what video card was your favorite? (that you own/owned)

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: sodcha0s
My first 3d card.... original Voodoo! I went from playing quake in software mode at some crappy resolution like 200x320 to GLQuake running at 640x480, an amazing difference for sure.

Yeah, my jump to the voodoo 1 was probably the most impressive overall. I didn't think 320x240 software mode looked like ass until I quickly got used to what a 3d accelerator could throw out.

In '96-97 I think my PC was a 200MMX with 2mb IGPand I was still clinging tenaciously to my Amiga 2000. Spending that much on a vid card was ludicrous to me back then. Of course I was working 6 days a week 60+hrs too.

Just googled up this old hall of fame induction of the Monster 3D@GameSpy you might enjoy for nostalgias' sake Text

 

[imported_Finny]

Man... Everyone here seems to really love ye olde Voodoos... Makes me wish I was as much of a tech freak as I am today ('Course, I'd have to have been one hell of a tech guy at 7 years old back then...)

So, for today's sake, I'll say it's my GeForce 6200... You might think it's odd, but comming from some crappy integrated graphics on an SiS board, this was like night & day. I could actually play Doom 3! :Q

 

[JimmyH]

Have to say same as many here, my first 3d card, a Diamond Stealth S220. I remember thinkin' Duke3d at 800x600 looks way better than Quake at 320x240 running at like 10fps. Pop in Redition, fire up w/ QuakeGL. I can't see anything, just darkness and sound of monsters, much like Doom3 LOL. Mess w/ gamma and OMG its amazing!! Slowly weened me off Duke3d on Kali, although duke3d weapons and abiltiy to DL maps thru Kali was awesome.

The Rendition Verite v2100 I had it oc'd pretty good w/ a old celery 300a heatsink held on w/ rubber bands. Had better 3d IQ than my buds Orchid Voodoo1 just slower in QuakeGL and even in Quake2. Half the price of a voodoo1 w/ better 3d IQ and even did 2d, whoa! If they would have released the Rendition Redline v3000, I'd been all over it.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Sable

Originally posted by: Zap
PCI Matrox ???
It was a 3D only card and the only competitor to the Voodoo. I think it used a PowerVR chip but could be wrong. Thing was that it was discontinued and I got one for only $20 - amazing at the time. Also, did not require a dongle like the Voodoo.

Ah yeah, the M3D. I think it was supposed to be better than the Voodoo1 but got beaten in games support and so died a death.

OMG someone remembered the name when I didn't, and I used to own one. That was it! I seriously got it for around $20 brand new. It did work and it was just a standalone PCI card similar to those upcoming geometry cards. It did all the work through the PCI interface.

 

[Geomagick]

My favourite card historically was the 3DFx Voodoo Banshee. Offered great performance without the cost of Voodoo 2 at the time.

 

[CrispyFried]

original Voodoo.

I can still feel the fuzzies remembering what an awesome experience it was in glquake vs regular quake. it was like being blind and suddenly being able to see.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: sodcha0s
My first 3d card.... original Voodoo! I went from playing quake in software mode at some crappy resolution like 200x320 to GLQuake running at 640x480, an amazing difference for sure.

Yeah, my jump to the voodoo 1 was probably the most impressive overall. I didn't think 320x240 software mode looked like ass until I quickly got used to what a 3d accelerator could throw out.

In '96-97 I think my PC was a 200MMX with 2mb IGPand I was still clinging tenaciously to my Amiga 2000. Spending that much on a vid card was ludicrous to me back then. Of course I was working 6 days a week 60+hrs too.

Just googled up this old hall of fame induction of the Monster 3D@GameSpy you might enjoy for nostalgias' sake Text

I paid $70 for a used voodoo awhile after they were out, so don't mistake me for an early adopter. When I finally did get one though, it was impressive.

 

[cKGunslinger]

It's all about the 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee!


I mean, who didn't enjoy the pleasures of miniGLs?

 

[Piano Man]

Without a doubt, the Voodoo 1 and the Voodoo 2. Those cards changed the way people played games. I remember getting the Voodoo 1, and playing Descent with it. I just about cried. It was so smooth and good looking. Then when I went to college in 98 and got a P2 400 with the 12 MB voodoo 2. Quake 2 CTF was so smooth. Their hasn't been a jump in performance like that since they came out.

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: pibrahim
Yreka - wasn't the combined Voodoo card the Banshee?

Actually I was wrong, my memory has failed me again.

It was the Rush not the rage. The Voodoo1 version of the banshee. I think that card held me over till the Nvidia Riva TNT days. I jumped off the 3DFX train pretty early, when they decided FPS was more important than 32 vs 16 bit color.

Ironically enough, I recently left the Nvidia club for near the same reason ( FPS over AA+AF)

 

[Maxspeed996]

I remember that Voodoo 2 .....I think I still have a couple of them laying around...that was like the first kinda SLI/crossfire setup...KINDA...remember how you could hook two of them together for an amazing 24 megs of memory!

 

[Topweasel]

Originally posted by: Yreka
My first "3" card. I had that Voodoo + 2d combined card, what was it called.. The Rage I think ? I remember it wasnt as good as the stand alone voodoo, but it was pretty kickass to me.

the Voodoo Rush (Proclaimed the worst product ever made) Had much worse performance then the Voodoo and the 2d chip they used was probably the worst ever made. I am surprised you can still se after using that card.

My favorite would either be

My Geforce 2 Ultra I think it was the Prophet or Prophet II
or my 7800GTX OC

I picked those two because while I was always near the top these gave me the feelings that I was better then everyone else. I had a 9800XT but it never gave me that feeling, I think it was due to the fact that it didn't feel faster then my other card. When I jumped into my 7800GTX It was like a whole new world to me.

 

[drum]

the 9500 pro, that i still use

 

[lifeblood]

Voodoo 3 3000. Unreal with GLIDE was awesome.

 

[xtknight]

I don't know...I like my eVGA 7800GT. Voodoo 3 2000 brings back some memories though. I remember seeing on the box at Circuit City, 3 million triangles per second. My dad about had a heart attack when he saw that. LOL... Can't current geometric processing push several hundred million triangles per second now?

 

[SpeedZealot369]

Originally posted by: lifeblood
Voodoo 3 3000. Unreal with GLIDE was awesome.

Seriously, that was the first card I ever bought and it was awesome.

 

[MacVista]

9800Pro feels nice to be able to still play the newest games even now (without the high resolutions/detail of course)

 

[Painman]

what *one* card? Damn, can't say. I've owned a good few gems.

Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 rocked my world in Quake 1 and 2, respectively.

9700 Pro was amazing, so is my current X1900XT. What a freakin' beast, and I haven't even pushed it to its full potential yet, based on other users' reports.

 

[Zebo]

Well I'm cheap so the best video card was a GF2VE they had for $66 at newegg.. made it into $350 GF2 ultra.. this is back before they used lots of differnt dies, lots of differnt memory, locking pipes etc.. Simple OC and I was done.

 

[GreenMonkey]

Voodoo3 2000 - Quake 2 OpenGL!

Radeon 9800pro

 

[The Sly Syl]

I'm quite the fan of my little overclocked 6800GT

425/1.16, with some more room to go if i cared, still runs everything I need it too.

That, and my videocard previous to this one happened to be of the "intel extreme" variety.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

3D video card? Never was one.

All of my so-called upgrades never really caught up with the latest and greatest (not to mention my liking for extra resolution and eye candy). It's a good thing my catching up with game titles is almost as slow.

RivaTNT1 => got killed by Unreal 1
RivaTNT2 => got killed by Quake 3
9800pro => got killed by Doom 3
X800 XT => still alive but barely survives FEAR, Quake 4

I guess the only time I was "happy" was during the days of 2D gaming but back then who really cared about what video card they owned?

 

[Munky]

x1900xt flashed to xtx. Because it's the first time I own the fastest single card there is. And I still got more than what I paid for, as usual.

 

[TheSlamma]

Voodoo2.

Brought games to life back then.

 

[Phew]

Originally posted by: kki000
Guillemot Xentor TNT2 Ultra.

It was a huge upgrade over the viper v330 riva 128 card.
The Xentor was also the card i played and finished Halflife with.

When it comes down to it, its still about the games, HL, Descent, Starcraft... oh good times were had on that freaky french card.

This exact card is also my pick. It was a monster upgrade from my Riva 128 (a buggy POS; I wish I had gone Voodoo). I think it was my favorite because of the games that I played with it.

Battlezone was the first (and probably last) online game that I was actually any good at; I remember winning over 90% of online matches using the simple strategy of building dozens of flash laser towers while my opponent built a fleet of AI-controlled ships. The AI was so bad, having AI wingmen was just a liability. I remember taking out 8+ AI bombers at a time just by circle-strafing.

Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane!