View source for GeForce 256

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Short description|GPU by Nvidia}}
{{Infobox GPU
| name          = GeForce 256
| image         = [[File:Geforce256logo.jpg]] [[File:VisionTek GeForce 256.jpg|300px]]
| caption       = '''Top''': Logo<br>'''Bottom''': Nvidia GeForce 256
| codename      = NV10
| date          = {{start date and age|October 11, 1999}} (SDR) <br> {{start date and age|December 13, 1999}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pc.ign.com/news/13162.html|title=News Briefs|author=IGN staff|date=December 13, 1999|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000901012320/http://pc.ign.com/news/13162.html|archive-date=September 1, 2000|url-status=dead|access-date=October 1, 2020}}</ref> (DDR)
| fab           = [[TSMC]]
| process       = [[250 nm process|220&nbsp;nm]] ([[CMOS]])
| entry         =
| midrange      = GeForce 256 SDR
| highend       = GeForce 256 DDR
| openglversion = [[OpenGL#OpenGL 1.2.1|OpenGL 1.2.1]] ([[Transform, clipping, and lighting|T&L]])
| d3dversion    = [[Direct3D#Direct3D 7.0|Direct3D 7.0]]
| predecessor   = [[RIVA TNT2]]
| successor     = [[GeForce 2 series]]

| support status = Unsupported

|architecture=[[Celsius (microarchitecture)|Celsius]]}}

The '''GeForce 256''' is the original release in [[Nvidia]]'s "[[GeForce]]" product line. Announced on August 31, 1999 and released on October 11, 1999, the GeForce 256 improves on its predecessor ([[RIVA TNT2]]) by increasing the number of fixed [[Graphics pipeline#Scan conversion or rasterization|pixel pipeline]]s, offloading host geometry calculations to a [[transform and lighting|hardware transform and lighting]] (T&L) engine, and adding hardware [[motion compensation]] for [[MPEG-2]] video. It offered a notable leap in 3D [[PC gaming]] performance and was the first fully [[Direct3D#Direct3D 7.0|Direct3D 7]]-compliant 3D accelerator.

==Architecture==
[[File:KL NVIDIA Geforce 256.jpg|right|thumb|GeForce 256 (NV10) GPU]]
[[File:Quadro NV10GL GPU.jpg|right|thumb|Quadro (NV10GL) GPU]]
[[File:NVIDIA@220nm@Fixed-pipline@NV10@GeForce 256@T5A3202220008 S1 Taiwan A Stack-DSC04167-DSC04189 - ZS-DMap-1 (30217645675).jpg|thumb|Die shot of an NV10 GPU]]
GeForce 256 was marketed as "the world's first 'GPU', or [[Graphics Processing Unit]]", a term Nvidia defined at the time as "a single-chip processor with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines that is capable of processing a minimum of 10 million polygons per second".<ref>{{cite web |title=nVidia unveils new computer graphics accelerator |url=https://money.cnn.com/1999/08/31/technology/nvidia/ |website=[[CNNfn]] |date=August 31, 1999}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nvidia.com/object/gpu.html |title=Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) |website=www.nvidia.com |date=December 17, 2009 |access-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref>

The "256" in its name stems from the "256-bit QuadPipe Rendering Engine", a term describing the four 64-bit pixel pipelines of the NV10 chip. In single-textured games NV10 could put out 4&nbsp;pixels per cycle, while a two-textured scenario would limit this to 2&nbsp;multitextured pixels per cycle, as the chip still had only one TMU per pipeline, just as TNT2.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/391|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720100048/http://www.anandtech.com/show/391|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 20, 2012|title=NVIDIA GeForce 256 Part 1: To buy or not to buy|first=Anand Lal|last=Shimpi|website=www.anandtech.com}}</ref> In terms of rendering features, GeForce&nbsp;256 also added support for [[Cube mapping|cube environment mapping]]<ref name="auto"/> and [[Normal mapping|dot-product (Dot3) bump mapping]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high,294.html|title=High-Tech And Vertex Juggling – NVIDIA's New GeForce3 GPU|first=Thomas Pabst 27|last=February 2001|website=Tom's Hardware|date=February 27, 2001 }}</ref>

The integration of the transform and lighting hardware into the GPU itself set the GeForce&nbsp;256 apart from older 3D accelerators that relied on the CPU to perform these calculations (also known as software transform and lighting). This reduction of 3D graphics solution complexity brought the cost of such hardware to a new low and made it accessible to cheap consumer graphics cards instead of being limited to the previous expensive professionally oriented niche designed for [[computer-aided design]] (CAD). NV10's T&L engine also allowed Nvidia to enter the CAD market with dedicated cards for the first time, with a product called [[Nvidia Quadro|Quadro]]. The Quadro line uses the same silicon chips as the GeForce cards, but has different driver support and certifications tailored to the unique requirements of CAD applications.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nvidia.com/page/workstation.html |title=Nvidia Workstation Products |publisher=Nvidia.com |access-date=October 2, 2007}}</ref>

The chip was manufactured by [[TSMC]] using its [[250 nm process|220&nbsp;nm]] [[CMOS]] [[semiconductor device fabrication|process]].<ref name="techspot">{{cite web |last1=Singer |first1=Graham |title=History of the Modern Graphics Processor, Part 2 |url=https://www.techspot.com/article/653-history-of-the-gpu-part-2/ |website=TechSpot |date=April 3, 2013 |access-date=21 July 2019}}</ref> 

There was only one GeForce 256 release, as succeeding GeForce products would have varying chip speeds. However there were two memory configurations, with the SDR version released in October 1999 and the DDR version released in mid-December 1999{{snd}}each with a different type of [[SDRAM]] memory. The SDR version uses [[SDR SDRAM]] memory from [[Samsung Electronics]],<ref>{{cite web |title=NVIDIA GeForce 256 SDR |url=https://videocardz.net/nvidia-geforce-256-sdr/ |website=VideoCardz.net |access-date=10 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=K4S161622D Datasheet |url=http://www.datasheetcatalog.com/datasheets_pdf/K/4/S/1/K4S161622D.shtml |publisher=[[Samsung Electronics]] |access-date=10 July 2019}}</ref> while the later DDR version uses [[DDR SDRAM]] memory from [[Hyundai Electronics]] (now [[SK Hynix]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR |url=https://videocardz.net/nvidia-geforce-256-ddr-64mb/ |website=VideoCardz.net |access-date=10 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=HY5DV651622 Datasheet |url=http://www.ic72.com/pdf_file/h/169210.pdf |publisher=[[Hynix]] |access-date=10 July 2019}}</ref>

==Product comparisons==
Compared to previous high-end 3D game accelerators, such as [[Voodoo3|3dfx Voodoo3 3500]] and [[RIVA TNT2|Nvidia RIVA TNT2 Ultra]], GeForce provided up to a 50% or greater improvement in frame rate in some games (ones specifically written to take advantage of the hardware T&L) when coupled with a very-low-budget CPU. The later release and widespread adoption of GeForce&nbsp;2 MX/4 MX cards with the same feature set meant unusually long support for the GeForce&nbsp;256, until approximately 2006, in games such as ''[[Star Wars: Empire at War]]'' or ''[[Half-Life&nbsp;2]]'', the latter of which featured a Direct3D&nbsp;7-compatible path, using a subset of Direct3D&nbsp;9 to target the fixed-function pipeline of these GPUs.

Without broad application support at the time, critics pointed out that the T&L technology had little real-world value. Initially, it was only somewhat beneficial in certain situations in a few OpenGL-based 3D [[first-person shooter]]s, most notably ''[[Quake III Arena]]''. Benchmarks using low-budget CPUs like the Celeron&nbsp;300A would give favourable results for the GeForce&nbsp;256, but benchmarks done with some CPUs such as the Pentium&nbsp;II 300 would give better results with some older graphics cards like the [[Voodoo2|3dfx Voodoo&nbsp;2]]. [[3dfx]] and other competing graphics-card companies pointed out that a fast CPU could more than make up for the lack of a T&L unit. Software support for hardware T&L was not commonplace until several years after the release of the first GeForce. Early drivers were buggy and slow, while 3dfx cards enjoyed efficient, high-speed, mature [[Glide API]] and/or [[MiniGL]] support for the majority of games. Only after the GeForce&nbsp;256 was replaced by the [[GeForce 2 series|GeForce&nbsp;2]], and ATI's T&L-equipped [[Radeon R100|Radeon]] was also on the market, did hardware T&L become a widely utilized feature in games.

The GeForce 256 was also quite expensive for the time and didn't offer tangible advantages over competitors' products outside of 3D acceleration. For example, its GUI and video playback acceleration were not significantly better than that offered by competition or even older Nvidia products. Additionally, some GeForce cards were plagued with poor analog signal circuitry, which caused display output to be blurry.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

As CPUs became faster, the GeForce&nbsp;256 demonstrated that the disadvantage of hardware T&L is that, if a CPU is fast enough, it can perform T&L functions faster than the GPU, thus making the GPU a hindrance to rendering performance. This changed the way the graphics market functioned, encouraging shorter graphics-card lifetimes and placing less emphasis on the CPU for gaming.

===Motion compensation===
The GeForce 256 introduced<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/graphics/nvidia/gf4ti4600/gf3.shtml|title=ActiveWin.Com: NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4600 – Review|website=www.activewin.com|access-date=July 2, 2013|archive-date=May 21, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521142750/http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/graphics/nvidia/gf4ti4600/gf3.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[motion compensation]] as a functional unit of the NV10 chip,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.orpheuscomputing.com/downloads2/GeForce_HDVP_brief.pdf|title= Technology brief|website=www.orpheuscomputing.com |access-date=2020-09-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.techspot.com/article/653-history-of-the-gpu-part-2/|title=History of the Modern Graphics Processor, Part 2|website=TechSpot}}</ref> this first-generation unit would be succeeded by Nvidia's HDVP (High-Definition Video Processor) in GeForce&nbsp;2 GTS.

==Specifications==
{{Main|Comparison of Nvidia graphics processing units}}
{{Further|Celsius (microarchitecture)}}

* All models are made via [[TSMC]] [[250 nm process|220&nbsp;nm]] fabrication process

{{Row hover highlight}}
{| class="mw-datatable wikitable sortable" style="font-size:85%; text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2" style="vertical-align: bottom"|Model
! rowspan="2" style="vertical-align: bottom"|Launch
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|[[Code name]]}}
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|Transistors (million)}}
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|Die size (mm<sup>2</sup>)}}
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|[[Computer bus|Bus]] [[I/O interface|interface]]}}
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|Core clock ([[Hertz|MHz]])}}
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|Memory clock ([[Hertz|MHz]])}}
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|Core config{{efn|name=geforce 256 1|[[Pixel pipeline]]s: [[texture mapping unit]]s: [[render output unit]]s}}}}
! colspan="4" |[[Fillrate]]
! colspan="4" |Memory
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|Performance ([[FLOPS|MFLOPS]]<br/>[[FP32]])}}
! rowspan="2" {{Vert header|TDP (Watts)}}
|-
!{{Vert header|MOperations/s}}
!{{Vert header|MPixels/s}}
!{{Vert header|MTexels/s}}
!{{Vert header|MVertices/s}}
!{{Vert header|Size ([[Megabyte|MB]])}}
!{{Vert header|Bandwidth ([[Gigabyte|GB]]/s)}}
!{{Vert header|Bus type}}
!{{Vert header|Bus width ([[bit]])}}
|-
! style="text-align:left" |GeForce 256 SDR<ref>{{Cite web|title=4x AGP GeForce 256 Graphics Accelerator|url=http://vgamuseum.info/images/doc/nvidia/gf256/geforce256_graphics.pdf|access-date=August 30, 2024|website=vgamuseum.info|archive-date=7 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107050758/http://vgamuseum.info/images/doc/nvidia/gf256/geforce256_graphics.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
|{{Dts|1999|October|11|format=mdy|abbr=on}}
| rowspan="2" |NV10
| rowspan="2" |17
| rowspan="2" |139
| rowspan="2" |{{nowrap|AGP 4x}}, PCI
| rowspan="2" |120
|166
| rowspan="2" |4:4:4
| rowspan="2" |480
| rowspan="2" |480
| rowspan="2" |480
| rowspan="2" |0
| rowspan="2" |32<br />64
|2.656
|SDR
| rowspan="2" |128
| rowspan="2" |960
|13
|-
! style="text-align:left" |GeForce 256 DDR<ref>{{cite web|title=NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR Specs|url=https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-256-ddr.c734|access-date=August 30, 2024|website=TechPowerUp|language=en}}</ref>
|{{Dts|1999|December|13|format=mdy|abbr=on}}
|150
|4.800
|DDR
|12
|}
{{notelist}}

== Support ==
NVIDIA has ceased driver support for the GeForce 256 series.

[[File:VisionTek GeForce 256.jpg|thumb|VisionTek GeForce 256 DDR]]

===Final drivers===
* Windows 9x & Windows Me: 71.84 released on March 11, 2005; [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/12/ Download];
:[http://www.nvidia.com/object/71.84_9x_supported.html Product Support List Windows 95/98/Me – 71.84].
* Windows 2000 & 32-bit Windows XP: 71.89 released on April 14, 2005; [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/7/ Download].
:[http://www.nvidia.com/object/71.84_geforcetnt2quadro_supported.html Product Support List Windows XP/2000 – 71.84].

The drivers for Windows 2000/XP may be installed on later versions of Windows such as Windows Vista and 7; however, they do not support desktop compositing or the [[Windows Aero|Aero]] effects of these operating systems.

==Competitors==
* [[ATI Rage|ATI Rage 128]] and [[ATI Rage|Rage Fury MAXX]]
* [[Voodoo3|3dfx Voodoo3]]
* [[Matrox G400]]
* [[S3 Savage|S3 Savage 2000]]

== See also ==
* [[Graphics card]]
* [[Graphics processing unit]]
* [[List of Nvidia graphics processing units]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Nvidia GeForce 256 series video cards|GeForce 256 series}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040414145655/http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce256.html NVIDIA: GeForce 256 – The World's First GPU from web archive]
* [http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_71.84.html ForceWare 71.84 drivers, Final Windows 9x/ME driver release]
* [http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.89.html ForceWare 71.89 drivers, Final Windows XP driver release]
* [http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb techPowerUp! GPU Database]

{{Nvidia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geforce 256}}

[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1999]]
[[Category:Nvidia graphics processors]]
[[Category:Graphics cards]]