Nvidia's first GPU: GeForce 256
A retro blog recounts Nvidia’s 1999 GeForce 256, marketed as its first GPU, and Sega’s earlier bailout.
A retro-computing post recalls that Nvidia released the GeForce 256 on October 11, 1999, and marketed it as a GPU, citing its hardware transform-and-lighting engine. The card mainly benefited low-end CPUs, while faster processors could still do that work in software. The post also describes Sega’s roughly $5 million 1996 investment after a failed Dreamcast chip project and Nvidia’s December 15, 2000 purchase of most of 3dfx’s intellectual property.
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