Most Legendary GPU in the Past Decade?

[thismafiaguy]

Just for fun, what do you guys think is the most legendary GPU that was produced in the last 10 years? Mind sharing your thoughts and reasoning?

My vote goes to the AMD Radeon 7970. Tomorrow it will be officially 3 years old, and if we look at its history, it really has been nothing less than extraordinary. At release, it swept the performance crown for the fastest single GPU card on the market, and when Nvidia responded with the extremely formidable GTX 600 series, it fought back with GHz edition and continuous driver enhancements until it was neck and neck with the GTX 680 for the performance crown. Then came the Bitcoin rush, and the 7970 soon found itself in remarkably high demand. People who bought a 7970 before the rush were able to sell their nearly 2 year old GPU and easily get most, if not all of their money back. Then came the rebranding, and the 7970 became the R9 280X as we know it today. It still gives Nvidia a run for their money at its current price point, and is still plenty capable of running new games(ones that aren't from Ubisoft) buttery smooth at 1080p. For all we know, there is still some time before AMD will launch their next gen flagship GPUs, so it seems that this legend will live on for that much longer. I really can't think of another GPU that can match the track record and longevity of the 7970, except for maybe something from before 2010, I'm not very familiar with those.

Please don't turn this into an AMD vs Nvidia argument, we only want to know what you think has been the GPU of the past decade, not which company sucks more. And as a disclaimer, I'm actually an Nvidia user, I picked the GTX 670 over the 7970 and missed all the fun. I don't regret it too much though, the GTX 670 has been a damn good GPU as well.

 

[clutchc]

I'd have to go with the newcomer; the Maxwell equipped cards. The GTX 750 Ti (while not in the same class as the ones you mention) is the first to offer mainstream gaming performance on OEM 300W PSUs... w/o needing a 6 pin connection.

Its bigger brother, the GTX 970 changes everything. At 145W TDP it out performs the mighty 300W R9-290X in most games. So, that's why I pick the Maxwells. AMD needs something fast.

 

[thismafiaguy]

Indeed, the 750Ti and the GTX 970 are both game changers for the GPU market. The 750Ti made small form factor gaming a reality, and the GTX 970 raised the bar in nearly every way, imagine if it had gotten a die shrink like Nvidia had originally planned! We are due for a new flagship from AMD in the near future though, let's hope they can pull off another legendary card. More competition in the market is always good for consumers!

 

[nmb255]

The original 3DFX Voodoo card. Game changer in so many ways.

 

[RobCrezz]

The original 3DFX Voodoo card. Game changer in so many ways.

Wasnt in the last decade though.


My vote goes to the 8800 GT. Was amazing power and value for money at the time.

 

[chenw]

While I have only been in hardware very recently, from little I know, I vote for the Maxwell architecture.

The living proof that there is still room for improvement in Semiconductor industry without brute forcing with die shrink at every architecture.

 

[clutchc]

My vote goes to the 8800 GT. Was amazing power and value for money at the time.

Good choice. The first unified shader architecture, I believe. Changed the way GPUs were designed. I think the 8-Series was my first "enthusiast" card; the 8800 GTS. I bought it just so I could run Crysis... also a game changer.

 

[BustaRhymes]

We all know the answer is XBOX ONE!

 

[Eggz]

To keep with the 10-year limit, I'll name that RADEON X850 XT because it was the fastest card in 2005: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/2005-17gpu_14.html#sect0

Also, the Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 because it was the first to support Quad-SLI (which admittedly still doesn't find software support). It was cool because it ran on two PCBs bolted together: http://techreport.com/review/10102/nvidia-geforce-7950-gx2-graphics-card

The GTX 295 did the same thing but just a little better.

I also agree that the 750 ti was (and is) a total game changer, though. It's crazy to me how well it performs compared to my 780 ti. The images look almost the same at similar frame rates, all while using roughly one-quarter of the power. So impressive!

Also, because this is a historical discussion, here is a kewl link to a history of multi-GPU cards: http://www.maximumpc.com/quick_history_multi-gpu_video_cards_2014#slide-4