2.Geforce 256 DDR Engineering Sample

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/Geforce_256_DDR.jpg

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/Geforce_256_DDR_1.jpg

3.Quadro AGP Engineering Sample

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/Quadro_ES.jpg

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/Quadro_ES_1.jpg

4.Quadro AGP Pro Engineering Sample

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/180-E0011-0000-B01.jpg

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/180-E001 … B01_1_small.jpg

5.Creative CT6940 Engineering Sample

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/CT6940_009931.jpg

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/CT6940_009931_1.jpg

6.Creative CT6970 Engineering Sample

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/CT6970.jpg

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/CT6970_1.jpg

7.VISIONTEK NV994.0 Engineering sample

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/NV994.0_ES.jpg

http://yjfy.com/images/oldhard/video/NV994.0_ES_1.jpg

aside of historical/collecting interest - are there any interesting features on these engineering samples?

Got any of the non-released Voodoos, or some of the super early GPUs, like Rendition, S3, or even the fabled Bit Boys Oy board? Even some of the 2D windows/DOS accelerators would be neat (like Tseng Labs or Cardinal)

It would be interesting to see the progression of where we came from, to where we are now.

If I can find the Pics, mind if I upload shots of SGI's Infinite Reality series? Those were amazing back in the day (deep color, 600million voxels/sec), all powered by 50MHz i960s, no less. I've got the service manuals, but I'd have to hunt down the pics.

I can also add arcade boards, like Sega Model 1 and 2. Those were co-designed by GEA (later Martin-Marietta). Interesting history behind those. But only if it's cool with OP

The original GeForce 256 used SDR, later switching to much faster DDR, which one is rarer?

ElectricMonk wrote:

Got any of the non-released Voodoos, or some of the super early GPUs, like Rendition, S3, or even the fabled Bit Boys Oy board? Even some of the 2D windows/DOS accelerators would be neat (like Tseng Labs or Cardinal)

yjfy's collection is well-known and massive, check out http://yjfy.com

Stiletto wrote:

ElectricMonk wrote:

Got any of the non-released Voodoos, or some of the super early GPUs, like Rendition, S3, or even the fabled Bit Boys Oy board? Even some of the 2D windows/DOS accelerators would be neat (like Tseng Labs or Cardinal)

yjfy's collection is well-known and massive, check out http://yjfy.com

I'm checking it out now (really gotta get cdrom working in dosbox to test somethings). Impressive collection! I;m guessing that means no extra contributions to the thread, huh? That's cool, I can understand.

You can say that the term "GPU" that is being referred to here originated from the GeForce256's marketing team--something to do with hardware-accelerated T&L, moving the processing loads away from the CPU. So by that terminology, calling voodoos or rendition etc "GPUs" is not quite correct.

Heck by the title of this thread I wonder if you could put anything other than the GeForce256 and original Quadro.

archsan wrote:

You can say that the term "GPU" that is being referred to here originated from the GeForce256's marketing team-

Yup. Thankfully it beat out AMD's competing "VPU" moniker. Which was kinda goofy anyway, since some of the older NES/Master System/and such already used "PPU" and I *think* maybe "VPU" as well.

At least it wasn't as stupid as their PR (performance relative) CPU naming scheme. ugh....

ElectricMonk wrote:

Yup. Thankfully it beat out AMD's competing "VPU" moniker. Which was kinda goofy anyway, since some of the older NES/Master System/and such already used "PPU" and I *think* maybe "VPU" as well.

At least it wasn't as stupid as their PR (performance relative) CPU naming scheme. ugh....

3DLabs also tried to push the "VPU" thing right before their demise, with the WildcatVP and later Wildcat REALiZM series boards.

OT: ElectricMonk- Now that you mention it I think Sega Model 3 was seriously powerful for its time when Step 1.5 was released. Okay, it was obscenely expensive R3D/1000 Lockheed martin graphics hardware working at 496x384 but probably no other gaming platform back in 1996 was able to run games at 60 fps with such amount of effects and polygon count.