Your first dedicated GPU?

[Andro Boy]

Pic related is my old Radeon HD 3650 from around 2008. Absolutely useless today, but was a huge upgrade from the family computer with integrated graphics.

So what was your first real experience with PC gaming?

EDIT: The photo won't upload for some reason. Oh, well.

 

[legcramp]

9800XT from onboard Rage 3D graphics.

 

[Crono]

PowerColor ATI Radeon 7000, if I remember correctly. My computer at the time (a Dell with a 2GHz Celeron) didn't have AGP, so it was the PCI version with 32MB VRAM.

 

[wanderica]

A Voodoo3 3000. I was a pleb back then and had no AGP slots, so PCI it was. Luckily I was also clueless and thought the world of my new graphics accelerator in my People PC. Lol. Good times those were. I also remember Diablo 2 (the reason I bought it in the first place) took up 2 whole GBs of HDD space!

 

[mohit9206]

 

[frowertr]

3dfx Voodoo 1. Ran alongside a Matrox Mystique.

 

[imported_bman]

Diamond Stealth II S220. Remember buying it on Boxing Day 1997 and then playing Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight on it.

 

[Insomniator]

A Nvidia TNT2 so I could play unreal tournament. Was pretttttttty sweet at the time. Dad brought it home from his computer store as a surprise!

 

[nathanddrews]

Is there a definition of "dedicated GPU"?

My memory is a bit fuzzy on this, but from what I remember it was an ATI Mach64 ISA-slot VGA graphics accelerator (2D only, I think). I used it in a 133MHz Pentium MMX (P5) system. This was 1995-ish, I know it was Socket 7, but not much more than that. I also recall having to mail-order and install an additional 1MB EDO memory for a graphics adapter inside a 386 machine prior to that (1991-ish), but I can't tell you exactly what graphics adapter that was.

For 3D, I'm pretty sure it was the Voodoo 1 alongside that Mach64 in a faster Pentium 233MHz in the same socket. I never got around to doing SLI, unfortunately. That held me over until I got an AMD K6-2 with an ATI Fury Maxx. The big game-changer for me was the Tualatin Pentium III which is the first chip I remember actively overclocking alongside a GeForce 64MB DDR2 GPU.

There were several other CPU and GPU combinations in between all of those. I had at least one K6-3 build and T-bird build. Other than playing Unreal Tournament and CS relentlessly, I think the majority of my gaming switched over to Xbox (Halo, Ninja Gaiden, Fable, etc.) around that 2001-2004 era. I still bought some PC stuff, but not as much.

 

[EXCellR8]

GeForce 6200... what a pile of crap. Was an upgrade in 2004 from onboard MX 4 graphics. barely ran HL2

 

[local]

First experience was a 386 with VGA graphics. First 3D card was a Voodoo 1 which we later upgraded to a pair of Voodoo 2 in SLI. To this day that is still the only SLI setup I have ever had.

 

[FFFF]

Matrox Millenium with 2MB VRAM:

http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/component/k2/item/204-matrox-is-storm-mga-2064w-mga-millennium

 

[AdamK47]

The first one I owned that did 2D and 3D was the Rendition Vérité V1000 in the form of a Creative Labs 3D Blaster. The term GPU wasn't used until Nvidia relased their GeForce 256 five years later (which, of course, I also owned).

 

[Krteq]

S3 Trio 3D

Great 2D capabilities, but 3D was kinda tricky due to bugged drivers etc.

 

[Det0x]

My first self bought graphic card was a Geforce 2 mx 200.
My worst purchase was a 6800 Ultra (it even came in its own suitcase)
My next purchase will be top SKU Vega (if everything goes according to plan)

 

[n0x1ous]

Sapphire ATI x700

 

[Madpacket]

4MB Diamond Monster 3D. All for GL Quake

 

[Headfoot]

ATi All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro baby. Loved that card. Recorded TV on it and played Doom 3.

I had some dumpy no name 2d accelerators in a box before that but I can't remember them.

 

[Rifter]

Nvidia TNT

 

[bystander36]

I had a couple/few GPU's prior to 3D graphics accelerator, but my first 3D GPU was a Nvidia Riva TNT. I was playing Everquest at the time, and it made a massive improvement.

 

[crashtech]

Cirrus Logic CL-GD5429, a silly VL-Bus card, 1994 I think?

http://old.vgamuseum.info/palcals-collection/61-cirrus-palcal/487-cirrus-logic-cl-gd5429.html

 

[Bacon1]

Good old Geforce Ti4400: http://www.anandtech.com/show/904/6

 

[bystander36]

Good old Geforce Ti4400: http://www.anandtech.com/show/904/6

I'm pretty certain I had one of those later on as well.

 

[kawi6rr]

It had to be around 98 or 99 either a rage fury or voodoo 3? It was so long ago I can't remember anymore. That's when I first started building machines and I think that's around when I started hitting AnandTech's website too.

 

[kush120]

9800pro then a 6800gt