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Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

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Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#31

Post by Gigachad »

bee_rider wrote: post #24

I think what happened is, at the time those were literally more or less examples of the best scenes the cards could render. Nowadays, putting together an example of the best scene the card could render requires a whole art department and a couple months of design. Nobody’s going to spend months on box art, so we get bland rectangles or whatever.

What the best scene you could render is a bit fuzzy. In blender you could render anything at all. But in a game, at what resolution, and what framerate, are the shadows dynamic or baked in?

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#33

Post by rpcope1 »

I loved the weird boxes back in the 90s and 2000s. I remember dad would always take us to computer trade shows and ham events, and occasionally you'd see someone from ATi or Nvidia (or one of the integrators) demoing their wares with all sorts of bizarre and funny demo software and renders. I don't know if it was just me or what, but they always sent real nice sales or marketing people and it was fun to talk to them about the GPUs as a kid. I think they were as mystified (I recall several of them laughing about it) about the box art as everyone else was.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#34

Post by nunez »

MoOmer wrote: post #16
abtinf wrote: post #14

I would guess part of the reason for this was box art used to matter because most of these cards were sold through dedicated electronics retailers like Fry's Electronics, Microcenter, and CompUSA. There was basically no such thing as online ordering for this sort of thing. People were physically browsing goods on shelves.

Just chiming in here, but at least two of the generations of cards there are from ~2005-2008 and we old farts definitely bought (or convinced our parents to buy) things from Newegg at the time!

100%. Used Newegg and Tigerdirect a bunch during that period. Shipping took forever.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#35

Post by makeitdouble »

zdw wrote: post #11

Unusual designs are still a thing in some markets (mainly china) - for example, a cat themed cooler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGGKaX1D9Zo and various anime themed backplates on cards are available from Yeston: https://yestonstore.com/collections/graphics-card

Thanks, Japan is in the same boat.

From full cases [0] including the CPU cooler in general, to themed components[1], when it comes to gaming makers are going beyond and above to create cool visuals.

[0] https://www.dospara.co.jp/gamepc/kuzuha.html

[1] https://www.yodobashi.com/product/100000001009108157/

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#37

Post by g-b-r »

When you'd first get a 3d accelerator you'd enter in a completely new world, the graphics and speed you'd get were on a different planet with what your computer could do without them.

I think that the boxes initially reflected that.

My first accelerator (rather late) was that 3D Blaster Voodoo 2; the graphics of the box contributed to the emotion of holding it, they looked better than in the picture.

I was mindblown when I saw what the card could do, and I believe to have thought that the graphics did reflect well its capabilities.

I sure kept the box for many years.

I imagine that then the manufacturers felt compelled to keep making boxes which would stand out; and in part, yes, they tried to attract some purchases from people who didn't originally mean to get a new graphics card.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#38

Post by numpad0 »

makeitdouble wrote: post #35
zdw wrote: post #11

Unusual designs are still a thing in some markets (mainly china) - for example, a cat themed cooler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGGKaX1D9Zo and various anime themed backplates on cards are available from Yeston: https://yestonstore.com/collections/graphics-card

Thanks, Japan is in the same boat. From full cases [0] including the CPU cooler in general, to themed components[1], when it comes to gaming makers are going beyond and above to create cool visuals. [0] https://www.dospara.co.jp/gamepc/kuzuha.html [1] https://www.yodobashi.com/product/100000001009108157/

The ones in the article are boxes only, the actual cards were different from what were represented on the box. Anime-themed products are products themselves in various themes. I'd argue that these two are different phenomena.

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#39

Post by brokenmachine »

Gigachad wrote: post #29
jakebasile wrote: post #2

I miss when gaming in general was less mainstream and more weird like this. Now the silicon manufacturers hate that they even have to sell us their scraps, let alone spend time on making unique designs for their boxes. I bought a small press book with a collection of this art and it was a fun little trip down memory lane, as I’ve owned some of the hardware (boxes) depicted in it. For anyone else interested: https://l…

On the plus side, PC gaming hardware seems to last ages now. I built my gaming desktop in 2020, I had a look lately at what a reasonable modern mid tier setup is and they are still recommending a lot of the parts I have. So I'll probably keep using it all for another 5 years then.

But your stuff from 2020 probably isn't AI "enhanced"!! Throw it in the garbage!

Re: Look at how unhinged GPU box art was in the 2000s (2024)

#40

Post by edgineer »

Nvidia also had really cool demo programs you'd run with each generation to show off what your new card could do. [0]

You'll have to use the Internet archive to see them all. [1] Several, like 'Dawn' for example, were quietly removed in 2020.

[0] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/community/demos/

[1] http://web.archive.org/web/2019/https://www.nvidia.com/en-us...

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