Discussion what is your favorite GPU you have ever used from a performance and/or design standpoint?

[Order 66]

If you had asked me ten years ago, I'd have been like "Hell yeah!" but considering what Star Wars has become (absolute trash), I'd rather they do Star Trek or Babylon-5.

The movies did go off the rails towards the end, but some of the shows have been pretty good.

 

[Avro Arrow]

The movies did go off the rails towards the end, but some of the shows have been pretty good.

Here's what I thought was good:
The Mandalorian: First two seasons
The Book of Boba Fett: First season
Andor: First season

The rest have been literally unwatchable. I tried to watch Kenobi but it was absolute garbage. Disney has destroyed Star Wars. I loved that franchise for over thirty years but it's dead to me now.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Ahhh... multi-card setups. I really miss those. I ran my two HD 4870s in Crossfire, then did the same thing with my HD 7970s. Then I tried with my R9 Furies but... I mean, technically, they worked but no game was supporting Crossfire by that time. It made me sad...

 

[kira-faye]

Ahhh... multi-card setups. I really miss those. I ran my two HD 4870s in Crossfire, then did the same thing with my HD 7970s. Then I tried with my R9 Furies but... I mean, technically, they worked but no game was supporting Crossfire by that time. It made me sad...

I had a couple different Crossfire setups, then 8800 GTX single, dual, eventually triple. Those were replaced with Radeon HD 4850 Crossfire (still have one in a box as a spare) unlocked to HD 4870 shaders. My last multi-GPU setup was dual GeForce 980Ti. By that point it was already pretty difficult getting things to make use of both GPUs. I also miss multi-GPU and kind of wish they'd bring it back, but given how much power modern GPUs draw I don't think that's a great idea. We'd be back to needing 1600w PSUs overnight.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I had a couple different Crossfire setups, then 8800 GTX single, dual, eventually triple.

Ah, the 8800 GTX. I remember it well. It was a massive game-changer for nVidia. I wasn't playing any big 3D games yet at the time and just had an 8500 GT. I remember that the 8800 came in quite a few flavours with the 8800 GT, 8800 GTS, 8800 GTX and 8800 Alpha Dog. It was so ahead of its time that all nVidia had to do was switch its connectivity to PCIe2 and rename it the 9800 GTX (and then the GTS 250).

This was when I worked at Tiger Direct and I got interested in the latest games (like Crysis). I was initially looking at getting an Intel Core2Quad Q9400 and a BFG GeForce GTX 260 but... when I saw from that side of the counter what Intel and nVidia were doing... I got a really sour taste in my mouth. When I saw that I could get the same performance with a Phenom II X4 940 and a Radeon HD 4870 for about $350 less money, I went with that and have been all-AMD ever since.

Those were replaced with Radeon HD 4850 Crossfire (still have one in a box as a spare) unlocked to HD 4870 shaders.

That's awesome. It's so cool having those old cards around. I love the fact that I still have both of my HD 4870s. I remember when I got my first one, to make my buddy at work laugh, I hugged the box close and stroked it while whispering "MY PRECIOUS!!!".

My last multi-GPU setup was dual GeForce 980Ti.

Which coincides perfectly with my last multi-GPU setup of twin R9 Furies.

By that point it was already pretty difficult getting things to make use of both GPUs.

Yes it was. It sounds like you were as frustrated with it as I was.

I also miss multi-GPU and kind of wish they'd bring it back, but given how much power modern GPUs draw I don't think that's a great idea. We'd be back to needing 1600w PSUs overnight.

What I liked most about Crossfire and SLI was the fact that you could upgrade your GPU simply by buying another of the same (or in the case of Crossfire, similar) type. You were still able to leverage the power of the card that you already had. That made upgrading less expensive (because by the time you needed to upgrade, it was a sure bet that your card had become really cheap to buy) and it also meant less e-waste because it made cards longer-lasting and thus, less disposable.

As for the 1600W PSUs... I think that's an inevitability regardless of what we do based on the way things seem to be going.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

When I upgraded from a Sapphire HD 2600 Pro to a EVGA GTX 750 Ti SC, I had more fun playing all the modern games than I had ever had. I was hooked on EVGA from that point on and loved all my EVGA cards after including:

EVGA GTX 750 Ti SC
EVGA GTX 950 SC
EVGA GTX 1060 6GB SC
EVGA GTX 1070 SC
EVGA GTX 1080 Ti SC2

other cards I envied for their good looks include Sapphire RX Vega 56 and 64 Nitro+.

Sadly, GPUs just aren't the same anymore to me. Looks went downhill and value went even further downhill.

 

[ocer9999]

From a performance standpoint, well, it would be the card that I have currently because I've never owned one of the top-two most potent video cards in the world before. I have to admit, it's pretty damn awesome!

ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phantom Gaming OC:

Now they have the White Phantom model, looks awesome. To me, they are the best designing cards and motherboards these last few years.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Now they have the White Phantom model, looks awesome. To me, they are the best designing cards and motherboards these last few years.

The designs are nice, sure, but they're also kinda generic. This thing with white PC parts is only a fad because when people realise just how much dust is in their PCs without them knowing it (which will happen when they see just how dirty their white parts get), people will go back to black and grey PC parts. Remember that most of us who build PCs and game are male and I know that, as a general rule, we are lazy as all hell when it comes to things like that.

 

[Eximo]

Been doing black and white builds for a while now. Short answer, dust filters.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Been doing black and white builds for a while now. Short answer, dust filters.

Yeah, but I'm too lazy to do even that. I admit it freely!

 

[CountMike]

Matrox Millennium g450. Although one of most expensive and not for gaming it had Color Quality2 technology that allows to get high quality pictures, and first of all in 16-bit color mode and most of all clearest picture with dual 26" CRT monitors. I was working with various CAD programs so picture clarity was most important

 

[Avro Arrow]

Matrox Millennium g450. Although one of most expensive and not for gaming it had Color Quality2 technology that allows to get high quality pictures, and first of all in 16-bit color mode and most of all clearest picture with dual 26" CRT monitors. I was working with various CAD programs so picture clarity was most important

I agree with you that Matrox was pretty underrated and that image quality translated into their specialisation for CCTV and security system cards.

To this day, I still love the look of the Millennium II, or as I called it; "The Sandwich Card":