Today's PC gamers are in a fortunate position when it comes to selecting a graphics card, at least compared to the past. Although there are only three major manufacturers producing GPUs, every model they release is capable of running any modern game, albeit with varying levels of performance. This situation stands in stark contrast to the early days of PC gaming, more than thirty years ago, when the graphics card landscape was far more fragmented. Back then, there were over ten companies, each offering its own unique approach to rendering graphics. Some companies found success, while others struggled to make a mark.
One of the most interesting players in this field was Rendition, a pioneering company in the 3D gaming industry. Rendition made a splash with its first product, but followed it with two less impressive models, ultimately fading into obscurity in just five years. However brief their journey, the story of Rendition is a fascinating one, and it’s a tale worth exploring.
A Rocky Start to the Decade
In the early 1990s, PC gaming was a mix of excitement and frustration. Setting up hardware often involved hours of tinkering with BIOS settings and drivers, only to end up with games that were notoriously finicky. But as PCs became more popular, millions of people started buying machines from brands like Compaq, Dell, Gateway, and Packard Bell.
For a budget graphics card from 1991, 8-bit color was standard.
However, these computers weren't exactly designed with gaming in mind. Spending around $3,000 would get you a top-tier system with an Intel 486DX2 processor running at 66 MHz, 4MB of RAM, and a 240MB hard drive. But the graphics card was often an afterthought. If you were fortunate, you might have an ATI Graphics Ultra Pro 2D accelerator with 1MB of VRAM and a Mach 32 graphics chip. If luck wasn't on your side, you'd end up with a cheaper option from SiS or Trident.
At the time, even the best PC graphics paled in comparison to the visuals offered by consoles like the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis or the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). PC games, such as popular point-and-click adventures like *Myst*, didn't require high-powered graphics cards. These titles were perfectly happy with 8- or 16-bit color support, leaving PC hardware underutilized in terms of graphical performance.
The Shift Toward 3D Graphics
Despite the limitations, change was on the horizon. Arcade machines had already embraced 3D graphics, using specialized hardware to achieve impressive visuals. On PCs, games like *Doom* were starting to use the CPU for rendering 3D graphics, with the system's graphics card simply handling display tasks. However, to truly replicate the graphics seen in arcade games like *Ridge Racer*, home PCs would need dedicated hardware for 3D rendering..webp)
Photo courtesy of vgamuseum
This need created an opportunity for new companies to enter the market, as established graphics companies like ATI and S3 were slow to adapt. Among the new entrants was Rendition, founded in 1993 by Jay Eisenlohr and Mike Boich. Their goal was ambitious: they aimed to create a chipset that could handle both 2D and 3D graphics acceleration and market it to both the gaming and professional industries.
ISA VLB slots were in use prior to the widespread usage of PCI.
Rendition’s First Success
In 1995, Rendition unveiled its first product, the Vérité V1000-E. Unlike today’s relatively uniform GPU architectures, the early 3D accelerators were highly varied. Rendition took a unique approach by designing the central chip as a RISC CPU that acted as a front-end to the pixel pipeline. Running at 25 MHz, it could perform a single INT32 multiplication in one clock cycle. However, standard rendering tasks like texture filtering and depth testing required multiple cycles, reducing its performance in practical scenarios.
Despite some limitations, the Vérité V1000 had several key advantages. It handled triangle setup routines in hardware, which took a significant load off the CPU, freeing it up for other tasks. The card also used the relatively new PCI bus, which allowed for features like bus mastering and direct memory access (DMA), giving it a performance edge.
Perhaps most impressively, the Vérité V1000 was the first consumer-grade GPU that was fully programmable. This flexibility allowed the development of hardware abstraction layers (HALs) that supported a variety of APIs, making it one of the most widely supported graphics cards by software at the time.
A Key Partnership with *Quake*
Rendition's Vérité V1000 gained further prominence through a collaboration with id Software, the developers of *Doom* and *Quake*. Released in 1996, *Quake* was the first fully 3D game from id Software, and they soon developed an optimized version called *VQuake* to take advantage of the Vérité's 3D capabilities. While the standard version of *Quake* ran at about 30 frames per second (fps) on an Intel Pentium 166, *VQuake* pushed that number to over 40 fps, with improved texture filtering and anti-aliasing, giving gamers a smoother, more immersive experience.
The Fall of Rendition
Despite the initial success of the V1000, Rendition’s follow-up products failed to live up to expectations. Competitors like 3Dfx, with its Voodoo Graphics chipset, outperformed Rendition's offerings. The Voodoo Graphics card was faster, more reliable, and offered superior support for industry-standard APIs like OpenGL, which became crucial for game developers.
VGA Legacy MKIII image
Rendition released the Vérité V2100 and V2200 in 1997, but these models struggled to keep pace with the rapidly advancing competition. Performance improvements were modest, and the cards still lacked some features that were becoming standard in rival products. Ultimately, in 1998, Rendition was acquired by Micron Technology, and despite attempts to launch new products, the company was unable to regain its former glory.
A Canopus graphics card with the V1000L-P processor, which is faster. Picture: vgamuseum
Conclusion
Rendition's brief but impactful journey in the 3D gaming industry serves as a reminder of the dynamic nature of technology. While today’s GPU market is dominated by giants like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, the early days of 3D graphics were shaped by innovative companies like Rendition, whose bold approaches helped pave the way for modern gaming. Although Rendition ultimately faded from the spotlight, its legacy endures as a significant chapter in the history of graphics technology.
