Collection/NVIDIA/NVIDIA GeForce 256

NVIDIA GeForce 256 / NV10 processor package

Fritzchens Fritz from Berlin ·CC0· Package photograph · Responsive copies resized and encoded as AVIF and WebP; full photograph retained. No crop, recoloring or generative edits.

Origin & contributions

Original source · Retrieved not recorded

Fritzchens Fritz from Berlin · photographer · Included in this image

No copyright attribution condition under CC0; source credit retained for provenance.

SILICON DESIGN / 1999

NVIDIA GeForce 256

A graphics processor that integrated hardware transform and lighting; NVIDIA’s timeline places its launch in 1999.

NVIDIAGPU

Research connections

CompanyNVIDIA ↗Process220 nm ↗

Specifications

4 SOURCE-LINKED FIELDS

Identity & fabrication
Record year	Manufacturer / primary sourceNVIDIA Scope: GPU design Source date: 2020-08-11 Year basis: launched. This is distinct from source publication and record update.
Process label	Manufacturer / primary sourceNVIDIA Scope: GPU design Source date: 2020-08-11
Graphics
GPU clock	Manufacturer / primary sourceNVIDIA Scope: GPU design Source date: 2020-08-11
Additional specifications
Geometry processing	Manufacturer / primary sourceNVIDIA Scope: GPU design Source date: 2020-08-11

THE VISUAL EVIDENCE

Visual sources

1 DOCUMENTED SOURCES

Hosted image provenance · 1

Package photographHosted in Museum

NVIDIA GeForce 256 — Package photograph

Wikimedia Commons · Fritzchens Fritz from Berlin

6,000 × 4,000 pxTechnical archive / analysis

Exact GeForce 256 NV10 marked package from source title and visible marking. This photo shows the package, not exposed circuitry.

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Rights, provenance & link history

Rights status: PUBLIC DOMAIN
Licence: CC0 ↗
Local hosting / thumbnails / hotlinking: Allowed / Allowed / Not enabled
Attribution: NVIDIA GeForce 256 / NV10 processor package — Fritzchens Fritz from Berlin / Wikimedia Commons / CC0. No local pixel edits; Wikimedia-generated 1280px thumbnail.
Identity / confidence: matched / high
Evidence reviewed: 2026-09-06
Link checked: Not yet checked · unchecked

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1 SOURCE-LINKED RELATIONSHIPS

Photographed specimenNVIDIA GeForce 256 · NV10specimen

Creator identifies GeForce 256 / NV10. No SKU memory configuration inferred.

Wikimedia Commons / Fritzchens Fritz · Evidence

Under the surface.

GeForce 256 integrated hardware transform and lighting into the graphics processor. Geometry transformation and lighting calculations could therefore be handled within the graphics pipeline instead of relying entirely on the host CPU.

CURATOR INTERPRETATIONMoving a stage of graphics work changes the division of labor between CPU and GPU. Its fixed-function capability should not be compared to modern programmable shader throughput as if the operations were interchangeable.

What this photograph shows

Exact GeForce 256 NV10 marked package from source title and visible marking. This photo shows the package, not exposed circuitry.

NV10