The 23 Greatest Graphics Cards Of All Time

[ikaruga]

Please, elaborate for us.

Sorry, I wont It's not because I'm not into interesting arguments (I love them tbh) or because I want to dodge out from a debate without accepting if I'm wrong or anything, etc.. It's just because it would be several walls of text (literally!)... You just can't cover years of tech history in a forum post

I found an "error" almost on every page, I give you an example with the first one:
I clearly remember that (as a developer) I had a 3dfx card in my system very early (prelaunch), but the animator guy with his special dedicated 3D-workstation built for Softimage had a much more powerful professional card at the same time, therefore (imho) the statement: "superior to every other product on the market" is true if you consider "every other product" on the mainstream level only.

 

[dkraptor]

[citation][nom]buzznut[/nom]Its amazing how many of these I've owned. Voodoo II, Voodoo III, GeForce 4ti, Riva TNT, Radeon 9800, TNT 2 Ultra..Course now that I'm married I can't spend money on things like the latest video card.[/citation]
Don't worry, you're not alone )

 

[Th-z]

By the trend of your pick then all the dual GPU cards from now on will be in your list as the "most legendary" cards, which doesn't really sound right. I don't think people would consider 6990 and 590 as "legendary", they are fast and hot, but legendary? Probably no. I think you need to have clearer definition of "greatest" to avoid controversy. If by your definition that "greatest" is the "fastest" in each generation, then 9800 XT, Ti 4800, and 8800 Ultra should be in the list, not 9700 Pro, Ti 4600, and 8800 GTX, and for that reason I think there is contradiction in your selection.

 

[wbarnum]

There were certainly some great graphics cards before 1996, despite what this article implies. For example, the IBM Color Graphics Adapter.

 

[nforce4max]

There is an error on the page about the gtx 280, the G200 series only had 240 shaders. The 8800gt should have been up there as well and there should have been plenty more. Also the x1950xtx was also the first card to run physics as well stanford fold @ home back in 2006. The havock FX engine was coded to use "compute to shader" function that is also present in the x1800 and x1650 series. I also think that the 3DFX voodoo 5 5500 should have made this list because it was the first true dual gpu card for both agp and pci for both mac and pc. As for the Kyro 2 lucky me I got one a few feet away

ATI hardware physics demo, this is the reason why Nvidia bought Ageia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLgb9AdnaBI

 

[LORD_ORION]

You are crazy people for not including the Vodoo 5, because it only included a new feature (AA) that is present on every video card since then.

Also seriously, no 8800GT? The card that brought price/performance for all?

You are clueless.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

^ Voodoo 5 never got released properly. They barely sold any cards...

 

[billj214]

Bump on the 8800GT, it was the dominant card for a long time.

 

[Ananan]

The title is a bit misleading. While I do agree that the 8800 GTX is the most "legendary" card of all time the 8800 Ultra was faster and should be on the list, or at least merit a mention. I have one, and it can still play any game out there well. I would still be using it if I hadn't bought a 5970.

I also agree that the 8800 GT and the 5870 should be on the list, and as the first "legendary" mid-range card the 7600 GT brought great graphics to a huge amount of gamers.

 

[ltdementhial]

it all started with an intel i740 when i was 10,that was when i got in love with pc's and wanted to be on this field, then i got mi first "decent VGA" an VooDoo Banshee...crap i remember those day when i use the pc for Paint & GBA Emulator...2001 to be exactly, from there to here i have been like a maniac using the birthday-christmas money i get (birthday in november fuck yeah) to buy hardware...i got like 4 years an Athlon 2600+ and it enjoyed alomst 6 VGA's.

Then i started to read and read books of almost anything related to the pc world in Secondary high school by the third grade i was not an expert but i overclocked 3 cpu's (P4 2.66Gzh 478, P4Extrem 3.2Gzh 775, Xeon 3.4Gzh 775[it got burned]and 2 GPU's (nvidia FX 5200 (burned to because of the Bios mod to make it an 5500 and nVidia 6200)...then i bought my graduation gift and Athlon 64 X2 5200+ with a great :drums: Nvidia Geforce 8400GS...i hated that VGA for like 2 years (boughted it on late summer 2007) then my father wanted to buy antoher pc the next year so i give him my lovely Athlon with my 8400 GS and buy a monster called Core 2 Quad Q6600 and an Ati X1950...the one with GDDR4...i wanted an Phenom X3 but for the money and the reviews i choosed that Quad Cpu with my little monster that i paide during 12 months to my mother..and Geforce 8800 GT Alpha Dog Edition..that pc maked until 2010 when i bought finaly my X3 but it was a X3 720 BE that since last year is runing fine as an X4 20 (Aida 64 and bios Said thats the model i called the X3 with the fourth core unlocked like a x4 920 and overclocked to 3.2Gzh like an 955 xD)it worked fine with the 8800GT but i have to sell it to help pay my High School and bought a second handed Ati HD 4650...then i recive as a christmas gift and HD5750 vapor X and its runing just fine since then...almost 2 years this christmas and i think i will upgrade to an HD 7000 or an 560ti... Great times with this things...

 

[JMT3EBAOTP]

Awesome! Learned a lot from this, Thanks! =)

 

[demonhorde665]

i stil have the following cards from this list

TNT 2 Ultra in the attic

GF 2 ultra in the attic

GF 4 ti in my grandma's computer

Radeon 9700 pro , fan died on it it is sitting in desk draw in the living room , still works jsut comp shuts off when it gets to hot.

radeon x800 in the attic but burned up when it's fan died

GF 9800 GT (ok not technically in list but it is basically a less power hungry 8800) still in my closet fully functional

radeon 3870 in my mom's computer (note it is agp variant last good agp card made)

Radeon 5770 (not in list but they did list the 5000 series) using it right now on trhis computer so far ahven't found to many games that make it break a sweat.

 

[demonhorde665]

billcat479 said

"All in all I think the 2 most important video cards were the Voodoo cards and the AIW cards from ATI. They broke new grounds and gave us new and useable options for our computers of those days. I sure would NOT put much credit to Nvidia for their start into this arena because the current Voodoo cards were better all the way around."


you sound like some one that hate's nvidia but to disredit nvidia for the things they did do and not mentioning them for those are almost fanboysim in it's purest form.

syure the two card you list were great and innovative peices of tech but you forget that the radeon 9700 pro's exsistance hinges on the fact that NVIDIA invented the first true GPU's in my mind this makes the original geforce one of the most important video card advances
had nvidia not came up with true gpu's then it's likely the 9700 pro woudl never been made the way it was. and i think you overstate it's importance to graphic card development

now before you think i'm an nvidia die hard you may want to look at my prievious post and not how today i mostly use radeon's and have mostly used radeon's since 2002 , one such card being a very powerful overclocked readeon 9700 pro itself. so i'm not just some nivida fanboy firing off at you . i just think you seriously over state the important of the radeon 9700 and understate the importance of nvidia's products namely the invention of the gpu

 

[cobra5000]

That was fun. Kinda sad that Ive still never had one of these top tier cards but its just to expensive to get one of those flagships when the next tier down will save you hundreds.

 

[gmp23]

What a great article. Brings back some great memories. I've owned most of these cards, even though the majority has been Nvidia for me. I have some biased over the GTX 580 because I own it right now, but I still think it should be on the list. It's the fastest single GPU out there and was a big improvement over the 480 as far as thermals are concerned. Amazing how far the industry has come in just ten years. I can't wait to see what both companies have in store for us in the future. It's going to be exciting, and taxing on my wallet!

 

[gmp23]

Wouldn't mind seeing some mobile gpu's thrown in the mix as well.

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]godnodog[/nom]The 8800 series are probably the all time (so far) best chip.I have an old Athlon X2 4600+ with an 8800GT and I play everyhing Csisis 1 n 2, all thanks to the 8800 series.Wish I could afford an upgrade.[/citation]

Don't change the gfx unless you upgrade the CPU aswell. If you replaced
the 8800GT with, for example, a GTX 460, you'd not notice much difference -
the 4600+ isn't powerful enough to push a later card. Indeed, a good CPU
could get you 50% more oomph out of your existing 8800GT.

Ian.

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]pepe2907[/nom]Wow, the world don't begin with the PC /at mid 90s/.Ever heard something about Reality engine for example?Or you should at least mention somewhere it's about PC graphich cards exclusively.[/citation]

I was going to mention RealityEngine2 (I have a couple, and an RE), but for
me InfiniteReality was a bigger leap - the Geforce256 is based on it (same
speed, but without the fancy features, shrunk with a modern process, nice
& cheap).

Ian.

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]Though not specifically stated, this article I'm sure refers to the retail market, as far as graphics cards are concerned.[/citation]

They're retail-level now. ;D 24-CPU Onyx RE2 only cost me 200 UKP. I know
someone down south who bought one for 50.

Ian.

 

[mapesdhs]

[citation][nom]LORD_ORION[/nom]You are crazy people for not including the Vodoo 5, because it only included a new feature (AA) that is present on every video card since then. ...[/citation]

Only new for the consumer market. Standard on pro solutions.

Ian.

 

[spentshells]

bullshit on voodoo 2 mine had 16 MB but cheers on the 256 it was awesome

 

[spentshells]

also missing bigtime is the 8800gt I didn't own one until last year and it still does well, also the 460 GTX is way better in all aspects than most cards,

note to above I had the voodoo 2000

 

[Guest]

Bought my GTX295 in July 2009, still maxing out games in August 2011. Worth it.

 

[griffed88]

It's pretty amazing that an 8800gtx is still a halfway decent card. You can run most of today's games at med/high settings. I miss that card, served me well.

 

[g-unit1111]

The Voodoo 2 was the first piece of computer hardware I ever bought with my own money. Ah, memories...