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[winjer]

Twenty-five years after the release of the GeForce 256, the world of 3D graphics has seen an incredible evolution: PC gaming has become increasingly complex and accessible to every enthusiast. But none of this, perhaps, would have happened without the initial innovations of that product launched in the autumn of 1999, a product which I luckily managed to have in my hands. 25 years in which NVIDIA has been able to continue a tradition that began with the first GPU in the GeForce family, the GeForce 256.

The NV10 GPU, which powered the GeForce 256, featured just 23 million transistors—a tiny number compared to the massive 76.3 billion transistors found in NVIDIA’s modern AD102 GPU, which powers the RTX 4090. Additionally, the GeForce 256 launched with only 32 MB of memory, a massive contrast to the 24 GB (or 768 times more memory) that the RTX 4090 boasts today.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Look at that tiny cooling fan. So Tiny.

 

[amigastar]

It's so long ago, damn.

 

[cyberheater]

I still remember seeing my mates PC with one of these playing Quake and it looked amazing and buying a card that week.

 

[amigastar]

I still remember seeing my mates PC with one of these playing Quake and it looked amazing and buying a card that week.

Quake 3, right?

 

[Gaiff]

People who didn’t game on PC don’t know how much of a huge deal this was back then. Of course, I was too young and broke to afford one, but my computer store did have demo PCs showing off I think it was Quake 2 running at over 100fps at 1024x768. It destroyed the Voodoo 3. I still had an old Voodoo 2 and a Pentium II or III, forgot which.

 

[Gusy]

Giants Citizen Kabuto ran great with this. Hardware T&L was a gamechanger

 

[winjer]

Here are a couple of reviews from that era:

NVIDIA GeForce 256 Part 1: To buy or not to buy

www.anandtech.com

Full Review NVIDIA's new GeForce256 'GPU'

Get the scoop on NVIDIA's new monster chip with integrated transform and lighting engine and all those nifty new DirectX 7 features. We tested the SDRAM as well as the DDR SDRAM version of GeForce. Comment about CPU-scaling added on Oct. 13, 1999

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Buggy Loop]

Fucking hell

I remember the ATI mach series (2D), the Matrox, the first 3DFX Voodoo, the TNT. Geforce 256 was like the future compared to those times, and here we have 25 years later

/dead

 

[KellyNole]

I had one of these. It was in my first PC that was truly mine. Hitting the feels right now.

 

[//DEVIL//]

I remember Doom 3 tech demo ... thats when I knew my console is shit lol. its the game that opened my eyes to PC.

but PC gaming was so out of reach for me so i stayed with consoles till 10 years ago or so. but it only became my main when xbox died ( announcing all the games coming to PC killed xbox for me and thats when i fully switched to PC.

No regrets.

 

[RaduN]

Riva TNT 2 was my fist one. Serious Sam looked out of this world on that, compared to my buddy's Voodoo. The best of times!

 

[SolidQ]

Back those days, cards have short lives. System Requirements grow so fast in 2000's, like every half year-one year you need change card. Today you can easily play for 6-7 years.
Was playing on TNT2, Quake 3, Blade of Darkness, for GTA3 that was pretty weak card, so i'm switched to GF2 MX400, after that only Radeon's was choice.

I remember Doom 3 tech demo

I was trying it on MX400, was 13-14 fps, only R9000 allowed me play normal

Eh... those times

 

[King Dazzar]

A bit before my time PC side. I think I jumped onboard Nvidia with the 6800 Ultra circa 2005ish and then left the party after the 1080ti. Good times. Lots of faffing, but good times. I still use a 3050ti in my media PC, so I guess they still have me even when I'm out.

 

[acidagfc]

I remember reading about it in a magazine and imagining how amazing the games would look.
And yet modern games look better than I imagined back then.

 

[Caio]

Fucking hell

I remember the ATI mach series (2D), the Matrox, the first 3DFX Voodoo, the TNT. Geforce 256 was like the future compared to those times, and here we have 25 years later

/dead

This was my last gaming PC, and man, I was so proud of that beast !

 

[SplunkyMunkey]

I remember the 3dx voodoo when red storm entertainment released Roguespear the thing I missed is the designs on some of the cards and the box they come in

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

world's first GPU

 

[Damigos]

I hate you GAF
Dont remind me my age

 

[Senua]

I hate you GAF
Dont remind me my age

 

[Trunx81]

Wasn’t this the card in the original Xbox?

 

[BennyBlanco]

Looks so quaint these days. One PCI slot and a tiny little fan.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Fucking hell

I remember the ATI mach series (2D), the Matrox, the first 3DFX Voodoo, the TNT. Geforce 256 was like the future compared to those times, and here we have 25 years later

/dead

We old now. Getting injections for my carpal tunnel for the love of the game.

 

[RaduN]

Wasn’t this the card in the original Xbox?

I think it had a GeForce3 of some kind, with PixelShader capabilities.

 

[amigastar]

Wasn’t this the card in the original Xbox?

No, i've looked it up and its an other card:
GPU and system chipset: 233 MHz "NV2A" ASIC. Co-developed by Microsoft and Nvidia and essentially a variant of Geforce 3 chips.

 

[TheMan]

Had a riva tnt and a voodoo 2 in my PC back in the day and felt like a badass. Always wanted an OG Gerfoce and never got one, but I did get a GeForce 3 in my next PC. back then keeping up with GPU tech was so much more straightforward

 

[ThaMonkeyClaw]

Fucking hell

I remember the ATI mach series (2D), the Matrox, the first 3DFX Voodoo, the TNT. Geforce 256 was like the future compared to those times, and here we have 25 years later

/dead

I feel your pain, in my head 1999 doesn't feel like that long ago...

 

[Laptop1991]

Great card,i finally replaced my Voodoo 3's with the Blaster 256, i was so impressed with the transform and lighting demo at the time.

 

[LordBritish]

Amateur hour... (breaks out his 3dfx card)

 

[amigastar]

What graphics card was the 3d Mark Max Payne demo on?
I remember watching it all the time back in the days

 

[U n i o n 0015]

I had the 64 MB Dell version. Awesome little card, played Max Payne beautifully at the time.

I was looking at buying one a non-working one a couple of years ago as a shelf piece and they were surprisingly expensive on eBay.

 

[LectureMaster]

My man also grew from a geek nerd to the richest snake oil salesman.

 

[scydrex]

 

[BennyBlanco]

These are

 

[Badlucktroll]

I never got to experience anything like this because my family always only got Macs

 

[winjer]

I never got to experience anything like this because my family always only got Macs

That is very sad, if you are a gamer.

 

[ThaMonkeyClaw]

Amateur hour... (breaks out his 3dfx card)

I still have my original Voodoo1 card from back in the day, I need to build out a retro PC and throw it in there

 

[BennyBlanco]

Fuck! I want one.

 

[Iced Arcade]

..............happy birthday

 

[SkylineRKR]

We started with a Stealth 3, which we got rid of quite soon. We went Voodoo 3 I think, which was a legit good choice. Geforce 2 was our first Geforce card, I guess in 2000. An upgrade every 6 months to a year was perfectly normal lol.

 

[lestar]

And 25 years later, nvidia keeps destroying the competition

 

[Trilobit]

Is this the PC-version of console gamers reminiscing over different generations of consoles?

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Jeez, has it been that long?

I remember people hyping the absolute shit out of this thing back when it launched, and it actually delivered. PC gaming/hardware was definitely more exciting back then.... massively more temperamental, but exciting.

 

[Futaleufu]

I couldnt afford one back in the day so I had to do with a TNT2

 

[EverydayBeast]

People respect pc gamers, when I had that graphics card it was playing battlefront 2 in its prime and played well.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Oh, so this is why my thread instantly ate shit huh

NVIDIA GeForce 256 Part 1: To buy or not to buy

www.anandtech.com

Here's a real blast from the past lmao

 

[Superkewl]

I was running 2x Canopus Pure 3D II in SLI mode at that time. I paid $900CAD at the time for those cards and my friends thought I was absolutely insane.

 

[deriks]

It says "first GPU in GeForce family"

@thread
I was with a Voodoo 2 at the time. Good times

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I bet I'm one of the few people here who actually had an Nvidia Riva 128, those were the days of weird fucking seams around polygons which was a known problem with the Riva 128. Kids today don't really understand how wildly variant image quality used to be. Now get off my lawn!

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Me too