What video card has served you the longest before upgrading?

I ran my 5850 for about 3 1/2 years before upgrading to a GTX 770. Even then it was more out of desire than necessity. That was a great card.
 
Between my 9700pro and 8800GTS 640 that I had. I'm spoiled now because I have a good job and I'm single...
 
A GTX 470 bought when they came out in 2010. My plan was to keep buying x70 range cards every 4 years thinking 2 architectures would make for a great upgrade. This fact still holds true (I'm waiting for Maxwell cards in a few months) BUT there's one big problem with my strategy I hadn't considered in 2010: features.

Performance wise, this 470 is still kicking. I play Hitman Absolution, AC4 Black Flag, Thief, Crysis 3, any new game I throw at my computer with everything set on the highest settings (shadows sometimes "only" set to high, otherwise it's too much). The only concession is that the 470 can't drive all of this at 1080p, I have to take it down to 900p and fps will fluctuate between 30-60 depending on the game, but it still looks awesome with FXAA. 1080p would obviously be better but still being able to play so well at 900p 4 years later... well, good investment.

The problem with features is a serious one. What I couldn't have foreseen in 2010 is that I would now have a 3 27" monitor setup. 400 series can't do surround with one card, and that's killing me. I'm tempted to get a 700 series now but it makes no sense with 800 series right around the corner. So I'm sticking it out until the summer with the 470 and can't wait for a 800 series. Most likely I'll adapt my strategy and buy a x60 range card and upgrade every two years. That way performance should remain OK and I'll never again be left behind in the features department. Also, since I'm so used to play at 900p by now, if a x60 can't handle a game at 3x1080p, I won't really have any problems sliding resolution down a bit.

It's all down to compromises!
 
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Longest, 8800gts 640mb SLI from December 2006 to March 2011. Then I had a gtx570 for 3 weeks that got replaced by two 680's non SLI untill a few months ago and I hooked them up in SLI. The 570 is back in service again also. Running an X Plane 9/10 setup with an [email protected] and the 680's in SLI pushing three 30 inch zr30w's (two I bought from a fellow [H] member.) I just finished a second 3570k built with the gtx570 that's running two 24 inch touchscreens for the instrument panels and a regular 23 inch as instructor station. I really need tri SLI for the three 30's but I'm waiting for the fall and get three of the latest and greatest cards in a new 6 or 8 core Intel rig.
 
Bigc208 said:
Longest, 8800gts 640mb SLI from December 2006 to March 2011. Then I had a gtx570 for 3 weeks that got replaced by two 680's non SLI untill a few months ago and I hooked them up in SLI. The 570 is back in service again also. Running an X Plane 9/10 setup with an [email protected] and the 680's in SLI pushing three 30 inch zr30w's (two I bought from a fellow [H] member.) I just finished a second 3570k built with the gtx570 that's running two 24 inch touchscreens for the instrument panels and a regular 23 inch as instructor station. I really need tri SLI for the three 30's but I'm waiting for the fall and get three of the latest and greatest cards in a new 6 or 8 core Intel rig.
Click to expand...

Why were your 680's non SLI-d to begin with? Just curious...
 
X1300 pro, used it for about 3 years before upgrading (it still works though)
crossfired 4890's, used them for 3-4 years. Only upgraded because the coolers went wonky. Either the bearings went bust or the little motor died because i could barely get it to move in the end and it only did half the rpm's it should do at 100% fan speed.
 
8800 GTX SLI hands down. Great cards... So many games of supcom...

One broke after 3 years and EVGA upgraded me to gtx 260 sli for a bonus round on the same dollar haha
 
Nvidia GTS 250 1gb... still running it since right around the time it was released a few years ago. Don't plan to upgrade for a while.
 
I used an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro for three years. I was a consistent upgrader before that and resumed being a 9 month to 1.5 year upgrader after that. There just wasn't a lot better than that 9700 during the timeframe that I had it. Even after three years I sold it to a friend for decent money. Easily the best $300 video card I ever bought.
 
The MSI GTX 270 Lightning - It served me for the longest that I can remember, though I can't place a time frame on it. I still have it, and I plan to put it on my wall in my office. I will be making a wall of my old computer parts :) . It had one of the first Twin Frozr coolers that MSI has improved on so well, and I have loved using each generation's cards and having that awesome cooler on them. I go so many GPUs, motherboards and other parts a year that I have no clue what I have had the longest. I think in my mind I just like to rank them on what has been my favorites.
 
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