Generations of GPUs?

[The Green Bean]

Which cards fit into this feild?

Which are older generations of GPUs?

What will be the next gen and will it be released?

 

[Mingon]

geforce 3 was the first gpu, as coined by nvdia. The 3dlabs P10 was the first VPU

 

[The Green Bean]

more details?

 

[beatle]

Actually the first GPU was the original GeForce. There have been GF2, 3, 4, and now FX cards. I know less about ATI. To me, the terms are meaningless.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Mingon
geforce 3 was the first gpu, as coined by nvdia. The 3dlabs P10 was the first VPU

Actually the original GeForce nvidia called the first GPU (The Geforce 256 they called it). Here is nVidia's information, including their actual definition of a GPU .

Then they called the GeForce 2 the "The World's First Per-Pixel Shading GPU" . The GF2 was basically just a speed-bumped and die-shrunk GeForce 1, with some shading effects and a bit better DVD playback added.

The GeForce3 was the Infinite Effects GPU . It was probably the first "revolutionary" GPU after the GeForce1, as it went from fixed-function TnL to programmable Transform and Lighting (programmable Pixel and Vertex shaders)

The GeForce4 was called the Infinite Effects II GPU . Again, it was a speed-bumped GeForce 3 with a more powerful (but similar) Pixel and Vertex setup. The GeForce4 was also nVidia's first card with dual view (dual monitors or monitor + tv out). It also had much better 2d filters than any previous GeForce card (and a 400MHz RAMDAC for the first time) so 2d quality was much better.

The GeForceFX is a big step "forward" for nVidia, but it's also a step sideways. It has a bunch of proprietary (non-DirectX9) standards, such as the whole "Cine-FX Architecture". Basically it has most DirectX9 features incorporated into it, but also some 3dfx-style proprietary stuff too.

Essentially in the nVidia camp the Generations of GPU's go, linearly: Geforce 1 (or "Geforce 256"), Geforce 2, Geforce 3, Geforce 4, Geforce FX

ATI's lineup would be: Radeon 7200, Radeon 8500, Radeon 9500, Radeon 9700 (these are the major technological leaps)

Also, essentially the ATI cards matched up with the nVidia cards starting with the Radeon 7200 (or just "Radeon" when it was released) against the GeForce 2 GTS, the Radeon 8500 to the GeForce 3, etc.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: beatle
Actually the first GPU was the original GeForce. There have been GF2, 3, 4, and now FX cards. I know less about ATI. To me, the terms are meaningless.

Dang, you beat me to it while I was digging up my info for my post .

 

[VIAN]

The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) was invented by Nvidia in 1999. Before that you just had a 2D/3D Accelerator which from the name accelerated 2D and 3D graphics. The GPU is a combination of a 2D/3D Accelerator and T&L (Transform and Lighting) hardware operations, which used to be handled on the CPU (Central Processing Unit). The idea was that, releasing the load off of the CPU and onto the GPU, would leave the CPU to work with other more important things such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) for a better gaming experience.

These are all flagship launch GPU's for all Generations.

nVidia:

Geforce 256, Geforce 2 GTS, Geforce 3, Geforce 4 Ti 4600, Geforce FX 5800 Ultra.


ATI:

Radeon 256, Radeon 8500, Radeon 9700 Pro

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: beatle
Actually the first GPU was the original GeForce. There have been GF2, 3, 4, and now FX cards. I know less about ATI. To me, the terms are meaningless.

Dang, you beat me to it while I was digging up my info for my post .

Well, if you hadn't bothered to put all that useful info, you could have had the first post!