The 22 Greatest Graphics Cards Of All Time

[TheMailMan78]

X800 needs to be in there somewhere.

 

[newtekie1]

I don't like this list. Not that I disagree that the cards on the list are great, just that I don't think they would be considered the greatest, IMO. But then I probably view the term "great" a little differently than them. When I look for greatness I don't just look at performance, I look for good performance at a great price as well. For a card to be the greatest, it has to offer great price to performance.

For example, instead of the 9700 Pro being listed, I would have said the 9500 was the greatest card from that generation. With the softmods allowing it to be turned into essentially a 9700 Pro, it was a killer card. Then of course there was the 9800 SE that could be softmodded into a 9800 Pro/XT, it was a killer card too. Then instead of the 6800 Ultra I would have gone with the X800GTO, with its potential to unlock to a x800XT/x850XT it was a killer card for the moneye(even if it didn't unlock).

 

[Lionheart]

I don't like this list. Not that I disagree that the cards on the list are great, just that I don't think they would be considered the greatest, IMO. But then I probably view the term "great" a little differently than them. When I look for greatness I don't just look at performance, I look for good performance at a great price as well. For a card to be the greatest, it has to offer great price to performance.

For example, instead of the 9700 Pro being listed, I would have said the 9500 was the greatest card from that generation. With the softmods allowing it to be turned into essentially a 9700 Pro, it was a killer card. Then of course there was the 9800 SE that could be softmodded into a 9800 Pro/XT, it was a killer card too. Then instead of the 6800 Ultra I would have gone with the X800GTO, with its potential to unlock to a x800XT/x850XT it was a killer card for the moneye(even if it didn't unlock).

I agree, my list is better

 

[Frick]

Makes no sense in making a list like that. It serves no purpose, as pretty much every generation of cards have a killer.

 

[theubersmurf]

7950gx2 was a disaster, drivers were perpetually poor as I recall. I never owned one myself, but despite potential performance, the driver situation made it a horrible choice, nothing but complaints over that card(s). Shouldn't be on that list at all.

and agree with the calls for x800/x850 cards to be on the list.

 

[puccki]

no mx440 ati r9550 9600gt ...？

 

[BraveSoul]

i enjoyed this a lot ,, couldn't stop thx,, am too agree that many of the really popular cards are missing, because money was not a factor here

 

[Frick]

BTW, the 6600GT should be there.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Maybe the list should go on how many of a perticular card has sold. It would b interesting to see what card has sold the most and so on down the list.

 

[Derek12]

Great times, with the Voodoo2, Nvidia Riva TNT2 and Need for speed Hot pursuit

In my case I used

3DFX Voodoo2 (great cards)
Nvidia Riva TNT2
Nvidia Geforce 4 MX 440
ATI Radeon 7500
Nvidia Geforce 8400GS (Short lived)
Nvidia Geforce 9500GT
ATI Radeon HD 3450 (RIP)
ATI Radeon HD 5450 (I will return it because doesn't seem to work right)
ATI Radeon X2100 IGP. (Current one)
Planned to get a Geforce 520.

 

[qubit]

TH is BS anyways, EVERYONE knows that the 4850 redefined mainstream gaming at the $150-200 price range

and speaking from experience and current usage, 3 years later CrossFired 4850s are STILL somewhat viable gaming solution

No, it's not BS. This article is about top end performance leading cards of their time and the 4850 is midrange. Just look again at my quote in my OP.

 

[Jetster]

TNT2 was a piece a crap

 

[repman244]

Nice list, but where the hell is the X800XT/X850XT

 

[Towly]

The cards that I've owned over the past years.
Ati Radeon 9200 128mb (I bought it for a bargain back then, yet i did not had enough knowledge about ps,vs,pipeline and bitrate bandwidth)
Nvidia Geforce 6200 128mb (That what i could afford at that time, though it could handle crysis at low low res)
Nvidia XFX 8600GT 256mb (Upgraded my whole system and got this card that can handle my budget. Was for me a great performer.)
Nvidia GTX 460 768mb (My 8600gt was on its way. So had to get a replacement. Got me one of these babies. Absolutely love this card imo)

And that's the list of cards of my time.

 

[Derek12]

TNT2 was a piece a crap

That's your opinion. In my experience it was a great card.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Can't open the link because I am at work and it blocks it, I just hope the Hercules 3D Prophet III (NV20) and ATi Rage Pro are listed, otherwise it's total fail!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Here was my take....

I read these comments and it made me inquisitive so I clicked the link. I started the image stack and was like this is awesome. Leaders of the year and it starts off great. Then years get skipped, and then it turns into multi GPUs for card of that year, and ends up with a foursome or two to finish off the list? Looks to me like someone wasn't man enough to state an actual opinion of the top dog for each year, and became more of a well one of this half dozen is right for you isn't it?

At the end all I can say is lame, sorry

the list is made by tomshardware.....go figure.

 

[qubit]

For those complaining that the X800 is missing, it's discussed under the 6800 Ultra entry. TH reckons the nvidia card was superior, which is why the ATI one doesn't have a separate entry.

Can't open the link because I am at work and it blocks it, I just hope the Hercules 3D Prophet III (NV20) and ATi Rage Pro are listed, otherwise it's total fail!

I'm afraid it's not there Tatty, so roll on the fail, lol.

 

[Derek12]

Can't open the link because I am at work and it blocks it, I just hope the hercules prophet and ATi Rage Pro are listed, otherwise it's total fail!

None of them are listed

 

[newtekie1]

Maybe the list should go on how many of a perticular card has sold. It would b interesting to see what card has sold the most and so on down the list.

If they did that the list would be filled with FX5200s and x300SEs and such.

No, it's not BS. This article is about top end performance leading cards of their time and the 4850 is midrange. Just look again at my quote in my OP.

The HD4850 wasn't midrange, it was high end.
HD4800=High End
HD4600=Mid Range
HD4500/4300=Low End

 

[qubit]

If they did that the list would be filled with FX5200s and x300SEs and such.

Haha, true. I've bought two FX5200's and several 6200's over the years. Cards like this are really good for undemanding applications, where you need a low power card (as in watts consumed) to just give you display and let the PC boot properly. They're excellent for testing faults for example and server applications come to mind for this type of thing.

The HD4850 wasn't midrange, it was high end.
HD4800=High End
HD4600=Mid Range
HD4500/4300=Low End

Grrr... you've missed the point, like so many others, lol. It's not the very top end card though, the 4870 was the top. This article is about the very top end of each generation.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

If they did that the list would be filled with FX5200s and x300SEs and such.



The HD4850 wasn't midrange, it was high end.
HD4800=High End
HD4600=Mid Range
HD4500/4300=Low End

it was definitely midrange

4850>4870>4890

 

[Delta6326]

Well here is my long list of GPU's
1- Laptop ATI 9700 Pro (Great card Awesome laptop still kicking)
2- 2x 4850 1GB (Awesome setup still going great but now Frames are dropping in new games.)


3- Oh wait I only have 2 I hold onto stuff.

 

[Easy Rhino]

they should make a list for the best value cards.

 

[Flak]

I loved the Kyro cards, or at least the technology behind them.