A Look Back At The First 3D Accelerator

We take graphics cards for granted these days. But there was a time when blocky resolutions and pixels the size of dinner plates were standard.

But in November 1996, the 3dfx Voodoo entered the consumer PC gaming market – and it changed everything.

3dfx no longer exists these days: the company and its intellectual property were acquired by NVIDIA. But for a period, 3dfx’s products revolutionised gaming on the PC, making games playable at 640×480. The company also coined the term SLI, which NVIDIA still uses to this day.

3dfx ads were pretty crazy back in the day too, featuring old people having heart attacks and falling asleep in birthday cakes because their 3dfx chip was being used for video games instead. A couple are at the end of the video above, but if you just want to watch the ad I’ve embedded it here.


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