If you’ve been a PC gamer for more than a few years, it’s definitely worth your time to take a look at this long history of PC video cards. I jumped into the hardware game around the middle, when the Riva TNT was vying for dominance with the Voodoo2 and Rage 128.

If you have a technophobic spouse or work somewhere where people think “PCI express” is a kind of train, you probably should hide this article from view. Picture after picture of glorious old-school video cards, along with their specs and impact. It’s enough to send any sane person running for their lives. The rest of you, get your bookmarking hats on.

Back in the day, things were a lot different: no fewer than five or six companies were serious contenders in the video card game, as opposed to the two there are today. That must have been hell for game developers, although DirectX did serve as a handy rallying point. Anyhow, it’s a great little trip to make if you like being nostalgic about old computers (I hope I’m not can’t be the only one).