These days, we take GPUs for granted. They power the graphics that drive our most fond gaming experiences, and they’re only getting better (and more expensive) as time goes on.

Let’s dive back in time and analyze the most groundbreaking video cards ever made, and the impact they had not just on gaming, but graphics applications as a whole. Without these babies, there’d be no 3D modeling, animation, or big-budget Hollywood films. Pay your respects to these icons!

10 THE IBM CGA

In 1981, computer giant IBM released the CGA (Color Graphics Adapter). These days, it wants to make us puke, but back then it was the start of something truly big! It would kick off color graphics in a big way with a total of 16 (count ’em!) colors to play with.

CGA was a staple of early IBM-based PC games, powering a plethora of titles until such time as full-fledged GPUs became a thing. Along with IBM’s MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter), CGA would serve as the beginning of the graphics card craze.

9 THE IBM EGA

Not to be outdone by its rivals, Hercules and Intel, IBM would once again up the ante on its own formula with the introduction of the EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) in 1984. Those who owned a PCjr or Tandy 1000 back in the day knew what a major step up this was from traditional CGA color.

The biggest changes came in the form of a bigger color palette and an increase in maximum resolution, both of which would power a ton of video games between 1984 and 1987.

8 ATI VGA WONDER

ATI’s VGA Wonder would release in 1988, and it was the first stepping stone towards more conventional video cards. This PCI-based card was designed to integrate with the rest of the system, and had no display connectivity options of any kind. Instead, its purpose was to amp up graphics capabilities through the traditional display connection.

With 1 pixel shader and a clock speed of 10Mhz, the VGA Wonder is definitely a dinosaur, but it was a major evolution in graphics technology at the time.

7 3DFX VOODOO 1

1996 saw the GPU craze kick into sudden high gear as PC technology began leapfrogging itself year over year. 3DFX was one of the first on the scene with 3D accelerated graphics technologies, courtesy of the Voodoo1 card.

The Voodoo1 ran games through the Glide graphics API, which was a direct competitor to OpenGL. Although the latter would end up winning the graphics wars and putting 3DFX out to pasture, there’s no denying the huge impact the Voodoo1 had on power-packed GPUs.

6 NVIDIA GEFORCE 256

Nvidia flirted with GPU technology in 1997 with the RIVA 128, but it wasn’t until 1999’s GeForce 256 that they ended up with a solid hit on their hands. Not only did it make Nvidia a worthy market competitor, but it also put the GeForce moniker in lights, which has continued to this day.

The GeForce 256 is widely considered to be the first tried-and-true GPU. It featured full DirectX 7 support with a 32MB of DDR RAM and a 480 Pixels/s fillrate.

5 ATI RADEON R100 DDR

Not to be outdone, ATI would return to the fray a year later with the Radeon R100 DDR, the first in the Radeon line of graphics cards from the company. Like the GeForce 256, the Radeon R100 DDR also featured full DirectX 7 compatibility, with ATI’s own HyperZ technology built in, which was said to provide a 20% improvement in rendering efficiency.

It was available in 32 or 64MB configurations with a core speed of 183Mhz. A total of 21 variants of the R100 were released before it was eventually shelved in favor of the next big thing.

4 NVIDIA GEFORCE 3

Nvidia would send another volley against ATI in 2001 with the GeForce 3 series of cards. It was the first card to utilize programmable pixel shaders, while offering multisample AA and increased rendering efficiency.

The GeForce 3 was also compatible with Direct3D 8.0, sported 4 pixel shaders with a GPU clock of 200Mhz and a max memory size of 64MB. It was most notable for powering tech demos from Pixar and ID’s Doom 3 demo.

3 ATI RADEON 9700

The early 2000s was a battleground between ATI and Nvidia, and with both companies churning out updates to their lines, ATI fought tooth and nail to stay competitive. It succeeded with the release of the Radeon 9700 card, the first Direct3D 9.0 GPU on the market.

The most popular of these cards was undoubtedly the excellent Radeon 9700 Pro, a behemoth with 8 pixel shaders, a 325Mhz GPU clock, and 128MB of memory. At the time, this was one of the most popular high end video cards on the market, setting quite a few standards that are still in use by GPU manufacturers today.

2 NVIDIA GEFORCE 900 SERIES

In 2014, Nvidia would propel itself to the forefront of the graphics card market with the introduction of the enormously powerful GeForce 900 series of cards. If you were lucky to fit one of these bad boys in your case, you’d get to experience games at peak levels, the highest framerates and best resolutions.

The most notable card in the lineup was the monstrously powerful, bank-breaking, guaranteed-your-wife-is-going-to-divorce-you GTX 980ti. It boasted a 1000Mhz base clock, 6GB of GDDR5 memory and a memory bandwidth of 384 bits. It was also great for creatives whose rendering and video editing programs were able to take advantage of its 2816 CUDA processing cores, making it a truly high-end multi-purpose GPU.

1 NVIDIA RTX2080ti

Though not perfect, Nvidia’s RTX2080ti is the newest and greatest standard in video game graphics cards. It was the first to ditch the GTX moniker in favor of RTX, signaling a major paradigm shift into ray-traced gaming.

Though the trend has started slow, it’s still an important step in the evolution of graphics card technologies, and one that will be felt for many years to come. Ray-traced games look spectacular in every way, with realistic lighting that can fool many people into thinking that the visuals are real. Although the 2080ti is so expensive that you’ll probably need to eat Kraft Dinner for the next 7 years, Nvidia has promised that the next iteration of the RTX line will be more affordable.

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