...drinking a rum and coke. When did I last use the same video card for over a year? I expected the 4870X2 to last more than year, but I ditched it after about nine months as it was more of a space heater than a video card. The transistions came quick and fast. Rage Pro + 12MB V2, TnT2 Ultra, Geforce 2 GTS, Geforce 4 MX440 DDR (marginally faster but free), Ti 4800SE, 9800Pro, 6600GT(ran Doom 3 Faster), 6800GS (then SLi'd), x1950Pro, 8800GTS, HD3870 (then CF), HD4870X2, HD4770 (then CF) and then the HD 5850. I think back, and the only other card that did over a year, was the TnT2 Ultra. The 5850 has to hold the record.

I've been upgrading ATi cards at launch time now from the X800-X1800-x1950-2900xt-3870-4870-5870. I would have gotten a 6970 but I spent some cash on some other frivolous crap but it doesn't matter anyways since it's limited supply until next year anyways.

Looks like March or April, but by then hopefully it'sll be a full refresh, probably June.

my longest lasting card, and it was a recurring card was probably the x1900aiw i had... although my GF4 MX420 was about as long lived, if not longer, also as a recurring card.

Vanta 8MB, GF4 MX420, GF2 MX400, GF4 MX420, GF FX5200, Radeon 9600, GF 6600GT (that was my first real decent gaming card courtesy of the good Doc here), x1600, x1900aiw, HD2600Pro, GF7900GT, GF 7900GTX, x1900aiw, HD3870, HD5750.

i think that's all my cards over the last 10 years.
the Radeon 9600 is still in use (i think)
the 6600GT is still in use
the HD2600Pro is still in use
the HD3870 is still in use

some of these cards i had for only a couple months and some i had for over two years (MX420, x1900aiw and HD3870 all being 2yr+ cards)

That was my 6600GT wasn't it?

Cards go around and come around. I got my old TI 4800SE back a few weeks ago, right now it's less usefull than my Voodoo II

Good topic! I would say the longest lasting card in a system of mine was my 16mb NumberNine/Savage Pro. That lil fella was the first card to run GL Quake for me and it was like night and day. Hell I ran alot of games on that that shouldn't have ran at all, and they worked fine! I used it for about 3 or 4 years. As far as my 5850 goes, unless the 6900 series really entices me, I'll be sticking with it for the next little while. I think it was the most I ever spent on a card too. Would like to get a bit more use out of it before it goes in the 'sell me' bin.

Oh and as far as my card history since we're all sharing ours:

Rage 8mb, NumberNine/SavagePro 16mb, Radeon 9200, MX440, FX5200, x1650xt, 8800gt, 4870, 5850.

They sure don't make em like they used to.. thank god..

I still may get a 6970 earlier rather than later depending on price and if someone around here wants my 5870 .

The 2GB of vram is taunting me, 5760x1200 doesn't like a measely 1GB.

Apparently the 6950 will also have 2GB vram, which is nice to know.

ya put a good price on the 5870, and it will probably go away...

If the rumours are true, Tuesday will ROCK. (but it's AMD and they've been letting me down for years now)

With the way you price things I'm sure that won't be a problem.

And as for having a video card longer than a year... well I don't think I've had one for less than a year other than one which was RMA'ed:

• ATI Expression 4Mb
• 3DFX Voodoo 2 8Mb
• nVidia TNT2 32Mb
• nVidia Geforce 64Mb (I think???)
• ATI Radeon 8500 128Mb (RMA'ed)
• ATI Radeon 9000 128Mb (What they gave me in return )
• nVidia Geforce 4 Ti4200 128Mb
• ATI Radeon 9800Pro (128Mb)
• nVidia 9600GT (256Mb) - Still using this actually

it sure was. got it from you at one of the MB lan parties of yesteryear.

I think the video card that had the most influence on me was the Voodoo 5 5500 card. the first card the introduced MSAA and I couldn't believe how the graphics look on Tribes compared to the out going Voodoo 3 it replaced with the MSAA at x4. I think I will always have a place in my heart for that old card. 3DFX was a great company. It's too bad that they went under to Nvidia. I do believe that 3DFX's technology helped Nvidia bigtime. Just wonder where the gfx card industry would be at today if it was a 3 horse race.

It already is a Mexican standoff between three companies. Remember when Matrox beat ATI to Eyefinity with their Parhelia technology? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrox_Parhelia)

Remember when everyone forgot that Matrix still existed until that post? hah.