What video card has served you the longest before upgrading?

For me it would be the 9700pro (1.5 years) and the 8800GTX (2 years). I then had an SLI 280 setup when the X58 first dropped. Now I am back to just single cards.
 
Looks like through my GPU progressions my 6950's where the longest lived cards in my system.

ATI x850xt (2004-2006)
ATI x1950 (2006-2007)
Nvidia 8800GTX (2007-2008)
ATI HD4850 (2008-2010)
AMD 6950 Crossfire (2010-2013)
Nvidia GTX780 SLI (2013-????)
 
Wow you guys hold on to your cards for a long time, or maybe I just have an itchy upgrade fever or something
riva tnt (1999 - 2000)
voodo 5 5500 (2000-2001)
geforce 3 (2001-2003)
radeon 9600 (2003-2004)
Geforce 6600 (sli) (2004)
geforce 6800 gt (2004-2005)
Radeon 1950 pro (2006)
geforce 7950 x2 (short time got in trade)
geforce 8800 gt (died after about 2 yrs )
radeon 4850 (brief 4980 experiment like 30 days)
radeon 5850/6850 (traded for 6850 still in media center)
geforce 560ti
geforce 680 (less than a month)
radeon 7970 ghz

Probably the 4850 has lasted the longest minus the crappy intel integrated in my laptop. My favorite is defiantly the voodoo 5 (paired with an AMD 700mhz) as it introduced aa, what a jump for quake 3...
 
Voodoo 3 AGP and this 560Ti in sig have served me the longest with the best results.
 
I think my ati x1950 pro agp card was the one I used the longest.
I got it to up the frame rate in battlefield 2 and battlefield 2142.
I've been doing minor upgrades about every year.

These are the cards I've used in my main rig since 2004,
Ati 9600XT
Nvidia 6800
Nvidia 7800GS
Ati X1950 Pro
Nvidia 9800gt
Nvidia Gtx260
Nvidia Gtx285 + Nvidia 9600 GT (used for 3rd monitor)
Ati HD5850
Ati HD6950

And will be upgrading to another Ati card in the next couple of weeks for Battlefield 4.
 
This GTX 480 probably. About 3 years now. Still don't see myself upgrading for another year, at least. I even have another one as a backup in case it fails. I used to post in video card forum a lot (when I had ATI), but 480 has so few driver problems or game problems I never stop playing games these days.

Ah the memories.
 
Most definitely my ol' evga 8800GT. That thing was such a best for so long...last well over 3 years playing highest settings...although I was gaming on a 1280x1024 monitor at the time...
 
Either the Geforce 6800 (vanilla, no numbers) or a 8800GT

both due to lack of fundage to upgrade issues, not sure which one lasted longer other than having memories of taking the 6800 apart, replacing the dusted thermal material and overclocking the hell out of it to play Crysis.
 
Off the top of my head...

ATI 9000 (2002-2003)
ATI 9500 (2003)
ATI 9700 AIW (2003-2005)
ATI 9800 Pro (2005)
nVidia 6800 - unlocked to a 6800 GT (2005-2006)
nVidia 7800 GT (2006)
nVidia 7900 GTX (2006, SLI'd a few months later)
nVidia 8800 GTS 640MB (2007-2008)
ATI 4870 (2008-2009)
nVidia 275 GTX (2009-2010)
ATI 5870 (2010-2011)
AMD 6970 (2011-2012)
nVidia GTX 680 (2012-Current, SLI'd in October 2013)

I'm surprised, didn't think it was my current setup that's lasted me the longest. Even more so now that I added a second card in and have no desire to move to a 1440p monitor any time soon.
 
Wow, looking at this list really dates me.
When I was still heavy into upgrading my rig, it was cards like the Matrox Mystique and nVidia Riva TNT/TNT2

Heck, S3 was still a company back then! Before they bought Diamond MM who had the Viper line of cards!

Anyone remember the Canopus Pure3D? That was my first venture into OpenGL and it had 6MB of ram!!!!

I think back then I upgraded almost every new release since the performance gains were HUGE with each new generation.
 
My Radeon 4850 lasted me from 2008 to 2012 in my main gaming system. BF3 was the game to finally force me to upgrade. It still resides in my HTPC to fire up an occasional older game. Honestly though, it was really long in tooth by the time 2012 hit.

Every other card I had would only last about 3 years before it was useless. Then again, I never bought the highest tier card either or they would have lasted longer.
 
HIS Digital x1950pro 512MB IceQ, on AGP bus. LOL. Used the computer it was running in six years longer than I should have. Upgraded rig in sig ;)
 
lol half of this list just looks like people listing every card they ever owned. Or it has nothing to do with the card being far ahead of the competition but just has to do with how long the poster had to make due with that card. Best example is all the people listing the gtx 9800s which were nothing more than rebadged 8800 512mb cards. The long lasting good value card was the 8800 512mb. Not the same card rehashed which is now old silicone. lol some people even list so many cards they are listing every other generation. How is it long lasting if you had replaced it every other generation, that just means you tended to skip one gen for each upgrade cycle.


BTW I still have a computer which is kicking a 8800 512. Not my main rig but if I had to vote the longest lasting would have been the 8800 512 or the Geforce 2 GTS
 
I'm still sport in my 460 gtx, three years now, lol
I kind of fell out of PC gaming, now into ps3 and soon ps4, don't hate! I'm on a budget lolll
 
I'm still using my 5870. I mostly play MMORPGs.

I upgraded to a 1440p monitor, and now that AMD has laid it's cards on the table, I think it's time for me to upgrade. Thought it'd be a 290x...but the heat and noise would bother me.
 
my evga 8800 GTS 512 served me the longest 07/08 - august 2013, surprisingly it still plays bf3 on low, ill miss that card, i gave it to a friend, and its still running strong.
 
Sapphire 5850 Xtreme, easily gets to 1Ghz, could play skyrim on max even with high res texture mods and other effects.

It died this summer after being run at 100% load constantly for 2 years.

RIP sweet card.
 
SLI'ed, waterblocked and heavily overclocked 480 GTX's. Since April 2010... still going strong.
Most likely will upgrade sometime next year though. They've had a very good run and lots of staying power. I'll be looking forward to the arrival of a new "Maxwell" GPU.
 
I always skip 1-3 generation. Not worth upgrading unless it can provide at least 2x the performance of my previous setup. I also buy the best performance/value at the time. It tends to be amd more often than not.

To stay on topic my longest lasting card was the ati Radeon 9700 pro.
 
GTX580 over 2 1/2 years now.

Whats crazy is that nearly all games can still be run at max quality @ 1080p without AA, with good enough framerate.
I dont miss AA anyway, so this works out great.
A few games need a couple of settings turned down a notch, but I havent seen a drop in quality that makes me feel the need to upgrade.
Will likely not update until well into 2014.
 
4 years - 5850 in my Shuttle. Just recently (within the last 2 months) upgraded it to a 660. I really hate how power hungry mainstream cards are now. The 760 is at 170W (the 660 is a 140W card) and I don't even want to go into how bad AMD cards are power/performance wise after the 6xx0 series.

Too bad the 760 192-bit didn't release retail (OEM only and faster than 660 w/ 130W).
 
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Not sure what you're talking about. Cards are far more efficient than they used to be. A 770 for example is about twice as powerful as your old 5850 while consuming less power.
 
Had an x800gto2 that flashed to an x850xt.... then I crossfired it to an x850xt

most recently though... I had 1 gtx 480 that was autographed by ceo of nvidia, then I bought another gtx 480 and rocked two for a while... then I bought a third and rocked 3 for a long time in my rv02e raven case.... then I bought a fourth gtx480 abd put them in a switch 810 and watercooled them all.... so I would have to say I probably rocked 480s fir two generations so possibly the longest gaming card ive owned...
 
Hercules Graphics chip in my father's PC XT, about 1983 through something like 1990. Only game I can recall playing on that one was the old dungeon crawl, the grandfather of all of them, started on Berkeley Unix (I think). Dog was a d, dragon was a D, wand was a w. You walked around rooms whose walls were defined by | and _ . Very 2 D. The game was called.... Hack? I forget. You had to download some ancient graphics interface to get it to work.
 
Geforce 2 GTS 64mb maybe... even though I hated that thing.

Nvidia's drivers and the OEMs that made the cards were not so great in the early days.
 
I have a EVGA 7900GTX 512mb card that I used for about 5 years before upgrading my entire system.
 
RamonGTP said:
Not sure what you're talking about. Cards are far more efficient than they used to be. A 770 for example is about twice as powerful as your old 5850 while consuming less power.
Click to expand...

Inefficient is the wrong word. Increased power demand for mainstream cards is what I meant. Yes, I know that not everyone has a 5 year old Shuttle w/ a 9450 and a 400W power supply, but I would like more options. Other than the 7870 and the 660, both of which were released over a year ago, there has been nothing. Trying to get as much out of it before it gets replaced (tertiary system).
 
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8800GT for me.
From the time I build my Q6600 rig back in 2008, until mid-2012 when I upgraded to a GTX670.
 
So far, my flashed 6950. I would say the 9700 pro was a nice card at the time, but quickly left me wanting more. Other than that I've chased bang for the buck price points to get the most gpu for my money.
 
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