be worth: $11,608.62 in 2015
 
At the time, and in relation to my income, my two $300 Canopus 6MB 3dfx cards were the most expensive....I spent a month's rent on those bastards.
 
I did get my money back on the card in a round about way. in 1996 I traded the Toaster Card for a 486DX50 PC since I didn't need the Toaster anymore, used it for Lightwave 3D and there was a hack to run it without the Toaster Card installed.
Used the PC for a bit then traded it for an Amiga 2500, then sold the Amiga 2500 for $2400 to a friends brother that wanted to learn 3D with Lightwave.
 
In terms of absolute price, the 980 Ti. Was about 520 or something, before taxes; I returned two other more expensive ones before it. Or was it three.. whatever. If you count SLI, the 780 GTX's were 800-900 total at the time I bought them.

In terms of my income, probably a 5850HD. It was back in college and the only way I could even afford to build a computer was because I won the Chegg drawing for some Apple pro video editing software. I sold it on Ebay for 600something dollars and then immediately used all of the money to build a computer. Still went over budget a bit, and the food budget was kinda emptyish but it worked out.
 
ATI X800 XT PE $550 at best buy

Nice, I recently purchased one of those off of Ebay for my retro rig for about $30.

The most expensive card I ever bought was a used HD7970 for $280. Then when prices tanked, I bought another for $115.

Once I got the 390 that ASUS sent me for my month's long RMA hassle, I sold one of the 7970s to a family member for $100 and put the other in my wife's computer.
 
Probably my EVGA 770 SC 4GB but I only got into pc gaming two years ago. It was $399. I didn't know anything, didn't even bother to read about the 900 series coming out or find a better price. Just bought it off Amazon on a whim.
 
I paid about $600 for an AGP Radeon X850 XT, which at the time was and probably still is the most powerful AGP graphics card ever made. Bought that for my old Athlon XP 2500+, extended the life of that thing for ages. I gave it away years ago to someone who couldn't afford a video card, kinda wish I'd kept it because it would look pretty good mounted on a wall. The Geforce 8800 GTS I bought after that wasn't much cheaper.

I may very well beat that with the price of my next video card, I'm waiting for the next gen cards to arrive and then I'll probably pick up a 970 or 980 level card. Not quite top-end but close enough.

*Update* I should probably mention that's Canadian dollars.
 
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$350 or so for an EVGA GTX 670 Signature 2 (summer 2013, not that long ago)... In comparison, recently got a ( barely used) GTX 980 evga reference for $330 off CL.
 
Until my 980Ti a couple months ago my 330 970 was most expensive. My 980Ti was 640
 
I bought a 980GTX on launch day. Even with inflation taken into account, that's far and away the priciest one I've purchased and I tend to buy early.
 
I bought a single 8800 Utlra for $799. Eek. Also got 2x 7800 GTXs for $1k.
 
I'm going to take a slightly different spin on the question and say the most expensive card I ever purchased relative to my income.

A Geforce 1 DDR for $400 Canadian back when I was in Grade 10. That was basically half of my life savings back then.

In absolute terms, probably an 8800GTX on launch ($550ish). While I was still poor at the time (grad student), in relative terms, it didn't break the bank.

While being able to afford newer hardware is great, there was something particularly exciting about buying computer equipment as a student - you never know when your going to have the money to upgrade again.
 
I paid about $600 for an AGP Radeon X850 XT, which at the time was and probably still is the most powerful AGP graphics card ever made. Bought that for my old Athlon XP 2500+, extended the life of that thing for ages. I gave it away years ago to someone who couldn't afford a video card, kinda wish I'd kept it because it would look pretty good mounted on a wall. The Geforce 8800 GT I bought after that wasn't much cheaper.

I may very well beat that with the price of my next video card, I'm waiting for the next gen cards to arrive and then I'll probably pick up a 970 or 980 level card. Not quite top-end but close enough.
I don't know about that. GeCube made an AGP version of the ATi Radeon X1950 XT, and quite a few manufacturers made an AGP X1950 PRO.

Amazon.com: GeCube Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 AGP 8x Dual DVI Video Card: Computers & Accessories
Review: GeCube vs Sapphire - Radeon X1950 Pro AGP: the must-have upgrade? - Graphics - HEXUS.net

The 8800 GT was around $250 USD when it was new.
 
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8800GTS 320MB for around $330. I got my money's worth though, I am still using it right now and it's over 8 years old with just over 65K hours.
Shocked the blower fan is still smooth and quiet.
 
I had an X1950 Pro AGP. That was the last AGP card I bought, then went with a Core2Duo and 9800GT PCIe card.
There was one Nvidia AGP card that I believe was the fastest one released, I think it was the 7900GS.

Found it,

Gainward to intro 512 MB 7900 GT, 7900 GT AGP
"A cute thing for AGP supporters. Gainward is shipping the BLISS Geforce 7800 GS+ SILENT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail and it will cost you a saucy £352.44 including VAT. There is no doubt that this is the fastest AGP card to date and it is available now. Its secret is that it uses 7900 GT chip inside clocked at 450MHz+ core and 1250MHz + memory. It has a fully functional 24 pipes and we are looking forward to test this baby. You can buy it here. So the company is back to its old unique overclocking routes"
 
GTX 980Ti for AUS $1099 was the most expensive card I have bought to date.
Second is the GTX 480 back in $900, not sure why I paid $900 for such a somewhat lackluster card.
 
Upgraded to 580s from 570s through the EVGA step up program so I think overall I spent something like $530 a card when all was said and done.
 
I grabbed two 980ti's back in October for about $1100.

There was a time though I hopped from card to card...selling/buying in the process. from 670 sli - 780 classified, then sli - titan, then sli, 780ti classified, then sli, and now the 980ti's. :D

Cant remember what i bought each titan for, but it definitely wasn't full price.
 
7970 1ghz msi twinn frozr III ($423.99). I am planning out my next build so it will be whatever flavor 980 ti i go with.
 
EVGA 8800 GTS 320MB for like $340 or so from a mom and pop PC shop.
 
$170 GTX950 (Although, I might have caught it on sale)

Yea, I'm a bit of a cheap ass but, I don't play anything demanding.
 
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