[O/C]A Visual History Chart Of Graphics Cards

Nowadays, when the word "rig" is uttered, the first thing that comes to mind is three graphics cards bridged together. GPUs always fascinated me and left me hungry for more information, specifically about the evolution of the graphics card over the years. After searching the internet for hours, I failed to find the data I was seeking in a simple, informational chart complete with history and release dates. Finally about five months ago, I decided to create one myself and now I'm sharing it with you. Be advised, clicking on the thumbnail below will open the full-size chart (14,000px × 6,135px a...

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Luka, thanks for sharing this with us! Its a truly impressive compilation!

Now this is pretty darn cool if you ask me!!!! Awesome work!

I wonder if my boss would be mad if I printed this on our plotter? Maybe I'll do it after hours.

That was really impressive! I had a laugh looking at the games from the same period too and remembering my first 9800 Pro...I was the coolest the day I got that card.

Further suggestions

I think this information lends itself well to a chart. I too find the subject interesting.

I have a few design and content suggestions for you.

- I found myself flipping back & forth between the specs for each card and their respective photos. It'd be easier to read the chart if these were in the same row or column. Colour coding the spec boxes with the manufacturer names was helpful.
- game titles do provide context, but the choices seem pretty arbitrary. I'd suggest cutting this list down to the major 1-2 games from each respective year. Some games you mention weren't even 3D titles. Maybe put the titles themselves in the grey bar area, between the year markers. On that note, Doom 2 was released some years before Quake.
- include API information as well as game titles. It'd be interesting to see when the Glide era began/ended, or how many years it took MS release successive versions of DirectX.
- it's hard to tell from the specs how the cards would perform next to each other. Maybe use texture or pixel fill-rates?
- include original MSRP under specs
- layer the chart a little:for instance you could have a line graph representing average transistor counts or some all encompassing figure behind the main chart.

Other subtitle suggestions:
'The rise of ATI and nVidia'

Nice input midijunky. If you'd be interested in coordinating, I've notified the author his article was published and he should be around before long. Maybe he has some ideas about how to make those happen, and others or yourself can help contribute.

What about Quake 3 in 1999? best FPS ever made

I think some ATI cards were left out of 2008 and 2009...

Lets see... Ive had...
nVidia Riva TNT2
nVidia GeForce 256
nVidia GeForce 4 Ti 4600
nVidia GeForce FX 5850 Ultra
nVidia GeForce 6600GT
ATI X850 XT PE
ATI HD4870 Toxic
ATI 2X HD4890 CF

Oh, and nice work

Man, does this ever bring back memories.

It is interesting to see how the number of players in the market has shrunk while the HSFs just keep getting bigger.

The games don't seem arbitrary to me. I think I own like 90% of 'em.

This picture is better than porn.

David said:

This picture is better than porn.

Click to expand...

that is the best rating system i have ever seen. more reviewers should adopt it. instead of the 1 thru 10 system it will be:

better than porn

as good as porn

not as good as porn

its so easy to understand, why hasnt anyone else thought of this. it will make decision making less of a hassle since i, like most people, already understand everything in terms of pornographic literature anyway.

very nice

That is an awesome chart (though the title may be a bit excessively sized )

ATI 128 Pro -> FX5200 -> 7600GT -> 8800GTS -> GTX460

This is the most awesome graphics chart I've ever seen!!!

Thanks Luka

Are games graphics improving as fast as graphics cards are?

Very cool, I share this with friends. Thanks for including Descent! There community is awesome and so is the game.

Does Crysis still boast the best graphics, if so then why are we getting better cards, we need better games first! (although the price reduction of older cards is nice)

Can't wait for Crysis 2 =D

Ohhh guyyyyss thanks alot
I actually didnt expect for all replies to be positive and VERY useful. First of all, thanks to overclockers.com staff who approved my first post awesome!

midijunky, you know the score! All suggestions are absolutely right, many of them felt on my mind to, but there were too complicated to realize or were too much "information hungry" for the informations I coudn't get. There was a version where the boxes with GPU specifications were next to the pictures, but, It wasnt looking very cool... I'm a PC enthusiast after graphic design, so informations are a little placed behind in the favor of visual apperance. The game choice was arbitrary. You're absolutely right 100%. The choice of games was made 3 days before I've published this, the time when I started to run out of patience If you are willing to make a list of changes, I'll gladly make the corrections
Also, about the nVIDIA & ATI rises and falls, there are always polemics about that, I really didn't want to ruin any ATI or nVIDIA enthusiast dreams, I simply wanted to make a chart for everyone...

P.S. 1: Guys, run the plotter in DRAFT mode , no one will notice the ink level
P.S. 2: Fennecfox, np mannn, I LOVE DESCENT.
P.S. 3: Better than porn? Argh... but better than a PORN MOVIE, definitely yes

I had a blast reading through this chart, brought back some great memories. It was really cool to see the evolution of the cards over the years. I have to be honest, this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Nice work!

Matt

Very cool! Especially the core clocks and such, never seen those for all the old cards!

I went from a voodoo1, to a voodoo2, then SLI voodoo2s, then a Rendition card of some sort, then a voodoo3 3000(this died due to a passive sink and open case) then a GF2 of some sort, then GF4 mx440 (aka gf2 redux), then a Ti4200(fan died, card roasted), then a laptop 6800 semi-ultra, then a 4830, and now a 4890.

wooo hoooo niceeee Bobbbb That's a lot of cards, plus, your choices were interesting... you didn't stick on one brand... you could make your own private history... I got mine!

WOW those bring back memories, I remember burning my finger on the voodoo 3 3000. I still have my geforce 6800 that I spent the day reading on these very forums about how to unlock the extra shaders. Still have a ATI 9800 pro sealed in the box that I got from an RMA because the 1st one ended up warping like a skateboard. I didn't see my old Hercules 3d prophet card in there yet, think that was one of the 1st cards I've owned that had cooling on the memory and voltage regulators.

Those were vertex pipelines back then...shaders didnt technically come around until G80 architecture...IIRC...

Simply Amazing!

Very Well Done!