Worst Graphics Card Purchases

[Genx87]

Matrox G200, or was it G400? About ~2000 when I got it, had 16MB of RAM. Thought this card would rock. It was meh and then I got a Geforce 2 MX card that blew it out of the water for a lot less.

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: Fox5
Geforce 3 TI200. Assy vga output quality, poor performance (and that's coming from a voodoo3), and tons of driver problems.

That's interesting because I would place my $99 Best Buy VisionTek TI 200 in top 3 of my favorite video cards list. Granted, I paid a lot less for mine that most did, but it also overclocked like a beast and the GF3 chip was a revelation. Never had a single driver problem. I even returned a TI 4200 I bought a year later because it wasn't much of an upgrade. I used that thing for about a year and a half.

 

[KingstonU]

FX 5200 128MB 5 years ago, was just looking for cheapest 128mb card at the time (oh how I have learned). But only recently learned that it was known as a terrible card among educated buyers, yet I was totally happy with it for the 4 years I used it as it let me play all my games on high or highest settings: MechWarrior 4, Warcraft 3, even Fable ran decently, though Halo caused it to overheat.

 

[Phynaz]

Number Nine 770.

$300 2D accelerator that I really didn't use.

 

[exar333]

#1: Back in 1993 or so I purchased a STB Nitro 64 2MB ISA video card. I didn't know much about cards, and wanted something to make Mechwarrior 2 more playable. What I ended-up with was a card that was slower than my integrated (thanks to the craptastic ISA bus) and was out $100 (a lot at the time).

#2: Gainward Geforce FX 5900. This card was almost $300 and I always regretting not just getting a 9700/9800Pro. I was a die-hard Nvidia fan back then, and now am much smarter with purchasing video cards. It was OK (Farcry looked great) but it wasn't a 9700pro by any means.

 

[Munky]

$90 for 9000pro
$180 for 9800p, then flashed to xt
$170 for x800gto, then unlocked to x800xt
$500 for x1900xt
$250 for 8800gt
$200 for 4890

Don't regret any video cards I bought. Only regret shelling out $500 on a x1900xt when it was launched. Not spending that much on video cards again.

 

[Modelworks]

Part of the problem with buying the old cards was there was little to no reviews. The main source of info was from places like PC World or advertisements. There wasn't a whole lot of research you could do . Benchmarks were mainly office applications and how fast it could render 2d.

 

[scooterlibby]

Yeah the $350+ each I spent on 2 9800GTX's was a mistake. Good cards, but I have learned to have a little patience since then (a dearth of worthwhile hardware stressing titles has helped). Hoping to be able to hold out for Sandybridge/Bulldozer and refreshes of either the 5800/300 series whenever that happens (2011 I guess).

Also, buying the 8600 was a mistake, but doing the Step Up from that to the 8800GTS was wonderful!

 

[Josh123]

I can't exactly remember the pricing but my regret hasn't come yet and I'm not sure if it will be one or not. My GF is currently playing on a Dell Optiplex 760 with a EVGA 9400GT and I'm debating on upgrading it to a 9800GT. If I could I'd put my 8800GTS 512mb in and get me a 260 but Dell is retarded and I can't fit my 8800GTS in the case.

Anyways here is what I've upgraded from.

ATI 9600xt
ATI 9800 Pro
ATI X850
EVGA 7800GT $289
EVGA 7950GT $254
EVGA 8800GT SC $289
EVGA 8800GTS (G92) $10 upgrade

 

[Lonyo]

TNT2 M64 for secondary computer.
Liked to overheat a lot and wasn't worth it because the main computer had a faster CPU, more RAM and a TNT2 Ultra.

 

[SammySnood]

nVidia Quadro FX Go 1400 in my Dell Precision M70.

This isn't entirely nVidia's fault. I got the system with this several hundred dollar ($800, IIRC) optional card for doing some light CAD/CAM work when traveling. It never was all of that and a bag of chips even under Windows.

When I switched to Linux (Debian stable) I found out that with this card I can:

1. use the Open Source drivers and have the operating system work beautifully but with painfully slow graphics, or
2. use the proprietary drivers to get fast graphics but wind up with all sorts of bizarre failures in various components of the desktop environment.

I have three other systems running the same distro. One has a cheapy ATI card, and two have Intel integrated graphics. All of them run rings around the vastly more expensive workstation with the nVidia graphics system. In Xfce they all use compositing with the Open Source drivers, and it flies. The nVidia system is slow without compositing, and a useless, drooling idiot of a system with compositing enabled.

In my estimation nVidia's decision to stay closed source for Linux is a real loser of a policy for their customers on Linux. And it's only going to get worse.

 

[TC91]

Definitely my reference design 4870 1GB. Loud as a jet engine while running super hot at the same time, poor drivers, crappy performance in a few of my older favourite games and quite a few other issues that I don't remember off the top of my head.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

I had a choice between two AGP cards, the X850XT or 7800GS. The X850XT beat the 7800GS in fps, but it's lack of SM3.0 and its ability not to do true HDR really came in affect later on. It was still a great card and allowed me to max out many games though.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: TC91
Definitely my reference design 4870 1GB. Loud as a jet engine while running super hot at the same time, poor drivers, crappy performance in a few of my older favourite games and quite a few other issues that I don't remember off the top of my head.

Who buys a new videocard to play old games?

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: SammySnood
nVidia Quadro FX Go 1400 in my Dell Precision M70.

This isn't entirely nVidia's fault. I got the system with this several hundred dollar ($800, IIRC) optional card for doing some light CAD/CAM work when traveling. It never was all of that and a bag of chips even under Windows.

When I switched to Linux (Debian stable) I found out that with this card I can:

1. use the Open Source drivers and have the operating system work beautifully but with painfully slow graphics, or
2. use the proprietary drivers to get fast graphics but wind up with all sorts of bizarre failures in various components of the desktop environment.

I have three other systems running the same distro. One has a cheapy ATI card, and two have Intel integrated graphics. All of them run rings around the vastly more expensive workstation with the nVidia graphics system. In Xfce they all use compositing with the Open Source drivers, and it flies. The nVidia system is slow without compositing, and a useless, drooling idiot of a system with compositing enabled.

In my estimation nVidia's decision to stay closed source for Linux is a real loser of a policy for their customers on Linux. And it's only going to get worse.

Your problem's might be from running debian stable. Debian stable is only suited for systems that require 100% up-time, unstable is still well-tested and far more advanced. Also, nvidia drivers follow the newest kernels.

 

[MagickMan]

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: TC91
Definitely my reference design 4870 1GB. Loud as a jet engine while running super hot at the same time, poor drivers, crappy performance in a few of my older favourite games and quite a few other issues that I don't remember off the top of my head.

Who buys a new videocard to play old games?

Most people I know play a mix of old and new games.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: TC91
Definitely my reference design 4870 1GB. Loud as a jet engine while running super hot at the same time, poor drivers, crappy performance in a few of my older favourite games and quite a few other issues that I don't remember off the top of my head.

Who buys a new videocard to play old games?

Most people I know play a mix of old and new games.

Yep, especially with Steam selling things like the Id pack for cheap.

I'm playing the Orange Box now but I may switch over to some old Quake II action for a bit.

 

[akugami]

I'm noticing a common theme with a lot of people. A lot of people seem somewhat fed up with paying high prices for a video card. I think we can all thank ATI's lack of competitiveness with the 1x00 series (late to the party), 2x00 and 3x00 series (sucked vs competition performance wise). Look what happened when they got competitive. Great prices for all, regardless of camp.

 

[Pantlegz]

FX 5200 was by far the worst for me, got it when it was new to replace my 4400 and it was a huge disappointment.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I740 without a doubt. Terrible card.

I owned a I740 as well so I know what you mean, the version I had was a 8mb Real3d Starfighter i740 :disgust:

Early adopter of the i740 here - drove me right back to my Diamond Viper VLB :laugh:

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Most people I know play a mix of old and new games.

I don't. What I've played in the past it's history for me. The longest life a game had on my hard drive, was Test Drive Unlimited. I've played that sucker for a whole year, almost every day, because it was so sweet ( and there weren't other games in the period ).

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: akugami
I'm noticing a common theme with a lot of people. A lot of people seem somewhat fed up with paying high prices for a video card. I think we can all thank ATI's lack of competitiveness with the 1x00 series (late to the party), 2x00 and 3x00 series (sucked vs competition performance wise). Look what happened when they got competitive. Great prices for all, regardless of camp.

Yup, I'll never pay more than $200 for a video card ever again. I don't game that much lately anyway.

 

[adairusmc]

S3 Savage 2000. Damn that thing sucked.

2nd place would be a 5900 Ultra. Not that it was a bad card per say, but I had a friend that had a 9800XT that would not work in his system but worked fine in mine and I traded him straight across. Then I knew what I was missing.

 

[akugami]

So far no one has owned up to buying an nVidia 8800 Ultra. :laugh:

 

[evolucion8]

I gave to my mom a Gigabyte FX 5200 AGP with 128 of VRAM as a gift and died after 6 months of light usage, that card only played 2d games, it's DX9 performance was pathettic, and I paid 150 bucks for it 5 years ago, and even worse that my mom bought the same card again and paid 100 bucks and died 2 months later loll.

In my experience, I bought a fabulous GeForce MX 420 in 2002 to swap my GeForce 2 MX 400 and what a waste, it wasn't any faster and the Radeon 8500 was a little too expensive for my budget. I ended up giving the videocard back stating that it didn't work on my system. Also I paid almost $500 for the Sapphire X800XT when it was launched on MonarchComputer, I will never pay that for a videocard. It was a very nice upgrade from my Powercolor 9700PRO.