Characteristics of NVIDIA GeForce graphics card: list by capacity

Nvidia was founded in 1993. California developers for many years are engaged in the creation of video cards of various purposes. Starting from budget and ending with powerful game solutions - anything you can find in the assortment of the company's products. Long-term history implies the existence of many generations of technologies that have been replacing each other almost every year. This is exactly what will be discussed in this article. The description of all Nvidia GeForce, the list of video cards by capacity and year of release - about everything, see below.

A little about the company

Nvidia is the largest manufacturer of computer components in the field of video accelerators. The company employs more than 8 thousand employees. The whole world knows the rivalry of the company with AMD (the second largest manufacturer of video cards). In the history of the firm there are several key events that have influenced its further development.

In 1995, the company released its first product called NV1. In 1999, the first generation of Nvidia Quadro appeared on the market. This graphics processor is designed specifically for workstations.

2006 was marked by the release of the legendary 8800GTX video card. It showed better performance for several years, which attracted buyers. In addition, this accelerator was the first, in which support for DirectX 10 is implemented.

In 2008 the company presents the development of its own physical engine called PhysX. Since 2012, Nvidia has joined The Linux Foundation.

Nvidia Geforce: list of video cards

The first generation of GeForce appeared in 1999. The device was developed on a process technology of 220 nm. The video card supported the DirectX 7 interface and had a 128-bit bus. The product came in two versions - with 32 and 64 MB of video memory. For the present time, these figures seem ridiculous and frivolous, but at the end of the 20th century this development was breakthrough.

GeForce 2 was announced in 2001. This generation has already been developed at a more advanced process of 180 nm. Volumes of video memory remained unchanged. The second version is the first generation, which supports the support of first-generation pixel shaders. From this moment, the company's rapid ascent into the mountain began.

The most productive and breakthrough in the world of graphics technology were video cards Nvidia Geforce. The capacity list is presented in the order of output of each generation.

The fourth generation of GeForce 4 appeared in early 2002. In this development, the creators have completely abandoned 32MB of video memory in favor of large volumes. Now the minimum memory size is 64 MB, and the maximum - 128 MB. In the spring of the same year, the overclocked version of GeForce 4 Ti came out, which supported DirectX 8 of the first version.

The GeForce 5 series was launched in March 2003. This generation was the first, in which the amount of video memory was equal to 256 MB. Devices supported DirectX 9 and were developed on a 150 nm process technology. The new generation received a new indexation, which helped to distinguish them in terms of power. The youngest version was designated by the index 5200, and the most powerful version - 5950. The overclocked versions received the Ultra prefix.

6 series GeForce was released in the end of 2005. This generation received 512 MB of video memory in the performance of the 6600 GT. 7 series was announced in 2007. Differences from the previous generation are not as many as we would like.

Legendary graphics processor

If we compare all Nvidia GeForce video cards by their power and contribution to development, then the eighth GeForce series became a breakthrough. This is especially true for the two graphics cards - the 8600 and 8800. Both devices were released in versions of GTX and Ultra. For the 8800, the GTS version was also included. The amount of memory for the product was chosen not quite the usual - 324 and 484 MB, depending on the version. It was in this generation that DirectX 10 support was implemented.

GeForce 9 appeared in a year, but the revolution, as it was with the predecessor, did not work. In parallel with the 9th series, the company begins to release new developments that give rise to a new model line of video cards. This is exactly what will be discussed later.

Nvidia Geforce graphics cards: list by capacity

1. In 2009, Nvidia announced a series of GeForce 100 and 200. Both versions are the first in the world, whose video memory capacity can reach 1 Gb.
2. In 2011, the GeForce Series 400 comes out. The amount of video memory is increased to the maximum possible 3 GB for that period of time. There was support for DirectX 11. Video cards are built on a 40 nm process technology.
3. The next series of GeForce 500 comes out in the same year. Developers have improved existing technologies and tightened performance in games. It was decided to abandon the minimum memory 512 MB in favor of 1 GB. The maximum volume was 3GB. All devices had a 128-bit bus. The cheapest video card series cost about $ 60, and the most powerful and expensive - more than $ 500.
4. The GeForce 600 has been renamed to the previous generation of video cards. This is done because they remained the same, but with increased power. The new generation starts only with version 650. In the most powerful performance, the GeForce 690 offers the user 4 GB of video memory, support for DirectX 11.1.
5. The GeForce 700 comes out in 2013 and immediately makes a leap in performance. Version 750 Ti even in 2016 gives a decent performance in testing and can compete with junior and mid-range models of the 900 series. Also a worthy competitor is a modern solution from AMD. The rating of video cards GeForce and Radeon includes this video card, which occupies positions close to Radeon middle-end video cards.
6. Within this generation in 2014, the GTX Titan appears. This "beast" is equipped with 6 or 12 GB of RAM and a bus of 384 bits. The cost of the device is about 1 thousand dollars and above. The performance of the accelerator is at the top level and bypasses all the proposed solutions from AMD. But the price for this pleasure is appropriate.

GeForce 900 Series

2015 and GeForce 900 series. This generation includes 6 video cards. The first one is 950 GTX. The youngest, but this is not the weakest video card in comparison with competitive solutions. The device is equipped with 2 GB of video memory and supports DirectX 11. Support for DirectX 12 in all 900 series devices is implemented only at the software level. Hardware support is provided only for Radeon video cards.

The second solution is the GTX 960. Nvidia's video processor tests show that this graphics card is optimal in terms of the ratio of performance and cost. The only thing that afflicts many users and gamers is the use of a 128-bit bus at a time when competitors from AMD have long used the bus for 256 bits. This allows you to increase throughput and thereby improve performance.

The GTX 970 is the most dubious device in the series. A strong performance increase compared to 960 is not observed, but the cost of the device is much higher. Also Nvidia claims that this video card has exactly 4GB of video memory. However, in practice it turned out that there is only 3.5GB of memory inside the graphics accelerator.

GTX 980 and 980 Ti are video cards of the hi-end level. Show the highest results in all performance tests and outperform all competitive solutions from AMD. Video cards have a trump card in their sleeves - the temperature and power consumption of Nvidia GPUs are much lower than those of Radeon. That's why they do not require additional cooling and work stably even under high load and in hot weather.

GTX Titan X stands apart from the entire series. This graphics card has outstanding characteristics. The device is equipped with 8 GB of video memory and uses a 384-bit bus. The cost of "Titan" is estimated at 1 thousand dollars for the original version without overclocking from third-party manufacturers.

New generation

In 2016, a new generation 10 Series was announced, which includes only two devices - Gtx 1070 and 1080. All Nvidia video cards, the main characteristics of which are presented above, pale in performance against the backdrop of a new generation. Each video card has 8 GB of video memory and uses a 256-bit bus. Approximate cost is estimated at 800-900 dollars. It remains to wait for competitive video cards from AMD and compare the results of all tests to once again determine the leader in the endless race for performance and reducing power consumption.

Mobile video cards

Video cards for notebooks began to be produced from the generation of GeForce 2 and were designated by the prefix Go. After the release of a full-fledged 8-series of video cards, the company decided to release mobile devices with a prefix M.

To date, all laptops can be equipped with mobile solutions from Nvidia, starting from 700m and ending with 980m. Generation 10 Series at the moment has not yet been adapted for mobile platforms. Video cards Nvidia GeForce, listed on the power of which is described above, have a much higher performance than the M series. This is due to the peculiarities of the structure of laptops and the lack of the opportunity to fit a full-fledged graphics card.

Quadro Series

These solutions are designed for professional work with 2D and 3D applications and development of computer games. Their cost is much higher than the user's game graphics cards, but the possibilities are much higher. An interesting point is that these video cards may not perform well in the performance of games, despite their power. Therefore, they are used only in workstations.

The result

The history of the model range of video cards from Nvidia is rich in various solutions and breakthrough technologies. Long-term competition with AMD pushes the company to develop more and improve its products. The slogan "Choose your video card Nvidia" is very suitable: in the assortment of the company you will find solutions for any tasks and needs.