Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024) • Hacker News Board

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#51

Post by doctor_blood » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 6:28 AM UTC

m-hodges wrote: post #3

jakebasile wrote: post #2

I miss when gaming in general was less mainstream and more weird like this. Now the silicon manufacturers hate that they even have to sell us their scraps, let alone spend time on making unique designs for their boxes. I bought a small press book with a collection of this art and it was a fun little trip down memory lane, as I’ve owned some of the hardware (boxes) depicted in it. For anyone else interested: https://l…

Woah, that book is cool; and so much more from this publisher!

LGR took a look at it on his channel; a very tiny book, with very tiny art, apparently all grabbed from google images. Something of a letdown.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#52

Post by debugnik » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 6:42 AM UTC

doctor_blood wrote: post #51

m-hodges wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah, that book is cool; and so much more from this publisher!

LGR took a look at it on his channel; a very tiny book, with very tiny art, apparently all grabbed from google images. Something of a letdown.

Wow, I just checked and that's really underwhelming: Tiny page size, lots of padding around the images and yet there's often 4 images per page. The layout makes it seem like the size a was late decision, it would be appropriate for a large artbook.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#53

Post by chao- » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 6:42 AM UTC

I'll never forget the big, dumb gorilla on the side of my mid-2000's 7900 GTX from a King Kong game tie-in product launch. Never played the game, but when I'm installing a GPU I sometimes think of that stupid decal and chuckle.

Searched and managed to find an image:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/144323l/great...

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#54

Post by IMSAI8080 » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 6:46 AM UTC

abtinf wrote: post #14

I would guess part of the reason for this was box art used to matter because most of these cards were sold through dedicated electronics retailers like Fry's Electronics, Microcenter, and CompUSA. There was basically no such thing as online ordering for this sort of thing. People were physically browsing goods on shelves.

I think it comes from a marketing exaggeration of what the card could do. None of the cards of the day could actually produce their own box art (in real time) but the art implies they could in a way they can get away with. It follows the tradition of box art on 8-bit games wildly exaggerating what the in-game graphics might look like and they'd sometimes post a tiny disclaimer in the corner.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#55

Post by krige » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 6:46 AM UTC

Mawr wrote: post #10

Please stop reminding me of how soulless and watered down everything has become :( Games are no different, in Morrowind gods ripped each other's penises off and used them as spears; in Skyrim you fight dragons.

Well there is still an NPC that proclaims Kirkbride's drug binge fueled [affectionately] lore.

Besides, in Skyrim you eat souls of hitherto immortal beings in an act of metaphysical cannibalism, and, among other things, get to witness firsthand exactly what happens to those souls you trap to fuel your fancy sword of zapping.

Meanwhile, in the background, Vivec might or might not have been kidnapped to be on the receiving end of that spear thing, and fascist elves are trying their hardest to undo the universe (it's not plot pertinent though), and also briefly did (or claimed to do) something to the moons (that are not moons, remember) that terrified an entire race into submission.

The point is, the lore is still there. You just have to pay attention, because it's not always spelled outright.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#56

Post by chao- » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 6:48 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #35

zdw wrote: post #11

Unusual designs are still a thing in some markets (mainly china) - for example, a cat themed cooler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGGKaX1D9Zo and various anime themed backplates on cards are available from Yeston: https://yestonstore.com/collections/graphics-card

Thanks, Japan is in the same boat. From full cases [0] including the CPU cooler in general, to themed components[1], when it comes to gaming makers are going beyond and above to create cool visuals. [0] https://www.dospara.co.jp/gamepc/kuzuha.html [1] https://www.yodobashi.com/product/100000001009108157/

Years ago, I picked up a low profile, single-slot GPU that worked well in Linux to throw in old machines when someone gives me one to mess with or recover. The best fit at the time was a Yeston AMD card, and in a world of cards that are all "Black with {{primary_color}}" the choice of blinding magenta made me smile.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#57

Post by aleph_minus_one » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 7:03 AM UTC

Biganon wrote: post #48

vinkelhake wrote: post #43

Besides the box art, I miss the days when 1) the graphics card didn't cost more than the rest of the components put together, 2) the graphics card got all of its damn power through the connector itself, and 3) MSRP meant something.

4) scalpers only existed for sports and music venues

The existence of scalpers rather shows that the producer set the price of the product (in this case GPU) too low [!] for the number of instances of the product that are produced.

Because the price is too low, more people want to buy a graphics card than the number of graphics cards that can be produced, so even people who would love to pay more can't get one.

Scalpers solve this mismatch by balancing the market: now people who really want to get a graphics card (with a given specification) and are willing to pay more can get one.

So, if you have a hate for scalpers, complain that the graphics card producer did not increase its prices. :-)

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#58

Post by thih9 » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 7:11 AM UTC

These images were originally posted on Reddit; there are more examples in the original post:

https://old.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/y7wcd7/gpu_bo...

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#59

Post by MaxikCZ » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 7:13 AM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #29

jakebasile wrote: post #2

I miss when gaming in general was less mainstream and more weird like this. Now the silicon manufacturers hate that they even have to sell us their scraps, let alone spend time on making unique designs for their boxes. I bought a small press book with a collection of this art and it was a fun little trip down memory lane, as I’ve owned some of the hardware (boxes) depicted in it. For anyone else interested: https://l…

On the plus side, PC gaming hardware seems to last ages now. I built my gaming desktop in 2020, I had a look lately at what a reasonable modern mid tier setup is and they are still recommending a lot of the parts I have. So I'll probably keep using it all for another 5 years then.

Its a double edge sword. Yes, back then 2 year old computer was old, but at the same time every 2 years a new generation of games came out that were like never seen before. Each generation was a massive step-up.

Today, a layman couldnt chronologically sort CoD games from past 10 years from looks/play/feel, new Fifa and similar is _the_ same game but with new teams added to it, and virtually every game made is a "copycat with their own twist" with almost 0 technical invention.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#60

Post by Wurdan » Mon, Oct 20, 2025, 7:52 AM UTC

jzwinck wrote: post #41

Sound cards too. The Hercules website still proudly shows all their boxes from back when sound cards were popular for gaming and more: https://support.hercules.com/en/cat-soundcards-en/ Several models don't even have pictures of the card, but every one of them shows the crazy box. They also still list all their old GPUs. Compare the wild boxes at the top with the TV tuner boxes at the bottom: https://support.hercules…

Just the mention of pieces of hardware we don't really need anymore (sound cards, modems, etc) triggers a flood of nostalgia. I used to spend DAYs poring over PC part catalogues dreaming of my ideal rig. And brands like Hercules, Creative, Matrox all trigger the same feelings.

Crazy contrast to me having spent the past weekend wondering if cloud gaming services like Geforce Now are matured enough that I can fully move to a thin client - fat server setup for the little bit of gaming I still do.