The last 30 years have included some landmark moments in PC gaming hardware, and PC Gamer’s very existence as a magazine dedicated to gaming on a personal computer speaks volumes for the importance of those years for our hobby. In that time, it has covered the rise of 3D graphics, simulated physics, LAN parties and online gaming.
But the mag has also captured the rise of one particular piece of hardware that makes it all possible: the graphics card. In 1993, at a Denny’s roadside diner in East San Jose, Nvidia was founded, intent on creating a 3D accelerator to beat the rest. It would have its work cut out for it trying to dispatch 3dfx, which rose to prominence with the creation of the Voodoo Graphics card in 1996.
From the beginnings of GeForce in 1999 through the 2000s, corporate consolidation would pit Nvidia against first ATi and then AMD for graphical dominance
