• The GPU box art used to be fun and eye-catching, with bold colors, cool monsters, and attractive CG characters displayed prominently.

• The graphics cards also used box art designs, incorporating elements on the card itself or with stickers on the fan shroud.

• Silly, fun GPU names like MSI Twin Frozr and XFX THICC III Ultra have given way to more modern, mainstream conventions, but some manufacturers like Yeston still embrace quirky designs.

At some point, GPU manufacturers apparently made the decision that they wanted to look serious and grown-up. I understand that people want their gaming hobby to be taken seriously, but I want my silly cards back.

The GPU case art was the bomb

The first graphics card I bought was the Voodoo 3 2000 AGPand you better believe this box made my head turn in the store when I finally scraped together my pennies to buy it.

I guess it makes sense in a time when people walked into a physical store to buy computer hardware. There was no online shopping, but every time I passed a computer store in the mall, the boxes of GPUs caught my eye. Card makers like XFX in particular had downright disgusting artwork.

It wasn’t just about flashy colors or cool dogs, as you’d expect, card manufacturers’ marketing departments had no qualms about placing attractive computer-generated ladies on the boxes to make you choose their brand of card over another. These weren’t boxes you threw away, you kept them on display!

Real GPUs moved forward with extravagant designs

The box art was a mere prelude, because you could be almost certain that some version of that box art would appear on the card itself. Back then, GPU coolers weren’t that big and full card cases weren’t common yet, so you usually got a sticker on the top of the fan shroud with a variant of the case art. While PC cases with window panels were already popular, on a tower case you didn’t see the art, unfortunately, but it was cool that it was there!

Silly and funny GPU names were the norm

While this tradition hasn’t completely disappeared, the practice of giving your graphics card an embarrassing or risqué name was quite widespread at one time, and I loved it. I always wanted to have a MSI Double Frozrbut today I may have to settle for one XFX THICC III Ultra. MSI Lightning and Hawk, Inno3D iChill HerculeZ, Club3D Joker and Leadtek WinFast are names that make me very nostalgic.

Some GPU manufacturers are keeping the dream alive

While the major GPU card makers are obsessed with chrome, carbon, RGB, and making their GPUs look like the back of a Ferrari, there are still some card makers keeping the spirit of dumb computer hardware alive and well. fun. A notable example is Yeston, which makes cards with bright, light, and pastel colors. It also offers cards with GPU covers that look like cats and cards that have anime illustrations about them. In particular, they have designed it so that you can clearly see the art correctly when the card is installed in a tower case.

Sometimes the big card manufacturers get in on the action too. ASUS, for example, made a Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover, and all I can say is thank goodness I couldn’t afford any of that!

Gigabyte is also doing its part to keep that old cybernetic CG aesthetic on its case, but could this card look any less interesting?

As much as I like anime-themed hardware (and In fact I do), I still long for thick CG characters, whether they look cool or damn. There really isn’t much that separates modern board partners anymore, other than price, so focusing on aesthetics makes sense. It’s just that the aesthetic is usually fake supercar or unicorn vomit and honestly, there should be a third option.