What is the most expensive Video Card you ever bought?

MSI 4G 970 for $300...Unless you count the total cost of the two 260 GTX cards when the system parts were originally purchased, then $440.
 
8800gts. It was incredible and crazy how much power that thing had when it came out
 
$415 R9 290 late last year.

It paid for itself and then some w/ the mining though.
 
I paid $650 for my 7950 GX2, $550 for my 8800 GTX, and $680 for my 980 Ti.
I need to get back down to $300 again.
 
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For me it was THIS 6800 Ultra AGP $641.xx which I still have and have no idea if it still works. It was pulled working lol.
 
I don't think I've ever payed more than $300 for a GPU, I must be a pleb. Went 8800 GT > 6870 > 7950 > 290x.
 
$600 for two Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X's. One of the fans on one of the cards is dying. =(
 
For me, it was the AIW 9700 Pro AGP (which I still have) - $499.99 at the old CompUSA in Alexandria, VA (across King Street from the also-now-dead Landmark Mall). Rather amusingly, it still works. It's one of two AGP GPUs I have that require extra power (the other being the RADEON X1650 - also in AGP; which forced the AIW onto the shelf - it also still works). The rather amusing thing about the two GPUs is that I bought the second with - oddly enough - a combination of birthday money and gambling winnings (from Las Vegas no less) for almost a fourth of the price of the AIW it shelved.
 
Probably a dual X4870 card a many years ago, when I stopped using SLI/Crossfire.

I still wish I hadn't spent the money on it, but it ran well awhile, till I screwed it up trying to mod the thing the third time.
 
8800gts. It was incredible and crazy how much power that thing had when it came out

Same. I actually spent the extra $100 to upgrade to the 640mb vram version in 2007 from evga. Nothing like not being able to run Half Life 2 at 1680x1050 to running it at 100 fps. Card didn't last me as long as my GTX 460 (which I spent $170 on) but served me well for more than two years.
 
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.
X1950 pro iirc holds that title.

My 5970 was 714.99 and not at all worth it...
 
I was trembling when I took the $320 out of the Bank of America drive through ATM right in front of CompUSA , on Okeechobee Blvd, in West Palm Beach, Fl. 2001.

Ok, some memories of computing stuff from those days are still nice:

That was a lot of money then. GeForce 2. Before that card, of course I had the Voodoo cards.

Things get better.
 
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eVGA GTX Titan. When the Titan failed I sent it in for warranty repair and was sent a Titan X. :D
 
I never really had enough money to get the top of the line, instead settling for mid range.

I believe the most I spent was almost $500 for an ATI All-In-Wonder X1900. I used to love those cards back in the day. I lived by myself in shit apartments and didn't even own a TV. But I had my PC so I watched TV on it.

That card was also the closest I ever got to high-end. The AIW X1900 was just a notch below the X1900XT, So I overclocked mine to X1900XT default speeds.
 
Started out with one Voodoo.
 
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I used to have a rule about not paying more than $300 for a card, to get the maximum value. Voodoo Banshee, Geforce Ti 4400, AiW Radeon 9800 Pro, x850 XT PE, all around ~$300.

Then I built a system with an 8800GTX, which was at least $500 at the time, and I bought a waterblock to put on it for another $100+. First water cooled system, my hands were shaking a bit taking the heatsink off that $500 card. Later bought a second 8800GTX and 2 waterblocks (1 to replace old one, for a matching pair) for less than 1/3 what I paid for the first one.

A close runner up would be the $560 MSI golden edition I bought earlier today. :D
 
My current GTX 780 Ti at launch, followed by my 7950 GX2 back in the day.
 
Ahh, my 3dfx Voodoo II. It was like $375 when I bought it (in a state with no sales tax because it was worth the savings). Sure, that doesn't SOUND like much, but that was 1998. After inflation adjustment, it comes out to about $550 in today's money, which is a lie because the government under-reports inflation as badly as they under-report unemployment, so the real "value" is more like $2,740. ;) Plus, my income was far lower back then (even adjusted for inflation, reported and real), so the bite that $375 took was pretty damn significant. I don't know why I ever needed another card. :)
 
I never really had enough money to get the top of the line, instead settling for mid range.

I believe the most I spent was almost $500 for an ATI All-In-Wonder X1900. I used to love those cards back in the day. I lived by myself in shit apartments and didn't even own a TV. But I had my PC so I watched TV on it.

That card was also the closest I ever got to high-end. The AIW X1900 was just a notch below the X1900XT, So I overclocked mine to X1900XT default speeds.
I miss the AIW cards, i remember the 9800 Pro AIW being the king of the crop back in the day.
 
This one - Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 4GB Toxic Review but the very slightly downclocked non-toxic version with the same cooler, ran about £800 I think.
It was DOA. I returned it and received another, 'hand tested' by Sapphire. That too was DOA. Retailer agreed with my diagnosis of both cards. I received a refund and went back to my previous cards (HD4870X2s) and held on until the HD6970 was released before replacing them.
That was around the time when my opinion of Sapphire products (already underwhelmed) really took a dive.
 
How about the best deal? I just picked up a sweet running EVGA GTX 770 for $70 off Craigslist. Had to share with someone... my wife certainly doesn't give a sh*t!
 
Stock r9 290 in tge middle of the mining craze.

Spent 500 dollars on the card, knew I was getting fleeced but wanted to upgrade so I over spent. Not this time. I intend to wait it out. If polaris 10 is around 980ti performance with updated connectors for around 350 or less, I'll jump on that to add to my Zen rig, if not Ill wait for Vega.
 
$710 for an Asus GTX970ti Matrix, before that about $700 on a pair of Asus GTX970 Strixx
 
10 years ago, when I had more money than common sense I paid $500 for EVGA 7950GX2, then 4 months later I did a step up for EVGA 8800GTX ($650).
Second worst was XFX 290 two years ago during the bitcoin craze @ $460.
 
Pretty easy for me...the 8800GTS 640MB edition AT LAUNCH. I think it was right around $599. Prior to that I had X1900XTX, Geforce 7900 GT's that were all around $300ish. Since then I've diversified my free time (i.e. out of college and into the real world), so I haven't had much time or money to spend on a new card.
 
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.
Similar to my experience. I bought the Geforce1 with SDR at the time. Also bought a 8800GTX and now a 980Ti. I can't remember what the Geforce 3 Ti 500 cost me at the time. I remember it was kind of an uber GPU at the time in the days of AGP cards.
 
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