Speaking of 3Dfx, my first "proper" GPU was an Orchid Righteous 3D. Got it when whatever pos gfx card I had at the time (quite possibly a Diamond FireGL 1000) couldn't run Q2 in GL.
Been here off and on since late 2003 I think, learned a lot from reading back when I was building PCs for friends and myself.
I mostly just lurk these days but been on the forum here since 2006. Over 12 years...been playing with computers since the late 1980s. Crazy how time flies!!!
Ahh the Barton core. I loved my 2700+. Foolishly sold it when I “upgraded”to a 3200+. My Asus A7N8X-D is literally an part of me and I doubt I could ever part with it.
I'm 39. My first PC was a 80286 with 640 KB of memory (can't recall the storage). I used it with a monochrome monitor and loved it, and played plenty of games on it. Also manually installed DOS 6.22 on it after the installation messed up (my first quasi-hacking event - I was so proud). Later on I received a Pentium 100. One of my friends later gave me a Matrox G400, my first upgrade and my first 3D accelerator - I was amazed by the colored water in Tomb Raider 2. I remember going over to my friend's house and overclocking his Pentium - he liked the result even though it wasn't quite stable, LOL. When I went off to college my folks bought me a custom PC with a Celeron 300A and Riva TNT2. Overclocked that sucker to 450 MHz and it served me well throughout my college years. It had the legendary 440BX chipset. After that I build my own PCs, starting with an Athlon XP, then a Pentium 4, then a Core 2 Quad, Core i7, a Ryzen 7 and Ryzen Threadripper. As for GPUs it was a GeForce 2 GTS (after the TNT2), GeForce 3, Radeon 9500 Pro, GeForce 9800 GX2 (first water-cooled GPU), Radeon HD 5750, GTX 780, GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti.
I was 'sponsored' by a local arcade in my teens. My 'job' was to keep the high score on Contra up where nobody could get it (and I'd show kids how to play more complicated games like Street Fighter and whatever). The owner had a prize where anyone who beat the high score on that game won a dinner for two at a local high-end restaurant (I could one-life that entire game from start to finish, lurking on certain parts for more points). My 'pay' was all the free games I could play.
I originally joined in 2004 (when I upgraded from Gainward GeForce Ti 4200 GS AGP8x 128MB) but mistyped my email for that account when I was trying to change it. I was stalking before joining though. I'd probably like to claw my eyes out if I'd see my old post now...
Great read, this thread and good to see "legacy" members still present! Joined in 2010 but I started visiting Guru3D site already around 2001 or 2002 I think. Lurked the forums since maybe 2005 before finally joining in 2010. Btw had no idea Guru3D was originally Voodooguru, named after Voodoo Graphics. Though I always knew some mysterious force drew me here so... makes sense now! First computer / PC was 486 SX 25 MHz in 1993. Later upgraded with DX2 Overdrive to 50 MHz and been PC gamer / builder / tweaker ever since. Testament to that is that the gaming consoles I've ever had are NES, SNES, PS3 and PS4, lols! (Incidentally PC came after SNES so there we went).
I've been lurking around here for ages, possibly as far back as when Voodooextreme and AGN3D were still popular, but hadn't joined the forums until not so long ago. Used to hang around at XtremeSystems too.
funny, i just checked after reading this thread and realized i joined in 2005... wow time flies lol i found this site looking for Detonator drivers
You know, guys, I often find myself pondering the fate of consumer computing. I mean, before personal computers existed, what they were expected to do for our futures was vastly different from what we actually use them for. I guess I always figured I'd have a big central computer in my basement controlling my house. Instead I have a PC that's good for some games and such. If I want to get anything near like the original idea, I have to connect to the fukking CLOUD and have some other jack-offs do the heavy computing for me. THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE! I suppose we all thought we'd be programmers, but it turns out programming is teh suck unless you're a real weird-O
Welcome back! I'm not quite as retro as you, but I've still been around for at least a decade... Scary when you think about it.
Hey hey, Long time lurker and even longer time member lol. Needed help with ocing my 6800 and ti4200 back in the day with my Duron 800 and AMD XP 1800. Oh the good ole days... Joined Sept 2004 and whilst not as active these days, still come back quite often. 33 now and i joined when i was 18 :O
I still lurk around mostly in logged out but with restarting my Company after 4 years of doing something else I should be around more again I believe i had a Geforce FX 5800 Ultra and yes I actually enjoyed it except the lack of 8bit Pallete Textures
