The GeForce 256, an arguably revolutionary chip that NVIDIA developed over two decades ago to achieve what the company had described as offloading from the CPU key tasks for rendering 3D images, making it the very first graphics processing unit ever, is now 25 years old, according to a corporate timeline from NVIDIA that can confirm the GPU was originally launched in August 1999, just months after the company unveiled the RIVA TNT2, the first 32-bit frame buffer. The GPU, which became available for purchase in October that year, counts 32 MB of SDR memory, a GPU clock of 120 MHz, and a VGA connector among its specifications.
Key specs of the GeForce 256 include:
- Process Size: 220 nm
- Transistors: 17 million
- GPU Clock: 120 MHz
- Memory Clock: 143 MHz
- Memory Size/Bandwidth: 32 MB, 1.144 GB/s
- Bus Interface: AGP 4x
- Suggested PSU: 200 W
- Outputs: 1x VGA
A look at one of the original VisionTek models:
From NVIDIA’s “Tonight I’m Gonna Game Like It’s 1999!” article:
…man, those graphics… I was getting only 20 FPS at 640×480, which is why I got a big advance on my allowance from my (admittedly sometimes ‘ok’) parents, so I could buy the NVIDIA GeForce 256, the world’s first “Graphics Processing Unit” (GPU). Maximum PC has been hyping it for months and it doesn’t disappoint!
NVIDIA’s TNT2 gaming accelerator went head to head with the Voodoo 3, but this all-in-one 220nm, 120MHz GPU smashes it, with up to 50% faster performance, Direct3D 7.0 support, and more.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →3DFX was still better.
100% agree. My fondest gaming memories are from my P2 400 system with SLI Diamond Monster Voodoo 2 12mb and a raid zero set of ultra wide SCSI 9.1GB 10k seagate cheetah drives. I got the pII 400 at release, having saved up the entire summer of 1997 and then all my after school job money in the fall and winter. I spent more on that PC than I did on my first car, and it was SO fast.
Dang, you had a balling system back then. Mine, not so much. I didn't get my first PC until late 1999. AMD Athlon 1.0Ghz, some TNT2 16MB GPU and ram and a single hdd. 40GB I think. The sales man said and I quote "40GB is plenty. You will never fill that up"
...then Napster came out and I had DSL. Not even a year later I had to buy a bigger secondary HDD, but also got myself a Voodoo 3 3000 GPU. I was a hardcore Unreal Tournament player and the Voodoo cards played UT the best. Man I miss that system so much.
It’s amazing how fast things were changing back then. I replaced the sli voodoo 2s with a GeForce 2 ultra, and upgraded the pi 400 to a pentium 3 700 with that GeForce 2 ultra in fall 2000. It was my first water cooled processor, as I put it on a 133 FSB and needed water to keep it stable under load.
This takes me back to my first "gaming computer" a P3 1ghz with a GF2 MX200. I remember the LAN parties and I was the first to bring a PC with a processor that fast..lol
No it wasn't, the Geforce256 was the first nail in 3dfx coffin.
January, 1999
NVIDIA announces initial public offering of 3.5 million shares of common stock.
If I could turn back time...
Instead of the Riva TNT or TNT2 I went with ATI Radeon Xpert@Play 4MB video card, which had 2D and 3D (but horrible OGL), so I paired it with a Diamond Monster Voodoo2 12MB, and it was THE BEST COMBO, best 2D quality and video, and best 3D performance with Glide. You couldn't beat that combo.
Was the Radeon the best 2d card at the time? I ended up going with a Matrox 2d card as I recall, but THAT is one aspect of my old system I don't remember anymore.
Matrox was 'the best' but ATI also had great 2D, whereas Matrox had no great 3D capability, with the Xpert@Play and Xpert@Work ATI had 2D that rivaled Matrox, and they had a good 3D accelerator with the ATI Rage chip. Well, good in D3D, but OGL suffered, so that's why you paired it also with a Voodoo card. One of its notable features was support for 32-bit D3D acceleration, and its 2D quality was exceptional, along with MPEG video quality and acceleration. It really was competitive and had really fast DirectDraw acceleration. Oh, also it was AGP, so it was utilizing the latest connector at the time.
My first video card was an ATI 3d Rage Pro, very nice actually, then I got a TNT2 and stayed nvidia for my main gaming pc ever since. I did have several ATI/AMD cards and even a Vodoo3 and Voodoo2 but my main rig has always been nvidia.
I almost forgot I also had a Matrox M3d. It was quite good with the original Unreal and Tomb Raider, it also had its own API.
First GPU I bought in 1996 was a Diamond Stealth 3D 3000, which was S3 Virge based. It was ok at the time, but lacked OGL support.
I remember upgrading, maybe a year or so later, to an ATi Rage Pro, just to play Quake. Was running it on a Pentium Pro 166. I got stupid lucky by finding that PC at the PX for a lot less than it was worth. I don't think they knew what they had. It was a Micron built PC when they were actually making PC's. It also had a SCSI controller and dual 4.3 GB SCSI drives in it. They had it there for $900. LOL
Strangely enough, I can remember using a matrox 2D card and a voodoo 1 and 2 but for the life of me I can't remember what I used after those.
The only way Nvidia has the first GPU is by using a DIFFERENT definition of GPU. My FIRST GPU was a 1 megabyte addin card that let me play DOOM faster once i tweaked my configsys and autoexex.bat to get my memory allocation on point and loading my mouse driver and anything else I could into highmem. I remember when I finally had 6 megabytes if ram... I felt like a =GOD. and that was WELL BEFORE Nvidia was a freaking glimmer.
So NO nvidia didn't have the first GPU, others had them out before them. I'm tired of this claim that keeps coming up. They didn't even have the 'first' 3d accelerator or ALL in one card that did both 2d and 3d.
They were not the first at anything... arguably they did it best and penetrated the market the most effectively and were ultimately the winners of early video card generations. But they were NOT the FIRST.
I do think they were the first to name it a GPU - everyone else called it a video card or Windows Accelerator