What Is Your Personal Favorite Video Card of All Time?

Honorable mentions:
  • Diamond Monster 3D (3DFX Voodoo 4MB) - still have this card in the original box, it was a world changer
  • ASUS V3800 Deluxe (NVidia Riva TNT2 32MB VIVO) - the card that introduced me to VR and video digitizing.
  • Sapphire Radeon 8500LE (Ati Radeon 8500 250/275Mhz clocks, officially LE cards should have had 250/250 clock, but this one had non-LE memory) - the first video card I bought with my own money
  • S3 Virge 2MB - Because who wouldn't want to play Jedi Knight at 400x300 8 fps, with horrible graphics issues.

But my actual favorite: Gigabyte Geforce GTX660 SLI - just amazing value it cost much less than 690 or even 680 cards but regularly outclassed them in tests.
 
I did have a 690 at one point, that was kind of nice when SLI was still somewhat relevant.
 
I prefer my 2080ti to my Savage 3D, Geforce2 MX400, 8500LE, 9500 Pro, 9700 Pro, Ti4200, X900XT, X1900XT, 3870, 4870, GTX 480, GTX 580, GTX 680, Titan, Titan Black, Titan X Maxwell, Titan X Pascal. They were all trash by comparison. I can do some benches if anyone wants to see the difference.
 
Lmah2x said:
I prefer my 2080ti to my Savage 3D, Geforce2 MX400, 8500LE, 9500 Pro, 9700 Pro, Ti4200, X900XT, X1900XT, 3870, 4870, GTX 480, GTX 580, GTX 680, Titan, Titan Black, Titan X Maxwell, Titan X Pascal. They were all trash by comparison. I can do some benches if anyone wants to see the difference.
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And you likely could have bought two of some of those prior cards for the money you paid for that 2080ti :)
 
harmattan said:
And you likely could have bought two of some of those prior cards for the money you paid for that 2080ti :)
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Try 3, 4, or 5 even. The 2080TI will be "trash by comparison" very soon too so it's really not special.
 
FlawleZ said:
Try 3, 4, or 5 even. The 2080TI will be "trash by comparison" very soon too so it's really not special.
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I agree. Every old generation is trash once the new one comes. I can't think of any generation that was worse than the previous.
 
Lmah2x said:
I agree. Every old generation is trash once the new one comes. I can't think of any generation that was worse than the previous.
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Riva 128 after Voodoo1 felt like trash. Horrible dithering and faded colors. Volometric fog never looked as good on any later card than it did on voodoo.
 
Lmah2x said:
I agree. Every old generation is trash once the new one comes. I can't think of any generation that was worse than the previous.
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Just because theres a newer product doesn't mean the older is automatically "trash." And there have been some really underwhelming generations. The GeForce 9 series was about as exciting as watching paint dry and the 9800GTX struggled to best the 8800GTX in many cases.
 

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FlawleZ said:
Just because theres a newer product doesn't mean the older is automatically "trash." And there have been some really underwhelming generations. The GeForce 9 series was about as exciting as watching paint dry and the 9800GTX struggled to best the 8800GTX in many cases.
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The 9800 GTX was literally just a die shrink of the 8800 GTX. It struggled in some cases against the 8800 GTX because they neutered the memory.
 
Revenant_Knight said:
Favorite: 980TI.

Runner up: Voodoo 2 SLI.
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Similar for me, as well.

Current 980Ti is just a powerhouse, even with some of the newer demanding games that I play. It is starting to feel a little long in the tooth trying to push the capabilities of a 144Hz monitor, but it's still chugging along nicely.

Runner up for me would have to be the GeForce 8800GT. That thing was still running in a backup system up until last year when it finally died. Had an illustrious Accelero S1r2 on it, which provided for idle/load temps of only 38-40C/50-55C, passively.
 
Sapphire HD 3850 AGP, bought it new back when it came out because it wasnt a 2 slot card and would fit in my dual AMD system.
 
SeymourGore said:
My Voodoo3 3000. It was my first GPU purchase, and it ran Starsiege Tribes beautifully. The switch from software to hardware mode in Tribes was mind blowing for a young Seymour.

Honorable mention is my Sapphire R9 Fury Nitro. It was a massive card, and I really liked the look of it (and I got it for super cheap when they were clearing out the R9 Fury on newegg). And, I had it during the midst of the last bitcoin boom, so sold it for profit (basically was able to trade it in for a 1080 as the 1080s were still at their market value).
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Came here to say the same thing. I put hundreds of hours, perhaps over 1500 really, into Tribes. My V3000 OC'd gave me liquid smooth frame rates.

First runner up would be my 1800XTX. Being able to run FarCry with max quality at 1280x1023 and still have over 60FPS was crazy. That game was my second favorite moment in PC Gaming.

From an adult perspective, my favorite would be my farm of RX VEGA cards. I spent a ton of time tweaking and tuning those cards, and they made me a tidy profit to say the least.

I have had mixed feeling about my 5700XT 50th that is run with a custom loop. The card has moments of greatness, but it is also maddening at other times.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
The first card that I had that changed gaming for me was a Creative Labs VooDoo 2 8MB. Out of all the cards that I've ever had, that one impacted me the most. I paired up with my first video card in my first computer that was mine (as opposed to a shared computer), which contained a Matrox Mystique 4MB.
I currently am using a Radeon VII. It's definitely up there. It's basically the first time in over a decade that I've had a top end card. The last time I think it was an HIS X800 XT PE, which I liked, but not enough to keep it.
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I have to agree with you. I got a helluva lot of mileage out of my Voodoo II, I am pretty sure it was a CL model as well. I miss the 3DFX days and Glide applications the cards were sweet for the time. I recall playing stuff like Wing Commander Prophecy on it. People would drool when they saw the graphics.

I am fielding all Nvidia parts at the current moment with little reason to move to any of AMD's graphics solutions (ATM).
 
ccityinstaller said:
Came here to say the same thing. I put hundreds of hours, perhaps over 1500 really, into Tribes. My V3000 OC'd gave me liquid smooth frame rates.

First runner up would be my 1800XTX. Being able to run FarCry with max quality at 1280x1023 and still have over 60FPS was crazy. That game was my second favorite moment in PC Gaming.

From an adult perspective, my favorite would be my farm of RX VEGA cards. I spent a ton of time tweaking and tuning those cards, and they made me a tidy profit to say the least.

I have had mixed feeling about my 5700XT 50th that is run with a custom loop. The card has moments of greatness, but it is also maddening at other times.
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I like to think that perhaps at some point in our Tribes days - I gave you a mine+disc to the face.
 
Armenius said:
The 9800 GTX was literally just a die shrink of the 8800 GTX. It struggled in some cases against the 8800 GTX because they neutered the memory.
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Right. It would have been better labeled the 8900GTX. But then again theres a number like that. Yay marketing.
 
Chronologically speaking: Leadtek 6800LE - modded from 8 to 16 pipes and GT clocks when OCing, loved the look of that cooper heatsink. XFX 8800GTS 640mb, monster GPU for me and the industry at the time. Was the first card to actually spoil and wow me graphically. Contrary to general opinion, i liked my Evga GTX 480. I liked it so much i bought another one, SLI'd them and watercooled them. Decided to sell them when the 1,5gb memory became a hindrance more often than not. And my current 1080Ti.
 
So ... "got me in the feels" huh? I would have to go with the voodoo1... man I just loved playing glide games on that... it was a night and day difference once I slapped that baby in.. I still get positively giddy every time I see that 3DFX logo spin around.

honorable mentions:
Riva TNT2 (so much quake2 CTF played on this one - on an Abit BH-6 and celery 300a at 464mhz)
Radeon 9700 Pro (I rode this card for a long time - this was the first card I was really able to use anti-aliasing with - played Unreal 2 on this one ... was so pretty)
6800GT SLI (MSI - ran these on air and then water - very overclockable on a DFI nf4 motherboard with all of the extra mobo power connectors in)
8800GTX (I ran single for a long while and then slapped in card #2 for some SLI action about a year later when I upgraded to an x58 platform)
GTX 1080 (so quiet and cool and a great overclocker..)
GTX 2080ti (Asus strix - sooo expensive but god damn a beautiful card and simply a beast in performance)
 
M76 said:
Honorable mentions:
  • Diamond Monster 3D (3DFX Voodoo 4MB) - still have this card in the original box, it was a world changer
  • ASUS V3800 Deluxe (NVidia Riva TNT2 32MB VIVO) - the card that introduced me to VR and video digitizing.
  • Sapphire Radeon 8500LE (Ati Radeon 8500 250/275Mhz clocks, officially LE cards should have had 250/250 clock, but this one had non-LE memory) - the first video card I bought with my own money
  • S3 Virge 2MB - Because who wouldn't want to play Jedi Knight at 400x300 8 fps, with horrible graphics issues.

But my actual favorite: Gigabyte Geforce GTX660 SLI - just amazing value it cost much less than 690 or even 680 cards but regularly outclassed them in tests.
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I still have my S3 Virge pci.. lol.
 
Looks like 8800GTX is taking the crown. I'd say the same! Work horse! Had 2 in sli back when and still have them and ek water blocks for them.

3dfx is still king! Voodoo2 12mb SLI! Enough said.
 
Starfalcon said:
Dang Erek, I thought I was a vintage computer part hoarder...you def got me beal lol.
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You should dig into his post history. He has a shit ton more. Could probably open up his own museum or vintage PC arcade.
 
Armenius said:
You should dig into his post history. He has a shit ton more. Could probably open up his own museum or vintage PC arcade.
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Yeah I did, He has a metric ton of high end stuff to make me jealous. I was the king of vintage hardware back on TR, but I have to bow before the emperor of vintage hardware here at the [H].
 
5870. Much better than whatever NV was offering at the time. But a bit unstable.

GTX 680. Low power, great performance. New era of efficiency.

1080 TI. For my needs if I had a better CPU then I’d already have a perfect machine.
 
I have experienced jaw dropping effect twice - first when I got my Orchid Righteous 3dfx Voodoo and saw accelerated graphics with texture filtering and lighting. Second time is when i got my G400 Max and ran EMBM demo.
 
Without doubt my pick is the Atari 8 bit's ANTICI/GTIA combo. I still use them several times per week. Still have my Atari 400 from nearly 40 years ago, plus a dozen or so similar A8 models.

The Righteous 3DFX VooDoo was just a wow moment. I still have a like new Voodoo II SLI set to put to use sometime or another. They were matched with a Matrox G200 for a very short time and retired.

Voodoo 3 2000 that overclocked to nearly 200Mhz. Still have that car.

Radeo 9500PRO flashed to 9700 (or was it PRO, can't recall)

...since then nothing has really grabbed me. The newest card I have now is a 750Ti. That is going to change later this year with a new HEDT build.

Long live the Atari ANTIC \m/
 
9800 pro, smoked everything out at the time, and kept it in my rig for several years before upgrading. Back when you could get the top end card for $300-$400...I miss those days.
 
I didnt start really getting into pc gaming till late 2016 so my favorite was the Evga 1080ti ftw3 hybrid
 
My favorite video card was the GTX 460 1GB. The 25% performance overclock (stock voltage) was the highest core boost I've ever achieved (made it as fast as a GTX 560 Ti!)

That massive performance boost, combined with the introduction of FXAA + sharpen injectors meant I didn't have to upgrade my graphics card to play new games with AA on. I got 4 years out of that card!

It was also the first Nvidia Reference cooler to feature an axial fan: check out that sexy fan/heat-pipe!

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It was very cool running and quiet, even overclocked!

fannoise_load.gif
 
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My favorite would have to be what I have now, the MSI GTX 1080. I have gotten more bang for the buck than any other card.
 
Too many choices!

My awful FX5600 256mb because it was my first and I didnt know any better.

My 6600GTs because SLI! and I still didn't know any better.

My 8800GT because of amazing performance for dirt cheap and stayed relevant forever.

My 4890s because AMD brought Nvidia's prices crashing down overnight. So hard that NV customers were demanding partial refunds.

My 5970 because it brought me eyefinity and the 4xx series was well past due.

My 290s because they were a great value and still used eyefinity.

I hope something shakes up the market soon because my 1080ti is meh. It works well but was no amazing value. I feel like I am getting my money's worth out of it but nothing more. If nvidia didn't jack up 2xxx series pricing it would be even less impressive.
 
Kardonxt said:
Too many choices!

My awful FX5600 256mb because it was my first and I didnt know any better.

My 6600GTs because SLI! and I still didn't know any better.

My 8800GT because of amazing performance for dirt cheap and stayed relevant forever.

My 4890s because AMD brought Nvidia's prices crashing down overnight. So hard that NV customers were demanding partial refunds.

My 5970 because it brought me eyefinity and the 4xx series was well past due.

My 290s because they were a great value and still used eyefinity.

I hope something shakes up the market soon because my 1080ti is meh. It works well but was no amazing value. I feel like I am getting my money's worth out of it but nothing more. If nvidia didn't jack up 2xxx series pricing it would be even less impressive.
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Interesting
The general consensus here is that the 1080ti is amazing value given its long lifespan.
 
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