Gaming GPUs used to be fun, now they take themselves too seriously

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

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

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

At some point, GPU makers seemingly made the decision that they wanted to appear serious and mature. I understand that people want their gaming hobby to be taken seriously, but I want my crazy cards back.

GPU BoxArt was the bomb

The very first graphics card I bought was the Voodoo3 2000 AGPand you better believe this box art turned my head in the store when I finally scraped together my pennies for 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 at the mall, the GPU boxes caught my eye. Card makers like XFX in particular had downright sick artwork.

It wasn’t just bold colors or cool dogs as you might expect either, the card makers’ marketing departments weren’t shy about slapping attractive CG ladies on the boxes so that you would choose their brand of card over another. These weren’t boxes you threw away, you put them on display!

The actual GPUs followed by crazy designs

The box art was just a prelude, as you could pretty much guarantee 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, so you usually got a sticker on top of the fan case with some variation of the box art. While PC cases with window panels were already popular, in a tower case you wouldn’t see the art unfortunately, but it was very cool that it was there!

Silly, fun GPU names were the norm

While this tradition hasn’t completely disappeared, the practice of giving your graphics card a weird or edgy name was quite widespread at one point, and I absolutely loved it. I’ve always wanted to have one of my own MSI Twin 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 all names that carry heavy nostalgia for me.

Some GPU makers are keeping the dream alive

While mainstream GPU card makers are obsessed with chrome, carbon and RGB and want to make their GPUs look like the back of a Ferrari, there are still some card makers keeping the spirit of crazy and fun computer hardware alive. A notable example is Yeston, who creates cards with bright, light and pastel colors. It also offers cards with GPU shrouds that resemble cats cards with anime illustrations on them. In particular, they designed it so that you can clearly see the art correctly when the card is installed in a tower case.

Sometimes major map makers also take action. For example, ASUS did one Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover, and all I can say is thank goodness I couldn’t afford any of it!

Gigabyte is also doing its part to keep that old cyber-CG aesthetic going on the box art, but could this card look less interesting?

As much as I love anime-themed hardware (and I Real do), I still long for the fat CG characters, whether they look cool or cursed. There’s really not much that separates modern board partners other than price, so it’s wise to focus on aesthetics. It’s just that the aesthetic is generally faux supercars or unicorn vomit, and honestly there should be a third option.