Question What is your favorite GPU of all time?

[SHaines]

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?

 

[bit_user]

I was wondering when Kyro would get a mention, I remember they were using tile based rendering and I thought at the time was so cool.

At the time, I figured the whole industry would just switch over that method. But, it took Nvidia until 2015, and AMD is still kinda getting there. Not too sure about Mali or Adreno.

 

[bit_user]

Unfortunately, curved 16:9 screens are now popular. Good luck to finding a decent 1440p non-curved.

VA panels are generally curved, due to off-axis non-uniformity.

 

[bit_user]

when IBM PCs had 256 colors and the mac was black and white , it gave us 4096 colors ...

Sort of. With VGA (introduced in 1987), you could have any 256 out of 256k colors. So, it didn't (usually) look as bad as it sounds.

There were some hacks that would even reprogram the palette between scanlines, but I only saw that in demos. More commonly, image viewers would simply pick a palette that was optimized for the image. That's how PCs were able to display near-photographic quality color, with only 8 bits per pixel.

As a matter of fact, the GIF image format was created around this capability. So, GIF shows what you can do with 8-bit indexed color.

 

[Matt P.]

My favorite GPU of all time is definitely the GTX 1080 ti, it's running strong 3 years old and is still destroying most games today with next-gen graphics, really proud of my son.

 

[nofanneeded]

Sort of. With VGA (introduced in 1987), you could have any 256 out of 256k colors. So, it didn't (usually) look as bad as it sounds.

There were some hacks that would even reprogram the palette between scanlines, but I only saw that in demos. More commonly, image viewers would simply pick a palette that was optimized for the image. That's how PCs were able to display near-photographic quality color, with only 8 bits per pixel.

Amiga had 12 bit color palette in 1985 , giving you 4096 colors .. it destroyed all other PCs in the market at its time for gaming and multimedia for like 6 years.

Even when the VGA came in 1987 and was still 8 bit and not 12 bit , it could not match it. and games on PC did not use the VGA much as well in 1987 , it was used for stills and not for animation and games at the beginning .. while Amiga users were enjoying the color rich games for years by then.

The first wave of VGA games on PC came in 1989 ... 4 years after Amiga games.

 

[bit_user]

Amiga had 12 bit color palette in 1985 , giving you 4096 colors .. it destroyed all other PCs in the market at its time for gaming and multimedia for like 6 years.

I'm not trying to have a pissing match with a 35 year old machine. Amiga had a well-deserved reputation for taking an early lead in graphics and a few other areas. I was just trying to explain what VGA's 8-bit color actually meant, in practical terms, since a lot of folks won't know about it.

Anyway, from what I can tell, you grossly exaggerate the original Amiga's capabilities. It did not have a 12-bit palette, it had a 5-bit palette. So, the indexed color mode could display 32 colors out of a set of 4096. The way to access all 4096 colors, in a single frame, was using technique called HAM mode, which involved some lossy compression techniques. Due to the complexities, I have to wonder whether it was much used by games.

As far as I can tell, it wasn't until 1992 that models with the AGA chipset finally surpassed these limitations. However, by then, PCs were well into the SVGA and XGA era.

Amiga was indeed the first kid on the block with indexed color and its HAM party trick, but I would probably cite some of its other video & graphics capabilities as more influential and ground-breaking.

PC did not use the VGA much as well in 1987 , it was used for stills and not for animation and games at the beginning .. while Amiga users were enjoying the color rich games for years by then.

Yeah, I had no clue about PC hardware, back then, but my sense is that VGA remained a high-end thing, for several years. By the early 1990's, the market exploded with dozens of SVGA chipsets, however. I think that's what really brought it into the mainstream.

 

[devikiran]

I think i prefer this GPU unit as one of the best Graphic card
0JP111 Dell Nvidia Quadro Fx 4600 768mb Gddr3 Graphics Video card

 

[Tikku82]

There is many favourites over time. Top 3 would probably be Voodoo Banshee , Geforce 4 Ti 4400 and GTX 970

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

The hd 7970 it was made 9 years ago and was an EPIC beast of a gpu it is even competent today. https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-AMD-HD-7970/3649vs2163
It even outperforms the 1050ti by quite a bit making it an impressive gpu for it's time and even good today.
My dad has an old gaming pc with a 4th gen i5 a 128gb ssd some tb's of storage that has a card like that one we use that pc as our office pc.
it even performs roughly the same compared to the rx 380x https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-HD-7970-vs-AMD-R9-380X/2163vs3532
and performs quite similarly to the nvidia 1650 https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1650-vs-AMD-R9-380X/4039vs3532
it is legit the best gpu ever in my opinion and really shows you how well gpus can age.

 

[bryantnelson12]

It has to be the GTX 970. Totally underrated card, still running strong in my computer to this day. Holds up to all of the latest games. I remember watching conspiracy videos about how Nvidia was holding it back in certain games via updates through Geforce Experience as it was pushing way above its level.

 

[Toadster88]

Riva TNT

 

[R_1]

The hd 7970 it was made 9 years ago and was an EPIC beast of a gpu it is even competent today. https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-AMD-HD-7970/3649vs2163
It even outperforms the 1050ti by quite a bit making it an impressive gpu for it's time and even good today.
My dad has an old gaming pc with a 4th gen i5 a 128gb ssd some tb's of storage that has a card like that one we use that pc as our office pc.
it even performs roughly the same compared to the rx 380x https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-HD-7970-vs-AMD-R9-380X/2163vs3532
and performs quite similarly to the nvidia 1650 https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1650-vs-AMD-R9-380X/4039vs3532
it is legit the best gpu ever in my opinion and really shows you how well gpus can age.

I am currently running a HD 7950 with my ryzen 1500x.
my favorite of all time was my first, but this has been the longest lasting item in any computer I have had

 

[Theicecream2]

Visiontek 900574 Because im still using it right now as I Type

 

[headcrab266]

My favorite was the VisionTek x1950 pro AGP. Whenever I make a build, I use the sucker as long as I can. This AGP model worked really well and helped me put off building a new system for 2 years. Loved that copper cooler at the time!

Second favorite was the Radeon 7970, such a beast it was

 

[ArchitSahu]

2080 Ti for 2 distinct reasons:

1. The first card I bought new and can feel proud of
2. Sheer power

 

[henterpriser]

GT 730 in 2014. maxing out settings in MOBA games. Old Days...

 

[Gurg]

My current Gigabyte Gaming GeForce RTX 2080 Super OC. Three fans which never seem to need to speed up anywhere near max during long gaming sessions to keep overclocked GPU around or below 70º C. I have the fans set to a slightly more aggressive user defined fan curve than standard but during casual use they often sit idle. It is sufficient to run my 4K monitor at 60 hz. It is also a modest 50.2 mm height so it has adequate cooling air flow room between it ( mounted vertically parallel to my motherboard in my case ) and the glass panel on my case. With overclock it runs at between 2065-2100 Ghz max during gaming session and if I also max out memory overclock it scored 12888 graphics Time Spy. Since buying my 4K monitor 5 years ago I have run 970s in sli, 980s in sli and previously a 1080ti. This is the best performing card yet. As it stands now however I will probably upgrade my graphic card one more time for this 4K monitor set up depending upon price, improved performance jump and aesthetics of RGB fans.

 

[antonr]

I think lost of people are gonna say this, but I love the RX 570. I just recently got into PCs, a year or so ago, and this thing has been there with me since. Such a good card to throw in a budget system or to upgrade an old system. Runs games nicely, is cheap, can be found cheap on the used market if you’re into that. Just such a great card for the price.
I just put the Sapphire Pulse model of the 570 in my new system, and I love it. Runs games as good as I need it to and stays cool in the process.

Agree the device is pure truth.

Wonder sometimes is a Rx 580 8G would be a wee bit more future proof. But the Rx 570 is top value for money.

 

[Pinkermo]

I think the 1080 TI was probably the best bang for the buck. Although crypto mining pretty much killed decent pricing for a few years :T