Your Video Card Upgrade Ladder

Mine starts in 98 when i got my first Advent pc which had a nice slow gfx card in it. Did the job though. Heres my list

Ati Rage Pro 8mb
Nvidia TNT2 Ultra 32mb
Nividia Geforce 2 GTS 64mb
Ati 9800pro 128mb
Ati X1300 256mb (temp PCIE card while i waited a couple of months for...)
Ati X1900XTX 512mb
 
crap integrated > 9600SE > 9800 > 6600GT > 6800GT > 6600GT (yeah a downgrad long story) > (as of 10/31/06) X1900XT 256MB
 
Generic 8Mb graphics card -> GeForce4 Ti4200 -> Radeon 9800Pro -> 7900GS

I still have all of them :D

I also have an old video card. PCI card with dual monitor output.... weird as hell...
 
Main box: Intel 810 integrated> Voodoo 4 4500 (pci)> Geforce 2 gts-v> Geforce 3 Ti 500> Geforce 6600 GT (agp)> Geforce 7800 GS (agp)

Back-up box: S3 Virge GX (pci)>Matrox G200 (pci)> Voodoo 3 2000 (pci)> Geforce 2 MX (pci)> Radeon 7500> Geforce 3 Ti 200> Radeon 9550> Radeon 9800pro> Geforce 6600 GT (agp)
 
random onboard>geforce 2 mx something with 64mb of ram>geforce 4 ti4600> geforce 6800gt>If I win the lottery in the near future a 2x7950GX2 SLI setup ;)
 
Onboard
9600
9000
9800SE
9000 (yeah I fried the 9600 and 9800)
6800GT
onboard (went PCIe mobo instead of AGP :( )
X800XL
7800GT
X1800XL
7950GX2
Intel GMA950 on Macbook


all I got for now, I got out of gaming :)
 
  1. no 3d acceleration
  2. Matrox Mystique
  3. Voodoo/ Riva 128
  4. Voodoo 2
  5. Voodoo 2 sli
  6. Voodoo 3
  7. Voodoo 5
  8. Radeon 8500
  9. GeForce 6800nu
  10. GeForce 6800GT
  11. GeForce 7900GT
  12. x1900xtx
 
I think we have some more former S3 Virge owners who aren't coming clean...we're all friends here...
 
MetalX said:
I think we have some more former S3 Virge owners who aren't coming clean...we're all friends here...
Click to expand...

Well never had an S3 Virge in any of my computers, but I've seen many Compaq with them. IBut I have had an S3 Savage 4.
 
SIS 630 (I think) onboard-> Voodoo 2 2000-> TNT 2-> GF2 MX400-> GF2 Pro-> GF2 Ti-> GF4 Ti 4400-> GF4 Ti 4600-> GF 4 Ti 4800-> ATI 9600 Pro-> GF FX 5900 Ultra-> GF 6 6800nu. I plan to get a 7600GT eventually.
 
1. 2D (Mac - no acceleration 1995-1999)
2. ATI Rage Pro Turbo 2X AGP 4MB (PC - onboard 2000-2001)
3. ATI Rage 128 Mobility 2X AGP 8MB (Mac - onboard 2001-2003)
4. Nvidia GeForce 440MX 4X AGP 64MB (Mac - onboard 2003-2004)
5. Sapphire Radeon 9800pro 8X AGP 128MB (PC - 2004-2004)
6. EVGA GeForce 6800GT 256mb 8X AGP (PC - 2004-2004)
7. ATI Radeon 9600 Mobility 4X AGP 64MB (Mac - onboard 2004-2006)
8. XFX 6800GT 256mb PCIe (PC - 2005-2005)
9. EVGA 7800GT 256mb PCIe (PC - late 2005 - current)
10. Intel Mobile GMA 950 (Mac - onboard 2006 - current)

:D
 
1999 to present

Sis 530 8meg Onboard ---- Voodoo 2 1000
Voodoo 2 1000 ---- Voodoo 3 3000 (for 6 weeks)
Voodoo 3 3000 ---- Geforce 256 SE
Geforce 256 SE ---- Geforce 3
Geforce 3 ---- FX 5900
FX 5900 ---- 6800 GT
6800 GT ---- 7900 GS (just ordered the 7900 GS 9-30-2006 :D )

Background:

1999 I bought my first windows based computer, didn't know a lot about them back then so I bought what I thought was decent, AMD K62 350 MHz from a local OEM. It was a few months later that I realized I needed some more power for gaming and picked up a voodoo 2 1000, but didn't have the $ for upgrading to a computer with an AGP slot so I just put that off till 2000.

Early in 2000 I finally had enough $ for puter upgrades and wanted to match or exceed the quality I had seen on my GFU's gateway with a TNT 2 32 meg card, so I ordered up a new motherboard, a Tyan Trinity, thinking that I would keep my current cpu, amd K62 350, and get an AGP card, that being a Voodoo 3 3000. It didn't work out too well, that Voodoo 3 kept crashing like mad due to heat and the quality vs the Voodoo 2 1000 wasn't any better, mostly because of the CPU not having the MMX instruction set. within a couple of weeks I decided to get an AMD Athlon 650 and MSI K7 Pro motherboard, and that helped a ton, and it looked perfect after that, but the voodoo 3 kept overheating and crashing, so a month later I picked up a Geforce 256 and was just elated with it.

Had that Geforce 256 till late 2001, about 6-7 months after the origional Geforce 3 cards shipped and I was able to pick up a Gainward Geforce 3 for just $259 and boy oh boy did that ever make a differance.

Nov 2003 and the old Geforce 3 was pretty long in the tooth so it was time to upgrade again, earlier in the year, Nvidia got saddled with the Geforce 5800 debacle, and within 3 months came out with the 5900 series, which was much improved, mostly due to the 128 bit vs 256 bit memory interface. I picked up an origoinal 5900 for just $200.

June 2004 and I came into a bunch of $ and with the pending release of the 6800 series I decided to let go of my 5900 and upgrade to a 6800 GT, the 5900 was only 8 months old but I figured what the hell :D. Ordered me a 6800 GT from Fry's the first day they came out, $444 s/h +tax and the shipping for overnight was just $12 so I hit the submit button and probably had one of the first 10 6800 GT's available on the planet, just so happend it was a BFG Tech 6800 GT OC too. Looking back on it, i'm quite glad I blew that much $ on it and bought it right off the bat, due to supply problems, the prices shot up through the roof on 6800 Ultra and the 6800 GT wasn't too far behind, but more available.

Oct 2006, and the 6800 GT is still a good card, had it for nearly two and a half years now and it's still going strong. However, once again I came into not only enough $ to upgrade my vid card but my entire system is getting a makeover. I decided not to put a ton of money into video card, rather just get a good mid to high end card for $200 +/- and upgrade the card again sometime next year most likely. So, ordered up an EVGA 7900 GS KO which is roughly 30% faster than my current card and should do well in most games available today.

Thinking ahead. To me it isn't really worth it to put a lot into a video card right now, due to Vista and DX 10 coming out so will wait till fully compliant DX 10 cards become available to upgrade again.
:D
 
Nvidia GF2 MX400 32mb > ATI 9500 NP modded to 9800 > ATI X800XL > Evga 6800 GT > XFX 6800 Ultra > ATI X1800XL > ATI X1900XTX :)
 
2mb in my 120mhz pacard bell > Voodoo2 > Voodoo2 SLI > GeForce4 MX440 > Radeon 9600 Pro > Radeon 9800 Pro > Intel Integrated 2 :mad: > (WITHIN 2 WEEKS HOPEFULLY) 7600 GT
 
1. S3 Virge 2mb, 4mb
2. Matrox (Cant remember model)
3. Geforce 2 GTS
4. Radeon 7000
5. Geforce 4 TI
5. Radeon 9500pro
6. Radeon 9700pro
7. Radeon 9800pro
9. Geforce 7300GT DDR3 SLI
10. Geforce 7600GS DDR3 SLI
11. Geforce 7900GS DDR3 SLI
 
1. 2MB VESA SVGA on 486DX266
2. ATI Mach 64 on P166MMX (Sep 1997)
2. Diamond Monster 4MB Voodoo 1 on P166MMX (August 1998)
3. Original Radeon 64MB DDR on PIII 866 (renamed Radeon 7200 - November 2000)
4. Radeon 8500 on PIV 1.8 (November 2001)
5. Radeon 9600XT on PIV 1.8 (September 2004)
6. Radeon 9800 Pro on PIV 1.8 (November 2004)
7. Radeon X800XL on A64 3500+(August 2005)
8. Radeon X1900XTX on A64X2 4400+ (February 2006)

I've tried to remain loyal to ATI. Picking up an X1950 Xfire edition to pair with the X1900XTX this week.
 
SIS svga with 1mb of memory (had a socket to add another but i never did get around to it)

Graphics blaster - 4mb (getting better)

Voodoo3 3000 (@ 180~mhz#)

9700 - overclocked, runs halflife 2 ok.

xbox360 - yes its not a graphics card but it is much cheaper than a new system!

and in the future, some some R600 flavour, damm they look sweet.
 
Mine's as follows:

Generic Video Card
Matrox Mystique 220
Matrox m3d add-on card
Canopus Voodoo 1 card
Canopus Voodoo 2 SLI
Geforce 3 TI200
Geforce 4 4200
ATI x1900xt 512

Went dormant after the 4200, stopped playing games for a while and didnt think of upgrading until recently.
 
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5426
Intel i740
Diamond Monster 3D add-on
TNT
Geforce 2 MX
Geforce 3
Geforce 4 ti4400
Geforce FX 5900 XT
Geforce 6800 GT
Geforce 7800 GTX
and another Geforce 7800 GTX for sli
 
roflcopter said:
Cirrus Logic CL-GD5426
Intel i740
Diamond Monster 3D add-on
TNT
Geforce 2 MX
Geforce 3
Geforce 4 ti4400
Geforce FX 5900 XT
Geforce 6800 GT
Geforce 7800 GTX
and another Geforce 7800 GTX for sli
Click to expand...

Blah, the MX line sucks. I could have stuck a turd in my AGP slot that played my games better. Then the "upgrade" to a FX 5200 didn't do crap either! :D
 
SPARTAN VI said:
Blah, the MX line sucks. I could have stuck a turd in my AGP slot that played my games better. Then the "upgrade" to a FX 5200 didn't do crap either! :D
Click to expand...
So true. 5900 XT was a load of crap too. Wish I'd bought a Radeon 9800 back then.
 
4 Meg Trident AGP
8 Meg ATI Rage Pro
Riva 128 8 meg
Riva 128 + 12 meg Voodoo 2
Riva 128 + 2 Voodoo 2's in SLI
16 meg Voodoo 3 3000
32 meg TNT2 Ultra
32 meg GeForce 1 DDR
32 meg GeForce 2 GTS
64 meg GeForce 2 Pro
128 meg GeForce Ti 4200
256 meg Radeon 9800
256 meg GeForce 6800 GT
256 meg GeForce 7800GT
 
Not sure what junk my dad had in our PC before I started getting involved, but this is the path (for the family rig and later my own rig) as far as I can remember it:

Voodoo 3 2000
Voodoo 5 5500
NVIDIA Ti 4200 (bought for my rig bc NWN wouldn't work with my V5)
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro (bought after the memory on 4200 died for some unknown reason)
EVGA 6800 GT (AGP)
EVGA 7800 GTX
EVGA 7800 GTX KO ACS3 (Step-Up)
EVGA 7800 GTX 512 (Couldn't resist so I sold the KO)
EVGA 7800 GT CO (Step-Up ran on the 512, sold it for $800 to get a new 3-month window)
EVGA 7900 GTO (Selling GT CO; should ship today and clock to GTX speeds :D)

It's scary that (once the GTO gets here) I've gone through 5 cards in a little more than a year (got the GTX back in 6/05). Of course, it's soon to be 6 if the 8800 GT comes out by Dec. since I'll be able to step-up (assuming it can best a 7900 GTX) :D
 
vIRGE trio
Intergraph Voodoo Rush
some kind of riva 128zx
2x Voodoo2 in SLI
geforce 2mx 400
geforce 3 ti500
geforce 4 ti4200
geforce 6800
2x geforce 7800gt
1x geforce 7900gs until the 8800gt/gtx come out
 
Voodoo 2
Voodoo 3
Diamond Viper Stealth 16MB
Geforce
Geforce 2 GTS
Geforce 4 Ti 4400
Raidon 9700PRO
Geforce 6800 Ultra
Geforce 7800GT
Geforce 7900GT CO SC
 
Diamond Stealth 2MB
Diamond Stealth with 3DFX Voodoo add on
Diamond Viper V550 Riva TNT 16Mb
Geforce 4 4400TI (died)
Geforce 4 4600TI
ATI 9800PRO AIW
XFX 7800GT
 
Matrox Millenium 4mb w/ Voodoo1->Voodoo2->Voodoo5 5500->Radeon 256(now known as Radeon 7200)->Geforce3->Radeon 9500 Pro->Radeon 9800 Pro->Geforce 6800GT->Geforce 7900GT......->Radeon X2950XT (or what ever at calls it's new card)
 
onboard whatever>number9>matrox millenium>voodoo2>voodoo3>geforce>geforce2>geforce3ti200>ti4200>9700pro.>9800pro>x800pro.
 
onboard whatever>number9>matrox millenium>tnt>voodoo2>voodoo3>geforce>geforce2>geforce3ti200>ti4200>9700pro.>9800pro>x800pro.
 
FX5200
6600GT
6600GT
6600GT (yes, I killed two in a row)
X700
X850XT
X300
7600GT
X600
6600 512MB
 
natewildes said:
FX5200
6600GT
6600GT
6600GT (yes, I killed two in a row)
X700
X850XT
X300
7600GT
X600
6600 512MB
Click to expand...

I don't get it, ladders usually go up? ;)
 
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