What happened to all the video cards with amazing artwork on them?

I think they probably figured out at some point that the anime girls don't universally play well with global audiences, and they'd have to either come up with different artwork for regions like the US where it would be seen as in somewhat poor taste, or at least that would be the perceived risk on the part of retailers, who have to put the boxes on their store shelves. Furthermore, and I suspect this is the biggest reason, the fans got so much bigger and more numerous that there isn't anywhere to put the artwork anymore.

See how much more shroud real estate there is here on these 8800GTs, versus a more recent card? (Image credit: MSI; https://asset.msi.com/resize/image/....jpg62405b38c58fe0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/1024.png)
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In comparison, this is a more recent MSI card (980 Ti Golden Edition). There's now a fan where the hot chick's face should be.
(Image credit: Me)
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They could maybe put artwork on the backplates that are now de rigeur on most of the nicer cards. It could be sort of like the designs you'd see on the bottom of skateboards back in the 80s and 90s, when skateboards were cool.

This is the backplate from that 980 Ti. This being a special edition, it has the nifty gold dragon design. I think the regular non-GE version of this card has a much more subtle glossy black dragon.
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EVGA at least builds a sorta cool design into the backplate. There's less room for busty anime girls here, what with all the holes, but they're at least trying to keep it from being a featureless black rectangle.
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This is the only card I think I have with an Anime girl on it,
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I had this 9600XT back in the day but I can't recall what the card looked like,
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Like hot chicks and stuff?

That was awesome but haven't seen any of that in years.....

All your base are belong to us?
Simple. Very, very few companies (as far as high-end GPUs are concerned) use blower-style coolers any more. Almost all higher-end GPUs now use multiple large fans on their coolers now, leaving the company with absolutely no room at all whatsoever to put anything more than generic artwork on their coolers. They did this because they found all of the blower-style coolers woefully inadequate for those higher-performance GPUs.
 
I didn't hate it, but I don't miss it either. Yes it was tacky, but back then gaming on a whole was considered tacky. GPUs have become much more mainstream and with that comes more mainstream designs that doesn't offend anyone.
 
Always looked stupid to me. Stickers that peal off under heat also look terrible. I like the style that started emerging in the 2010s. I think sometimes it goes too far now, with RGB lights and big logo plates, but overall the design looks so much better now.

Designs like this look so much better:

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Wait you don't like blinding RGB to the point it's hard to find stuff without it lol
I disable it when ever possible. The only light that comes from my PC is the power state LED on my x570 master. I also unplugged the front rgb on my 011 dynamic XL cause it drives me nuts when trying to take a nap.
 
The industry kind of grew up just a bit. Artwork is very polarizing and the marketing teams at these companies are aware of this. Another thing is that much of the surface where artwork used to be, is now all filled with fans.
 
That shit was always tacky to me. Also really hate all the rainbow vomit that replaced it. I like clean industrial looks.

Me too. OTOH disabling the Frag Harder Disco Blights has never been more than a single wire to unplug on cards I've owned. Much easier to disable than a large sticker is to peel off, also much easier to reverse if you need to RMA the card.
 
I thought I this was a necro but it's just a duplicate thread...

https://hardforum.com/threads/whate...ics-cards-themselves.1968980/#post-1043901218

I guess the answer is still the same? It looked tacky then and looks tacky now and will 2 years from now I expect.


Same I was just too lazy to search for the old one.


I had a sapphire x1800xt with this alien sticker over the original ati ruby graphic.


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Not that it mattered since I never felt the need to see all the BS in a case.
 
Same I was just too lazy to search for the old one.


I had a sapphire x1800xt with this alien sticker over the original ati ruby graphic.


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Not that it mattered since I never felt the need to see all the BS in a case.
You couldn't see it anyway back then. With how cards faced downward and windows weren't as common back then.
 
The demographics for PC gamers have changed a lot since then as well. By average, gamers have become younger, not as male dominant (but still is), and a lot more competitive so marketing have now focused on these younger groups. Strangely, millennials are considered well over the hill in the gaming world.
 
The demographics for PC gamers have changed a lot since then as well. By average, gamers have become younger, not as male dominant (but still is), and a lot more competitive so marketing have now focused on these younger groups. Strangely, millennials are considered well over the hill in the gaming world.

Probably something to do with our mostly having jobs along with various other adult obligations, and no longer being able to game 80-120 hours a week like when we were kids. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Better watch out Zoomers, it's going to happen to you next. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
Once they figure out how to do RGB imaging synced to the fan speed, the chicks will come back.
 
RGB is taking over the world. I hate it.

always thought it was pointless in my case, cos whogives a fuck.

I’m ashamed that I do actually like my mouse mat and mouse though. Be clear however it’s a static cyan that goes with everything else.

overall RGB jumped the shark a long time ago. I saw “rgb towers” the other day, not a lamp, or reactive or anything other than just something to put on your desk. Crazy.
 
I was anti-RGB for a while. My current system has no lights, doesn't even have a window or anything. Just plain black metal.

However, I did recently add bias lighting to my monitor, and found I do actually like it. It was a cheap $15 kit, so I can only do a single color at once but it's nice.
 
It's like a Mnt. Dew soda can they keep changing the design to make the soda more interesting. I just don't think a GPU consumer wants to be labeled with a image or design form over good looks.
 
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Eventually boxes, cards and other devices will have screens where you can flash anything you want including animations. Put what you want and change it as you want.
 
Eventually boxes, cards and other devices will have screens where you can flash anything you want including animations. Put what you want and change it as you want.
They already have it on some GPU MB and AIO blocks. Hell they got entire side panel glass that have LCD built into the case.
 
Eventually boxes, cards and other devices will have screens where you can flash anything you want including animations. Put what you want and change it as you want.

Or...pay less and avoid the useless fluff.
My computers are about performance...only thing that should be emitting photons (besides the power on/off LED) is my displays...
 
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The last card I had with artwork on it (other than MSI's little dragon logos) was a HIS 6970. I think I'd almost prefer it over RGB as at least with the cyber frog art it was generally on the bottom side of the card and I could ignore it.
Kinda annoyed I have to either run MSI's buggy Mystic Light app or remove a cable just to disable the LEDs on this card.
 
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