Worst Graphics Card Purchases

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Elganja
Canopus Pure3D 2

what's wrong with a Voodoo 2?

They kicked ass compared to anything else that was availible at the time.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: Zap


Matrox M3D PCI
It was an add-on 3D accelerator around the time of the original Voodoo. I'm not sure I ever got it to work... or else none of my games supported it. I don't quite remember exactly what I got after this, maybe Voodoo 2 after it came out.

That was based on the NEC PowerVR chip. It was pretty powerful but lacked features needed to compete with other cards at the time. I had the retail package and it was bundled with Ultim@te Race Pro. Loved playing that on my dual Pentium Pro 200 using a Matrox Millennium II 8MB WRAM for 2D. It did not muck up the 2D like the Voodoo passthrough cables did either.

Matrox made some good 2d cards, shame they didn't keep up with ATI and Nvidia.

PowerVR isn't dead just yet. It is making a pretty good comeback in embedded devices. My little beagleboard is pretty good at graphics for something so small.
http://beagleboard.org/

 

[ceejay2005]

The 4670 will do the job (£60-£80) but I wouldnt like to recommend anything lower spec than that.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Zap
BFG GeForce GTX 285 PCI Express
This is what I currently use. Why do I call it "best?" Because it is! ... I literally have the ONE best card out of thousands.

So, what are your clocks on this magical GTX 285?

I have the H2OC BIOS on it, so clocks are 729 core, 1674 shader and 2780 memory. This is in a closed case (Lian Li Lancool variant) with the fan set to AUTO. With fan manually cranked up a bit, I've gotten in the mid-upper 700 range for core, mid 1700 shader and just over 2800 memory. It can probably do even better if actually liquid cooled since these respond well to lower temperatures. This reviewer with liquid cooling got 783MHz core and 1844MHz shaders on a similar binned card.

Nice. So, you guys hiring? j/k

 

[kami]

Without a doubt a Voodoo Banshee. I remember replacing it with a Voodoo3 2000 - another mistake! 3dfx's last gasp...

On the other hand my most satisfying video card purchase ever was obviously my first 3d card... a Flash3D (Voodoo1) with 4MB. GLQuake ran like a dream.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1

Originally posted by: Fox5
Geforce 3 TI200. Assy vga output quality, poor performance (and that's coming from a voodoo3), and tons of driver problems.
.

I still have a Geforce 3 Ti 200...I actually still play older games on it...even Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow looks pretty good on it.

Problem was, I ordered it in November 2001, received it January 2002. The Ti 4600 came out in February 2002...I was pissed.

i got one that was T200... i was sure i ordered a Ti 200, but turned out it was a much lower model, the missing i made all the difference (M200 i think) that pissed me off to no end.

 

[solofly]

Originally posted by: sisq0kidd
I'm gonna get crap for this, but... my current Powercolor 4850.

What is it with this card? This thing puts out heat like nothing I've ever had before. The stock heatsink is a joke. Are you listening Powercolor/ATI? This is an unfinished product. If they would have slapped something on with a better heatsink like the HIS series, it would be a great card.

lol I had three of them at one point (tri-fire) and I had no heat related issues. Of course a right case could make all the difference...

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1

Originally posted by: Fox5
Geforce 3 TI200. Assy vga output quality, poor performance (and that's coming from a voodoo3), and tons of driver problems.
.

I still have a Geforce 3 Ti 200...I actually still play older games on it...even Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow looks pretty good on it.

Problem was, I ordered it in November 2001, received it January 2002. The Ti 4600 came out in February 2002...I was pissed.

i got one that was T200... i was sure i ordered a Ti 200, but turned out it was a much lower model, the missing i made all the difference (M200 i think) that pissed me off to no end.

I still have my Leadtek Ti200 in a box somewhere, I could easily overclock it to Ti500 specs and it was an impressive performer at the time, however it just wasn't a huge jump over my already good Creative GF2 GTS, I did however use it for awhile until I got my impressive Gigabyte 8500LE which overclocked to the rare 8500XT speeds (300core/300mem).

 

[2March]

My worst card was one of the first I bought. My first system was pre-built and my second system was still 2D only. I didn't really know yet what all the 3d fuss was about.

It was a Diamond Viper 440 (IIRC). An All In One card. More a curse then a blessing though. It really didn't do anything more 3D then pretend to be one and it was quite a bit more expensive then a 2D-only card. So I ended up needing a seperate 3D anyway. I got a Diamond Monster 2 for that (Voodoo2). But many games, while not supporting the Viper, still detected its 3D "capabilities" and ignored the Monster all together...

So I ended up coupling the Monsters (I got a second one later) with an old SiS 1 Meg card. The expensive Viper went on collecting dust.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

BFG 6600GTOC - decent for BF1942/Desert Combat
AIW 9800pro - horribly overpriced at $400
Albatron 7800GT - blah
XFX 7950 - oc, passive cooler, 100% awesome card
MSI 9600GT x2 - loud, do not fit in SLi mobo's
Gigabyte 9600GT x2 - oc, passive cooler, 101% awesome cards

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1

Originally posted by: Fox5
Geforce 3 TI200. Assy vga output quality, poor performance (and that's coming from a voodoo3), and tons of driver problems.
.

I still have a Geforce 3 Ti 200...I actually still play older games on it...even Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow looks pretty good on it.

Problem was, I ordered it in November 2001, received it January 2002. The Ti 4600 came out in February 2002...I was pissed.

i got one that was T200... i was sure i ordered a Ti 200, but turned out it was a much lower model, the missing i made all the difference (M200 i think) that pissed me off to no end.

I still have my Leadtek Ti200 in a box somewhere, I could easily overclock it to Ti500 specs and it was an impressive performer at the time, however it just wasn't a huge jump over my already good Creative GF2 GTS, I did however use it for awhile until I got my impressive Gigabyte 8500LE which overclocked to the rare 8500XT speeds (300core/300mem).

yes, but I did not actually get a Ti200. They figured, hey, this is an M200 with TV out via s-video, lets call it "T200" to confuse people to buy.
I am certain that the website said Ti200 and changed shortly after I ordered, but what can you do...

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: taltamir

Originally posted by: HOOfan 1

Originally posted by: Fox5
Geforce 3 TI200. Assy vga output quality, poor performance (and that's coming from a voodoo3), and tons of driver problems.
.

I still have a Geforce 3 Ti 200...I actually still play older games on it...even Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow looks pretty good on it.

Problem was, I ordered it in November 2001, received it January 2002. The Ti 4600 came out in February 2002...I was pissed.

i got one that was T200... i was sure i ordered a Ti 200, but turned out it was a much lower model, the missing i made all the difference (M200 i think) that pissed me off to no end.

I still have my Leadtek Ti200 in a box somewhere, I could easily overclock it to Ti500 specs and it was an impressive performer at the time, however it just wasn't a huge jump over my already good Creative GF2 GTS, I did however use it for awhile until I got my impressive Gigabyte 8500LE which overclocked to the rare 8500XT speeds (300core/300mem).

yes, but I did not actually get a Ti200. They figured, hey, this is an M200 with TV out via s-video, lets call it "T200" to confuse people to buy.
I am certain that the website said Ti200 and changed shortly after I ordered, but what can you do...

would the card have been a GF2 MX 200? they where very common at the time and slow as shit.

there where only ever 3 models of the GF3, the GF3 (the original model, it was between the Ti200 and Ti500 in performance), the Ti200 (which was the low spec model) and the Ti500 (which was the big daddy).

 

[taltamir]

found it... "VGA ABIT|SILURO GF2 T200 32MB TV - Retail" ordered on 8/20/2002 9:57:04 PM
item link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814123105

I was CERTAIN I had ordered a Ti200... when I got a GF2 MX200 in the mail I was furious, went to newegg and saw that my order had it listed as what it shows now, and no returns if I remember correctly...
I had a feeling that the page has changed, but I kept no records at all of the transaction... so I figured I was probably inattentive (or maybe the site changed?) and just sold it on ebay and got a quality card instead.

Since than I have always kept my original receipts instead of relying entirely on the newegg records.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: taltamir
found it... "VGA ABIT|SILURO GF2 T200 32MB TV - Retail" ordered on 8/20/2002 9:57:04 PM
item link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814123105

I was CERTAIN I had ordered a Ti200... when I got a GF2 MX200 in the mail I was furious, went to newegg and saw that my order had it listed as what it shows now, and no returns if I remember correctly...
I had a feeling that the page has changed, but I kept no records at all of the transaction... so I figured I was probably inattentive (or maybe the site changed?) and just sold it on ebay and got a quality card instead.

Since than I have always kept my original receipts instead of relying entirely on the newegg records.

the GF2 MX200 was pretty nasty, low clocks and SDR memory.

I had a Hercules 3D Prophet GF2MX SDR(original model, 183mhz core, 183mhz mem) back in 2001, it was pretty good at the time epecially since it only cost me AU$175 at the time which was pretty cheap when GF2 GTS were still going for over AU$500.

I think I still have that card as well, I don't tend to get rid of my old parts.

 

[cecco]

Originally posted by: Keitero
I bought a Rage Fury MAXX back in the day. Need I say more?

This.

The experience of having to deal with such poor drivers kept me away from ATI for a few generations.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: cecco

Originally posted by: Keitero
I bought a Rage Fury MAXX back in the day. Need I say more?

This.

The experience of having to deal with such poor drivers kept me away from ATI for a few generations.

oh yea, that too... at the time i had a policy of "I wouldn't use it even if it was free" in regards to ATI... terrible horrible drivers

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
Nice. So, you guys hiring? j/k

We were. I posted in the Networking Support thread for the unemployed: Summer 2009 thread in Off Topic.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: Asianman
A MSI Radeon HD 3870, not that it was a horrible card, but I got it for AUD$200 3 days after the 4850 became available in Australia. Also, since this was the overclocked version, it mysteriously die and then come back to life 3 seconds later with the message the GPU recovered from a serious error.

Ah, the (in)famous VPU recovery. I think this happens when the driver crashes and is able to reload itself without a BSOD.

it is a feature of windows vista... your video CARD (the physical device) crashed (usually due to a hardware error), OR the video driver crashed... in windows XP and earlier that meant a BSOD. In windows vista it meant the OS power cycles your video card and restarts the driver and gives you that warning.