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First Official Graphics Card
- Released with the IBM PC
- Had 16 KB of Video Memory, a color depth of 4-bit
- Highest Resolution was 640x200 http://www.techspot.com/article/650-history-of-the-gpu/
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iSBX 275 VGCMB
-The Video Graphics Controller Multimodule Board was a mildy revolutionary device that could display eight colors at a 256x256 resolution
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034487/the-10-most-important-graphics-cards-in-pc-history.html#slide6 -
Super VGA Standard
Improved video memory to 2 MB-Improved highest resolution to 800x600 4-bit pixels
-Not a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), but rather it was very important hardware that improved the performance and quality of a GPU's output
- Improved video memory to 2 MB
-Improved highest resolution to 800x600 4-bit pixels
-Not a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), but rather it was very important hardware that improved the performance and quality of a GPU's output</a> -
Period: to
3D Transition Period
- a decade of innovation in gaming that transitioned from raster graphics to 3D graphics, forming the first FPS, RTS, and MMO games, Like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034487/the-10-most-important-graphics-cards-in-pc-history.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit
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ATI Rage II
- introduced DVD playback for graphics cards
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S3 ViRGE
- first 3D graphics card
- didn't turn out well -Dubbed the first 3D decelerator. http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics
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3dfx Voodoo1
-reshaped 3D gaming market
-didn't function as a 2d graphics card though
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
Rendition's Verite 2000, 2100, and 2200
-had a 4 MB frame buffer, bilinear and trilinear filtering, texture animation support, and a triangle renderer.
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
Nvidia's NV3
-first 3D/2D combo card
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
S3 Savage 3D
- first 0.25 micron-based GPU unit -first card to use texture compression http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics
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3dfx Voodoo2
-added a third TexelFX chip, which gave it support for multitexturing
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
ATI Rage 128
-introduce inverse discrete cosine transform acceleration which handled DVD playing better
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
ATI All-In-Wonder 128
-integrated a TV tuner, making it the first AIW card of many to come
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
ATI Rage Fury MAXX
- came with two processing engines to be more efficient in rendering http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics
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Matrox Parhelia
-first to feature 'Surround Gaming' making it possible to use three PC monitors at once.
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
ATI Radeon R300
-claimed to be the first fully Direct3D capable desktop graphics card
-introduced the flip chip packaging technology, allowing the GPU to be more effectively cooled
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
ATI Radeon R420
-introduced a new GPU design process, resulting in higher frequency cards that were more efficient in power usage and cooling
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
ATI Radeon R520
-introduced High Dynamic Range (HDR)
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
Matrox G550
-introduced a new Head Casting engine, which made more photo-realistic 3D talking heads possible.
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
Nvidia GeForce 7 series
-introduced dual GPU videocards (essentially two videocards sandwiched together) which allowed a two-videocard solution for gamers who lacked a dual videocard incompatible motherboard.
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
Nvidia GeForce 8 series
-first consumer GPU that supported Windows Vista's Direct3D 10 component
-introduced unified shaders, a combination of pixel shaders and vertex shaders
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics -
Nvidia GeForce 200 series
-packed in 1.4 BILLION transistors, resulting in 920 gigaFLOPS
-packed two GPUs on a single board
http://www.maximumpc.com/from-voodoo-to-geforce-the-awesome-history-of-3d-graphics
