Just something for fun for Throwback Thursday.... remember the joke "Will it run Crysis?" I thought I would look back at some of the older video cards that I used and what the reviews were using as benchmarks at this time. No doubt that the frame rate of this old games would be astronomical under the recent video cards. Please note that while I had some video cards prior to the Ti4400, I would be hard pressed to remember what the models are (I think it was a Matrox Millenium).
I used Google to search for the cards and then compiled a sampling of the games and benchmarks that were used to judge video cards. I don't claim this to be a complete and comprehensive list of games, but rather a sampling. In addition, I put in a review of that card from HardOCP or a similar card utilizing the same specs. I also put my own comments in about the cards and what was happening to me.
MSI GeForce4 Ti4400 (Card introduced February, 2002)
I actually picked up this card as a closeout special in 2003 along with a Soyo KT333 Ultra Dragon Platinum motherboard.
3DMark 2001
AquaMark
Comanche 4
DroneZ
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Max Payne
Quake3 Arena
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Serious Sam
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II
Unreal Tournament
Notes:
HardOCP Review of the ABIT Ti4400 & VisionTek Ti4400 Showdown
This was a AGP card, and included a video input as well as DVI/VGA video outputs. No SLI support. :)
Tested systems included both a Intel Pentium 4 and a AMD Athlon XP. At this point, they were still using 4:3 CRT monitors. Operating system was Windows XP with 512MB of RAM.
Tested resolutions (4:3): 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200
One article noted the video driver support for multiple monitors and rotating the screen.
MSI FX5900XT (Card introduced March, 2004)
Somewhere along the way, the TI4400 started malfunctioning... badly. Fortunately, it was still under warranty, so I returned it to MSI, and one night, I found a package on my doorstep... they replaced it with the 5900 video card that was probably sitting in the warehouse. I think I got this in late 2005.
3DMark 2001SE
AquaMark
Call of Duty
Comanche 4
Far Cry Demo
Flight Simulator 2004
Halo: Combat Evolved
Max Payne 2
Need For Speed: Underground
Painkiller Demo
Prince of Persia the Sands of Time
Quake 3
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Serious Sam 2
Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo
XIII
NOTES:
HardOCP review of the MSI FX5900XT
Still an AGP card, and included a Video Input as well as DVI/VGA video outputs. Still no SLI. ;)
Tested resolutions (4:3): 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200
Tested system was a Athlon XP and Pentium 4. Operating system was WIndows XP... with 512MB or 1GB of RAM.
While the 4400 has a small fan, the fan was bigger on the 5900 and a bigger heat sink as well.
Unlike the previous 4400 card, this card included a Molex power connection because of the additional power needs of the card.
The cards were known for their noise problems.
Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GTS (320MB) (Introduced February, 2007)
This time, the graphics card replacement was caused by the Soyo motherboard going bad on me. I remember looking at the capacitors and seeing them bulging and wondering if they were part of the bad chemical mix that cursed many products during that time period. Because of changing standards (PCI Express, SATA), I had to rebuild a entirely new system. However, I still had a CRT monitor which would not be replaced until 2009.
3DMark 05 & 06
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
F.E.A.R.
Flight Simulator X
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Half Life 2: Episode One
Medieval II: Total War
Quake 4
Prey
PT Boats Knights of the Sea
Rainbow Six: Vegas
Serious Sam 2
Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl
War Front: Turning Point
World in Conflict
World of Warcraft
NOTES:
HardOCP review of the similar EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB Superclocked
PCI Express card, and included two DVI outputs as well as a "HDTV output" (presumably through a dongle or S-Video connection). Also a SLI connector.
Tested resolutions (4:3): 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200
Tested resolutions (Widescreen): 1920x1200, 2560x1600
Tested system was a Intel Core 2 Duo system with 2 GB of RAM. Tested operating system was Windows XP. No extensive testing for Vista due to lack of drivers.
Beneath the huge headsink was a graphics card. Unlike previous cards, you have to use two graphics slots for this beefy (at the time) card. This continues to this day with high end cards.
Power was provided through a PCI-E power connector. Just one was needed.
Palit GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Sonic Platinum Overclocking (1GB) (Introduced July, 2010)
It all started in 2009. The CRT that I was using for several years went all blurry on me. Thus, I elected to pick up a new LCD monitor (a ASUS VK266H Black 25.5"). I was bumping against the memory limitations of the 8800GTS, so in July, 2010, I gave into temptation and got a 460 card.
3DMark Vantage
Aliens vs. Predator
Anno 1404 - Dawn of Discovery
ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Battleforge
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Crysis: Warhead
Dirt 2
Far Cry 2
Hawx
Just Cause 2
Left 4 Dead
Mass Effect 2
Metro 2033
Resident Evil 5
Singularity
Splinter Cell: Conviction
STALKER: Call of Pripyat
Wolfenstein
NOTES:
HardOCP review of the nVidia 460 cards on release day
PCI Express card with two DVI outputs, a VGA output, and HDMI output. SLI available.
Tested resolutions (4:3): 1280x1024, 1600x1200
Tested resolutions (Widescreen): 1680x1050, 1920x1200, 2560x1600 (with OC)
Tested system was a Intel Core i7 920 with 6GB of RAM and Windows 7 64bit.
Compared to the 8800, this was a much smaller card with a big heat sink to keep the GPU cool.
This card required more power than the 8800 because there were two PCI-E power connectors.
Back in March, 2014, nVidia announced that there were discontinuing driver support for the older video cards. The 4xx series (with the exception of the 405) is the oldest model series still being supported.
Surprisingly, you can still find new-in-box versions of this card even though better versions are available for the same price.
Today
The Core 2 Duo E6600 processor that I had used for seven years has been replaced with a i7-4790K. While it's overkill for a gaming system, I will be using it for video editing and virtualization.
The ASUS VK266H Black 25.5" monitor was given to my mother earlier this year when she purchased a new laptop to replace her desktop which only had a HDMI output. The monitor I'm now using is a Acer H6 H276HLbmid monitor that cost half as much, yet has more screen area.
I had originally junked the 460 in anticipation of the 980 release in mid-September, 2014 mainly due to overheating issues. However, because the card I want is out of stock, I figured I would try something as a kludge. I took off the fan and heat sink, cleaned off the old thermal compound, put on some Arctic Silver, and reassembled it. No more crashes.
Closing Remarks
It is interesting what games were popular then verses now. Many of the games can now be picked up extremely cheaply at either Steam or GOG, and with some, some minor modification is needed to adapt them to the higher resolutions and widescreen monitors. It used to be about Unreal... whatever happened to Unreal Tournament anyways?