Those of us who have been in the PC world for many years have had the bad luck of choosing, on more than one occasion, a component that in the end has ended up disappointing us. Before it was a very common evil because we did not have the enormous amount of information that the Internet offers today, although unfortunately it has not yet been completely overcome due to myths, prejudices and false information that circulates through the network of networks.
Today I would like you to tell us what has been the worst PC component you have had, either because you bought it or because you received it as a gift from a relative or friend, but what else has ended up surprising you in the end for good. As always, I get wet first and I leave you my choice, although the truth is that it was difficult for me to make the decision, because I was hesitating between a GeForce FX 5200 and an S3 Virge 3D.
In the end I prefer the S3 Virge 3D because It was the one that generated the least expectations when buying it, and the one that ended up offering me the most value after upgrading it to 4 MB (I bought it with 2 MB and decided to upgrade soon after). The most veterans will already know what graphics card I’m talking about, this was at the time one of the first 3D accelerators “for the poor” who couldn’t buy a 3DFX Voodoo, and couldn’t afford something better like a Rendition Vérité or a Matrox either. Mystique.
On the front page is the 2 MB version, and here is the 4 MB version.
The S3 Virgin 3D offered a very basic acceleration via Direct3D, so basic that it was unable to render transparency and with certain games it gave occasional texturing errors. It was not serious considering its price (I think it cost me about 10,000 pesetas at the time, about 60 euros), and comparing it with the Voodoo which, if I remember correctly, cost between 40,000 and 50,000 pesetas, between 240 and 300 euros.
I didn’t have high expectations when I bought it, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised because thanks to that seemingly bad component I was able to play titles like Motoracer, Resident Evil 1 and 2 and Final Fantasy VII in Direct3D modeand I managed to considerably extend the life of my PC of that time with a minimum expense.
Resident Evil 1 and 2 were playable, performance was surprisingly good, albeit with no transparency effects and minor texturing bugs in Resident Evil 2 coming and going. In Final Fantasy VII the scouting performance was acceptable, but in combat there were times when it was very jerky. Despite everything I finished the game and put about 100 hours into it.
Now it’s your turn, what has been the worst component you’ve had and what has surprised you the most for good? We read in the comments.
