starting with directx 9 and on I think it goes (although its a shame not to mention any 3dfx but still its a young crowd these days)
1.
Radeon 9700/9800 pro dx9 and great speed, so much so that they were still decent cards years after launch
2.
6800gt/ultra first sm 3.0 cards and super fast for the time. Honerable mention goes to 6600gt for its midrange dominance.
3.
8800gt(s) (9800gt(x), gts250, and all the rebrands) or really g92, unlike its predecessor it wasn't a heat monster, it wasn't super expensive, and it redefined what high end meant. Also at this point the negative elements of sli were greatly reduced.
4.
5870. AMD/ATI made a decent fight of the 4870 vs gtx280 but lets face it at that point they were aiming for best price/performance rather than the performance crown. but the 5870 now that bad boy proved nvidia didn't own the market, fast, cheap for high end, and had decent power/heat ratios for the time. Not to mention beating nv to the market by a mile and then still offering a better overall product once nv finally launched fermi...now that was an impressive come back. Oh yeah and while there weren't any titles out it still was the first dx 11 gen.
5.
X800GTO^2 (Flashable ones) now the base card wasn't that spectacular and lacked the sm 3.0 support of the nvidia offering, however this card was an overclockers wet dream, cheap, flashes to an X850XT, and then would overclock further. This particular card was the topic of nearly every other thread on this forum at the time. TPU saw a big boom off of this card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/127
dubious renown starting with DX9.
1.
Nvidia FX 5800 Ultra, failed to take performance crown, failed at anything directx 9 (this became more obvious as years went on) and Hair Dryer
Nvidia Hair Dryer - YouTube seriously.
2.
Radeon HD2900XT it pains me to say it as I loved mine, but yeah. high heat, failed to even beat the 8800GTS, my next card was a 9600GT and it was FASTER, high power, and as much as it overclocked wonderfully, at stock clocks it didn't fare so well.
3.
Nvidia GTX480 I have 3 of them and I love them (if you're seeing a trend yes I like big, hot, power hungry cards. lol) Late to the market, hot, loud, power hungry, and expensive. This is the card that opened it up for AMD/ATI.
4.
Radeon 9000(9200) Again I had a 9000 and loved it at the time, but that doesn't change the fact that it was a crippled Radeon 8500 rebrand, the only directX 8.1 card in a lineup of directx9 cards. Not only that but it couldn't even match the clocks of its predecessor. I tried to avoid the lowend because well they're supposed to be slow, but come on if you're going to rebrand at least leave the card the f alone and don't cripple it, its not like the 8500 was any real threat to the 9500pro or 9600XT. Some of you may find this ironic...
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=924187&postcount=48 lol
5.
Radeon X1800XT 512MB This one was actually a great card, the trouble is that it was late (the xl came out months before) and then one month later was replaced by a much better card the X1900XTX. Plus 600$ if you're going to charge me 600$ at least let it be the king for 6 months, not 1. So this one is dubious for bad business decisions. jerks.