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What was your favorite GPU back in the day?

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I was a late comer to PC gaming (started in summer of 2005), and I have fond memories for every machine I've had and the parts inside. In particular, the first computer I had with dedicated graphics - a Gateway MX7515 which I bought in Jan 2006, was what really set me off into PC gaming land. It's mobile Athlon 64 4000 and ATi Radeon X600 "128 MB" (as in 64 MB dedicated DDR VRAM, and 64 MB shared) while weak for the time frame (I hardly knew too much better) made it possible for me to jump from my very limited Toshiba laptop at the time (I could at least play HL1 and CoD1 on it!) to CoD2, Source games, and the love of my life: Battlefield 2. That is pretty much where my PC gaming obsession started.

The next year in early 2007, I finally built my first desktop with an Athlon x2 5600, 2 GB DDR2-800, and the very awesome value 8800 GTS 320 MB. Needless to say, my Xbox 360 hardly ever saw me again. Just about every major PC FPS from 2004 through 2008 was played on this machine. Lots of BF2, 2142, CS:S, FEAR, CoD2 and 4, STALKER, Crysis. GOOD TIMES. Hell, it would still be a somewhat decent gaming machine at 720p if I still had it.

Needless to say, I've had ALOT of computers since summer 2005 when I got my first one for college, and been through many GPUs.
 
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X1800XL, first video card I watercooled, and first that I could software volt mod. 🙂

Honorable mention goes to my X800GTO2 and 8800GTS 640 (most I've ever paid for a video card but it blew pretty much anything other than the 8800GTX out of the water).
 
Either some people got into gaming a lot later than some of us, or I just realized I am older than a lot of people that frequent here. I say this because of all the newer cards being mentioned. Not that there is anything wrong with it, just an observation.

Oh and I second the comment on Diablo 2 and Glide. It was designed for glide, and looked 10x better on a 3Dfx card than it did in OpenGL or DirectX.

I actually kept my Voodoo2 (Which I still have) around just for that game. Even when I was using a Radeon 9800 Pro for everything else.
 
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nerd alert!

I had a radeon 7000 something something that I paid 50 bucks for back in 03. Had a lot of fun gaming with that.
 
For me, 3Dfx Voodoo. Playing some of the Outlaws maps with it was the difference between it looking pitch black on an S3 Virge to looking like Dusk on the 3Dfx.
 
If I rember rigth wasn't the Voodo a pass threw card. You still needed a 2d card that used a VGA conection back to the voodo card and then to your Monitor
 
Peppered said:
If I rember rigth wasn't the Voodo a pass threw card. You still needed a 2d card that used a VGA conection back to the voodo card and then to your Monitor
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Yes Voodoo 1 & 2 were both passthrough 3d only cards. The Banshee was the first 2d/3d card from 3Dfx, but it was horrible. The Voodoo3 came later and was better, but was still slower in many respects compared to the Voodoo2. The 4 and 5 were awesome, but came too late and by then 3Dfx was on their way into bankruptcy due to poor management and failure to get products out on time.
 
Stuka87 said:
Yes Voodoo 1 & 2 were both passthrough 3d only cards. The Banshee was the first 2d/3d card from 3Dfx, but it was horrible. The Voodoo3 came later and was better, but was still slower in many respects compared to the Voodoo2. The 4 and 5 were awesome, but came too late and by then 3Dfx was on their way into bankruptcy due to poor management and failure to get products out on time.
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I think the Voodoo Rush was the first 2D/3D card as it was based off of the Voodoo 1 architecture. I did however, blow much like the Banshee.


And I totally agree with Glide and Diablo 2. Made the game look so much better.
 
Bought a Geforce 2 GTX after mowing lawns for a summer.
It was a substantial upgrade compared to using software rendering in Tribes.

Then sometime later I bought a Geforce FX 5700 Ultra. That card is still running strong to this day in my moms PC.

The card I use now though I still hold near and dear, the Geforce 8800GT OC.
 
Cookie Monster said:
6800GT! loved that card especially with a NV silencer 5 on it.
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Ahh the good ol' Silencers.

I remember (for at least me personally) when the 9700/9800 ATi's came out and it seemed like it was the start of the aftermarket cooler craze for GPU's.

I had a silencer on my 9800pro and I won't even get into the crazyness that I did to my 6600GT to keep it quiet.

I'll see if I can find a pic of it, I might have been one of the first to ghetto rig 120mm cooling to a GPU lol.
 
Well surprisingly found that fast, lol.

6600GT + Zalman samich cooler + hardware store flat head screws + Yate 120mm = heavy arse GPU cooler. Still didn't sag like my 5850 on a full cover waterblock though.

Why I'm still using IDE drives here I'll never know, haha.

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