Question Show and tell: Your all time favorite gpu?

[mopardude87]

I thought this may be fun to do, usually people post about what they have used but never which one has been their favorite. Maybe share the reason you got the gpu, did it max out a particular game or did it go beyond all your wildest expectations? Share a picture perhaps of your favorite? I think most of the older cards are just amazing, they have their own unique style which we may never see again.

For me it was this pretty much except i had a Evga model, i pulled this one out of a build i found last year which had like 20 odd hours on the disk . Back in the day this thing did 100 fps easy at 1920x1200 in BF2 and destroyed UT3/Bioshock. Took a 7700k/1080 ti/1080p setup to finally find a spiritual successor in a setup that just destroyed everything as equally good for its time period if not better then the Q6600/GTX285/1200p setup.

https://imgur.com/a/i48TdVN

 

[mopardude87]

Sorry for the late reply!

It held up very well, I had it in my system for about 3 years before replacing it with a Sapphire HD 5770 1GB "Vapor-X", which was a big step up in performance and cost me less than the 9800GT. And I even sold the 9800GT for a fair amount, making the upgrade path a breeze!

View attachment 21723

You made out like a bandit then, nice!

 

[Majcric]

The GTX 980ti because of its legendary overclocking capabilities. When it comes to nostalgia the 8800gtx get's an honorable mention along with the ATI 9700 pro.

 

[Majcric]

DP

 

[Paratus]

Tough call, I have had a lot of vid cards over the decades. But I am going with the PowerColor Red Devil Vega 56 that powers my 1080p HTPC/recliner gamer at the moment. Powercolor Pr0n page for the card This thing is an absolute unit. Most overbuilt card I think I have ever owned. 3 bios, so you can mess around with modded ones, basically consequence free. HBM2 memory which is just neat IMO. Looks cool and the red and black matches the theme of the entire build it is in; All AMD build w/all red LED effects, even the ram. And it is a quintessential example of AMD fine wine technology -

While my poor GTX 1070 gets the usual unwanted stepchild treatment older gen cards get from Nvidia.

I’ve got the same card.

It’s a beast.

The most impactful card I ever bought was probably the first I bought specifically and it was more the whole package rather than just the card.
The ASUS 9600XT VIVO

This baby came with

• 4 pipes @ 500mhz and 128MB of 600mhz DDR on 128bit bus
• Video In Video Out and DVR software
• Overclocking Tools
• Valves entire back catalog of games from 1997-2004
• Voucher for Half Life 2
• Battle Engine Aquila
• Gun Metal
• 6 in 1 Game Pack
• ASUS DVDXP
• Power Director Pro
• Media Show
• Cool 3D
• Photo Express
• ASUS Utilities & Driver
  
  Overclocking, so many games I don’t think I ever played them all, video recording and a bunch of utilities for a new machine. Amazing package.
  
  My father in law is still using this card 16 years later

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I’ve got the same card.

It’s a beast.

The most impactful card I ever bought was probably the first I bought specifically and it was more the whole package rather than just the card.
The ASUS 9600XT VIVO

This baby came with

• 4 pipes @ 500mhz and 128MB of 600mhz DDR on 128bit bus
• Video In Video Out and DVR software
• Overclocking Tools
• Valves entire back catalog of games from 1997-2004
• Voucher for Half Life 2
• Battle Engine Aquila
• Gun Metal
• 6 in 1 Game Pack
• ASUS DVDXP
• Power Director Pro
• Media Show
• Cool 3D
• Photo Express
• ASUS Utilities & Driver
  
  Overclocking, so many games I don’t think I ever played them all, video recording and a bunch of utilities for a new machine. Amazing package.
  
  My father in law is still using this card 16 years later

That old thing can handle the internet? I am not talking HD vid, just a typical website or social media.

 

[Paratus]

That old thing can handle the internet? I am not talking HD vid, just a typical website or social media.

Nope. He’s still on XP with a bunch of old expensive software from his days as a university professor. He also uses it to rip our old VCR tapes to DVD.

There rest of the machine I gave him was a Pentium 4E 3.2ghz with 2GB of RAM low latency DDR 400.

 

[aigomorla]

Here are some oldies i found while backuping up my pictures to a new backup location.

8800GT! hands down the BEST BANG for your buck card in its time. (GO GREEN!! 790i shown i had was a beast as well)


Anyone remember dual GPU dies? ATI HD4870X2 in Quadfire Glory... errr... my stupid moment on MOAR is better!!!


And it didnt end there tho... *sigh*
Nvidia 7950 GX2 Yeah BABY!!!


Lessons learned.... never buy dual gpu single cards... as it means 1 more die which can go BAD, along with 1 more furnace you need to keep in check.

 

[Thunder 57]

Here are some oldies i found while backuping up my pictures to a new backup location.

8800GTX! hands down the BEST BANG for your buck card in its time. (GO GREEN!! 790i shown i had was a beast as well)
View attachment 22144

Anyone remember dual GPU dies? ATI HD4870X2 in Quadfire Glory... errr... my stupid moment on MOAR is better!!!
View attachment 22145

And it didnt end there tho... *sigh*
Nvidia 7950 GX2 Yeah BABY!!!
View attachment 22146

Lessons learned.... never buy dual gpu single cards... as it means 1 more die which can go BAD, along with 1 more furnace you need to keep in check.

I suggest you read the following:

8800GT . GTX was revolutionary, but G92 a 9700 Pro moment.

 

[aigomorla]

I suggest you read the following:

8800GT . GTX was revolutionary, but G92 a 9700 Pro moment.

ACK im sorry they were 8800GT's not GTX...
The GTX was a double slot card, i had a moment of DERP, because all my cards afterwards had the X designation that were from Nvidia.

This card to be exact.

XFX 8800 GT XXX Alpha Dog Edition Specs

NVIDIA G92, 670 MHz, 112 Cores, 56 TMUs, 16 ROPs, 512 MB GDDR3, 975 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Paratus]

I offer up for world record longevity my MSI Lightning 7970 GHZ edition.

Got it Christmas of 2012 and if benchmarks are to be believed the 7970ghz can play Doom Eternal @ 1080P low settings and 60FPS. Twice as fast as the 680 and even the 780TI. Against newer cards it’s faster than the 1050ti.

Still relevant 8 years later. Beastly.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Here are some oldies i found while backuping up my pictures to a new backup location.

8800GT! hands down the BEST BANG for your buck card in its time. (GO GREEN!! 790i shown i had was a beast as well)
View attachment 22144

Anyone remember dual GPU dies? ATI HD4870X2 in Quadfire Glory... errr... my stupid moment on MOAR is better!!!
View attachment 22145

And it didnt end there tho... *sigh*
Nvidia 7950 GX2 Yeah BABY!!!
View attachment 22146

Lessons learned.... never buy dual gpu single cards... as it means 1 more die which can go BAD, along with 1 more furnace you need to keep in check.

Though the IDE ribbon cable gives me a little PTSD. Configuring jumpers, primary and secondary, boo I say, boo.

 

[Oneto]

my first voodoo card. Games were never the same.

 

[Saylick]

/snip

Wow, I remember the days when exposed copper heat sinks were all in the rage. I fondly remember wanting a Zalman 9700 because I thought it was the coolest looking cooler (no pun intended) on the market.

 

[myocardia]

STB Nitro 3D, my 1st 3D card and it came with Internet 76, which was one of my favorite all time games.

Weird, I've never heard of that game. Is it anything like Interstate '76?

 

[Red Hawk]

I would have to say the one I just upgraded from, a Gigabyte Windforce Radeon 290X. I picked it up in 2015, when they were clearing stock before the 390 refresh. Got it for under $300, which is pretty great considering the 290X launched in late 2013 for $550. After that, I would have the itch to upgrade, but anything I wanted just felt like a side-grade. The architecture was forward looking enough that it even saw performance gains as games started to use Direct X 12. The Radeon Fury was limited to 4GB, and the 480/580 wasn't really faster. Vega seemed nice, but V64 never came down in price as much as I would like, and I didn't care to go with V56. (I know it was the better deal...but I have this quirk where I can't stand to own "harvested" computer chips. All the CPUs and GPUs I've owned have been fully enabled - Radeon HD 5770, HD 7870, 290X, 5700 XT, and the Ryzen 3800X.)

In a sense, the 290X was AMD's last true "halo" card, that went head to head with Nvidia's competition with no asterisk. It didn't quite beat the 780 Ti, but it was up there (and aged better). The Fury suffered from the RAM limitation, Polaris didn't even try to go for the performance crown, and Vega at best matched the 1080 but could never reach the 1080 Ti. Navi is back to competing at the mid range for the time being.

So anyways, I stuck the 290X until finally upgrading to a Sapphire Pulse 5700 XT a month ago. Great card...but I don't expect to hold on to it as long as I used the 290X. I'll be looking to upgrade to an RDNA 2 card for raytracing as soon as it launches, and will then sell the 5700 XT. But I'll be holding on to the 290X, keeping my old 3770K/290X build alive to do whatever with.

 

[TheVrolok]

First card I really loved was probably my 8800GT, but similar to the OP I had a freshly built Q6600/GTX285OC system (Crysis, BioShock, Alan Wake) circa 07 that was probably my favorite build to date. That said, I started #adulting and haven't upgraded my system since the one in my sig (built in 2013).

 

[rancherlee]

Sapphire 7950 OC, I JUST retired it after 7+ years of use. Clocked to 1200mhz from day one which was a huge boost over the default 925mhz. I replaced it with a RX5700 in my Daughters rig 2 weeks ago as she got into VR with a Quest and needed a VR card.

 

[potato masher]

I loved my 660ti. The 6 series and sandy/ivy were really great for that time. They still rep well in 2020.

I run some stuff older than the 660ti/sandy, as well as some newer stuff, but that 2011-2012 run of hardware stands out imo as ahead of its time.

 

[mopardude87]

I loved my 660ti. The 6 series and sandy/ivy were really great for that time. They still stand up well in 2020.

I still run older stuff as well as newer stuff, but that 2011-2012 run of hardware was really ahead of its time.

My htpc is pretty much the original 2500k+h61 i got back in 2011,paired up with a friends 660. When i upgrade my gpu and cpu at the end of the year, that cpu+mobo+ ram will be donated or sold dirt cheap to someone in need. Kinda tired of looking at it. Damn thing has been running non stop for 9 years. My friend did end up using it till this year, then when i upgraded my 7700k to this she got the 7700k. She sat on that cpu without a complaint for 8 years.

Sandy has had a hell of a run. With a ssd, the damn thing is still more then enough for a basic browser. That is insanely impressive for something 9 years old.

 

[potato masher]

The 7 series models and even some 9/10 series are not significantly better than the 660ti/670/680 gpu's imo. I don't know what was in the water in 2012 but the stuff being built was stand out.

Same goes for the 2600/3770/e3-1230/e3-1270... I guess the pessimistic view is that innovation suffered 2013-2018, but given the affordable enjoyment I have gotten over those years.. Its hard for me to look at it that pessimistically. If better innovation came along, I would have to feel bad about not being able to afford upgrades! The way things worked out I didn't have to.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The 7 series models and even some 9/10 series are not significantly better than the 660ti/670/680 gpu's imo. I don't know what was in the water in 2012 but the stuff being built was stand out.

There was one huge difference; Performance per watt. Take the 650ti 110w v 750ti 60w, yet about the same performance. I still keep/use the 750ti 2GB DDR5 powered off the slot, for clients that need a slap it in upgrade so their kids or spouse can game. It is faster than a 1030 in most games, and you can find them used for under $50, when the market isn't crazy i.e. the way it is now.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Maxwell was incredible architecture for the time, I think it was built on the same 28nm process, more or less. The GM204 was kind of unique, it actually consumed less watts than their previous product and was nearly twice as power efficient. A feat, still not beaten (the way things are going, Ampere won't be much more economical than their current line-up). Also, it was the last Nvidia graphics card to natively support VGA output. Asus Strix was definitely my favorite model.



EDIT:
Geforce 970 was also legendary for the price and longevity. So much that we even had videos like that.

 

[potato masher]

Punisher I hear you on performance per watt. My counter point... you could run a 660ti on an inexpensive 450 psu no problem (actually ran mine on an OEM thinkstation 400 watt no issues). IMO once you clear that hurdle anything more becomes less important. Beyond that what are we talking about.. saving a few cents a day?

I personally also ran a 670, 750, 760, and a 1050. Which I ended up gifting all of those to family/friends. I personally did not notice a benefit for my use case coming from the 660ti to any of those, which is why I passed them on.

gtx660ti 1344 cudas
gtx670 1344
gtx760 1152
gtx760ti 1344
750ti and 1050ti less than 800 cudas.
gtx960 1024
gtx1060 1152

I know cores are not EVERYTHING, but its high core count is for sure a factor in it helping it keep up with these other gpus.

 

[conlan]

I thought this may be fun to do, usually people post about what they have used but never which one has been their favorite. Maybe share the reason you got the gpu, did it max out a particular game or did it go beyond all your wildest expectations? Share a picture perhaps of your favorite? I think most of the older cards are just amazing, they have their own unique style which we may never see again.

For me it was this pretty much except i had a Evga model, i pulled this one out of a build i found last year which had like 20 odd hours on the disk . Back in the day this thing did 100 fps easy at 1920x1200 in BF2 and destroyed UT3/Bioshock. Took a 7700k/1080 ti/1080p setup to finally find a spiritual successor in a setup that just destroyed everything as equally good for its time period if not better then the Q6600/GTX285/1200p setup.

https://imgur.com/a/i48TdVN

The original Voodoo and the Voodoo 2 SLI, that's when PC gaming really began. I still have mine in a box somewhere