Your First Ever GPU? - Stories

[IReallyShouldBeWorking]

I wanted to see if anyone had some interesting stories out there of their first time gpu/video cards and well, bring back that nostalgia. 

 

Mine was a GTX 480 (BBQ Edition) Nvidia card. That thing was a powerhouse and a whole room heating solution in one until it cooked itself after lasting rather long on a stable OC.

[PlayStation 2]

Got my brother a Sapphire Dual-X HD 7850. Even with all that dust in the cooler, it's still quiet and not really hot.

[Enderman]

GTX460SE

no issues, performed good enough for me

sold it for $25 and upgraded to a GTX770 for shadowplay

[don_svetlio]

5670 - great card for 1280x1024 - lasted me from fall 2011 to early 2014

[givingtnt]

780

 

unless you count the igpu un my amd laptop

[Coaxialgamer]

My first gpu is the one i'm using now , the r9 290x from sapphire.

I had to rma it twice before i got a working one.

[Memories4K]

R7 265.

Basically a 7850.

Still running strong.

Not planning on upgrading until Arctic Islands.

[Whorax]

HD5570.

 

Never updated the drivers for about four years. Never had any problems. Tough little card.

[tbroadwater2010]

EVGA GTX560ti 2GB. Anyone want it? I still have it and will sell!

 

I loved this card. It ran me up until last year and i had to get the 970. Cant complain! Still works!

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

EVGA GeForce 6200. Did not have a good time when it was paired with a 22" Monitor. 

[MLG Doge]

Card i have now

 

Sapphire HD7950 3GB Vapor-X that i got off ebay for £50 back in February 2015.

 

Its called Gerald.

[Mo5]

My first GPU was a ATi Rage 128 Pro. I (well my dad) got it for like super cheap because whatever GPU was in that PC (CPU was a Pentium 2 I believe) couldn't run FIFA 2002 properly. I still have the box

[GodSpoon]

GeForce 7950gt! 

 

Actually its still in a system with a Q9300 running windows 10 currently  

 

Its one of those awful XFX passively cooled ones

 

 

I have two fans strapped to it so it can play minecraft  

[Raudi_]

GTX 295 Red from Evga...then it was stolen from me....

I got it as a birthday gift from my mom's boyfriend at the time.

[samcool55]

my first "real" gpu that i know was a 9400GT, i had an old agp card before that but i can't remember that one.

Aaanyway, 9400GT, killed 2 coolers in 3 months (second one in half an hour ) slapped a zalman on it, all good for a while.

 

After that i got a 9800GT, that was imho my first real gpu. It could handle so much it was just amazing. Could take a big overclock too (600mhz stock, 740mhz OC).

 

Next one, 6950, couple of years later, another 6950, year later, 6950 dies. Currently: still the first 6950, but i'm thinking about upgrading... It's getting old and with only 2GB and DX12 knocking, it's probably time to get a new one, let's hope AMD and Nvidia have some nice things when their new generations launch!

[byalexandr]

Begged my mom to buy me a $40 GT 610 at Best Buy to put in my HP Pavilion. Still have it, now I have an R9 290.

[Samppa221]

Asus GTX 460. Bought it used to put in a prebuilt HP which had a crappy single core cpu and it was horrible then i bought my current i5 and got really into pc gaming.

 

 

 

[IReallyShouldBeWorking]

5670 - great card for 1280x1024 - lasted me from fall 2011 to early 2014

I managed to get a hold of two of those though I don't remember how. They were nice little cards

 

 

my first "real" gpu that i know was a 9400GT, i had an old agp card before that but i can't remember that one.

Aaanyway, 9400GT, killed 2 coolers in 3 months (second one in half an hour ) slapped a zalman on it, all good for a while.

 

After that i got a 9800GT, that was imho my first real gpu. It could handle so much it was just amazing. Could take a big overclock too (600mhz stock, 740mhz OC).

 

Next one, 6950, couple of years later, another 6950, year later, 6950 dies. Currently: still the first 6950, but i'm thinking about upgrading... It's getting old and with only 2GB and DX12 knocking, it's probably time to get a new one, let's hope AMD and Nvidia have some nice things when their new generations launch!

I was on that bandwagon for a while until recently when I figured to grab a gtx 970 ssc 2.0+ but I'm curious to see what the next lineup will be.

[Nacho Marco Segui]

Geforce Fx 5200 ultra,agp powah.

Then got the r9 280x,sold it for the evga 970(rmaed foir EXTREME coil whine),G1 970(may return it to Amazon and get the 390)

[Arwanell]

Powercolor HD 3850

http://www.powercolor.com/de/show_img.asp?id=183&file=image_b_s.jpg

same as @Whorax, in 7 years never updated the drivers and worked great

[samcool55]

 

 

I was on that bandwagon for a while until recently when I figured to grab a gtx 970 ssc 2.0+ but I'm curious to see what the next lineup will be.

I don't want 970 or whatever... I want tbh a new generation that's on 16nm and genuine 100% dx12 support. And atm no card can offer that so i'm still hanging on

I can wait, i'm patient. I waited for my 4670k 10 months. Still happy with my decision.

[IReallyShouldBeWorking]

Powercolor HD 3850

http://www.powercolor.com/de/show_img.asp?id=183&file=image_b_s.jpg

same as @Whorax, in 7 years never updated the drivers and worked great

I've had the same experience with my old gtx 760. I tried to update the drivers multiple times and it never worked so I had the base driver for it's life

[Arc_Jester]

XFX HD 5450, I originally got it as a place holder for my GPU in my first rig, I use it for troubleshooting nowadays.

[z0ne]

9600GT> 460 SE > 650 ti > 980m, the 9600 was the first card I ever bought myself, my dad had a laptop with a mobile GPU before that on which I played age of mythology. Before that we had a packard bell that I basically used for Freddy Fish, no idea if it had a GPU or not. 

[IReallyShouldBeWorking]

I don't want 970 or whatever... I want tbh a new generation that's on 16nm and genuine 100% dx12 support. And atm no card can offer that so i'm still hanging on

I can wait, i'm patient. I waited for my 4670k 10 months. Still happy with my decision.

I'm on your side I just grabbed the 970 to replace my old 760 because that thing had baddd coil whine and driver issues like no tomorrow so it was essentially a brick. But I will happily pawn this 970 off in favor of a newer card when the time comes.

 

 

XFX HD 5450, I originally got it as a place holder for my GPU in my first rig, I it use it for troubleshooting nowadays.

 

Those card at least imo are the best for troubleshooting and always work right out of the box for me so there are no unseen hoops to jump through