25 Years Of Graphics History: A Farewell To ATI, In Pictures

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[citation][nom]StigHelmer[/nom]I distinctively remember the first Radeon being the 32 and 64 models (R100), not the 7500 (R150).[/citation]

ah ! I knew I was missing something in the list. this confirms my memory. I remembered all of them from the Mach32 but in the list was a hole betweem fury maxx and radeon. now you filled that one in.

here's a review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/585
 
[citation][nom]bbruzzes[/nom]Good retrospective, but why no mention of the 9700 pro? That card helped start the GPU wars with Nvidia when it crushed the Geforce 4, it was the first to support DirectX 9, and it was the first card to require additional beyond the slot itself, something of which we now take for granted.[/citation]

I was wondering that myself. If I recall, it was the 9700 that made everyone stand up and start taking ATI seriously as far as gaming GPUs went.
 
Who the hell wrote this? During the 9600 era, there was NO shader model 3.0! That only came during Nvidia's 6 series and ATI X xeries (which, sadly, did not support). So why do you comment the lack of something that did not exist?
 
I cant believe the 9700 did not get any props. For its time it blew everything away and was probably the best (definitely one of the best) cards out there.

My ATI cards:
64mb 7200
128mb 9700
512mb 4670
4200(integrated)
 
I'm with the 9700PRO mob here... That card was a killer for nVidia at the time. But the one I was really impressed at the time, was the 8500. For me was a killer deal against the GeForce3 Ti of the time; got it for like USD$40 less (student at the time, so $40 was a ton of cash xD!).

My cards:
- SiS 6326 8MB
- TNT2 M64 32MB
- PowerColor ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR
- BBA ATI Radeon X1800XL 256MB GDDR3
- Sapphire Radeon 4850 512MB GDDR3 rev2 (Dual Slot)
- Sapphire Radeon 4890 1GB GDDR5 rev2 (Vapor)

Farewell ATI brand, I'll never forget about all your wonders!

Cheers!
 
I bought my ATI 9800 Pro for about $300-$400. I don't remember, but it kicked ass until the X-Series came out. I still have it and it still works great in my old P4 machine. I just did a Google search and they're still going for $100+ on ebay.

I have never had an ATI card go bad on me. I still have a couple Rage I and Rage II sitting around. My HD 2600 is still working great. I still have a rig with CFX HD 3870.

I just hope AMD keeps up the good work on their GPUs. Even though they don't dominate in the High End CPU market, I think they'll always do good in the GPU market because nVidia is too overpriced and overrated.
 
Wow they really made big advances in the last 3-4 years. I think the first time I really became aware of GPUs and ATI, would be in the Voodoo days. I vaguely remember a few Rage cards still sticking around but Voodoo was what everyone wanted at that time (according to the mind of a young teen)
 
Starting from my first computer I had an 8500>>9800 Pro 128MB>>8800GT>>4870 1GB. I'd still be on the 8800GT too if I wasn't offered the 4870 for, I think $120 about 6 months (I think) after it's release. Anyways, at the time it was normally going for around $190/$200 on average so I know it was a deal of a lifetime.
 
My ATI cards;

Rage 2 Fury Pro
Radeon 9600SE
Radeon X700 Pro
Radeon 4770
Radeon 6870

My Rage 2 Fury Pro is in an old PC that my uncle used for his business but retired it last year, my 9600 is in my dad's PC, my X700 Pro is still functional in someone's PC, my 4770 is sitting in its box looking for a new home and my 6870 is happily in my current personal PC.

I had a Riva TNT2, a GeForce 4 MX 420 and a GeForce 8800 GTS 320 from the NVIDIA camp, the TNT2 was rock solid, but not performant, the GeForce 4 was an improvement but still lacked performance, and my 8800 was pretty good, I can't complain, but I've always still preferred ATI over NVIDIA, and I am glad that AMD has turned Radeon into a real competitor capable of matching or surpassing NVIDIA.

Like someone said earlier, I also still say ATI Radeon when someone asks me what card I have in my PC...even if my 6870 is really an AMD Radeon.
 
My listing:

1. MB intergrated Rage 1 (Mach64) with 2MB of ram, upgradeable to 4MB, (never completed) on a NEC Pentium 1 166 Mhz system. (Note: The first Rage branding did NOT include a 3D processor. See number 2.) --- Played many empire building games on this system, as well as Diablo 1, Starcraft, and the original Everquest (no expansions).

2. Due to the lack of a 3D processor, added a 8MB Voodoo 2 to the system. --- With this setup, the system lasted for another 3 years.

3. Finally time for a new system, but only knowledgable enough to buy from a boutique builder, purchased a system with a Geforce 2 Titanium (AMD Thunderbird at ~1Ghz) due to it being the best mainstream system possible at the time. --- Lasted for 3 years, only having to replace (via warranty) the Geforce 2 Ti with a Geforce 4 MX (hey, it was newer... that makes it better... not) due to the 2 burning up.

4. Time for another upgrade (still going with boutique builders), this time with a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz and an AGP Radeon x600 with 64MB of ram. Horrible driver support for many games, and purchased at the wrong time. (End of AGP interface.) However, for all of the above, this system still runs. As a result, I have loaded Win98 on it (it came with XP Home) to play Win95 and Win98 era games.

5. Tired of being burned by builders and their warranties, learned to build my own computers from components. As a result, built a Nvidia 680i LT / Nvidia 8600 GT SLI / Core 2 Duo e6750 based system. (In the era of the 8800 GT being king.) Ran like a charm, except for the flaky MB control of SATA ports.

6. First upgrade was from the 8600 GT SLI setup to a single 9800 GT.

7. Then, upgraded the Nvidia MB, at the "end" of the LGA 775 socket and "beginning" of the 1366, into a G45 MB. Further, upgraded the 9800 GT with a 5770 1GB.

System is still in operation today, as I chose to bypass the 1156 socket fiasco. With the above, however, friends, family, and my HTPC have had the following graphic subsystemd:

4870 Crossfire (with a Core i7 920, friend's gaming pc)
4670 1 GB (with an AMD Phenom 2 720, my HTPC)
4770 1 GB (with AMD Phenom 2 720s, two friends' mainstream gaming pcs)

As a result, I (as a consumer and builder) have had much better luck with ATI hardware than Nvidia hardware. If ATI's driver support had been as good Nvidia's, and Nvidia hadn't made the G92, Nvidia would have had severe issues.
 
ATI, a monument of innovation and frustration. The first All-In-Wonder came out in 1996. Other early adopters of those TV-tuner cards must remember the trials and tribulations of the ATI Multimedia Center software. Actually, their bundled software that comes with tuner cards is still terrible. Thankfully, we have third party options now.
 
I will miss the Canadian name, ATI, I solute them with all the respect that I can give them, I ran all my video cards of theirs hard always overclocked to the max, just gaming with them, From my first one in the family copmuter, Rage 3D, to my last one on my old Socket A motherboard with AGP, Radeon 4650. A sad end to a well known company that kept NVIDIA on their toes and created a battle that must continue to keep the costs of video cards down so they don't hit a ridiculous high. Innovation and great reliability that is all I have ever had with ATI. I will miss them.... :'(
 
I agree with several posters as to ATI quality. In terms of long term reliability ATI has got Nvidia beat soundly. I'm still using a 9500 in my rig.
 
brings back a few memory's i still have a ATI 9600 in my part stash
Click to expand...
LoL - and I have a VGAWonder here somewhere, from the 80's.
I recall that we could run 16-colour graphics on a monochrome monitor with it.
It would convert the colors to different textures, I kid you not.
I have Mach32 and Mach64 vidcards too, and other early stuff that predates AGP...
ATI started up on Victoria Park in Toronto, not too far from where I live.
They were the first vidcard company ever, even before 3dfx and all, before anything.
There was an entire AllInWonder ATI-Television 'religion' that flourished for years before WinXP became the final supported OS.
I myself have my HDTV Wonder here in a sweet WinXP rig, that could easily run Win7 but clings to the ATI HiDef video.
So it's too bad, but a lot of folks will continue to cling to WinXP for as long as possible for those reasons.
Regards
 
I'll join in with the video card nostalgia.

Card's I've owned in order of purchase:

2MB S3 AGP 1x
16MB Creative 3D Blaster Banshee AGP 2x
32MB ATI Rage 128 PRO AGP 4x
256MB ATI 9600XT AGP 8x
256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800GT AGP 8x
256MB Nvidia GeForce 7600GT PCIe 16x
256MB ATI Radeon HD3450 PCIe 16x
512MB Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX+ PCIe 16x

I think the 9600XT was one of my favorite cards, allowing me to abandon VGA forever and was in the heyday of my PC gaming experience.
 
I really miss the radeon 9700 (pro) in this history. The way I remember it, this card was a real turning point where ati overtook nvidia by performance. Maybe even more so than the HD5870 a year and a half ago.
 
[citation][nom]gto127[/nom]I agree with several posters as to ATI quality. In terms of long term reliability ATI has got Nvidia beat soundly. I'm still using a 9500 in my rig.[/citation]
Have you had any short lived Nvidia cards to draw any sort of a comparison? Or does the fact that my Geforce3 Ti 200 is still working automatically make Nvidia the more reliable company?
 
I think it would have been great if for each card that Toms has a review a link was added to that card's mention in the retrospect. :) Good article though, definitely brings back some fond memories.
 
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