Page "GeForce 256" Paragraph 0

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 pixel pipelines, offloading host geometry calculations to a hardware transform and lighting ( T & L ) engine, and adding hardware motion-compensation for MPEG-2 video.

It offered a notably large leap in 3D gaming performance and was the first fully Direct3D 7-compliant 3D accelerator.