What Is Your Personal Favorite Video Card of All Time?

Pretty sure the Radeon 9500 to 9700 mod is what steered me to this forum. The bang for the buck from that card was excellent. That and my current 1080ti which has also proven to be a fantastic value over time.
 
Dark12 said:
Interesting
The general consensus here is that the 1080ti is amazing value given its long lifespan.
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For me its because the 1080ti was a $700 card (if you were lucky enough to get one pre mining spike, I paid 800 IIRC, which was a steal at the time) and the main reason it has held value is because the 2xxx series is so overpriced. If Nvidia would have stuck with it's normal trend of 2080ti being the same or only slightly more expensive than the last gen equivalent tier gpu then many of us would have upgraded. Sure the card has had longevity but only because 2080ti was $1200 and nothing less is a worthwhile upgrade @ sub4k.

I'm certainly not saying the 1080ti is a bad card, it doesn't owe me anything. But it hasn't done anything to make my favorite GPU list. I would be more apt to put the normal 1080 from my spare rig on my favorite list. It was much cheaper and has had pretty much the same longevity.
 
Kardonxt said:
For me its because the 1080ti was a $700 card (if you were lucky enough to get one pre mining spike, I paid 800 IIRC, which was a steal at the time) and the main reason it has held value is because the 2xxx series is so overpriced. If Nvidia would have stuck with it's normal trend of 2080ti being the same or only slightly more expensive than the last gen equivalent tier gpu then many of us would have upgraded. Sure the card has had longevity but only because 2080ti was $1200 and nothing less is a worthwhile upgrade @ sub4k.

I'm certainly not saying the 1080ti is a bad card, it doesn't owe me anything. But it hasn't done anything to make my favorite GPU list. I would be more apt to put the normal 1080 from my spare rig on my favorite list. It was much cheaper and has had pretty much the same longevity.
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Makes sense.

Ya I regret buying my 2070, especially since they released the super version immediately after I bought it. But it was my choice and I have no one to blame but myself.
 
Hope nobody minds if I list two.

1] - ASUS GF2 GTS. Upgrading to that from RIVA TNT meant no more slideshow in Quake2 online. Discovered I was actually pretty good. Before long I was beating people in Mplayer.com one-on-one and being invited to clan tryouts, then eventually accepted.

2] - BFG 6800nu. The one that I soft modded to open the last 4 of 16 pipes. Seeing that "16" in RivaTuner was like winning the silicone lottery.
 
I'm a big fan of my Radeon HD7870. I bought it in 2012 and used it until last summer. Definitely long in the tooth the past couple of years. But it was absolutely fine until about 2017. Only around then, did games start really hammering it. Even still, Soulcalibur 6 played great on it, last year.

I had cards all the way back to the Radeon 9000pro, which was my first card. Lots of stuff in between. Including some Nvidia cards, such as Ti4200 and 6800 non ultra. Other stuff too. I had 3870 for quite awhile, which I liked pretty well and got a lot of mileage from. But the 7870 has been the best experience and quite a long term companion.
 
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7900 GTO. It was my first time buying a "big boy" card after years of only being able to afford mid-low end ones. It was nice finally getting to turn graphics up. Loved gaming on my 19" 1400x900 CRT with it. I kept that thing all the way till the GTX 680 came out.
 
Voodoo Rush. 2D chip plus Voodoo all on one card.

Glide changed everything. Was mind blowing over 2D, software generated 3D and simulated 3D.
 
Going back quite a few years here, but I'd say the Voodoo 2 was my favorite as it was the card that finally revealed to me what PC gaming had over consoles.
 
CraptacularOne said:
Going back quite a few years here, but I'd say the Voodoo 2 was my favorite as it was the card that finally revealed to me what PC gaming had over consoles.
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What was the game? For me, the biggest moments:

Seeing Forsaken running on a Voodoo 1.

Then Quake II in OpenGL 32bit color on a Matrox G200.
 
I loved my Quantum 3D Obsidian X-24 something about having 2 Voodoo2s in SLI on a single board was awesome. HOT, but awesome.
 
EVGA 8800 GTS 512...first discrete GPU I ever owned.
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CraptacularOne said:
For me it was both Forsaken and the OG Unreal. They absolutely floored me with their beefed up visuals on PC.
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I debated mentioning Unreal as well. It was definitely smoother and looked better on Glide or OpenGL, but damn. Software mode in that game was crazy impressive at the time.

Regardless, I get it. Unreal in 1998 was, well... unreal.
 
Favorite card was probably my x850pro. Ran just about everything at the time, lasted quite awhile, and overclocked really well with a Thermalright cooler attached. The x1950pro that replaced it was underwhelming. The 3870 was a little better but the 4870 was what it really should have been.

Also unless it dies on me I'm really liking my current MSI 2070 Gaming-Z. Massive and extremely quiet cooler, high stock boost clocks, and I got it at a really fair discount. Probably going to be useless in a few years for RTX but I have no plans to be rid of it for the time being. Easily the quietest high-performance card I've owned since the unlocked 6950 with an Accelero XP.

Edit: I was wrong. I did replace the 2070. Kinda missing the (lack of) noise level already though.
 
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I guess i would have to go with my 8800gtx.The performance jump was amazing and its been bullet proof. Of course i had to go sli immediately after getting the first one. Followed by getting a pair of copper blocks for them. That was my first of many wced sli rigs. Actually my current rig is the first single gpu rig since those 8800s. Maybe ill get lucky and multi gpu will find its way back. Anyhow, the 8800s were friggin bulletproof. Sold one off in a rig i built but still have the original 8800gtx running in my retro rig :)
 
1080Ti, had 3 of these puppies at one point. Then i sold them to get a 2080ti. The 2080ti is good but to be perfectly honest with you I should have just stayed with my 1080ti's
 
Voodoo 5 5500 -- first real anti aliasing and significantly better AA quality than any other card in it's time. I wish I still had mine :/
 
I've had a lot of memorable GPUs over the years, but gotta go with the Voodoo3 2000. That started it all.

Seeing for the first time the difference between software rendering and gpu rendering... I still remember it after... 25 years? Plus getting to see that sweet 3DFX logo every time you fired up a game. Good stuff!
 
My x1900 aiw was a bit of a monster. I remember I got it for like $200 when all other 1900s were still quite a bit more expensive. I had it on water and it was a straight beast.

Also shout out to the 8800gt, the little card that overclocked like a fucking animal and could give high end cards a run for their money. Imo one of the best cards of all time.
 
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I have fond memories of pretty much all my cards, but if I had to choose only one, that would be the FX5900. I really enjoyed that one.

Special mention to my Geforce 6800GT which I baked back to life several times.
My ATI 3d Rage Pro was my first and only ATI card
Riva TNT2 my first nvidia card, and been nvidia ever since.
 
The card that gave me the most wow ever was my first Voodoo, a new paradigm.
Since then the cards that have stuck out the most were my 8800GT, 980ti and 1080ti.
Best of the best value for money and able to play the top games with highest settings at the current res norm.
My 1080ti is still a beast at 1440p and with some games at UHD.

ps I still have the Voodoo.
All the other cards above have had Accelero coolers fitted to them.

pps my 1080ti is 3 years old next month.
I havent ever used a gfx card this long and still been able to push the envelope.
 
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Radeon X850pro. Flashed it to a X850XT PE the first day, saved a ton of money.

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Geforce 7900GTO. First really quiet card I had, such a steal of a deal.

My current Asus 1070Ti is a great deal, $280 used last year during the mining craze. Had a broken fan that I replaced with OEM part, even though I took the shroud and fans off, and have dual 120mm fans on a bracket below it to keep constant air on those VRM. I hat the new zero fan profiles BTW.

I would add the original Voodoo cards and Geforce cards, but they were no good deals back then, the mid to low range were practically useless.
 
Asus HD 7970 Direct CU II, it was my first high-end gpu and imo it has the best damn looking cooler (and has not been beaten yet), it also was a beast for overclocking.
 
Favorite: 1050 zotac mini
Why? Just a hair over $100 and I could punch as high as my 770gtx fe in some games. Overclocked nicely never got hot and I was able to upgrade and introduce friends and family to pc gaming on its budget. I bought three and dispersed them for xmas. Finally when my 770gtx finally got artifacts I couldn't fix I moved over to a remaining 1050 I had from another friends upgrade. I literally love the card I only wish I had gotten the 4gig version and I may have waited even longer to upgrade.
Honorable mention for my xfx 250GTS. I still have it somewhere but I sure did beat that horse good. Got it used in 2011 for like 40 dollars and had about 5 years of fun out of it.
 
My previous card - gigabyte gtx 980ti g1. Had been using it for almost 4 years(the longest period for me). Have never had any issues, it was awsome clocker (on stock it boosted to 1450MHz and it could use it for playing at 1600 for the core). Only its age and a good bargain pushed me to sell and replace it.
 
Belkov said:
My previous card - gigabyte gtx 980ti g1. Had been using it for almost 4 years(the longest period for me). Have never had any issues, it was awsome clocker (on stock it boosted to 1450MHz and it could use it for playing at 1600 for the core). Only its age and a good bargain pushed me to sell and replace it.
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I still have that card in one of my secondary rigs, great card. I did have an issue with 2 of the fans dying on the card, but I did run it at high speed to keep it cool. Got a replacement fan set off amazon and card is good as new for $35.
 
I got a Riva TNT2 Ultra ES back in like 2000 in a Craigslist trade. The damn thing was a beast and would overclock like crazy. Living in San Jose at that time was awesome, you got your hands on all kinds of interesting things.
 
Yeah, I had a 280X, I believe is the same chip as 7970 GHz.

I rocked that on a 720P projector, that lasted what like 4 solid years.
 
Still a great card and would be still viable to play modern games at 720p all day.

Even 1080p at lower settings.
 
For sure. I retired that rig when I got a 1080p projector cause I wanted a little more power but, you're right, it would probably still work at 720p.
 
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