Another top 5. My personal favorite cards that I actually owned:

3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 PCI (my first 3D accelerator, an incredible value, the only 3dfx card I actually owned before they went under)
Tyan Tacheon Radeon 9600 Pro (1280x960 gaming at high frame rates looked amazing on a 15" CRT)
EVGA Geforce 8800 GTX (incredibly long lived card and represented the start of a new era in PC gaming graphics... though it cost $650... yikes!)
EVGA Geforce GTX 660 2GB (massive increase in efficiency over previous generations, after 5 years would probably still be fine for my primary GPU if not for one or two games that are more graphically intensive)
PNY Geforce GTX 970 4GB (ended up being an excellent investment. After nearly three years it is still worth almost as much as I paid for it because the $150-$300 GPU range has completely stagnated... its also nearly silent and runs super cool with an Arctic Accellero III passive cooler + a 120mm fan)

The following come to mind, without trying to apply any objective measures.

Voodoo Graphics
GeForce2
Radeon 9700 Pro
GeForce 8800 GTX
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, until something more advanced comes out.

BloodyCactus wrote:

8514 kyro tms34010 tms9918 mos vicii mc6845 ocs/ecs […]
Show full quote

8514
kyro
tms34010
tms9918
mos vicii
mc6845
ocs/ecs

AFAIK, TMS9918, VICII and OCS/ECS chipset weren't used as standalone cards, they always were integrated into computers.

1. VooDoo Rush The Most Under Rated 3dFx VooDoo Card
2. GForce 3dFx 5,200 The First Card Thats The Way Its Meaned To Be Played The Ofifical 3D Mark 2003 Scores Cant Be wrong
3. Damond Edge 3-D Aka The Sega Saturn Graphic's Card
4. The Nec Power Virtual Reality Neon 250 Aka The Dream Cast Video Card to bring Highest Quality Graphic's To The Pc For The First Time Ever
5. 9 Revolution the world firs 32mb card

Please Like AN Subscribe

leileilol wrote:

GForce 3dFx 5,200 The First Card

I had this one. The 64-bit version, mind you!

leileilol wrote:

1. VooDoo Rush The Most Under Rated 3dFx VooDoo Card 2. GForce 3dFx 5,200 The First Card Thats The Way Its Meaned To Be Played T […]
Show full quote

1. VooDoo Rush The Most Under Rated 3dFx VooDoo Card
2. GForce 3dFx 5,200 The First Card Thats The Way Its Meaned To Be Played The Ofifical 3D Mark 2003 Scores Cant Be wrong
3. Damond Edge 3-D Aka The Sega Saturn Graphic's Card
4. The Nec Power Virtual Reality Neon 250 Aka The Dream Cast Video Card to bring Highest Quality Graphic's To The Pc For The First Time Ever
5. 9 Revolution the world firs 32mb card

Please Like AN Subscribe

Liked AN Subscribed. 🤣

For me any list should automatically include the ATI 9700/9800 and the legendary 8800 GTX/Ultra as they were such a big thing during their time and performance wise lasted much longer than anyone had expected along with the V1 and V2. Also we can't forget cards like the 6800 Ultra and X850 PE.

nforce4max wrote:

For me any list should automatically include the ATI 9700/9800 and the legendary 8800 GTX/Ultra as they were such a big thing during their time and performance wise lasted much longer than anyone had expected along with the V1 and V2. Also we can't forget cards like the 6800 Ultra and X850 PE.

Yeah, 5 is not really enough. 😊

I'm just going by what I personally experienced and enjoyed. Lets see...

S3 Virge (it just works)
Voodoo 3 (it just works + glide)
Voodoo 2 (separate 3D graphics)
Geforce 6800 (It basically just works and is pretty fast and good looking card)
HD4670 (because it works in AGP)

Some honorable mentions:
Rendition 2100 (because I think the card looks good)
Radeon 9600
FX 5900U (even though it will not run FEAR 🤣)
TNT2 M64 (it just works, but got pressed out of the top 5 by Virge and Voodoo)
Geforce MX2/MX4 (these are basically fantastic)

- Voodoo Graphics (aka Voodoo 1)
- Voodoo 2
- Nvidia Geforce 3 Ti200
- Nvidia Riva TNT
- Matrox G400

Honorable mention: ATI Rage 128

No criteria, historic significance or specific reasons, just a list based on personal experience.

Mach 64, first 2D card I had and worked wonders for dos gaming
Voodoo 1, paired it with the Mach 64 card and was 3D gaming bliss at the time
Gefore 2MX, price and performance in 1 card
ATI 800XT, first time I went for the real top end.
Nvidia 970, This card will keep me going for years!

honourable mention to the Amiga OCS chipset!

I'd have to have the Matrox G400 to the list somewhere as it brought dual monitor setups to the mainstream desktop.

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, until something more advanced comes out.

Titan Xp

The Serpent Rider wrote:

GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, until something more advanced comes out.

Titan Xp

Titan V

(although granted it doesn't support SLI HB, which the Xp does, so 2xXp > 1xV ... o.0)

Voodoo 2 - By the time this card was out you needed a 3D accelerator, Voodoo was great but not mandatory.
Geforce 4 ti4200, a stripped down top end card, aftermarket added ram and cooling were gaming beasts.
ATI 9700 PRO - Absolutely smashed the highend gaming market, set the stage for the next few years of huge gain in performance.
Nvidia 6800 - Nvidia really delivered a great high end card and the first SLI implementation since the Voodoo 2, still a feature in todays cards.

I'll throw in the Geforce 2MX great budget card.

S3 Trio/64v+
RiVA TNT
Voodoo Graphics
Geforce3
8800GTX

Diamond Trio64V+ or similar models - good for nearly anything in the DOS VGA 2D gaming era
3Dfx Voodoo2
ATI Radeon 9700Pro and it's derivatives
Geforce 6800GT/Ultra AGP - in my opinion the ultimate NVidia AGP card. There are faster ATI AGP cards but took time for drivers to stabilize, and by that time you're probably using Express.
GeForce 8800/9800GT(G92) - have to give a demerit for it being a prominent example of "bumpgate" issues, but it was a very capable card for a very long time. I still consider the games it plays recent enough to be relevant today. I remember building a PC for a relative with a 9800GT, which eventually failed, and 5 years later the same store was still selling the same card.

S3 Savage4 - first GPU I've ever used, it sucked, but played UT99, and it was all that mattered back in the day 😀
GeForce 2/4 MX - second GPU I've ever used, it sucked, but played(loose term) games up to 2005, and it was all that mattered back in the day, thanks to game developers not using shaders that much 😀
3Dfx Voodoo 1/2/3 - 1st major breakthrough in PC graphics.
Radeon 9700 Pro - 2nd major breakthrough in PC graphics.
GeForce 8800 GTX - 3rd major breakthrough in PC graphics (still waiting for the 4th one... 😀 )
GeForce 4 Ti - best 98SE GPU

My list:

1. VGA - A revolution for gaming on the PC. It really quick started setting the PC ahead of consoles and Amiga
2. 3DFX Voodoo Graphics - Changed the industry forever
3. Geforce 256 - Another technical achievement which pushed the industry forward.
4. Geforce 2MX - First really affordable 3D card for the masses with good enough performance.
5. Geforce 8800GTX - A mileleap in performance compared to what came before it.

1. The original Hercules card
2. ATi EGA Wonder
3. Orchid Pro Designer II (or any ET4000 family card for that matter)
4. Matrox Mystique (Trio64 and Mach64 also good choices)
5. Voodoo3 (The 1 and 2 don't count because they don't have VGA cores)

The only card I owned on this list when it was new was the Voodoo3. I don't necessarily agree that all of these cards were the "best", but they were all popular for their quality and overall good value.