Say happy 25th birthday to 'the world's first GPU', the almighty 120 MHz Nvidia GeForce 256

HardwareGraphics CardsSay happy 25th birthday to ‘the world’s first GPU’, the almighty 120 MHz Nvidia GeForce 256When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Hyins via Wikimedia Commons)

Shot of the VisionTek GeForce GTX 256 graphics card

When does a GPU experience a birthday, exactly? I would argue on the anniversary of its release date, which means that theGeForce 256is 25 years young on this very day. It might not look like much compared to modern GPUs, but this little card stands as a piece of gaming history worth celebrating.

The original SDR version of this mighty piece of PC gaming hardware was released on October 11, 1999, and certified its place in history (and our hearts) asthe first proper GPU, mainly because, err, Nvidia marketed it as one. In reality,Sony is believed to be the first to use the termin reference to the 32-bit GPU in the PS1, but hey, let’s not let that spoil the story, shall we?

Still, with a gigantic 32 MB of memory and a lightning-fast 120 MHz core clock speed, this little beastie kicked off the GPU revolution with a bang, and the card sitting in your machine today owes it a great deal.

Thanks to onboard hardware transform and lighting (T&L), it was able to take that part of the rendering chain from the CPU onto its tiny shoulders, making the GF256 the first video card to accelerate every step of making a shiny new frame— and allowing developers to go wild with the polygon counts and ushering in a new generation of gaming for us all.

Of course, AGP “video cards” like the3dfx Voodoo3 serieswere already a thing, so you could argue that GPUs already existed long before Nvidia coined the term. Still, that’s no fun, and the included features of the GeForce 256 really did seem like a giant leap for PC gaming.

The “256” in the name is in reference to the 256-bit QuadPipe Rendering Engine employed within, consisting of four 64-bit pixel pipelines on the NV10 chip running at 120 MHz, resulting in a 480 Mpix/sec fill rate. It also had TV-out capability, hardware alpha-blending, and was 1080i compliant.

Thanks to all this mind-boggling (for the time) tech, the little GeForce could be up to 50% faster than theVoodoo3 3500orNvidia RIVA TNT2 Ultrain hardware T&L-enabled games, and that made it rather desirable for its time.

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And look at its weeny little cooler! I remember the days when new pieces of hardware came equipped with tiny, screaming fans. Good stuff it was, and we were grateful for it, too.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyNvidia Geforce 256 SDR/DDR specsRow 0 - Cell 0GeForce 256 SDRGeForce 256 DDRCodenameNV10NV10Transistors17 million17 millionDie size139 mm²139 mm²InterfaceAGP 4x, PCIAGP 4x, PCICore clock120 MHz120 MHzMemory clock166 MHz150 MHzMemory size32 MB32 MBTDP13 W12 W

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Nvidia Geforce 256 SDR/DDR specsRow 0 - Cell 0GeForce 256 SDRGeForce 256 DDRCodenameNV10NV10Transistors17 million17 millionDie size139 mm²139 mm²InterfaceAGP 4x, PCIAGP 4x, PCICore clock120 MHz120 MHzMemory clock166 MHz150 MHzMemory size32 MB32 MBTDP13 W12 W

What with all the current noise surrounding the upcomingNvidia 50-series power requirements, it’s quite refreshing to see a 13/12 W TDP rating, isn’t it? And check out that transistor count. 17 million seemed massive back in the day, but a modernRTX 4090has, err,over 76 billion.Still, that’s 25 years' worth of progress there, so it’s nice to see how far we’ve come.

So what were we playing at the time? Well, 1999 was also the year that the very firstUnreal Tournamentlaunched, on 30 November, just in time to ride the GeForce wave. Just two days later,Quake III Arenawas unleashed upon the world, making it a perfect time to get your multiplayer first-person shooter on with your shiny new Nvidia hardware.

Heady days indeed. I’m certain that if you rummage around in my parent’s attic, you’re likely to find one of these still knocking around in the back of a box, probably originally containing the GPU it was replaced with. Having spent the afternoon drenching myself in GPU nostalgia, I feel like now I should rescue it from its dusty tomb and mount it, perhaps in pride of place on the wall of my home.

I’ve just spoken to my partner, and we won’t be doing that. Shame. Anyways, if you do happen to have one knocking around, perhaps now is the day to show it some sunlight. A small cake, a candle, and a solemn ceremony are all it really needs. I salute you, GeForce 256. We truly didn’t know how good we had it.

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Best CPU for gamingBest gaming motherboardBest graphics cardBest SSD for gaming

Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

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