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[Sad Affleck]

The 8800GT is like the top of the list. That card is still in some people's PCs.

That is my choice. Such power for such a low price, it was crazy.

 

[NEO0MJ]

The GTX 1080, because it's the only one I ever bought

We had a custom built PC in the early 2000s that could play games but I have no idea what was inside it.

 

[Bernbaum]

The 8800GT is like the top of the list. That card is still in some people's PCs.

Best card ever.

 

[Celcius]

Some of the more notable cards I've owned over the years:

Ati 9700pro - I only got to use mine for a day or two since it was defective and I had to return it but it was a big step up from what I had before and was the card to have in its day.

Nvidia 8800 gtx - I won one for free at an nvidia event and it was a beast. I spent so much time playing Oblivion on it and eventually added a second for sli. Lasted a long time.

Ati x800 pro - this was my first high-end card and was a big step up from the vanilla 6600 I was using before. The best ati card I ever ownd and overclocked like a champ.

Nvidia 7959 gx2 - the first dual gpu card and was surprisingly fast. I only had it for a month or so before I got the 8800 gtx and sold it though.

Gtx 480- This card was a big step up from the gtx 280 I had before and is the only reference card I ever had that had heat pipes coming out of the side of the card. It ran hot and loud but was a beast as far as performance.

Gtx 780 Ti - I've been rocking this card since it came out and it still gets the job done with no issues for me at 1080p. The longest I've ever kept a card. A huge step up from the generation before it.

 

[Volotaire]

8800 GT. Card was a beast. Had it for a good 3-4 years and it was used in a family members pc for another 2.

 

[molnizzle]

I missed the 8800gt era. What big games were being played during its run?

Crysis

 

[Patrick Young]

The GTX 680 was the hot shit for a while!

 

[Haunted]

8800 GT is a damn legend

Honourable mention to the 3dfx Voodoo 2

 

[jett]

Yeah I had a Riva TNT, it was a nice little card. Could run Unreal at 640x480, barely hanging on to mid-30s fps. That'll do pig, that'll do.

 

[Mister0079]

8800GT and the 750 Ti/860M/960M

 

[TakeItSlowDude]

Voodoo 1
Geforce 256 SDR (DDR version was much better, but SDR ushered in the T&L era)
9700 Pro
8800GTX

 

[SPCTRE]

Geforce2 MX was the card that killed 3Dfx

I had one of those because my upgrade path was limited to PCI cards (I really should have built a new PC with AGP slots)

 

[SoundLad]

I'd like to say GTX 780ti, what a beast at 1080p for so many years.

 

[professor_t]

The 8800GT was released in mid 2007... and it became one of the first benchmark cards for Crysis, which was released in November 2007.

But some of the other games from 2006-2007 it would have been targeted for would be Oblivion, Prey, Half-Life 2 Episode one and two, Unreal Tournament III, COD 4: Modern Warfare, STALKER, Portal, Team Fortress 2, The Witcher, WOW (well, not really), Bio Shock. But with this card, I remember being sold in anticipation for Crysis the most.

Crysis was being hyped beyond belief throughout 2006 and 2007 just for the games visuals alone. It really was one of those high water mark "PC-Master Race" releases. The q6600 and 8800gt was one of the power combos used to showcase how awesome your rig can run Crysis at very high settings.

Interesting. I was a couple of years late to Crysis, so I played it on ATI's HD 5850, and even that struggled in some areas at 1080p. The 8800GT must have been sweating.

As for the question, even though my experience dates back to some Voodoo card I got with Unreal in the late 90s, my favorite card probably is my current one. The GTX 1080 is the first card that annihilates virtually everything I throw at it on max settings at my current desired resolution (1440p).

 

[reKon]

6600GT or 8800GT

 

[Mareg]

Voodoo2 in Sli was incredible.
It was "true" Sli back then. We are speaking real 2x performance. Things were simpler back then. The cards would just separate the screen in 2 and do the workload that way.

8800 GT was also an incredible card. I kept it forever. It was so loud. I think it may have been the main factor for switching to headphones from PC speaker.

460ti. That Fermi magic. Fermi was incredible.

7950 3gig GIGAHERTZ edition. Hell what a beast. Still usable for 1080p gaming. GCN beast mode !

 

[King Al B]

Bestest of All

 

[mattwhite924]

I'll throw in another vote for the 9700 Pro. That card was such a huge deal back then. The 9600 Pro/XT were also great for bringing a lot of that power at a pretty cheap price.


The Voodoo 2 also deserves a mention for SLI.

It was crazy nuts. Three separate cards just for video, but it let you run games at 1024x768, and that was a big deal.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

the Radeon 5770 was the backbone of many quality budget builds

 

[hikarutilmitt]

TNT2 Ultra 32MB was the first graphics card we had, and this was right before the GeForce 256 came out and was good enough to run USAF, Falcon 4.0 and Quake III.

This. I got one and UT went from barely playable framerate on a crappy Diamond GPU to holy shit.

 

[AColdDay]

the Radeon 5770 was the backbone of many quality budget builds

My favorite card of all time. My radeon HD 7970 was cool but the 5770 was the card that made PC gaming make sense to me.

 

[Temeculan3000]

3DFX Voodoo 2

3DFX Voodoo 3 3000

Nvidia Geforce 2 Ultra

Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti-4600

ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

ATI Radeon 9800 XT

Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra

Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTX

AMD Radeon HD 4890

AMD Radeon HD 6990

Nvidia GeForce GTX 680

Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 Ti

Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 Ti

Some of my favorite cards though:

Quantum 3D Obsidian 2 X-24 (2 Voodoo 2's in SLI on one board)

The Voodoo 5 - 6000 (It had quad GPUs, only a handful of production samples are out in the wild)

 

[MizzouRah]

I've had:

- Riva TNT2
- GeForce4 Ti 4600
- Radeon 9800 Pro
- ATI HD 4670
- GTX 285
- GTX 570 HD
- GTX 770
- GTX 970 SLI
- GTX 980ti
- GTX 1080

I've got to go with the 9800 Pro or the 970 as the best cards. The pro was such a beast for the time at it's price point and the 970 was such a bargain, particularly with the settlement and potential rebates from manufacturers at the time of the memory scandal.