Graphic Card Evolution

  • IBM Monochrome Display Adapter

    IBM Monochrome Display Adapter
    While not technically a graphics card, the Monochrome Display Adapter was one of the first display adapters produced. It was able to display 80 columns and 25 lines of text.
  • Intel iSBX 275 VGCMB

    Intel iSBX 275 VGCMB
    Intel’s iSBX 275 Video Graphics Controller Multimode Board was able to display eight colours at a resolution of 256 x 256.
  • ATI VGA Wonder

    ATI VGA Wonder
    ATI made a name for itself in the global graphics processor market with products like the VGA Wonder. The card featured 16-bit colour support and 2D rendering.
  • 3dfx Voodoo 1

    3dfx Voodoo 1
    The 3dfx Voodoo1 marked the beginning of the 3D gaming era – sporting a 3D processor with 4MB of RAM and a 50MHz core clock.
  • Nvidia Riva 128

    Nvidia Riva 128
    Nvidia’s Riva 128 graphics card secured a foothold for the company in the 3D graphics market and competed with the Voodoo 1.
  • 3dfx Voodoo 2

    3dfx Voodoo 2
    The Voodoo 2 was a cutting-edge card which combined three chips to offer the best 3D graphics performance at the time.
  • Nvidia GeForce 256 DDR

    Nvidia GeForce 256 DDR
    Nvidia’s GeForce 256 boasted a cooler for its processor chip and support for DirectX 7.
  • ATI Radeon 9700

    ATI Radeon 9700
    ATI’s Radeon 9700 graphics card included support for Direct3D 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0, offering high-end performance on a 150nm manufacturing process.
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX

    Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX
    The Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX was a powerful graphics card for its time, drawing large amounts of power and easily running the most demanding games for a number of years.
  • ATI Radeon HD 5970

    ATI Radeon HD 5970
    The HD 5970 was one of the last products created by ATI before it was acquired by AMD, delivering a dual-GPU setup with unprecedented performance.
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295

    Nvidia GeForce GTX 295
    Nvidia’s GeForce 200 Series marked the company’s first GPUs created on the 40nm manufacturing process and boasted performance far superior to the GeForce 100 Series. The trend of emblazoning rendered characters onto graphics card coolers began to diminish as new graphics cards were released.
  • AMD Radeon HD 7970

    AMD Radeon HD 7970
    AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 was a powerful card built on the 28nm manufacturing process and the company’s Graphics Core Next (GCN 1.0) architecture.
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 680

    Nvidia GeForce GTX 680
    The GeForce 600 Series was built on Nvidia’s Kepler architecture and a 28nm fabrication process, which persisted for two subsequent GPU generations.
  • AMD Radeon R9 290

    AMD Radeon R9 290
    The Radeon R9 290 is a high-end GPU which remains a powerful contender against modern cards and holds its own in modern titles.
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

    Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
    Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 970 Maxwell-powered graphics card has proven immensely popular among gamers as a high-value 1080p GPU solution.
  • AMD Radeon RX 480

    AMD Radeon RX 480
    The Polaris-based Radeon RX 480 is built on a 14nm manufacturing process and is aimed at mid-range gamers seeking high-value performance.
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

    Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
    Nvidia used a 16nm manufacturing process to build its Pascal architecture, which powers the GeForce GTX 10 Series. The company’s flagship GeForce GTX 1080 delivers an impressive 8GB of GDDR5X VRAM and can compete against SLI or CrossFire systems as a standalone solution for 4K gaming.
  • MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 980 4GB OC

    MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 980 4GB OC
    The MSI card boasts intense new colors with increased contract to bring your video games to life. The 4GB GDDR5 memory certainly helps, too.
  • XFX Radeon RX 460

    XFX Radeon RX 460
    Like Nvidia’s broadly-equivalent GTX 1050, this is a 1080p component through and through, and at this resolution it still stands up a year on. You’ll only need to tone down graphical settings in the most intensive games, though it struggles a bit more than the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 D5 2G if you try to be ambitious and go for 1440p. Nonetheless, that’s easy to forgive considering the price, dual-fan cooler and frugal 75W TDP.
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti

    Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
    Smooth performance at 4K, High Settings, packed with future-looking tech, great thermal solution supports boost clocks, price is out of reach for most users