Zarathustra
Cloudless
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2019
- Messages
- 3,988
- Points
- 113
Bah.
Corporate rewriting of history to make themselves look more important and revolutionary than they were.
They are defining the term "GPU in such an overly specific way that it only applies to their product and making it "first".
Now, had they been talking about the NV1 from 1995, they may have had a point, but no one bought that. It remained an extremely expensive and niche product.
If anyone gets to claim that crown it should certainly be 3DFX. They more than any other company ushered in the 3D rendering era of graphics. They weren't the first either though, but they were the first to gain success and really roll it out.
Matrox was out ahead of them with their Millennium cards actually supporting some 3d rendering features in the early 90's, and then in 1994, they added an addon board, the Impression for even more 3D functionality. I'm not even sure if they were first,. Someone else probably did it before them, but the further back you go it gets more and more obscure, and less of a mass marketed product.
The MGA Matrox Millennium was probably the first mass marketed product with 3D acceleration capability though, though this will likely depend on where you draw the line on what is "mass marketed". That, and most who had Millenniums never used them that way. They were bought primarily for their excellent 2D performance and their best in class RAMDAC's providing the best image quality on the analog monitors of the time.
Nvidia was a follower at best. They just had the fewest ****ups, and were thus able to survive long enough to become dominant.
Corporate rewriting of history to make themselves look more important and revolutionary than they were.
They are defining the term "GPU in such an overly specific way that it only applies to their product and making it "first".
Now, had they been talking about the NV1 from 1995, they may have had a point, but no one bought that. It remained an extremely expensive and niche product.
If anyone gets to claim that crown it should certainly be 3DFX. They more than any other company ushered in the 3D rendering era of graphics. They weren't the first either though, but they were the first to gain success and really roll it out.
Matrox was out ahead of them with their Millennium cards actually supporting some 3d rendering features in the early 90's, and then in 1994, they added an addon board, the Impression for even more 3D functionality. I'm not even sure if they were first,. Someone else probably did it before them, but the further back you go it gets more and more obscure, and less of a mass marketed product.
The MGA Matrox Millennium was probably the first mass marketed product with 3D acceleration capability though, though this will likely depend on where you draw the line on what is "mass marketed". That, and most who had Millenniums never used them that way. They were bought primarily for their excellent 2D performance and their best in class RAMDAC's providing the best image quality on the analog monitors of the time.
Nvidia was a follower at best. They just had the fewest ****ups, and were thus able to survive long enough to become dominant.