Best Videocard of All Time

[Amplifier]

Which card, regardless of generation, impressed you the most when it came out?

For me there have been two cards that floored me when they were released, the Voodoo2 and the radeon 9700.

If I had to pick I'd say the Voodoo2 was the best card ever made. Up to that point I never realized games could look so good (G-Police!). The card played every game for almost three years. I loved it to death.

What's your pick(s)?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I only started being around the time the geforce3 was coming out. Since that time I think the 9700pro was the most impressive.

 

[Dman877]

Gotta be the gf2 mx 200 64 bit .

 

[aatf510]

Voodoo 2 - true inovation
Riva128 - first time I realized the company "Nvidia"
Voodoo 5 & 6 - dual and qual processer cards
Geforce 256 - first GPU
Radeon 8500 - first time I realized ATI makes desktop cards
Radeon 9700 - great performer for such a long period of time
x800xt PE - first pc hardware that hold it's value for so long and over it's MSRP

 

[BlueWeasel]

For me, it would have to be the Voodoo Banshee and the Voodoo3 I purchased a few months later. From a performance standpoint, the cards were nothing special, but they were simply the first cards I used with hardware acceleration.

Prior to that, I was used to running the few games I played in software mode. With the Voodoo Banshee, HL never looked so good.

 

[Munky]

I can only relate to cards as far back as the gf256, but I'd have to say the radeon 9700 was the greatest card, judging by how much ahead of the competition it was when it came out. I honestly didn't think Ati had the ability to pull off something like that.

 

[Machine350]

I've been most impressed with Nvidia's 6800 series. They have really bounced back since the FX series. There wasn't as much of a noticeable difference going from GF2 to GF3 to GF4 like there was going from FX to GF6.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Radeon 9700 pro, I got one more than 2 years after it was released, and it still rocks!

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I really liked my Hercules 4000 64MB card which seemed uber fast to me for a while, and lasted me from 2001 until 2004.

 

[FixerMX]

Tie between the Radeon 9700 Pro and the Riva TNT, which IIRC proved that you could have solid 3D performance in an all-in-one card back in the Voodoo 2 days.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

for Ati i think the 9700pro will go down as the best, that turned it around for them

for Nvidia, probably the Ti4200, what a work horse of a card that is

 

[MrVeedo]

radeon 9500 non pro that had the L shaped memory and modded to a 9700 pro, that card was kick as*!

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: MrVeedo
radeon 9500 non pro that had the L shaped memory and modded to a 9700 pro, that card was kick as*!

Indeed. Although the memory spec was the same as a 9700 not a 9700 Pro and thus had less overclocking potential in that regard, however the core overclocked just as well (which was a lot). In any case it must be the best bang for the rupee card evar. The R300 core had revolutionary performance, quality, features and longevity. All hail.

 

[classy]

No doubt Voodoo 2, not even close. It wasn't just fast, it literally changed gaming as we know it. And was the grandfather of SLI today.

 

[JBT]

9700 Pro.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: classy
No doubt Voodoo 2, not even close. It wasn't just fast, it literally changed gaming as we know it.

Agreed. Voodoo I was good but man, when I installed my V2 I was flabbergasted. No video card has done that to me since then.

 

[Theslowone]

For me it would have to be the Geforce 256 DDR, it seemed to revolutionize the market. And, in my eyes, it was the start of the end for 3dfx.

 

[Rage187]

Voodoo 2 SLI
Voodoo 5500
Geforce 3
Geforce 6800GT

 

[TStep]

Matrox Millenium + VoodooII x 2 always held a sweetspot for me.

 

[hans030390]

I'd say the 6600gt (or the whole 6xxx series) as they did bounce back. Not only that, but the 6600gt was cheap for how much it could do, and supported SM3.0

that was impressive to me

 

[KevinH]

The big cards that made t he most tangible difference for me compared to evertyning at the time was:

Voodoo 2, Geforce DDR 256, Ati 9700 and now the X800s and 6800 family.

 

[shortylickens]

VooDoo 5 6000.

From everything I've read on the internet and seen in stores myself, they NEVER made a VooDoo 6. But they did release a few VooDoo 5 6000's and those were king in their day. I think some folks called them VooDoo 6's just to impress their friends. I had to correct one such character by pulling his card out and showing him.

At least, they were the best if you were playing a Glide game.

The Radeon 9700's were good too. Had one for many years. They were a real jump in performance and reasonably priced.

 

[TempusMM]

Voodoo 2 or the GForce Ti4600, that thing was a beast and ran everything I ever threw at it...till I let my grills get dirty on my PC and cooked it.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Voodoo1, it started it all. Nothing has revolutionized gaming like that card and the games made to run on it did.

 

[BW86]

9700 Pro