August 31 marks exactly 21 years since Nvidia offered the “first GPU.”

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A cryptic tweet posted by Nvidia’s GeForce Twitter legend looks to indicate that the extremely anticipated GeForce Ampere GPU could perhaps perhaps remark up as soon as August 31.

The tweet from 6 a.m. PDT Monday reveals what looks enjoy a Tall Bang explosion and the sound of a ticking clock. The header art work for the @NvidiaGeForce legend says: “The #ultimatecountdown. 21 days. 21 years.”

August 31 and 21 years is important, because the celebrated GeForce 256 became announced on August 31, 1999. The GeForce 256 became the significant graphics card to factors hardware become and lighting fixtures effects. It additionally incorporated hardware MPEG2 decoding. Up till then, a separate MPEG2 decoder card became required to contemplate a DVD on your PC.

Per chance more symbolic became that Nvidia declared the 256 graphics card to be the significant “GPU.” Now, 21 years later, many demand the firm to birth its Ampere line of GPUs constructed on a smaller, more ambiance friendly direction of, marking Nvidia’s lengthy-awaited evolution from its 12nm direction of.

Unconfirmed rumors score indicated the contemporary playing cards will offer a large efficiency amplify over the current GeForce 2000-sequence of GPUs. The excitement suggests a minimal of a 31-percent efficiency improvement in frail gaming, whereas assorted hyped-up rumors suggest a 2X to 4X amplify in ray tracing efficiency.

Rumors, as we all know, are meaningless till confirmed, however the GeForce tweet does existing the contemporary card is imminent. With AMD additionally promising to introduce its “Tall Navi” this year, and Intel expected to be in contact up its dangle Xe graphics this Tuesday, it’s a shining time to be buying for a GPU—as lengthy as you furthermore mght can wait. In every other case, as we existing in our epic, it’s surely an terrible time to steal a GPU.

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One of founding fathers of hardcore tech reporting, Gordon has been covering PCs and ingredients since 1998.