What is Your Favorite GPU You Ever Owned? Your Least Favorite?

[Valantar]

Favourite: ATI All-in-wonder 9600 (can't remember the specific version, although I think it was a Pro). I have very fond memories of "unlocking" it to a 9700 Pro with Omega Drivers. That was some serious bang for your buck. Also fun to think that ten years ago, good GPU drivers could be made by a single person (even if they were based off of official ATI drivers). Second in line I think is my old trusty HD6950 - bought this to replace my least favourite (see below), paid less than $200 for it, and it performed admirably for around 4 years (even at 2560*1440). The HIS cooler on mine was quiet and reliable too. Other than that, I'm quite fond of my Fury X.

Least favourite: AMD HD 4850 512MB. Not a bad card per se, but I was dumb/ill informed enough not to get the 1GB version for my CrossFire setup. This was not a good idea. Even in ~2010, it could hardly run current games at 1200p max. Also, that single-slot cooler. Oh my god. It was f*cking awful. How could anyone think that was an acceptable design? Admittedly, it wasn't as loud as the GeForce 5800. But still. Gah. I ended up sticking an Arctic Accelero S1 on each card (let me tell you, getting a CrossFire bridge through that massive heatsink was ... not fun), which kinda'-sorta' worked. But the whole setup was replaced by a new single card (for around half the price) after just ~3 years, which beat the hell out of them.

 

[sandorski]

12mb Voodoo2 as well. A total Mindblown experience that hasn't happened since.

Worst would be the Diamond Viper2(S3 Savage 2000 chipset) but to non-functioning Hardware(T&L) and only 2 Games ever played properly(Q3 and UT) with it.

 

[Krteq]

Favourites:
GeForce 2 Ti - still in my show-case
Radeon R9 290 - bought it from second hand after mining fever for a few bucks - my best purchase ever

Least favourite:
GeForce FX 5600 - misstep :/ I don't trust nV marketing since then and last few years confirms this (GTX 970 memgate, Kepler DirectX feature level support, Maxwell DX12 A/C support etc.)

 

[Dribble]

geforce GTX 260 216. Performance was good - played everything I wanted fine at high settings, and it was cheap. After that everything got really expensive - I remember looking 2 years later and thinking there was still nothing giving me better $/fps. When I did upgrade to essentially the same card for there time's (570 and then 970) they were basically 2/3rds again more expensive for a similar experience.

 

[John Connor]

My GT 6600 was my favorite. I played everything on that thing. From FS2004, to F.E.A.R to Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, BF2142 and BF2. I should have bought the GT 6800 at the time though, but I was too stupid back then to know any better when I bought the 6600 with my tax return.

 

[Yakk]

My 5870 is my all time favorite. Golden GPU has been running oc'd at 1ghz since 2009. It ran 24/7 at 100% for over half a decade on various distributed computing projects and mining in the early days.

Still running in a tertiary rig playing games today.

 

[Despoiler]

-Favorite. My current card. Sapphire Fury Air. Unlocked CU's. Whisper quite. I do have fond memories of my 3dfx Voodoo cards though.
-Least favorite. Gainward 4400TI. Card was DOA. Bad VRAM causing corrupted display. I had to RMA the card 5 times because they kept sending me back the same broken card. It was for a new build. I didn't actually get to play on it for a month and a half. Will never ever buy a Gainward product again. It was the biggest pain.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Pretty much all of my cards after the first couple, when I didn't know enough and/or had not as much cash available to spends on PCs, were decent upgrades.

Probably my biggest jump was from a GF2 MX to a Ti4200 128MB.
I also liked the 9500Pro unlocked to 9700Pro and the 6800nu unlocked to 6800GT (minus a vertex shader).
The 4850 is also a legendary card.

The 7870XT is probably the worst I had since it was a bit too hot/loud when OCed to 1175 MHz due to the vrms getting quite hot, although it was fine at stock (quite a difference in noise to the RX480 red devil)

 

[happy medium]

The 4850 is also a legendary card.

I have to ask ........What was so good about that card?

 

[Krteq]

It was a card with great perf/price and quite low power consumption... against expensive and power hungry GTX 2x0 cards.

With some good aftermarket coolers those cards were real mainstream beasts.

 

[happy medium]

It was a card with great perf/price and quite low power consumption... against expensive and power hungry GTX 2x0 cards.

I just looked it up it was about 14% faster than a much older 8800gtx.
Just saying, I don't see anything great about that card.

 

[Bryf50]

I just looked it up it was about 14% faster than a much older 8800gtx.
Just saying, I don't see anything great about that card.

8800gtx - $599
1.5 years later
4850 - $199
Not Bad

 

[SPBHM]

favorite, the Radeon 9500 at the time it was affordable, had all the latest features and it was great for OC/mods
least favorite.... well, Viper II Z200 because it was really bad, also the 3 8600GTs I had which kept crashing and dying,

 

[moonbogg]

Favorite is almost a tie between 8800GT and 980ti, but I'd have to give it to 8800GT only because of the awesome games that came out during that era, such as COD4 and Crysis. Least favorite was FX5800 Ultra. I should have kept my 9700 Pro.
With the 980ti's, I feel like I jumped on the right cards at the right time. It was down to amazing timing and nothing in front of them besides a refresh generation of Paxwell cards. Excellent timing and coming from 670's, the upgrade enabled a whole new kind of gaming at 1440p and later 3440x1440. Perfect buy during this era.

 

[Rifter]

Probably my SLI GTX 460 1GB's, got a good 5 year run from those 2 cards, probably could have hung on longer had they had more memory.

 

[tential]

HD7950. Played everything I threw at it for 1080p. Very enjoyable. But I've seen the 4k Glory. There is no turning back. I will not be satisfied again by a GPU for a long time.

 

[Leyawiin]

8800 GTX. The performance increase coming from a 7800 GT was absolutely mind blowing. Used it for almost four years before an upgrade. Least favorite was a GTX 770. Least favorite was a GTX 660. Gutless wonder.

 

[Shmee]

Up there are the 8800 GT, the GTX 260(216), my first 5870 from XFX (paid for standard, got the XXX edition) my 2 XFX 6950s which both unlocked, and the 290s. Hard to decide between them.

My least favorite, or at least underwhelming cards, include a 7800GS, 6800GT AGP, and an all in wonder Radeon 7500.

 

[Keysplayr]

8800 GTX. The performance increase coming from a 7800 GT was absolutely mind blowing. Used it for almost four years before an upgrade. Least favorite was a GTX 770. Least favorite was a GTX 660. Gutless wonder.

Interesting how different people have such different views of things. I thought my GTX660 was one of the best cards I've ever owned for the money. The cut-down Kepler that could. Impressive card IMHO.

I think my all time fav was my 6800GT. Such a major performance jump over the 5xxx series. Honorable mention goes to Radeon 9500pro.
Most disliked card would be a mixed bag, because when it worked, it was stunning. 9700 Radeon. Had so many driver issues I went through 3 cards thinking the cards were defective. Nope. by the time I hit my 3rd card, many driver issues were worked out and I really enjoyed that card.

 

[4K_shmoorK]

Fav:
2x Sapphire 6950 with shaders unlocked.

Too young to be phased by microstutter, these puppies chewed up and spit Battlefield 3 out on my Yamakasi Catleap 1440p panel.

Least Fav:
GTX 8600 GT 512Mb

First build, struggled to play anything smoothly. Again, too young to care but remember Oblivion becoming a slideshow unless I played on poop settings.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Probably an 8800GT.

 

[VeryCharBroiled]

I have to ask ........What was so good about that card [4850]?

loved mine. 2nd all time fav after my voodoo2.

one of the last single slot high perf cards. of course after 3 years of 24/7 folding the fan died (and was always cleaning the HSF out as it clogged easy with dust), went aftermarket cooling that turned it into a 2 slot card.

also mined my 1st bitcoin on the 4850.

still have it.

 

[caswow]

Interesting how different people have such different views of things. I thought my GTX660 was one of the best cards I've ever owned for the money. The cut-down Kepler that could. Impressive card IMHO.

I think my all time fav was my 6800GT. Such a major performance jump over the 5xxx series. Honorable mention goes to Radeon 9500pro.
Most disliked card would be a mixed bag, because when it worked, it was stunning. 9700 Radeon. Had so many driver issues I went through 3 cards thinking the cards were defective. Nope. by the time I hit my 3rd card, many driver issues were worked out and I really enjoyed that card.

my 660oc was the worst card ive ever bought since 1999. i flip flop almost every 2 generations. i had a 6950 ref and went 660oc. this peace of crap cost as much as an 7870, was as fast as the 7870 and power consumption was the same but today look where the 7870 and where the 660 is. one of the worst chips of its generation.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Fav: AMD 5870

can't recall a card that I didn't like

 

[Face2Face]

Favorite card of all time:

8800 GTX

Favorite ATI/AMD cards owned:

ATI 9500 Pro
Radeon HD 4890

Favorite NVIDIA cards owned:

8800 GTX
GTX 780 Lightning

Favorite Overclockers owned:

HD 7950 Twin Frozr - 1300Mhz capable
GTX 780 Lightning - 1500Mhz capable
GTX 980 Ti SC+ - 1500MHz capable


Worst cards owned:

Radeon HD 2400 - So sloooooow...
9800 GX2 - Beautiful, but baked itself to death...