Geforce 256 was released in fall 1999 and even had availability problems AFAIK, GF2 GTS in spring 2000. Combine that with the fact that TNT2 was sold well into 2000 until GF2MX displaced it as an OEM favorite and you pretty much got your answer.

Plus a name like that certainly doesn't make it any easier finding them. Might help looking for specific branded boards.

I've seen them often on Ebay

They aren't that rare, but I see the DDR version more often than the SDR.

I remember running a few searches on ebay half way through last year and I had no luck finding one at all. As stated above though, running a keyword search using "geforce 256" will bring up hundreds of listings. The geforce2 is a much better card to use anyway unless you just wanted to find one for collecting purposes or as a price reference to sell your one.

d1stortion wrote:

Geforce 256 was released in fall 1999 and even had availability problems AFAIK, GF2 GTS in spring 2000. Combine that with the fact that TNT2 was sold well into 2000 until GF2MX displaced it as an OEM favorite and you pretty much got your answer.

I suspected something of the sort. That makes a lot of sense.

borgie83 wrote:

The geforce2 is a much better card to use anyway unless you just wanted to find one for collecting purposes or as a price reference to sell your one.

My thoughts exactly. I'm not particularly interested in owning one, as any garden variety GF4 MX would kick its ass. I just wondered why I never see them, even when I do a catch-all search like "agp video card."

I've found them on Ebay occasionally when looking for the Elsa Erazor, since the Erazor X was their Geforce256 offering.

maximus wrote:

I don't think I've ever seen one on eBay, SDR or DDR. A search for "geforce 256" returns lots of noise, though, so maybe they're just well-hidden.

The only ones I've seen were all OEM cards that weren't being described as Geforce 256 but by the vendor part number. In fact, I had one hiding right under my nose in a Compaq Willamette P4 machine that I hadn't got around to opening up until I actually started searching for a GF 256. Once I found the Compaq part number, I opened all of my Compaq machines that hadn't been searched yet and found one and a DDR version at that. I think also bought a second one that I found for like $15 on ebay under the Dell part number. Visual identification is pretty much useless when trying to pick these out of a lot of other cards as the same basic board design was used for some GF 2,2MX,3,4MX,and FX5200 cards and maybe others. Do an ebay search for Dell 9830U or 180-P0003-0100-D02. That's the 32mb card.

misterjones wrote:

I've found them on Ebay occasionally when looking for the Elsa Erazor, since the Erazor X was their Geforce256 offering.

Wasn't the Elsa card actually the Quadro variant? That would function slightly differently than the mainstream card.

There are at least two Creative Annihilator Pro cards on ebay right now. That is GF256 DDR.

I see NV10 cards pretty often really. They certainly aren't rare.

The Hercules 3D Prophets were the big selling ones IIRC (3d Profits sometimes as called). Big, blue, fast benchmarks, and have fans that really suck. 😀

sliderider wrote:

In fact, I had one hiding right under my nose in a Compaq Willamette P4 machine that I hadn't got around to opening up until I actually started searching for a GF 256.

That reminds me that I got a Leadtek Geforce 256 DDR in a Pentium 3 machine that I got donated which is just staying the shed awaiting work. I had completely forgotten about it!

sliderider wrote:

Wasn't the Elsa card actually the Quadro variant? That would function slightly differently than the mainstream card.

Elsa Erazor X uses Geforce 256 SDR, Erazor X2 uses Geforce 256 DDR.
Elsa Gloria II uses a first-gen Quadro.

leileilol wrote:

The Hercules 3D Prophets were the big selling ones IIRC (3d Profits sometimes as called). Big, blue, fast benchmarks, and have fans that really suck. 😀

There were a lot of 3d Prophet models. Is the Geforce 256 based the one without anything appended after the designation?

Yes. though it wasn't blue or Hercules

As stated they tend to be listed by manufacturer and part number not the GeForce 256 designation.

sliderider wrote:

Wasn't the Elsa card actually the Quadro variant? That would function slightly differently than the mainstream card.

Elsa made both a Geforce256 card and a Quadro card.

Elsa Erazor X = Geforce 256
Elsa Gloria II = Quadro.

I own a 64MB Gloria II. It's sitting in an IBM 300PL tower in an NLX bracket (P3-850/768MB RAM). I think I've posted a pic of it elsewhere.