The Evolution of Shaders
Nvidia launched the first GPU in 1999 with the GeForce 256, pioneering hardware T&L. In 2001, the GeForce 3 introduced programmable shaders, marking the shader era. Over 24 years, GPUs advanced massively, from 57 million transistors in NV20 to 92 billion in Blackwell (B100). Shader counts exploded—from 16 in 2007 to over 21,000 in 2025. Unified shaders appeared in 2007, and AI-focused Tensor Cores began in 2017. Despite huge performance gains, GPU prices rose modestly: a high-end card cost $800