TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 1,997
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
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Launching in 2001, Nvidia's GeForce 3 series marked an important step for Nvidia, according to CEO Jensen Huang. In a YouTube video, Huang celebrates the 25-year anniversary by waxing lyrical about the card and what it means for the company.
"GeForce 3 was such a transition for us," Huang says.
"We introduced really the first successful mainstream graphics accelerator, Riva 128 and subsequently Riva TNT, Riva TNT2, and what we did well was recognising the graphics pipeline is really deep. Where we intercepted it was at exactly the right place.
"That entire pipeline stage, including the intense memory traffic, the texture processing, all of that was done in hardware."
He argues that computer graphics, at the time, "was looking exactly the same".
Nvidia's goal was reportedly to serve as a tool to get games looking different and expressive. The GeForce 3, with its pixel shaders and more flexible architecture, allowed a level of creative freedom to game developers. Huang argues that artists in games "can't be pre-coded."
Huang spends time reflecting on not only what the GeForce 3 did, but what has changed since. He notes the relatively small number of transistors in the GeForce 3—30 million—versus the several hundred billion that chips are working with now.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
One other big change is power draw. Huang says, "This is what? 35 watts? We're now pushing on 3,500 watts."
Even looking at the 130 W-575 W needed to run the RTX 50-series cards, games have come along an incredible amount in the 25 years since the launch of the card. Gamers picking up the GeForce 3 in 2001 would be treated to classics like Max Payne, Civilization III, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal.
Gamers playing games now can play graphically impressive titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Baldur's Gate 3, and other games that aren't just sequels to older games.
There were three central GeForce 3 cards: the GeForce 3, GeForce 3 Ti200 and GeForce 3 Ti500. The $500 GeForce 3 was considered the high-end card (which is a far cry from the $2,000 MSRP of the Nvidia RTX 5090), where the GeForce 3 Ti500 came in at around $350 and the GeForce 3 Ti200 fetched $150.
All three had a 128-bit bus, 64 MB of memory, four pixel shaders,...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Launching in 2001, Nvidia's GeForce 3 series marked an important step for Nvidia, according to CEO Jensen Huang. In a YouTube video, Huang celebrates the 25-year anniversary by waxing lyrical about the card and what it means for the company.
"GeForce 3 was such a transition for us," Huang says.
"We introduced really the first successful mainstream graphics accelerator, Riva 128 and subsequently Riva TNT, Riva TNT2, and what we did well was recognising the graphics pipeline is really deep. Where we intercepted it was at exactly the right place.
"That entire pipeline stage, including the intense memory traffic, the texture processing, all of that was done in hardware."
He argues that computer graphics, at the time, "was looking exactly the same".
Nvidia's goal was reportedly to serve as a tool to get games looking different and expressive. The GeForce 3, with its pixel shaders and more flexible architecture, allowed a level of creative freedom to game developers. Huang argues that artists in games "can't be pre-coded."
Huang spends time reflecting on not only what the GeForce 3 did, but what has changed since. He notes the relatively small number of transistors in the GeForce 3—30 million—versus the several hundred billion that chips are working with now.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
One other big change is power draw. Huang says, "This is what? 35 watts? We're now pushing on 3,500 watts."
Even looking at the 130 W-575 W needed to run the RTX 50-series cards, games have come along an incredible amount in the 25 years since the launch of the card. Gamers picking up the GeForce 3 in 2001 would be treated to classics like Max Payne, Civilization III, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal.
Gamers playing games now can play graphically impressive titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Baldur's Gate 3, and other games that aren't just sequels to older games.
There were three central GeForce 3 cards: the GeForce 3, GeForce 3 Ti200 and GeForce 3 Ti500. The $500 GeForce 3 was considered the high-end card (which is a far cry from the $2,000 MSRP of the Nvidia RTX 5090), where the GeForce 3 Ti500 came in at around $350 and the GeForce 3 Ti200 fetched $150.
All three had a 128-bit bus, 64 MB of memory, four pixel shaders,...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?