The Evolution of Gaming Computers

The Evolution of Gaming Computers

By: Howard

Who am IWho am I

• I am Howard Cabiao.

• I have been a PC gamer and enthusiast since 2001.

• I chose this topic to explain what a gaming computer is and how rapidly they have evolved over the course of 40 years.

• PC gaming has contributed to many important aspects on the modern PC and I must explain what it is all about.

How I ResearchedHow I Researched

• Growing up with computers I already knew where to find my information on the parts and games.

• Most of my research were in magazines especially PC Magazine, PC Gamer, and Computer Source.

• For History I looked in books that chronicled how early companies evolved.

• Some company websites had history and were a great primary source such as AMD.

Interesting things while Researching

Interesting things while Researching

• I was not able to find any books on Graphics Cards and the History of PC Games even though they contributed to much of what the PC is today such as interface.

• Many magazines were outdated within months since new technologies kept coming out.

Problems with ResearchProblems with Research

• At first I thought I would find a wealth of history about Graphic Card Companies, instead I just found timelines and I had to zone in on each year.

• PC gaming was a broader subject that I thought and I thought it was going to be more “zoned” in since I didn’t do just the “evolution of computers” which would be an even larger topic.

What I learnedWhat I learned• I learned that the PC gaming market is extremely

competitive and only the best prices with reasonable capabilities will take the lead.

• Without gaming computers PCs may look just as they did since they first came out because developers wouldn’t have made all the graphical advances without a good Graphics Processing Unit.

• PC gaming is always evolving and prices go up and down. The latest parts will be expensive for a while but become affordable after the next latest parts come out.

• Over the years games just have been improving in graphics and game play, developers seem to be stuck in a standard and innovation is lacking. Many game “clones” are coming out. A new genre needs to emerge.

• Graphics cards and Processors keep becoming better and better but always seem to be outdated since the games they run keep advancing.

Space War!Space War!• Space War came out in

1962, it is considered the first PC game ever made.

• It was made to test out the capabilities of the first PDP-1, an early gaming computer.

• It was created at the Massachusetts Institute of technology by Stephen Russell.

• Many versions followed after its initial Personal Computer release in arcades and Consoles.

IBMIBM• During the 1920s IBM was a small

company that had inventors, mechanics, and draftsmen.

• When World War II came along many technological advances emerged.

• A tool known as radar was created which showed the position of enemies by the means of a dot or symbol. Today it can be found in many games such as Halo.

• After the war IBM moved on from just producing electronics into designing their own hardware and applications.

• Into the late 40s and early 50s IBM Created the first commercially available computer, the 701. During this time not many people had any need for computers and it did not sell well.

The 1970sThe 1970s• Game creator Atari began

an early line of computers and IBM was thinking about buying them out.

• To counter they decided to just create their own computer since it was more feasible.

• Computers still did not have any interface and were just lines of text.

• The market was still relatively small and IBM wanted to make a computer that appealed to everyone.

Project ChessProject Chess• Project Chess was the name of

the top secret project IBM was plotting to create their new computer.

• IBM representatives met up with Bill Gates for the first time in 1980 to write the Operating System Script for their computer, code named Acorn.

• IBM was the first company to use the term PC or Personal Computer, today all Windows and Linux based computers are known as PCs.

• It was released on August 12, 1981with 4.77 Megahertz. The price would be equivalent to 4000 dollars today.

• Some upgrades were an optional color monitor, floppy drives, and Random Access Memory.

• It was an instant hit and was dubbed “Man of the Year”.

The Early 90sThe Early 90s

• Games like Doom or First Person Shooters just came out. For the first time gamers were able to “be” the character.

• Another popular game was Warcraft, a strategy game. Imagine a live version of chess.

Windows Windows • In 1995 Windows 95 came out.• It helped boost PC gaming out

of a niche market into a mainstream industry.

• Developers included Direct X which allowed Windows to run high performance games.

• Direct X became the standard of all games and guided hardware advances.

• Each year a better version would come out allowing developers to use better graphics hardware and software.

• This made Windows the main gaming platform.

The Graphics CardThe Graphics Card• Graphic cards play the

PC games and are known as a GPU or Graphics Processing Unit.

• They were not really required until Windows 95 came out.

• Games were becoming more demanding so a separate piece of hardware was required to run them.

• 3dfx was the dominant GPU maker until 1999.

NVIDIANVIDIA

• In 1999 NVIDIA released their GeForce Series of GPUs.

• Quickly 3DFX was blown away by the competition and became bankrupt.

• The new GeForce 2 blew away rivals by having great performance with an affordable price.

• It shipped with 64 MBs of RAM and four pixel pipelines, GPU RAM and computer RAM are totally different. GPU RAM is solely dedicated to the game or 3d application it is running.

And the Games Begin…And the Games Begin…

• NVIDIA’s reign of the Graphics card market was short lived.

• Newcomer ATI whipped out their own cards with comparable prices.

• They countered the GeForce series with their own Radeon line.

• Their flagship card was the 7200 with 2 Pixel Pipelines and 64 MBs of RAM.

• This was the beginning of the graphics card wars.

The CPU WarsThe CPU Wars

• In 2000, for the first time in five years Intel released a new line of microprocessors, their Pentium 4 line.

• The fastest was a 32 bit CPU or Central Processing Unit that ran at 1.5 GHz.

• A rival company AMD came out with the AMD Athlon Series of CPUs.

Year 2001Year 2001

• Windows XP was released

• NVIDIA released the complete GeForce line, the once top of the line GeForce 2 became budget, a GeForce 3 became mid range, and the GeForce 4 was top of the line.

• ATI released their Radeon 8500 with an R200 core.

Games of 2002Games of 2002

• The beginning of successful 3d strategy games.

• The return of Warcraft in its third version in full 3d.

• Microsoft created their own strategy game called Age of Mythology to compete.

ATI takes the LeadATI takes the Lead

• In 2002 ATI releases the Radeon 9700.

• It beats NVIDIA by months giving ATI the lead.

• To compete NVIDIA ended up rushing and releasing cards that overheated.

• ATI beat NVIDIA by performance and price this year.

20032003

• ATI continued to dominate NVIDIA.

• ATI released their 9800 Pro.

• NVIDIA released their 5900.

• During September AMD released the world’s first Windows compatible 64 bit processor.

Photorealistic ShootersPhotorealistic Shooters• 2004 was a legendary

year for Shooters.• The highly anticipated

Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 were released.

• Doom was optimized for NVIDIA and Half-Life was for ATI

• Some gamers joked about Doom 3 required a computer that cost as much as a car since it required serious computing power.

CPUs in 2004CPUs in 2004

• AMD kept on making their 64 bit line better and faster.

• A new socket was released and forced gamers to upgrade if they wanted the best performance.

• Intel created new dual core CPUs and released a 3.4 GHz chip.

MMORPGsMMORPGs• MMORPGs or Massively

Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games have been around like Everquest but they boomed in 2005.

• The release of a free MMORPG called Guild Wars drew in many gamers.

• World of Warcraft was released introducing many players to online gaming.

• MMORPGs allow millions of players all over the world game together doing missions and contests.

Scalable Link InterfaceScalable Link Interface

• NVIDIA takes the lead in 2005 for the first time since 2002 by releasing their GeForce 7 series.

• They release SLI, a new technology that made it possible to hook up two graphics cards for double performance.

Games of 2006Games of 2006

• Doom 3’s predecessor was released named Prey.

• Mostly there were only graphical enhancements.

• A new strategy game called Company of Heroes was released.

• It was one of the most realistic war games ever created in terms of graphics and game play.

NVIDIA’s ReignNVIDIA’s Reign

• In 2006 NVIDIA enforced their lead with their GeForce 8 Series.

• It was Direct X 10 ready before the new Direct X came out.

• ATIs best cards were still only Direct X 9 compliant but understandable since it was not even out.

• ATI came out with crossfire, a similar technology to SLI and their X1900 cards.

20062006• AMD released their FX-60 strictly for gamers.• Intel released a dual core chip that ran at 3.73

GHz.• Later on AMD released a dual core FX-62.• During late 2006 into 2007 both companies will

have released Quad Core Microprocessors.

VistaVista• Windows Vista will force

gamers to Upgrade in order to play the newest games which will be Direct X 10 compliant.

• All 2006 hardware does not support Direct X 10, hardware must be created for it so most gamers must build a new computer.

• This new Operating System will run mostly on the GPU and 3D just like a game.

• It will be the fastest, most stable, safest, Windows ever if installed on the right machine.

• Without gaming Vista could not have been created since their would be not hardware and software to build upon.

Its all about the gamesIts all about the games

• Gaming computers have evolved much over the years introducing lots of new technology.

• Without gaming, computers would not be as far as they are now.

• It is impossible to build a lasting gaming computer since it will be outdated within months.

• 2007 will be a lucky year for gamers since Vista will be released and computers with Quad Cores and Multi GPU set-ups will be out.

• Games will be more advanced than ever and will keep evolving along with the hardware it is created on.

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