What was your first "gaming" card?

[toupeiro]

My very first "gaming" video card was an S3 GENDAC 2MB VLB video card. This was back before Nvidia and even ATi. VLB cards were underrated. Back when PCI was just establishing itself as a form factor, my VLB was actually a little quicker than my first generation PCI-bus video card.

[Trenchbroom]

My first real gaming card was a Matrox G200 8MB. Ugly, sad little thing that it was. This was back when 3DFX and Glide ruled the land---OpenGL and D3D were hit and miss. It wasn't too long before I "upgraded" to a Diamond Voodoo Banshee 16 MB on my K6-3 400 Mhz mean machine.

10 years ago...wow time flies.

[grossaffe]

well my first video card in a computer was a nVidia Riva TNT2, but that came with the computer. The first one I got for gaming (was given to me) was an nVidia Geforce2 MX. I was actually able to get Doom III to run on that card even though it wasn't supposed to be possible. I found a driver for it that somehow worked with doom3 (granted it was EXTREMELY slow and choppy at a graphic setting that I set even below any of the listed options). That card's main use was for GTA.

[ghindo]

My first gaming card only came very recently. I bought a gaming computer from a friend earlier this year that he built sometime in 2006. I think it runs a GeForce 7900, or something from the GeForce 7 series. I'm planning on replacing it when I get the money, but am not entirely sure what to get next.

[riluve]

LMAO - my first gaming card was CGA - thats right 3 colors AND black! It was probably made by Trident and had 16k.

[K.Mandla]

LMAO - my first gaming card was CGA - thats right 3 colors AND black! It was probably made by Trident and had 16k.
Me too, sort of. I had a CGA card in a machine and bought an EGA card just so I could play Leisure Suit Larry in proper color. So I guess that was the first "gaming" card I bought. :roll:

[Trail]

S3 Verge, I think 2MB (maybe 4, I don't remember), on a Cyrix 686 166Mhz. I remember I could hardly play Colin McRae on lowest settings at that time. Afterwards I got me a Voodoo 2 Banshee 16MB with (zomg) 3D acceleration!

[fedex1993]

my first was a radeon 9600 back in the old dell that i still have that is working as a file server. ubuntu runs very slow on it but i think it is because it has no dan on it

[NovaAesa]

My first and probably last gaming card is a Radeon X800XL. I've given up with PC gaming, consoles ftw!

[SirPerigrin]

Voodoo 3 3000 16MB , still use it today on an office machine, wouldn't trade it for anything.

[KingTermite]

Some Diamond video card in my 2nd computer that I upgraded too specifically for gaming. I think it had 4MB of VRAM or something like that. This was around 1993 or so. I think it was about a $300 card at the time.

Ironically, this was the very reason I did not get into Linux when I first wanted to try it in the early 90s. The book on Linux I bought (Red Hat book, I think...one of the ONLY Linux books printed at the time) had BIG BOLD LETTERS saying to be very careful if you have a Diamond video card becuase they wouldn't release the specs and Linux could be configured incorrectly and overrefresh the card and burn it out.

It scared me enough to back away from Linux at the time, and I didn't make it back until this year more or less.

[TwiceOver]

My first real gaming card was a Matrox G200 8MB. Ugly, sad little thing that it was. This was back when 3DFX and Glide ruled the land---OpenGL and D3D were hit and miss. It wasn't too long before I "upgraded" to a Diamond Voodoo Banshee 16 MB on my K6-3 400 Mhz mean machine.

10 years ago...wow time flies.

That's pretty much exactly my first setup. K6-2 450mhz + Diamond Voodoo Banshee 16mb. Man that system was smokin' fast. With a whopping 64mb ram.

[geoken]

Voodoo 2.

Me and my brother saved up money and pre-ordered it. I remember playing quake2 at 320x240 and still having to put it in windowed mode (it would minimize the scrrn area and draw a border with some basic texture) to get decent framerates on my onboard ATI Rage. The Voodoo blew my mind.

[D-EJ915]

Does the VGA card I stuck in my AT count? lol, my personal first "gaming" card was the Viper II which I got pretty cheaply, nice card.

[amazingtaters]

Gotta rep the GeForce2 MX on this one. It was eventually replaced by a Sapphire built Radeon 9600 Pro (which was a piece, will never buy Sapphire again. Their customer support hung up on me!) then and eVGA built GeForce 6800 in the compy that I gave to my brother, with an MSI Radeon X800 Pro in my box. It needs an upgrade, but I don't really game much now that I'm in college, so it's not a top priority.

[Joeb454]

My first gaming card was an Nvidia one...I believe it was the GeForce FX 5200 :D

I still have it, it runs compiz quite nicely :)

[kitili]

2 nvidia 8800gts's, i got them when i built my first comuter. I remember i was so scared to put them in, i thaught i would break something :P

[amazingtaters]

2 nvidia 8800gts's, i got them when i built my first comuter. I remember i was so scared to put them in, i thaught i would break something :P

Dang son, you's a young'n. Those are still pretty good cards yeah?

[koji042]

My first gaming card was a nVidia 5800FX; it came with a pre-built system I bought.

[gletob]

I always buy cheap oem so never had one :(

[happyhamster]

My only (first and current) gaming card is an ATI 1900xt (256mb). It still performs pretty well when running recent games. (The only game that constantly makes me ponder upgrading is good old Oblivion, especially because of all those high-def texture mods around.
But if I'd upgrade, it would have to be a relatively cool and silent card. The 1900xt's stock cooler sounds like a vacuum cleaner at full load.

(In fact, using a few extension cables, I put the gaming pc in a separate room from keyboard/mouse/monitor, so as to be able to game without auditory overload.:))