How often do you upgrade?

Hey guys...

After reading a few posts around the forums i realised that alot of people are forever upgrading there systems to the next latest and greatest... and im not exception. I have to ask the question, how many different video cards have you owned along your upgrade path... ive listed here what i can remember for myself...

3DFX VooDoo2
Nvidia TNT2
Nvidia Geforce 256
Nvidia FX5200
ATi 9500Pro
Nvidia 6600GT
Nvidia 7900GS
Nvidia 7900GT

Im not an Nvidia Fanboi by any means but seems to be what works for me... although i love my 9500pro and hay with the upcomming nvidia possibly being named 9series i might be able to pass it off as being better by just calling it a 9500

XFX Geforce 4MX 440 64MB

XFXGeforce FX 5700LE 256

GAINWARDGeforce 7900GT 512 GOLDEN SAMPLE (It was a faulty card)

ASUS EN7900GTX 512

OCZ GEFORCE 8800GTX

sh.., how about this:
Trident 2 meg VLB, diamond stealth 2000 4 meg, matrox G200, Diamond S3 32 meg, geforce 256, 8500 le. I used older cards but did not own them. You young punks think old cards start at 32 megs...ha...lol how about 256K, or CGA, I used CGA a lot, and EGA was the shiyat and big money.

back then you could add more memory on some cards at 70 US a meg, like from 1 to 2 megs...

ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
ATI Radeon X800 Pro
Nvidia Geforce 7900 GS
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTX (to be ordered this thursday)

geforce 4mx
ati 9600se
8800gts640

Integrated S3
Nvidia Geforce MX4000
ATI Radeon 9600se
ATI Radeon X1600pro
Nvidia 7600GT

I have no loyalties (though I was ticked at nvidia for making that MX4000, I mean WTF?)

PCI & AGP
Diamond Stealth 64
Diamond Viper II Savage 2000
Diamond Viper V550 TNT
STB Velocicty Riva 128
Matrox Mystique 3D
Creative Labs Annihilator Geforce 2
PNY Geforce 3
Hercules Stingray / 3DFX Voodoo Rush
Hercules 3D Prophet (the first one)
ATI 9700 Pro
EVGA Geforce 5900 Ultra
ATI Radeon X800 Pro
EVGA Geforce 6800GT
ATI X800XT-PE
ATI X850XT-PE
Visiontek X1950 Pro
Sapphire X1950 Pro 512MB
Gainward Bliss 7800GS+ GLH 512MB
HIS ICEQ3 Turbo X1950 Pro 512MB Rev.1 (Had 2 bad ones)
XFX 7950 GT 512MB

PCI-E As of 3 weeks ago
MSI HD 2900 XT 512MB

I believe I missed a few AGP cards .....

God those diamond savage cards (s3) sure sucked, looked good but SLOOW...I couldn't believe the geforce 256, I miss the wow factor.

Those 4 meg stealth 2000s sure did rock quake though, my buddy with the vodoo 2 and some 2 meg crap was pissed !

Really the G200 was even worse, it got killed off and was slow, by the time the extra 8 meg chip was affordable even slower. It was EXPENSIVE too !

I get a new system once every 8 years or so and upgrade my video card once inside that timeframe.

I upgrade when something I'm running (or want to run) is or seems slow, or when the upgrade bug bites, providing there's room in my budget for it. I don't remember all the video cards I've owned, but they go back to an IBM CGA adapter in 1984, and include the ATI ?GA Wonder cards, the usual Tridents, TNTs, MX440, blah blah. I don't think I ever had a VLB video card, but I had a VLB disk controller that ROCKED. I'm currently on a 7900GS, which seems to be handling my needs just fine, but I don't play FPS titles much. I was thinking of trying Bioshock, but I'll probably skip it simply because I don't have time to waste on DRM issues.

Owned by following order

CGA
EGA
VGA
Trident 9750
TNT1
Voodoo Banshee
Voodoo 3
Voodoo 5
Radeon 64 vivo
Radeon 8500
Radeon 9700 pro
Radeon 9800 pro
Geforce 6600
Radeon 850xt
Radeon 1900gt
Geforce 8600gts

marvelous211:

Voodoo 5... Wow i dont think they solve 10 of those in the whole world did they lol


accu:

geforce 4mx > ati 9600se > 8800gts640... them some big jumps... bet you noticed the difference in each upgrade there.


There some unforgettable cards in those lists... and some that anyone who owned them would like to forgot lol. I think its almost time to stop calling them Radeons and Geforces as well come up with some new names maybe then we could go back to some find of naming system that has a direct relation to how they perform. Voodoo 1,2,3,4,5 was so much easier to understand than X1900xtx and 8800GTX ultra mega super awesomes.

Yeah, but then joe noob wouldn't be confused and who would buy the crippled crappy ones ? Such as the "LE" and "SE" models. You know dam well they got that from the automobile industry, where LE and SE are better...irks me.

Maybe instead of SE it should be "differently abled" edition, and before everyone gets mad, I am so don't get all politically correct....lol

Oops for got the early days:
TI-99 (I believe) w/16k expansion!!
Commodore Vic 20 with whatever video
Commodore 64 w/$250 5 1/4 floppy drive (more expensive than the computer)

Voodoo Banshee 8mb
Voodoo 2000 16mb
Matrox G450 Dual Head
GeForce 2 32mb
GeForce 2 64mb
ATI 7500 64mb
GeForce 4 Ti4200 128mb
GeForce FX 5200 128mb
ATI 9500 Pro 128mb
GeForce FX 5600 256mb
GeForce FX 5700 128mb
ATI 9600 Pro 256mb
ATI 9600 XT 256mb
ATI 9700 Pro 128mb
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256mb
ATI 9800XT 256mb
ATI X700 Pro 256mb
GeForce 6600GT 256mb
ATI X600XT 512mb
GeForce 6800GT 256mb
ATI X800XL 256mb
ATI X800 Pro 256mb
GeForce 7800GT 256mb
ATI X1800XL 256mb
ATI X1900XTX 512mb
Soon to be HD2900XT revision or 8800GTS 640mb revision
Im sure there are more than I cant seem to remember or think of right now! lol

Best,

3Ball

Haha, well there is a very good chance that yes it will be nvidia, but my reasons for so many different changes is that I like to test many cards myself next to each other. I do prefer ATI video cards, but that has never stopped me from getting nVidia as you can tell...lol, same goes with Intel and AMD. I prefer Intel, but if AMD Is better I just buy whats best for me.

Best,

3Ball

VooDoo2
GeForce2 64
Radeon 9250
Radeon x700 Pro
8800GTS

TNT2
--integrated DX7 class graphics for a bit
Radeon 9600
Radeon 9550(different computer then the 9600 was in)
Radeon X850XT AGP(replaced 9600)
Quadro4 NVS 200(replaced dead 9600 after X850XT was sold, used that comp for desktop work only at this point, and a bit of CS 1.6 too)
GeForce 7900GS(current card)

not too many, but a decent amount.

Hm... I'm also pretty new at this.... Besides the OLD ATI card I that was in my parents old Pentium-166 (the thing still runs!), I've had four video cards.

ATI x300
nVidia 6200 Turbocache (Glad I got that POS for free)
ATI x1600pro
ATI x1900xt

isnt that 3?

voodoo1
riva tnt 32mb
riva tnt2 32mb?
geforce 256
geforce 2 gts 64mb
leadtek geforce 3 64mb
9700pro 128
9800pro 128
geforce 6 gts 256mb sli'd
geforce 7800gtx 256 sli'd
8800gtx (just one...stoopid 8x lanes)

LOOL I still remember when video cards started to have fans. I'm like wow such blazing fast performance that you need a fan! And the heatsinks back then were pretty small compared to today.

CGA (3 colours) Card in my old 8088
3DFX Voodoo 2
ATI All-in-Wonder (no idea what model)
Nvidia G-Force 2 MX-200
ATI Radeon 7000
ATI Radeon 7500
ATI Radeon 9200
ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512
ATI Radeon X1900 GT
ATI Radeon HD2900XT

ok as all are wiriting their list, here is mine:
An ISA slot VGA card that i bought with a 386 pc. Dont remember what was it (the name and memory).
matrox g200 millenium 16mb (it already had the extra 8mb chip) PCI
geforce fx 5200 128mb AGP
ati radeon 9700pro 128mb AGP
ati radeon x600pro 256mb PCI-EX
ati radeon x700 256mb PCI-EX
geforce tnt 16mb AGP
ati radeon 9800pro 128mb AGP
this was the list of vga card i bought and it is in the same order. i know there were upgrades and downgrades at times. but currently i am using the matrox g200. will buy a vga card soon.