The Evolution of Nvidia GeForce Graphics (1999-2022)

this video is sponsored by surf shark computer graphics today are the best they've ever been and it's easy to overlook the giant leaps that were taken to achieve the highest fidelity in games to be able to run highly demanding titles graphic cards also had to become very powerful and efficient today we will take a deeper dive into the nvidia geforce history from the first geforce to ever be released into the consumer market to the latest and greatest ones the first geforce from nvidia to be introduced is the geforce 256 it was marketed as the world's first gpu and it was launched in october of 1999. it's built on the 220 nanometer process which is based on the celsius architecture which clocks speeds reaching 120 megahertz this card comes equipped with 32 megabytes of single data rate memory and started at 249 msrp those are the first demos to showcase and demonstrate with the geforce 256 was capable of [Music] the second generation geforce ii gts was launched in april of 2000 built on a smaller 150 nanometer processing node and based on the same celsius architecture it's tuned to reach slightly faster clock speeds of 200 megahertz it has the same 32 megabytes of video memory but its double data rate which we've come to know as ddr and the starting price for this was 349 msrp these demos showcase for the first time real time lighting and per pixel lighting while also at the same time using a significantly higher number of triangles before we move on i want to talk about today's sponsor surf shark surfshark is a vpn an app or web extension that allows you to virtually place your smart device anywhere in the world it encrypts all of your data this adds an extra layer of security that keeps your personal information safe and browsing activity hidden if you're like me and love online gaming it's crucial to keep your ip address hidden from people that might use it against you i found surfshark very useful when accessing libraries on netflix that are restricted in my country with just a click of a button i can choose any country and one of over 3 200 servers i want and the content is ready to go one of the best features that surfshark has is that it allows you to use unlimited devices on one single account if you sign up right now and use my discount code niktec you'll get 83 off and an extra three months for free surfshark also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee so there's essentially no risk involved let's move on the g-force 3 launched in february of 2001. in terms of horsepower this was a giant leap forward built on the 150 nanometer process which is based on the kelvin architecture it has more than double the number of transistors compared to its predecessor and reaches clock speeds of up to 200 megahertz the geforce 3 has 64 megabytes of ddr memory and started at a hefty 499 msrp the demo showcase shading effects that create realistic reflective textures and what was considered complex facial geometry be nice you need more friends [Music] the nvidia geforce 4 ti-4600 launched a year later in february of 2002. it's built on the same 150 nanometer process node based on the kelvin architecture now reaching clock speeds of up to 300 megahertz the card comes equipped with 128 megabytes of ddr video memory and it retailed for 399 msrp these demos highlight the rendering of real-time volumetric fur and for the first time hardware accelerated anti-aliasing [Music] next up on the list we have the geforce 5800 ultra it launched in march of 2003 it's built using the 130 nanometer process which is based on the rankine architecture the card reaches clock speeds of up to 500 megahertz the video memory remained the same at 128 megabytes but it's now upgraded to gddr2 the price started at 399 msrp and taking a look back at these demos you can see how nvidia was opting for a cinematic depth of field blur which honestly looked very bad but the other demo show lighting effects which were very good looking at the time [Music] [Music] nvidia geforce 6800 ultra launched in april of 2004 it's built on the 130 nanometer process note and based on the curie architecture it allowed nvidia to crank up to 222 million transistors this card had more cores than ever before each clocked at a lower 425 megahertz however that didn't stop it from being very capable the video memory was upgraded to 256 megabytes gddr3 and in terms of price it started at 499 msrp the demo shown utilized gpu to run complex vertex and fragment shaders that could create effects that were not possible before the geforce 7800 gtx otherwise known as the gpu of playstation 3 launched in june of 2005 it was built using a newer 110 nanometer process but based on the same curie architecture however this gpu reaches slightly faster clock speeds at 430 megahertz it also comes equipped with 256 or 512 megabytes of gddr3 video memory and had a launch price of a hefty 599 msrp [Music] no gamer should ever have to play on a system like this well originally you know he's gonna try out for the tooth fairy job the geforce 8800 gtx launched in november of 2006. it was built using the 90 nanometer processing node which is based on the tesla architecture which clocked speeds reaching 576 megahertz the most notable changes was the increase in video memory to 768 megabytes gddr3 and it retailed for the same of 599 msrp [Music] in march of 2008 nvidia launched the geforce 9800 gtx built on a smaller 65 nanometer node which is based on the same tesla architecture it has slightly less 512 megabytes of gdr3 video memory the differences between this gpu and its predecessors were minor except for the starting price that was cut down to 299 dollars but in june of that same year nvidia launched the geforce gtx 280 taking full advantage of the 65 nanometer processing node which was now based on the tesla 2.0 architecture this is the first card where nvidia packed more than one billion transistors it reached clock speeds of up to 602 megahertz and comes equipped with one gigabyte of gddr3 video memory the gtx 280 had a launch price of 649 dollars msrp [Music] [Music] [Music] the geforce gtx 480 launched in march of 2010 it's built on the 40 nanometer process based on fermi architecture reaching clock speeds of up to 701 megahertz this gpu is very iconic for the reason that it's known for being very hot so hot in fact that it reached temperatures of up to 97 degrees celsius nonetheless the key features on this card were 1.5 gigabytes of gddr5 video memory and in terms of price it started at 499 msrp in these demos we can see tessellation for the first time which could be used to create complex scenes and characters using a huge number of triangles a few months and lots of criticism later nvidia launched the geforce gtx 580 in november of that same year it was built on the same but more refined 40 nanometer process which is based on fermi 2.0 architecture this was considered a very minor upgrade too with the same 1.5 gigabytes of gddr5 video memory slightly faster clock speeds at 772 megahertz the main difference was that this card ran a lot cooler compared to its predecessor the price tag also remained the same at 499 msrp in march of 2012 nvidia released the geforce gtx 680. they definitely took notes from their previous launches as this gpu was built on a newer 28 nanometer processing node and based on the kepler's architecture it was marketed as the most powerful and efficient gpu with one thousand six megahertz clock speeds it came equipped with two gigabytes of gddr5 and started at 499 msrp the demo that nvidia showcased here highlights the incredible work they've done with hair work system [Music] the gtx 780 launched in may of 2013. it's built on the same 28 nanometer process and kepler's architecture this wasn't just a minor upgrade the number of transistors was more than doubled compared to its predecessor coming in at a whopping 7 billion it has even more cores with boost clock speeds reaching 902 megahertz the video memory also saw a huge upgrade having two variants available to choose from three or six gigabytes of gddr5 and a starting price of 649 usd msrp it's also the first gpu where the nvidia physx made a debut something that till this day still looks incredible surface tension and viscous forces are modeled and because the cereal pieces have a lower density than milk they naturally rise to the surface due to buoyancy in this smoke simulation the underlying fluid is modeled as thousands of particles tracking velocity and vorticity using particles provides a sparse representation of the airflow and allows smoke to interact with the other particle-based objects geforce gtx 980 launched in september of 2014 it's built on the same 28 nanometer process but in a whole new architecture which nvidia called maxwell 2.0 with better performance and better efficiency this card reaches clock speeds of up to 1216 megahertz it comes equipped with four gigabytes of gddr5 video memory and had a starting price of 549 msrp this apollo landing demo was powered by unreal engine 4 and voxel global illumination a new technology that allowed real-time global illumination without the need of baking making the process of developing games much easier from which point the power descent to the lunar surface will be initiated if for any reason the crew does not like the way things look as they're coming across now what's probably my most favorite release of all time the geforce gtx 1080 launched in may of 2016. it's built on the 16 nanometer process and based on nvidia's pascal architecture this gpu boasts clock speeds of up to 1733 megahertz and it had a performance uplift that was better than two gtx 980s in sli the 1080 is faster than a 980 sli it comes equipped with 8 gigabytes of gddr5x video memory and had a starting price of 599 msrp this was a raw horsepower upgrade and i couldn't find any demos that nvidia released and that's why they look so realistic the animation is fantastic the amount of geometry is just enormous high dynamic range you would think you're looking at a photograph in september of 2018 nvidia released the rtx 20 series graphic cards before we talk about the flagship let's explain what rtx stands for those gpus were capable of rendering real-time ray tracing a technique that was never used before in games because of high computational cost movies like pixar's monsters university would take up to 29 hours to render a single frame and now thanks to the engineering team ai upscaling technology and powerful rt cores that were added to the rtx family those graphics were possible to render at a stable 30 to 60 frames per second the rtx 2080 was built using the 12 nanometer processing node based on the touring architecture with clock speeds reaching 1710 megahertz the card came equipped with an even faster 8 gigabytes of gddr6 memory and had a starting price of 699 dollars msrp the demos shown here are all rendered in real time using a combination of rasterization techniques and ray tracing [Music] because the adoption rate of ray tracing in games was very slow the touring-based gpus did not hit the sales target that nvidia was hoping for some of the reasons might have been the increase in price tag or the lack of performance uplift in traditional rasterization games the gtx 1080 ti was overall just a better option well that changed in september of 2020 when nvidia announced the rtx 3080 blowing every previous gpu out of the water this monster was built using the 8 nanometer processing node based on ampere architecture reaching clock speeds of up to 1 710 megahertz with 10 gigabytes of gddr6 memory it has doubled the performance of the 2080 in ray tracing tasks and had a starting price of 699 msrp of course if it wasn't for the low amount of stock that made this a disastrous launch the demo showcased here is called marbles and is entirely ray traced with nvidia dlss integrated [Music] lastly in q3 of 2022 nvidia is expected to launch the rtx 40 series of gpus based on some leaks we have a pretty clear indication on what the specs of rtx 480 will be it will be built using the four or five nanometer processing node which will be based on the lovelace architecture reaching clock speeds of up to 2075mhz it will be packed with 8704 cores in terms of memory the rtx 480 will come with 16 gigabytes of gddr6x and based on those specs alone we can expect a 75 performance uplift compared to its predecessor nvidia might price these gpus a little bit higher but in my opinion i think it will start at the same price of 699 because of amd's competitiveness nvidia gpus have come a long way just to put it into perspective here's a direct comparison between the first geforce 256 and the best gpu that nvidia has to offer today the rtx 3090 ti it's unbelievable how much things have improved and i can't wait to see how those graphic cards will look 10 years from now thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it don't forget to hit that subscribe button and let me know in the comments down below if you want to see more make sure to check out surfshark if you're interested all the details are listed in the description and i'll see you again very very soon

Channel: NikTek

Views: 1,018,712

Keywords: niktek, gaming, gameplay, tech, hardware, pc gaming, pc master race, nvidia, nvidia geforce 256, nvidia rtx, nvidia history, nvidia GPU Gaming history, computer graphics history, computer graphics evolution, next-gen, old-gen, nvidia demos, showcase, event, rtx 40 series, Nvidia Demo Showcase, gtc nvidia event, e3

Id: as-aVVm9JZI

Length: 20min 46sec (1246 seconds)

Published: Wed May 18 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Padcontrol1]

8800 GT. Amazing GPU.

[u/hackenclaw]

if Nvidia didnt skip 100,300,800 series. We will still be calling Ampere a 900 series GPU

[u/tioga064]

8000 series, 600 series, 900 series and 1000 series were the great ones i remember. Heres hoping for a revolutionary 4000 series this year

[u/Smaddady]

GeForce 3 at $499 in 2001 would be equivalent of releasing for ~$840 today, and has much less functionality than a modern GPU. Food for thought.

[u/Celcius_87]

This was a cool video. I wish certain videocards hadn’t been skipped though, like the original Titan, the RTX 3090, the 7950 gx2, etc…

[u/Fionn_MacCuill]

Nvidia don’t even ship to Ireland since Brexit. It’s a disgrace man

[u/SCArnoldos]

My first GPU was I think 8600 GT, then GTX 460, GTX 760, GTX 1060, RTX 2070S, now RTX 3080.

[u/teh-reflex]

That FX 5xxx series cards were so bad lol

The 6000 series certainly put them back on top at the time

[u/Adrrenalinee]

Dope video 👍🏻