My Video Card History:
AGP:
1999-January 2003: Trident 3d Blade 9880 8mb AGP 4x video Card. I didn't like this card at all once I started playing computer games and found it couldn't play anything smoothly, if the game ran at all. Even 640*480 with low settings was choppy. I was thankful to get rid of it.
January 2003-December 2004: EVGA Geforce 4 MX-440SE AGP 4x. Got it for $60 at a local computer store. I loved the card when I first got it, as the "Geforce 4" label made me think I had the fastest card in the world(I didn't know about the Radeon 9700 at the time), and it wasn't until later that I found out that the MX440 was a budget card. Still, it was a massive step up from the Trident 9880. However, when I found out that it was a budget card, I lost my satisfaction with the card, especially when I started reading about the 9700 and it's performance. However, overall, the MX440 was still a good card to me after I got over the disappointment. I don't have it now, though.
December 2004-November 2005: EVGA Geforce 6800 128mb AGP8x. I got it for $270 or so off of newegg. This was my first true gaming card, in the sense that I could finally start cranking up the details on my games without losing performance. When I played Call of Duty(the first one and united offensive) and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault at 1600*1200 with 4xAA and 8xAF, I was blown away at the performance, seeing that I was coming from Geforce 2-type performance and was seeing what I was missing. However, there was 2 things that kept me from being totally happy with the 6800. One thing was the Geforce 6800GT 256mb, which I was looking at, but didn't get because when I was looking at it on Compusa(this was a little before I found out about newegg), it said something about power dongles, and although I didn't know about what the term meant at the time, it kept me off the 6800GT since the 6800 on the Compusa description didn't have the word on it. I later found out that the 6800 needed the molex connector as well, so my caution was in vain, and I paid for it with a slower card and nights of agonizing and wishing that I would have gone for the 6800GT. Also, slow performance in Far Cry(even though 512mb of ram and an Athlon XP 2600+ were bottlenecks in this) didn't help either. But, overall, I really liked the 6800. I no longer have it, but it still has a place in my memory.
December 2005-March 2006. BFG Geforce 7800GT 256mb PCI-Express video card. I got this card for $350 off of newegg, along with an Athlon 64 3500+ and 2 gigs of ram. It wasn't really a "WOW!" jump from the 6800, but the performance increase was there and I could notice it. I really liked how I could play Far Cry and Pacific Fighters, which would stutter like crazy on the 6800 rig, at 1600*1200 with 4xAA and 8xAF. Having more ram and a faster CPU contributed to this, though, so the 7800GT can't take all the credit. When I played FEAR at 1600*1200 with 2xAA and 8xAF with this, I was stunned at how well it ran it(it ran it very well). Overall, this was the first card I was content with. I probably would still have had the card in the computer to this day had it not been for the X1900 cards. But, because of those cards, mainly due to High Quality AF, and due to the 48 shaders and the performance levels I saw on X1900 revies, I put the 7800GT in the closet and now it's with my brother to do with as he pleases.
March 2006-Present. PowerColor Radeon X1900XT 512mb PCI-Express video card. I got this card for $500 off of newegg, and at first, I really didn't like the X1900XT. It stuttered a lot, and nothing seemed to fix the problem. I was even considering doing a side-grade to the 7900GTX, which I would have gotten at first had newegg not run out of EVGA Superclocked 7900GTXs at the last second. I was still running on the 3500+ and 2 gigs of ram. I later found out that it was because I didn't do the Driver Cleaner correctly and still had residue of the 7800GT drivers still on. So, I went in and did the driver cleaner correctly, and it helped the stuttering a lot. Putting the games onto my(former) 160GB 8mb cache ATA100 drive from my(former) Maxtor 80GB helped as well. But, there was still some stuttering. About a month ago, however, I upgraded to an Opteron 180 Dual Core CPU and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 400GB SATAII drive, and now things run perfectly, and I now say that the X1900XT is the greatest card I have ever owned.