Question What is your favorite GPU of all time?

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SHaines

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Apr 1, 2019
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Greetings!

Technology is changing so quickly that it can be tough to develop a deep attachment to any one item. However, through the years we've all likely made that one really big purchase that left us feeling like we were way ahead of the curve.

When I first caught the bug to build computers from scratch, the litmus test for any GPU was how it could run Crysis. At the time, next to nothing could really do it justice.

Many years after it came out, I was still using that game to test the power of graphics hardware and the GeForce 7800 GTX was my first card to run everything on high settings. It wasn't a perfect experience, given limitations I had in other hardware, but that is the first time a graphics card really blew me away.

What graphics card/GPU do you have fond memories of using?
 
to be honest no specific pick because i like them all but if i have to pick one probably my current GTX970. almost five years with this one (the longest one i ever use without upgrading) although had to go through RMA once due to fail overclocking attempt haha. still very good at 1080p. did eyeing for something like RTX2060 but i think i will wait for next gen to arrive first? if i can hold my fingers from pulling the trigger :p
 
Jan 18, 2020
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My favorite was an XFX Radeon RX 550 4gb low-profile. This tiny little card outperformed every sub $200 card I could get my hands on at the time, fit in any computer I put it in (including an old Dell Optiplex 745 SFF that didnt fit any card I had other than a GT 710 ), didnt take any external power, didnt produce much heat, and looked clean! For $95 it was an absolute steal and it was my first REAL graphics card, a huge upgrade over my first passively cooled 1gb GT-710. With memories to that card and that computer. If I could buy it back now, I would.
 
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mkaafy

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Jan 14, 2020
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The nostalgic 512 MB Geforce 8600GT just because it made it possible to play Warcraft III ROC and TFT, Condition Zero, Simcity and plenty of other old games on my father's old PC.
 

ramlawihassan

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Feb 10, 2014
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Greetings!

Technology is changing so quickly that it can be tough to develop a deep attachment to any one item. However, through the years we've all likely made that one really big purchase that left us feeling like we were way ahead of the curve.

When I first caught the bug to build computers from scratch, the litmus test for any GPU was how it could run Crysis. At the time, next to nothing could really do it justice.

Many years after it came out, I was still using that game to test the power of graphics hardware and the GeForce 7800 GTX was my first card to run everything on high settings. It wasn't a perfect experience, given limitations I had in other hardware, but that is the first time a graphics card really blew me away.

What graphics card/GPU do you have fond memories of using?


Ill have to say the RTX 2080 ti so it doesnt get mad at me and act up
 

bruvvamoff

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Mar 11, 2012
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My first big gpu was a geforce of some kind in 1999. I can remember I couldn't get it to work, tried everything for weeks until I realised it needed 2 pci plugs (this was a new thing at the time) I remember asking my tech guy if they both needed a plug. He said does it have 2 plugs? Yes? Then it needs 2 cables. Duh
 
My favorite card of all time has to be the AMD 7970. To be more specific the MSI 7970 Lightning Ghz Edition.
It was such a great card and at the time outperformed everything else on the market.
338-front.jpg
 

spongiemaster

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Dec 12, 2019
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Voodoo 5500. It took years for ATi and Nvidia to catch up in image quality, especially AA so I used the card until well after the company was gone. Also had the best API compatibility. Voodoo 1 had a bigger wow factor out of the box for me, but the inconvenient and expensive need for a 2d video card puts it a notch below the 5500, which had excellent 2D image quality as well, back when it mattered with analog CRT's.
 

OkithaPROGZ

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Mar 22, 2020
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Greetings!

Technology is changing so quickly that it can be tough to develop a deep attachment to any one item. However, through the years we've all likely made that one really big purchase that left us feeling like we were way ahead of the curve.

When I first caught the bug to build computers from scratch, the litmus test for any GPU was how it could run Crysis. At the time, next to nothing could really do it justice.

Many years after it came out, I was still using that game to test the power of graphics hardware and the GeForce 7800 GTX was my first card to run everything on high settings. It wasn't a perfect experience, given limitations I had in other hardware, but that is the first time a graphics card really blew me away.

What graphics card/GPU do you have fond memories of using?



NVIDIA RIVA 128
 

Genralkidd

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Apr 18, 2013
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Greetings!

Technology is changing so quickly that it can be tough to develop a deep attachment to any one item. However, through the years we've all likely made that one really big purchase that left us feeling like we were way ahead of the curve.

When I first caught the bug to build computers from scratch, the litmus test for any GPU was how it could run Crysis. At the time, next to nothing could really do it justice.

Many years after it came out, I was still using that game to test the power of graphics hardware and the GeForce 7800 GTX was my first card to run everything on high settings. It wasn't a perfect experience, given limitations I had in other hardware, but that is the first time a graphics card really blew me away.

What graphics card/GPU do you have fond memories of using?

There's a few odd GPU's I have fond memories of actually. For quite awhile my main PC was a mini ITX build that only had a PCI slot. The best graphics card I could use for that was a Zotac GeForce GT 610 since that's the most powerful GPU available that uses the old PCI interface.

Another one I've liked was the GeForce 8400M GS which was my first gaming oriented GPU in a new laptop I got back then. Before that all my laptops were on Intel GMA and could barely run any games at all. I used that for the longest time.

The third one is the Intel Iris Pro 580 that I used in my Intel Skull Canyon NUC. It had pretty decent performance and lasted me awhile before I upgraded to a slim Lenovo TB3 eGPU Dock with a 4 GB GTX 1050 built in (another interesting GPU I have actually). Also I always though the eDRAM concept in the Iris Pro 580 was pretty cool too.

And finally, a more recent GPU I've really liked is the GeForce RTX 2060. It's the best GPU I've ever owned since I usually go for midrange and the Turing namesake for the architecture is important to me because growing up Alan Turing was always someone I looked up to. The RTX 2060 is mostly sentimental value to me than performance of course but it's still a nice modern GPU.

A bonus GPU that I find impressive is the nVidia NV2A found in the original Xbox. It's not one you can use in PC's of course but it was impressive at the time.
 

Achint2000

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Feb 10, 2013
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in 2015 October, STRiX 970 4GD5 that I got after winning a district level chess tournament at school.

I upgraded from a GTX 650 Ti BOOST so it was a huge improvement... I was so happy with that. I love that GPU...

This is a photo from 2019 April, just few months before I upgraded.
h4aGudj.png


At the time, it felt like I won't need a GPU upgrade for half a decade... (and I was right)

I even modded it's BIOS using maxwell BIOS tweaker and got it to 1455 MHz on Core, 3824 MHz on Memory at the locked 1.212v ... It still works PERFECT. No crashes, no issues whatsoever. Happy 4 years of memories with it.

After that, in May 2019, I got my absolute dream GPU - ASUS STRiX RTX 2080Ti ...
The most powerful in the lineup...
 
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bit_user

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Probably my most memorable experience was buying my first GPU with > 1 TFLOPS. Incidentally, it was a Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 (the same one with the female character art, I mentioned above). The combination struck me as so incongruous - that this cutting-edge compute device should feature such decorations. But it was fairly cheap, and idles so cool and quiet that I still use it in a Linux machine. And they managed to get it running OpenGL 4.4 now, I believe (thanks to fp64 emulation).

However, I'm still most impressed by what Nvidia did with the Pascal series, which built on the already impressive efficiency strides made by the previous Maxwell generation. I have a 980 Ti, which is still great for my limited needs.

More recently, I picked up a Radeon VII, because I don't know when there will ever be as much fp64 compute power available for so little money. It's over a year old, and the memory specs (16 GB @ 1 TB/sec) are still unequaled by any true consumer card. If you geek out on GPU-compute like I do, that's a big deal.