What's your history with GPUs? Which one have you owned?

[_33]

Hi all! I was wondering which GPU / graphics card everyone here had in their past, including the one they are using today. I think in the field of computer science, that the field of graphics chips really took off more than everything else in the last few years, as newer graphics cards come out, we all go in the "oldies" bin eventually.

So here goes:

1990 - ATI 512K VGA graphics adapter (on 286 12mhz system)
1997 - ATI Rage 2+ with 4MB (on Pentium MMX 200 system)
2001 - Nvidia Geforce 200MX 32MB GDDR (on AMD K7 1.2ghz)
2002 - ATI Radeon 8500LE 64MB GDDR (on AMD XP 1800+)
2006 - ATI X800GTO2 DUAL DVI VIVO 256MB GDDR3 (on AMD 64 3000+)
2007(?)ATI X1950XTX 512MB GDDR4 (on AMD X2 or Opteron )



As you can see, I never went for "top of the line". But maybe I'll change that next year, who knows!

EDIT: I just want to add that in 2001, if I have bought the Geforce 3 TI model of that time, I would probably have never switched card in 2002. Thoe, my old 8500LE @ 270/285 was a pretty decent card, yet missed an extra 64MB. The Rage 2+ sucked and didn't have a lot of support. Only the Rage Pro was a half decent card, but came out only few months after I bought the 2+ and was a little mad about the ATI folks.

 

[Alec§taar]

Hi all! I was wondering which GPU everyone here had in their past, including the one they are using today.

Ah, ok... here we go:

486 era, ISA bus on mobos:
========================================

• 1991-1992: Trident 256k SVGA (486 Sx/25 - 486 Dx/4 133mhz I upgraded it to)

• 1992-1993: Diamond Stealth 24 ISA 1mb Windows Accelerator card (486 Sx/25 - 486 Dx/4 133mhz I upgraded it to)

486 era, VLB bus on mobos:
========================================

• 1993-1994: Diamond SpeedStar VLB 2mb Windows Accelerator card (486 Sx/25 - 486 Dx/4 133mhz I have now as a replica of one I had then, too, circa that period, & runs Windows NT 3.51 here now still even, pretty well too mind you)

Pentium I/II era, PCI bus on mobos:
========================================

• 1996-1997: Voodoo I (Pentium I)

• 1997-1998: Voodoo II(Pentium I (duallie/SMP))

• 1998-1999: Voodoo III(Pentium I 200mmx (duallie/SMP))

• 1999-2000: Voodoo V 5500 (Pentium I 233mmx (duallie/SMP))

AMD first era for me, PCI bus on mobos:
========================================

• 1998-1999: GeForce III (on AMD K6-III @450mhz iirc because Voodoo V 5500 was "funny" on its "Super-7" mobo (L1-L2-L3 cache design, cool, like Pentium Pro was))

Pentium III/IV era, PCI - AGP bus on mobos:
========================================

• 2002-2003: GeForce IV (Dual Pentium III 1ghz SMP rig I had w/ AGP on it)

• 2003-2005: ATI 9800 XT (AGP same machine as below)

• 2004-2005: GeForce 6800 GT OC AGP (currently in machine #2 here P4 3.2ghz)

AMD second era for me - PCI-e bus current mobo:
========================================

• 2006- current: GeForce 7900 GTX OC PCI-Express.

APK

P.S.=> For most part? SHOULD BE ACCURATE, on dates @ least & cards used I can remember & machines they were in... hardest part for me to recall is some of the bustypes used, especially around 21st start (PCI/AGP transition)... apk

 

[giorgos th.]

Asus FX5200
Albatron 6600GT
Sapphire X800GTO2 @ X850XT PE
XFX 7900GT Extreme Edition.

 

[Deleted member 3]

I've used various crap cards in my 386 (before that everything was onboard), some wang card with 512K (could be 259K, not sure) I've had trident cards due to VESA support needed eventually. When I went up I've had a real Weitek 9000 (still have it lying around) also known as the Viper PCI, I've had some S3 chips and my first real 3D chip was a Voodoo Banshee, which I later swapped for an AGP version when I get my P2.
After that I've had a Kyro a 9500 and now a 6800le. When I upgrade in a few months I'll get something new, not sure what yet.

 

[Frick]

I've ALWAYS been slow on upgrades and I ALWAYS buy cheap things. No high-end for me. That's mainly because I'm not a hardcore gamer (I tend to buy games 2 years after the realease, when the low-price-versions are released ) and I mostly use it to write.

The first card I bought was a Voodoo for my PII 266Mhz-system. I used that and tinkered with until everything got crazy and I got, for free, a bunch of various of 440BX-motherboards and several PII/PIII/Celeron CPU's. I bought a TNT2 M64 from a friend of mine and used that with an PIII 400Mhz OC'd to 600Mhz. Abit BE6 owned teh world.

I used that system for a while until I bought a Radeon 9000. A year later I bought an ABIT Nf7-s 2.0, AXP 2500+ and 512MB's of RAM and in 2004, I think, I bought a Radeon 9600PRO. Januari 2006 it was time for the card I have now.

The system I have now is probably the most "recent" system I've ever had. I like it. There's nothing bottlenecking it and everything I use the computer for runs extremely well. It feels very good. I might buy a DX10 mid-card, but I don't know.. It depends on the price/performance ratio.

 

[HookeyStreet]

nVIDIA GeFORCE MX440
Jetway GeFORCE 5200 (128mb)
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro (128mb)
Club3D GeFORCE 6800GT (256mb)
ASUS X850XT (256mb)
Sapphire X1800XT (256mb)

 

[cadaveca]

S3 Virge
Voodoo3
MX440, MX4000, 7800GTX x2
ATI Rage, Rage Pro, 9000, 9200, 9600, 9600Pro, 9700, 9800SE, 9800PRO, 9800XT, X800Pro, X800XT, X850XT x3, X850XT PE x2, X1800XL, X1800XT, X1900XT, X1900XTX, X1900Crossfire.

 

[Anarion]

Ah, ok... here we go:


P.S.=> For most part? SHOULD BE ACCURATE, on dates @ least & cards used I can remember & machines they were in... apk

do you have any built-in memory chip or else , whatever....

 

[Anarion]

hereicome

----

Trident

3DImage 9750 PCI/AGP (4mb)
Cyber9386 Video Accelerator (!?)
ProVIDIA 9685 (2mb to 4 mb)
TGUI9680 GUI Accelerator (2mb to 4mb)
TGUI9440 DGi GUI Accelerator (512kb)
TGUI9682 Multimedia Accelerator (2mb)

----

SiS(IGP)

SiS300/SiS305 GUI Accelerator+3D (OEM Yuan Yuan )
SiS 630

----

nVIDIA

NV5 TNT2/ Pro
NVM64 TNT2 Model 64/ Pro

NV10 GeForce 256

NV11 GeForce 2 MX 400
NV15 DDR GeForce2

NV17 GeForce 4 MX 460
NV17GL Quadro 4 550 XGL

NV25 GeForce 4 Ti 4200

NV34 GeForce FX 5200

NV40 GeForce 6800 GT
NV40 GeForce 6800 Ultra
NV40/BR02 Quadro FX 4000

----

3Dfx InterActive

Voodoo Banshee PCI SGRAM Velocity 100
OEM Diamond Multimedia Systems : Monster Fusion
OEM Quantum 3D Inc Raven PCI

----

S3

86C240 ViRGE/MXC
86C260 ViRGE/M3/MX
86C260 ViRGE/M5/MX
86C359 ViRGE/GX2+
86C365 Trio3D
86C765 Trio64V+
86C988 ViRGE/VX
TrioV Family 8903

+ An Unkown (IGP) (Can't Remember)
----

ATI

RV350AQ Radeon 9600 SE
OEM Giga-Byte Technology Giga-Byte GV-R96128D Primary

----

VIA (IGP)

S3/VIA UniChrome pro

 

[cjoyce1980]

some S3 4mb card
voodoo 2
geforce 4mx
ATI 9250
ATI x1600 currently in lan rig
6800LE in the pc im using now

 

[g12rxz]

hmm.. can't even remember what the first was... some 64 meg thing that fit in my PCI slots, was the first form of "SLI" I believe... was running in my 633mhz celeron at the time .

BFG 5600256mb
ASUS 5700256mb
BBA X700Pro AGP
BBA X700Pro PCI-E
C3D X800GTO PCI-E ( currently own this, and I don't especially miss the 1800 or 1900)
C3D X1800GTO
HIS X1900GT

 

[trog100]

i wont do too far back.. but i once owned the infamous cyrix 200+ teamed up with a permedia 2 and voodoo one grfx cards..

voodoo 2 after that..

geforce 200 mmx..

geforce 3..

radion 9700 pro..

radion x800gto2 at xt pe speeds..

radion 1900xtx..

a few odd things in between but for while i will stick where i am..

before the cyrix i gamed on an amiga machine.. plus an atari.. not consoles just not PCs..

trog

 

[JC316]

1999-2001
Voodoo 3 3000 16MB PCI
Geforce 2 MX400 (I still say this was the best card I ever owned)

2001- 2002
Geforce 4 MX420 (The Geforce 2 ran faster)

2002-2005
Geforce FX 5900 (Are we noticing an Nvidia fan boy pattern yet?)

2005-2006
Ati radeon X850 Pro

2006-?
Ati Radeon X1800GTO

Some of my dates may be off, I can't really remember. I knwo the Geforce 2 played Morrowind, and the Geforce 4 was bought to get the shiny water, which it didn't do. The FX 5900 was bought to finally get the damned shiny water, which looked like liquid metal anyway.

 

[WakeUpDead]

Lets see what I can remember:

nVidia cards: Voodoo3, MX440, GF4200, GF FX5200, XFX6800GT
Now, XFX 2 x 7800GT's in SLI on DFI nF4 Expert rig.

ATI Cards:Rage Pro, ATI 9000, ATI 9200, Diamond 9250 128mb, Sapp. 9250 256mb, ATI 9800, Sapp. x800xt, Sapp. x850 GTO2, ATI x1800xt, Sapp. x1800xtx
Now Sapp. x1900xtx + Sapp. x1900xtCF in Crossfire on DFI CFX3200 rig.


I think thats right, may be a few more here and there. Hell, I cant remember from day to day the things my wife tells me!

 

[stealthfighter]

I had...

16MB Onboard Bunk/ 233mhz PII/ 64MB SDRAM
then
32MB Onboard Bunk/ 2.0GHZ Celeron 400fsb 256k l2/ 512MB DDR Value RAM
then... (like 2 weeks later)
Some 32MB video card, dunno anything else about it/ same 2.0 ghz/ same RAM
then...
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 ultra 325/650/ same 2.0ghz.../ same RAM
then...
Same video card/ same processor/ newer ram, 512MB Kingston DDR333 I think
then...
same video card/ 2.8ghz PIV 533fsb 1MB l2/ same RAM
then...
same video card/ same processor/ new RAM, 1GB Ballistix DDR400
now...
same as above, only sound blaster audigy sound card

 

[Lt_JWS]

nvidia cards: FX5200, FX5600, FX5950U, 2x6800GS , 2X7800GTX

ATI cards: 9600pro, X800GTO, X800Pro vivo, X1800XT 512mb, X1900XT

 

[technicks]

I had:

GPU:

Intel pentium 4 @ 2.4 ghz
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.2 ghz
And now AMD Athlon 64 3700+ @ 2.27 ghz

Cards:

ATI Radeon 9000
ATI Radeon X300 Why? I dont know.
Nvidia XFX 6600
ATI Radeon X800 XL
Nvidia EVGA 7900 GT CO
And now ATI Radeon X1900 GT.

 

[POGE]

Neomagic 256av
FX5200
6200
x1900xtx

 

[magibeg]

ATI Rage Pro 8mb (p2 300)
Voodoo 2 12mb (p2 300)
Ati x800se (p4 3.4ghz)


Alec i noticed you have a ton of the Voodoo cards. Don't they kick ass? 3dfx = magic

 

[trog100]

the voodoo five was interesting.. five voodoo one chips all stuck on the same board i think.. the last desperate attempt by 3dfx to stay in the game..

but they did start it all.. and when i played the original quake on a voodo 1 my eyes popped.. nothing since has made em pop quite so much..

trog

 

[JC316]

Exactly, voodoo was the best and the reason that I bought Nvidia alot. Until that damned 5900 anyway.

 

[noneed4me2]

My first 3d card was a Diamond Stealth s220 I got at a PC trade show which I regretably put into a 486 PC for my dad that has since disappeared(I would have like to keep that one for sentimental reasons. Got cause of the kick ass rating in Boot magazine), I got windows 2000 to work on that p133 with 64mb ram, took like 8 hours to load but ran great all things considered, it was just to serf the net and email which it did fine. Owned a few Voodoos one still in a pentium 200 packard bell that still works that I keep around for the kids. Its a dual boot setup Win98/Win2000 with 128mb ram, I paid 400 for it back in the day (just the ram!). A TNT2 Nvidia 8mb. My First ATI card was a 32mb Radeon AIW that worked great as a PVR before cable went all digital. I have a X800 GTO by C3D modded of course and i am still debating getting some form of x1900 or waiting till DX10 cards come out.