Oldest graphics card that works today?

[big_wallet_tiny_brain]

My cousin is saving up for a gtx 1080 and for Christmas I thought I would give her some money towards it but also wanted to find something a bit more personal. I thought that the first dedicated graphics card would be a kind of cool gag gift. It should power the 1440p 144hz experience she is looking for right? /s. I want her to be able to run it on her computer for shits and giggles however. What is the first graphics card which will be able to do that?

[Tz000]

Well I know my GTX 560 Ti 1gb still works that was from around 2010 I think? Still get great fps for esports titles, but I just upgraded to a RX 580 8GB...  I'm sure a lot of old cards will still function as a display output but it wont have any chance of running modern titles at 1440p haha! Just go on ebay and get some old POS and put in the box of the 1080... haha

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/nvidia-geforce-9600-gt/202125963581?hash=item2f0fa5713d:g:H2MAAOSw3s1aD2IK

[aisle9]

On a modern PC? If there's a PCI slot on the motherboard, you can go way, waaaay back. 

 

If we're talking PCIe, I think something in the 6000 or 70000 GT series would be it?

[Firecheetah13]

680 probably

 

 

ahh kepler

[mariushm]

You're gonna have problems with not having Windows 10 drivers.

 

This being said, you could probably pick one of those  nVidia Quadro cards that come with a DMS-59 connector (special connector, you need to buy adapter cable which converts DMS-59 to 2 x DVI  or 2xVGA or VGA+DVI or you get the idea)

 

Just google "nVidia quadro" in ebay and sort by price+shipping lowest first

Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Nvidia-Quadro-NVS-290-DMS-59-256MB-PCI-e-x16-Graphics-Card-456137-001/352220712063?epid=96879876&hash=item5201fd8c7f:g:nfsAAOSwpuFaHEM0

 

You should also be able to find LOADS of Dell branded  Radeon 2400 HD XT , 3450 HD, Radeon x1600 , some even with regular DVI connectors

Example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/256MB-Dell-X399D-ATi-Radeon-HD-3450-XT-DMS-59-DMS59-Graphics-Card-with-S-Out/281617752591?epid=790083832&hash=item4191b9e20f:g:FS4AAOSwstxU9feU

 

With proper Windows 10 drivers and everything, you could probably go all the way back to Radeon HD 4450 or similar cards , here'

s an example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Dell-ATI-Radeon-HD-4450-Video-Card-Desktop-512MB-PCI-E-1x-DVI-1x-0C7MG0/331488562195?epid=1138004386&hash=item4d2e420c13:g:HwYAAOSwPh5ZExru

They're new enough to have DVI and HDMI.

[aisle9]

I mean, anything on back to the very first GPU will work if you have the right computer...

[ApolloX75]

get an X850 XT or a 6800 Ultra off ebay, they should be relatively cheap. IIRC they were some of the first PCIE cards released.

 

I forgot. nVidia had PCIE 5000 series cards like the PCX (I think...) 5900 and 5700.

[astrokitten2385]

My ATI FireGL VX8600 still works fine lol 

[Colb]

my bedroom setup runs a 780ti which manages 1440p fine (with sensible settings) and is had for very reasonable prices on the used market  iam not sure what the first that could do it would be though probably 680 or 690 . I also have a 480 in a spare messing about pc and that struggles at 1080p on aaa titles like wildlands so doubt it could do much at 1440p if any

[dragonhart6505]

If you just want to run the display and aren't concerned about gaming frames, pretty much any modern card after 2010 will power the display. Go get a crappy GT 210, she won't be throwing anything in the PC til her 1080 arrives anyway.

[alphaproject]

Well the sad thing is the 1060 and possibly the 1050ti won't even work on Windows XP. It allows you to boot in but doesn't give you any acceleration at all. I wish I had known this because I compose music in Win XP still because my keyboard is ancient and uses a serial driver to connect to the PC. RIP 2D acceleration.

[dragonhart6505]

7 minutes ago, alphaproject said:

Well the sad thing is the 1060 and possibly the 1050ti won't even work on Windows XP. It allows you to boot in but doesn't give you any acceleration at all. I wish I had known this because I compose music in Win XP still because my keyboard is ancient and uses a serial driver to connect to the PC. RIP 2D acceleration.

Hello VMWare...just a thought

[Princess Luna]

what do you mean by "work"? Any thing old will work, now if you mean like a card for 2560x1440p then I think on a GTX295?