GTX 970/980 Release: When is the last time you were this excited about a video card?

[Attic]

Poll incoming.

 

[Gloomy]

Easy: 4870

 

[skipsneeky2]

8800gts 512mb. Coming from a 7800gs agp and p4 to a e6750 and this gpu was like wow.:biggrin:

 

[Mand]

The last time I bought one: HD5870

Going from that to tri-980 should be...significant.

 

[Attic]

The last time I bought one: HD5870

Going from that to tri-980 should be...significant.

Hmmm, yes... significant

 

[DeathReborn]

8800GTX, I kept it until the 5850 came out & I still have it in the loft.

 

[Attic]

I remember being pretty floored at 9700Pro and the 8800GTX/8800GTX cards. Those were very expensive, but performance was incredible.

I'd guess we'll see that performance wowza moment at 20nm with these guys.

The GTX 970 feels a bit like the 4870, Geforce 3 ti200, geforce 4 ti4200, where in high performance arena the price/performance gets rockin'. OC could tie in to make it one of the real defining cards of a few generations.

 

[Rvenger]

Guys, I want to give a stern heads up. If this thread gets out of hand with the trolling, baiting, personal attacks or any fanboy attacks in nature. I will shut this thread down fast. This could be a fun discussion here and I am all for it so I will make it clear to the repeat offenders (Oh, you know who you are). Stay out if you intend to derail the discussion.

I will be watching over this thread.



Thanks,

-Rvenger

 

[wand3r3r]

It's hard to say, they're all pretty exciting imo (until you know if it's going to be a must buy or not anyway). The biggest thing is some are game changers in different ways. Usually a great deal is the best for me.

 

[dmoney1980]

The 8800GTX for me. It was a big leap in performance and had long staying power

 

[PliotronX]

8800GT because I couldnt wait to upgrade from my X1800 GTO that didnt unlock to XT. That voltmodded 8800GT lasted me 5 years.

Oh and not excited for the 980, sittin pretty with my 780 Classy.

 

[Subyman]

I actually got excited about the 680, but I was coming from a 470 at the time, so it was a nice boost in performance. 8800-series was incredible though.

 

[exar333]

8800gts 512mb. Coming from a 7800gs agp and p4 to a e6750 and this gpu was like wow.:biggrin:

This. Same price too, ~$300 IIRC.

 

[moonbogg]

I think the 970 is a super card, but I am not super excited about them personally. My only reason for considering a new card is to stop my game from crashing. If this month's game patch fixes the crashing, I have no reason or desire to spend the money. The games are lacking. I'll see what the patch does first.
If I was in the market for the sake of upgrading, then I'd compare this to the 8800GT. Badass card, almost as fast as the best and for about $300. That was just awesome.

 

[SithSolo1]

When I went from a GTX 470 to an R9 290 last November. Biggest jump I've ever had and managed to do a little mining to offset the cost.

The GTX 970 will be a great card for my brothers who still need to upgrade but I think I'll be good for another year or two.

 

[positivedoppler]

This was good, but nowhere near as amazing as the original Geforce launch.

 

[f1sherman]

With this choice 970(980) by far!
Some amazing engineering and loads of great toys. All this at phenomenal price.

This was good, but nowhere near as amazing as the original Geforce launch.

Finally someone! Props to you, sir.

 

[phreakwarz]

Didn't vote. I'm not usually excited about a new gpu or other hardware at release day. Reason being is because that stuff is very expensive! I did get a EVGA 970 superclocked this morning from EVGA. My original plan was to replace my current gpu anyways, but I found out about the new Nvidea gpus add decided on one of them.

 

[Atreidin]

This was good, but nowhere near as amazing as the original Geforce launch.

Yes. Also the Voodoo5, or the Matrox G400. Personally the past few years can't compare to the old times, but maybe I'm just romanticizing it in my head. The video card market felt more exciting with more players, though.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

The pricing has me pretty stoked. A 970 for $329.- is very tempting

 

[96Firebird]

No love for the 460?

I guess I'll choose 8800GTS, since when I bought mine that is just what everyone told me to get. I hadn't really followed video cards before then.

 

[CropDuster]

Personal experience

Voodoo 3 was my first gpu
Geforce 3 Ti 200 lasted 3 years
6800GT 6 years, but I wasn't gaming as much then
GTX 460 3 years

 

[Attic]

No love for the 460?

I guess I'll choose 8800GTS, since when I bought mine that is just what everyone told me to get. I hadn't really followed video cards before then.

I was " " this close to putting the OG GTX 460 in there. My first mGPU getup was with those. It didn't wowzer me with performance quite enough to keep company.

 

[jackstar7]

Those 6950s that unlocked were pretty fun.

 

[nitromullet]

Yes. Also the Voodoo5, or the Matrox G400. Personally the past few years can't compare to the old times, but maybe I'm just romanticizing it in my head. The video card market felt more exciting with more players, though.

There's also the fact that you used to really NEED to upgrade to make games playable. The highest end cards still used to be pushed to a crawl in some games.

7800GTX in FEAR @1600x1200... 26 FPS
http://www.anandtech.com/show/1831/5

5950 Ultra in FarCry @1024x768... 15.8min/28.5avg FPS
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/performance-leap,789-42.html

Oblivion @ 1280x1024 (which was already pretty low rez by that time)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/1996/4

...Anand's comments say it all:

At the very high end, in our most strenuous benchmark, $1200 of graphics cards will buy you less than 50 fps on average.

$300-500 nowadays gets you excellent playability at 1080p in pretty much every game, and even is even workable for most games at 1440p.