I still remember when the budget Radeon 8500's came out. I never got one, but I remember people overclocking them significantly with a high rate of success.

The competition in the market back then between NV and ATI was incredible!

Almost on par with the Subaru Impreza WRX STI vs. Mitsubishi Lancer EVO, but IIRC Mitsubishi stopped making those badass cars around 2012 and the party pretty much died with no further major technical advances for a factory made rally whip.

>I remember full page ads for this card featuring deus ex in my gaming magazines

Was it PC Gamer?

I was on 3Dfx camp at the time but was looking at Geforce or the ATI response ( Radeon ) with All in Wonder Series.