QOTW: What was the first graphics card you purchased?

Hello,

Long time listener, first time caller (I registered just to post this).

The oldest video card I still have is this NEC MultiSync Graphics Engine, which was released in 1989: https://i.imgur.com/vHtP982.jpg

This is the higher-end MGE-AG 256 model, which has an ISA interface and a full 1MB of VRAM; there was also an MCA version, but I never owned an IBM PS/2 computer. This card had a 50MHz Texas Instruements TMS34010 programmable graphics processor on it, which was then often called a transputer because it was fully programmable and interfaced directly with DRAM and VRAM. It also had a Chips and Technology P82C611 chipset, if I recall correctly, for VGA duties. With all that hardware, it could do 1024x768 in 256 simultaneous colors (from a palette of 262K)

I think I got it from JDR Microdevices in San Jose, CA. The cost was around $1,500 in 1990. My first PC was an 80386SX, but I fairly quickly got an 80486DX after that. Prior to those I had used Commodore computers from C64 to Amiga 2000, but none of those had a separate graphics card. Sadly, I no longer have the paperwork or box for the card (lost in a pipe burst), but I do believe I have the floppy diskettes with the Windows 3.1 and CAD drivers for it someplace.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky