I don't know if there were any other obscure PCIe cards before that, but the first ones that I remember were the GeForce PCX series, basically the PCIe versions of the second generation of FX cards (FX 5200 -> PCX 5300, FX 5700 -> PCX 5750, FX 5900/5950 -> PCX 5900/5950). These weren't native PCIe cards, but used a bridge chip.

It depends on what qualifies it as being PCIe.
The PCie bridge chip cards were first
First ones I ever saw was in the same order for the shop and was an ATI X700 and an nVidia FX5200.

Geforce FX 5xxxx and Geforce 6xxx.

Cheers,

I remember getting an 8800GT in, oh, 2007 or 2008, and it replaced a 7900GT or GS, and that was nowhere near first-gen PCIe.

PCI-e started being a thing in Intel land in 2004ish with the LGA775 Preshots with the i915/i925. So you have the i915/925, then the 945, then the 975, then the 965 first-gen Conroe platform, then the P35, all before the release of the 8800GT in fall 2007. That's a lot of motherboards that needed PCI-E GPUs over a 3-4 year period...

TechPowerup which is IMO about 95% reliable, seems to have this with the earliest release date... https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-pcx-5900.c56

First true PCIe GPU was Radeon X800 on R423 chip.

Thanks! Also I just found https://hothardware.com/news/ati-pci-express- … deon-sneak-peek talking about the release of x300/x600/x800