A new book features some of the most striking examples of graphics card box art from the late 1990s through to the early 2010s. Overclocked: An Archive of Graphics Card Box Art could be the perfect coffee table book for PC hardware aficionados, and will equally delight and/or horrify those who pick it up, depending upon their sensibilities.
A pretty good idea of the publication’s contents is provided by the cover of this tome, contrary to the old adage. It promises to be a real page-turner, and opening the book, you will enjoy the fascination-horror of “over 300 retail boxes from the late 1990s through to the early 2010s,” explains the publisher.
On the cover is a typical example of a mythical elfin enchantress, a recurring theme of the age. However, much more bizarre images can be found inside. Graphics card stalwart Gainward looks like a relatively frequent offender in the eye-bleach artwork category. Samples from this Taiwanese AIB frequently featured imagery inspired by themes like Terminators, but other brands of cyborgs were obviously available.
MSI products are also quite prevalent in this book, and it appeared to favor armor and gem-encrusted heroic figures. Sapphire is another company that remains a going concern, but has a strong history of producing shudder-inducing GPU carton artwork.
Viewers of the book may also enjoy a sense of nostalgia with artwork from brands that are now long gone, and seeing packaging for ancient GPU families.
We searched through the Tom’s Hardware archives for additional samples, but unfortunately, our old reviewers rarely took photos of the packaging artwork, or if they did, only low-resolution images were available. Nevertheless, we found enough to put together the collage above.
It was surprising to see that Amazon sites around the world seem to be one of the better sources of old GPU artwork. On the retail giant's German site, you can still see listings for the legendary ugly alien Sapphire Radeon X550 256 MB. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the product page for the Radeon HS 7770 GHz Edition is still live with its camouflage ‘busty army babe’ artwork.
Another noteworthy find from our digging was the “world's first GPU-based graphics card” from Asus, with its dreadful box art reproduced below.
Remember, the graphics cards in these boxes would sometimes be ‘enhanced’ by equally gaudy artwork on their cooling shrouds. That isn’t very common in 2025.
In addition to the boxes, Overclocked: An Archive of Graphics Card Box Art also features over 50 GPU print ads for an extra dose of tasteless artwork exposure.
Sadly, at the time of writing, the book is marked as ‘sold out,’ but that might also just mean that the publisher is waiting for a sizable wholesale order to make publishing worthwhile. It is touting for large orders on the website, but interested individuals can also sign up via the publisher's website for stock alerts.
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