The Lost Art of Tech Demos

Strap in and take a ride with me to the past, exploring the history and nostalgia of graphics card tech demos made by many of the most famous vendors in the industry!
A total of 58 demos from NVIDIA, ATI, 3dfx, Matrox, and more were recorded for this video using my own hardware. In many cases, substitutions were made in place of the intended hardware where it made sense to, for the sake of efficiency and time management. These were the graphics cards used:
-3Dfx Voodoo 4MB
-3Dfx Voodoo2 12MB
-3Dfx Voodoo5 5500
-Rendition V1000L-P 4MB
-Matrox G400 MAX
-NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX
-NVIDIA GTX 285
-ATI Rage Pro 4MB
-ATI Rage 128 Pro
-ATI Radeon 7500 64MB
-ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
-ATI Radeon X1950XTX
-AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
0:00 Intro
2:28 A little history
4:15 3Dfx Valley of Ra
5:10 3Dfx Race
5:27 3Dfx Wizard's Tower
5:56 Rendition Cartoon
6:52 ATI Knight
7:37 ATI Rage Dawning
12:56 3Dfx Voodoo2 demos
13:09 Matrox G400 EMBM demo
15:44 NVIDIA Smaller GF256 demos
16:02 NVIDIA Crystal
16:32 NVIDIA Smaller GF2 demos
16:56 NVIDIA Creature
17:21 3Dfx Rocketburger
18:06 ATI Radeon's Ark
22:24 NVIDIA Zoltar
23:11 NVIDIA Chameleon
23:47 ATI Nature
24:19 ATI Rachel
24:50 ATI Island demos
27:17 NVIDIA Werewolf
28:06 NVIDIA Squid
28:42 Matrox Parhelia Reef
29:24 ATI Smaller 9700 demos
30:06 ATI Pipe Dream
34:37 NVIDIA Dawn
36:07 NVIDIA Dusk
37:03 NVIDIA Ogre
37:44 NVIDIA Toys
39:02 NVIDIA Last Chance Gas
39:47 NVIDIA Vulcan
41:02 ATI Chimp
42:18 NVIDIA Nalu
43:17 NVIDIA Timbury
44:20 ATI Smaller X800 demos
44:33 ATI Double Cross
46:49 ATI Dangerous Curves
47:06 NVIDIA Luna
49:49 NVIDIA MadMod Mike
51:50 ATI The Assassin
53:51 ATI Toy Shop
54:33 ATI Whiteout
57:54 Epilogue on ATI demos
58:23 NVIDIA 8800 demos
59:16 NVIDIA Medusa
1:02:25 NVIDIA Supersonic Sled
1:02:58 Epilogue on NVIDIA demos
1:03:34 Conclusion
Intro Animation By Ken Gruca Jr - Inquire at [e-mail]
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[@Ivan-pr7ku]

The Luna demo for the G70 GPU contained an early case study of implementing real-time ray tracing, using pixels shades. RT was used on the big eye, since it's a perfect sphere, where ray traversal and intersection is very simple and fast, mapping the compute functions directly on the graphics pipeline.

[@blakegriplingph]

The demoscene was actually an offshoot of the warez/software cracking scene. Warez groups often include graphically impressive intros as a form of bragging that they cracked this particular game, but they soon realised they could tap into this as an art form with no ties to piracy.

[@mattcude6917]

I knew a lot of people that went to jail during that time, they went from tech demos on c64/amiga to cracking pc games and using ogl to render demos. So it was full circle, most started with tech demos to begin with. Shout out to my class101, razor and M&M buds.

[@philiphanhurst2655]

I really like this era of graphics. It looks so different from the stuff we get today and it's almost as stylistic as PS1 graphics or pixel art.

[@yellowblanka6058]

Ah, the days when reflection mapping and colored lighting were features worthy of a tech demo.

[@christianrodriguez7222]

Another fantastic video! As an “aging millennial” I too miss tech demos. They used to be one of the first things I fired up to test a new card. It’s really a big shame they’re removing demos. As a part of history they should be preserved. I also noticed some old drivers are giving me 404 pages now...

[@vladrogonja2012]

You're not alone buddy, I miss it too. Today nothing is special anymore, just the next thing and you wait for the next to be released and so on. I have more memories of Voodoo 2 and Geforce 3 + Geforce 4cards than I have of GTX Maxwell or GTX Pascal cards.

[@2528drevas]

"Aging Millennial?" I built my first gaming PC in 1998, how do you think I feel? 😁

[@davidcunningham959]

As an aging "Gen X" ,I chased the carrot of new tech. Now I work making semiconductors.

[@sebastianaliandkulche]

Some of the Nvidia and ATI demos are preserved though they are practically impossible to run on modern hardware...

[@rebeccaschade3987]

It would actually be kickass if during the Radeon RX6000 launch, AMD suddenly showed an all new Ruby demo. I think those around my age would go nuts :D

[@solarstrike33]

RX 7000 now?

[@wishusknight3009]

The awsome thing about Dawn, was that it could be also patched to run on the 9700Pro, and unshockingly ran significantly better on said hardware. Us ATI users gloated like little smug children.

[@gandrurass]

another fun thing is that the New Dawn demo used to run on Radeon cards as well with a help of a patch, used to run it on my HD5870, ran like ass

[@nemz7505]

Yeah, I remember my hard modded 9500 beating my mates nvidia card at Dawn

[@wishusknight3009]

@@nemz7505 OOH, I remember doing that to my friends 9500, and enabling its second half. Was just a bios flash or a resistor or something to that effect IIRC. Was really a snap... And I spent the money on the whole thing, though i got the All-in-wonder edition so to me it was worth that.

[@vr-legion3468]

@@wishusknight3009 Omega Drivers

[@wishusknight3009]

@@vr-legion3468 Those were pretty good, though I never saw a doubling of performance if I had the stock drivers tweaked a little. But it was safe to say they were better than stock in every way and fixed a lot of issues that ATI never fixed until their legacy driver program many years later.

[@ultra_code_]

GPU waifu battle: Dawn vs Dusk.

[@koodeus6170]

Dawn is superior.

[@tomtom98]

Nalu trumps all 😁

[@PixelPipes]

No love for Luna??

[@ultra_code_]

@@PixelPipes she's nice, although IMO Ruby's the best and most badass. She won 1st place in my book.

[@ninjasiren]

I'll take Ruby all day. Especially the later iterations of her. Though Dawn, she's also yep...

[@Soonjai]

Amazing showcase you put together here. I remembered most of these, but some of them where new to me. But I was a bit surprised that the 2004 ATI Demo "The Project" wasn't even mentioned here. It was made by Crytek, had the Far Cry 1 setting and featured a evolutionary step of the Cry Engine that was more advanced than what was used in Far Cry 1, but still far off from what would be used in Crysis. In terms of graphics features it most notably showed off a Predator style transparency effect on a human-like character involved in combat and depth of field effects.

[@erikt211]

Wait a minute! The model at 6:21 was used by the Utopia Boot Disc for Dreamcast! Until now I’ve never seen that anywhere else! I would love to know the connection to that!

[@mauriciochacon]

ati x800 x850 demos with the radeon girl were years ahead of reality in games, and off course nvidia demos too, but the ATI ones were like a movie instead of a static scene

[@user-th5ui4ib3y]

In my opinion 3d mark was another great series of demos back in the day.

[@kt249]

ATI Pipe Dream is so cool, even to this day. The way every ball move independently and form a perfect rhytm is just so enjoyable to watch. A true masterpiece.

[@okitasan]

Such a fun time to be a young gamer. I was in elementary school-middle school and loved looking at the graphics demos on screensavers at Computer City and CompUSA, and running tech demos at home (often on my computer which could barely handle them). Very nostalgic to see them. The years 1998-2000 feel especially nostalgic. Great time to be a gamer!

[@mbe102]

Holy crap, that Reindeer in the Verite demo... anyone else use the Dreamcast Loader discs????

[@mauriciochacon]

hell yeah

[@devonrosa4414]

This deserves all the views. Thank you for letting me relive a portion of childhood, plus all the ones I missed before and after!

[@Ace12GA]

It's criminal this doesn't have more views. I miss the demo days.

[@evklinken]

Criminally underwatched video. Great effort putting this all together.

[@artratengo3685]

I think this was very interesting the whole way through, amazing video

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

I remember when the Geforce 3 came out. I was blown away by the chameleon tech demo showing the power of programmable shaders. I was on anandtech every single day. Thanks for the video PixelPipes. all the great memories of the past came back

[@vladrogonja2012]

You are not alone. What we have today, everything looks the same only the FPS is lover or higher and benchmarks on youtube. We need this again.

[@jaikishorsharan5971]

To see the quality of the demos in an actual game usually took 5-10 years depending of the demo, but it was a nice view into the future.

[@Lilithe]

Me: ah beans... a one hour video... Also me: wow that was totally worth it!

[@BadManiac]

Love ATI Rage Dawning, I've got an Original Rage Fury in my 1998 K6-2 based PC, this demo runs perfectly on it. Wish I had seen it back then, would have completely blown my mind!

[@MedlinMasbor]

i see all my childhood here :'). my friend's brother used to work in a computer supplier. he often brings lots of installation CDs home. me and my friend often play that cd just to see things like this. I have ATI and my friend have Nvidia.

[@DimitriosChannel]

1990's tech demo's had a lot of love and passion from the developers.

[@zhongyangli]

Thanks for the excellent work. When I saw the title and opened the video, the first two things came into my mind were: 1. click the like button. 2. wait for pipe dream.

[@johndandrea6238]

Thank you for preserving and showcasing these.

[@Mini-z1994]

ATI toy shop demo is so nice looking too this day, specially if you force the resolution upwards it still looks nice, remember running that on my HD 5770 in 2010 being impressed of how nice it looked in 1080p with anti aliasing & sharper textures forced on.

[@Mini-z1994]

This is a bit irrelevant but Carmageddon runs so well after following comment nr17 on steam discussions there on the instructions. steamcommunity.com/app/282010/discussions/0/333656722982705624/?ctp=2 Sound is acting up though unfortunately with the carma95 exe's for me but runs 1080p 60+ fps thanks too dgvoodoo2 & those instructions on comment 17 there by smappyy, ofc due too the high fps the timer is a bit faster then it should so had too limit via rivatuner server statistics, steam overlay also works fine, though bit laggy due too the fps in the menu's & when it plays those clips at 20 fps.

[@MSDGAMEZ]

Late 90s to mid 2000s was peak graphics

[@zachsteiner]

God it makes me so sad how few views this has gotten. What a great video.

[@bportermusic]

My first 3D card was the Rage Fury Pro, it was nice to see the demo again, I used to run that so much on it back then.

[@squeeeb]

Nice trip down memory lane. It's a shame we don't really see tech demos anymore. I'm still using the Gargoyle / Clock screensaver on my XP machine. Another classic demo not mentioned is the X-Isle demo showcasing early crytek engine effects!

[@joeyvdm1]

Another terrific video Nathan, really enjoyed it! You are spot on with "Tech Demos" being the ideal showcase for the burgeoning 3D accelerator market. I did (and still do) get quite excited and nostalgic for such tech demos. It was always something I looked forward to with a new 3D accelerator release. As you said, they were more of an ideal situation showing off the new hardware and its features at its best. But that was what I loved about them, it was part and parcel of a new 3D accelerator/GPU generation, and they were always entertaining to view and/or play around with. And they were indeed very impressive as well, it always got the imagination going as to what would be possible with the new tech (even if games could not quite match said tech demos). And I always got a kick out of showing new tech demos to my friends and family as well. There are even a few tech demos that you demonstrated in your video that I had never seen or used myself (a few ATI and Matrox ones). And it was great to see all the ones I have not seen in decades once again as well. So this video was a pleasure to watch and there is much to enoy here. It is a shame that we do not get such tech demos anymore, and also sad that NVIDIA and AMD are doing their best to erase the past of said demos as well, so I am glad you have made this video for us. So thanks for the upload Nathan, no one captures the history of the 3D accelerator/GPU market quite as you do, and your content is always enjoyable and an absolute must watch for me.

[@druout1944]

This was fantastically done; great job.

[@willl4575]

Thanks another great video, it is also great seeing you making some new vids lately, I love your work one day you will rewarded, Thanks again dude!

[@GSXone]

This was an amazing video! I used to love these demos! I actually had most if not all the ATi tech demos....until my drive crashed with all of them a year ago. This really brings back memories! Thank you!

[@mauriciochacon]

great video, i still cant believe how amazing is the ati x800 ruby demo

[@lronMan88]

At first, thanks for your great work 💪🏻👍🏻😀 Highly underrated video, this content is awesome. Thanks for your effort to bring back this cool time of graphic demos. I remember my eyes falling out of my head with my first ati 9700pro looking the demos. Absolutly goosebumps rember those days in my childhood.

[@SUCRA]

This was such a great video. I imagine how much work it went into making this awesome 1 hour film. I enjoyed it very much, and it's so true that the innocent feeling of happiness and hope we got with the release of new tech has mostly disappeared. Thanks again Nathan. 👍

[@CPUGalaxy]

Thank you for this great video!! I love tech demos since ever... Of course the iconic ones from Future Crew in the early 90‘s as well the newer ones from ATI and NVIDIA.... loved watching the ones you decided to show here.. 😍. Cheers, Peter

[@matthewmangan6251]

this is peak aesthetic i wish more games went for this colourful half-realistic half-cartoony vibe

[@GrinPS14]

Great vid! Really enjoyed this retrospective of sorts and moved all the way along from the first voodoo to now RTX and enjoyed most of the demos myself.

[@vBDKv]

This video truly is a hidden gem. Thank you very much sir!

[@totty2524]

Fantastic video, man! I really appreciate it.

[@FluteGamerSouzaLima]

Great video, I love seeing this old tech demos, they are so nostalgic.

[@SirSilicon]

1:40 Lisa Su looking good back then.

[@PixelPipes]

Damn you got me with this one 😄

[@souta95]

I was thinking the same thing

[@PixelPipes]

@@remasteredretropcgames3312 briefly considered in the past but I'd rather not balloon the upload for a marginal improvement

[@KleinMeme]

Argh, nostalgia hits hard. Awesome to see that after so long.

[@RiasatSalminSami]

24:48 bruh I wqas watching at late night with lights off and then u show this xD RIP

[@snetmotnosrorb3946]

Oh my, a new video! Looks like you've been uploading, I haven't checked my notifications. Perfect subject! I haven't watched it, but I know I will like it. And timing! I just yesterday saw a picture of ATI's demo mascot Ruby and realised that that whole thing is gone. I miss Ruby.

[@wishusknight3009]

I know which one you forgot... Village Mark for the Power VR Kyro. Btw thankyou for this collection. Excellent documentation of history! I am now finding myself digging around for some of these demos and getting out my period correct hardware to just run them. And I will probably be at this all day lol.

[@Yinco1]

Bro. I remember how good the lighting was in that demo.

[@yosuhara]

Thank you very much, this was an awesome trip!

[@CommodoreFan64]

Awesome video, the ATI Ruby demos where always my favorite, but could be the very long time ATI/AMD fan in me lol!

[@BcHmF]

Wow, thanks. I was waiting for this video! :D

[@callindocorleone5435]

Nice one, thanks for this great video.

[@adamk3026]

This video is crinally underviewed. Excellent work.

[@tribalwar117]

Before watching the video, my best guess for their disappearance is that until rtx came around there was just a lack of additional features being added. Gpus got faster obviously, but the time where a new gpu could do something an older gpu just couldn't do seemed over. A resolution rat race started around the gtx 9xx serries with both consoles and pcs alike trying to reach 4k, can't really show that in a demo... Now with rtx the demos are back! Because they finally have something new to show off. Anyway now onto hear what you think.

[@slowlymakingsmoke]

Loved seeing these. I remember some of them, but a lot passed me by.

[@wallakfir90]

This video should have way more views! Excellent work and I miss those days of creativity. It all became so sterile nowadays.

[@MrVitalic85]

Super cool presentation my man !

[@rare6499]

Whats really amazing is how impressive so many of them still look ! Those later Ruby demos were AMAZING

[@mulliganxable]

Thank you for making this

[@JohnAmanar]

Awesome video! So nostalgic! ^_^

[@Carstuff111]

I am half way through this video... and just realized that everything in these tech demos, we now take for granted today... like the fur on the werewolf... That took every bit of horsepower for that card in its era.....and now we have even more detail in fur and hair today, with better lighting AND doing so real time, in detailed games..... Good grief, I now feel old! Also, realizing just how much video of these tech demos does not do them good.... I know from experience that ATi's Pipe Dream looks WAY better in real time.... as do many of the others.

[@Kapitaen_Flauschbart]

Oh the memories :-) Very nice roundup, thank you!!

[@christophmosimann9244]

Great video, brings back memories!

[@danthompsett2894]

I miss this, it gets you enthuised bout playing the latest games with your new graphics card.

[@TheUTubeTeamSucks]

I had the Matrox Tech Demo with my Millenium G400 and Radeon's Ark demo with my ATI VIVO. Really impressive back in the day

[@TechGamesAU]

Bring back the good old days of half naked fairy women, I say.

[@glitchybeta6226]

Unfortunately we'll never get those back because of SJWs.

[@Daniel-sm5vy]

Agreed!

[@MadsterV]

@@glitchybeta6226 just until their children turn on them :)

[@RacerS2]

@@glitchybeta6226 its like exactly what happened

[@MaoRatto]

@@glitchybeta6226 Let Japan make some. 😏 The West has surgically removed balls.

[@roger.monitor]

Your video brought back fond memories, when I bought my Ati 128 Rage 32Mb in 1999 and showt the demo at our computerclub every member wanted one and in a short span of time the cards where sold out. People travelled 100 km and more to get one. It wa s a big step up from a PCI card with 8MB to a AGP with 32Mb. My then Win 98 was faster, really I checked. I still have that card as well the computer where I put it in, Celeron 300 with 128 mB RAM from 1998.

[@nemz7505]

Transmit was one of the best places for demos back in the day, miss that site :( Also, I'm that old my demoscene started on the C64 - the rave demo blew everyone away!

[@dimarzio9374]

Immaculate job. Thanks

[@mspeter97]

What's impressive is that some of them really hold up in 2021

[@olivur_1459]

ATI demos have always been my faves.

[@ereksat]

Thanks bud, this is good stuff

[@cptcrogge]

Great video, I remember most of them :)

[@nboy7]

Brings back memories, miss those days. Everything just was so optimistic and groundbreaking.

[@crawbe]

Great content

[@cyberdemon9306]

This video deserves a million views

[@carbonsx3]

Excellent presentation. I too have downloaded and archived most of these demos... some of the installers refuse to run but if 7zip is used to extract most of them, the executables work just fine.

[@skivvywaver]

"Ahhh Ruby. So nice to see you again". Ruby...The first AI hottie. I wonder how many cards she sold?

[@XzPERFECTIONzX]

great video!!!

[@manoelmac]

Great VIDEO!!!! 😍

[@foch3]

Great intro

[@jamzales]

Same can be said about game demo's. Wished I would have kept all those pc gamer cd's. Also thanks for putting this together.

[@OtaconEmmerich]

I had no clue ani music had a tech demo... ATI too! Neat!

[@dimebag667]

I had some nighttime beach one that you could play music with. Spent many a night drifting off to "Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin. Great video 👍

[@AAA839]

The ATI Rage Drawing Music composer is lauri järvilehto (might be from finnish demo group FutureCrew)

[@ufodeath]

13:35 the Mattrox demo was really impressive for the 90's, it's sort of like a 90's version of Skyrim.

[@Xonatron]

0:50 - Ferrari F50 demo... this is the one I was looking for!

[@trovasergi]

El mejor canal sobre tarjetas de video.

[@mattfoxlikesretro]

God Damn, love this!

[@Z0ku]

Awesome video! A lot of memories! If I remember correctly you could use a wrapper also on the reef demo to get it to run on other GPUs. I believe the wrapper was named 3D Analyze.

[@PixelPipes]

Yeah it's possible that way. I was just up against a deadline

[@Z0ku]

@@PixelPipes I bet! Must have taken a lot of time to make this video! Love your work! Keep it up! =)

[@geeknproud321]

Man I built my first PC in 2004-2006 somewhere in there. It's been a LONG time since I've seen some of these demos, or thought about the hardware that powered them. My most nostalgic generation of cards are probably the GeForce 6800, Radeon X800 series and especially the 7800, X1800. My first ever video card was a 7600GT and she served me well. It was a time of radical transition from older, more basic rendering techniques, to nearly every game using pixel shaders. DirectX 9.0b/c support became a really big deal. Parts of it still power most modern games. Rome Total War came out and absolutely destroyed the technical capabilities of every other RTS. Half Life 2, Doom 3, FEAR, Oblivion and Far Cry were the first truly "next-gen" games that actually pushed the envelope of what was possible with visuals or gameplay(sometimes both). Remember when every new game suddenly had Havok physics, real time shadows, pixel shader water effects, and HDR? Those games PIONEERED that shit. Athlon 64 X2 was going strong as THE CPU of choice for gaming and Core 2 Duo was just getting its start and we were finally dropping the burden of Pentium 4 as a clockspeed performance standard. In 2007-2008, I still had a year and a half of high school left. Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 and MGS4 and Crysis and Supreme Commander and World in Conflict had just released. Multicore was FINALLY happening for the mainstream. I had just replaced my 7600GT with a 512MB 9600GT and my X2 3800+ at 2.4GHz with an X2 5000+ Black Edition at 3.2GHz. And yeah, it legitimately ran Crysis pretty decently at high settings with some tweaks. It ran Oblivion GREAT which I was tickled about because TEXTURE MODS. Just got a brand spankin new 22" 1680 x 1050 monitor and was seeing true high resolution widescreen for the first time in my life. This was truly the Golden Age of PC gaming, at least for me. Real LAN parties. Blowing days and weeks grinding in Star Wars Galaxies way before NGE ever happened. Battlefront 1 and 2, Battlefield 2, Republic Commando, Orange Box. Old World of Warcraft before all the game upgrades and everyone running it on LOLANCIENT PCs and old integrated graphics. Windows XP with 4GB of RAM and Vista with 8GB of RAM feeling like a king. This was a truly amazing time to be a PC gamer and I would give almost anything to have that original meta and sense of community back. I want FileFront and FilePlanet back. I want MechWarrior to not be a semi-abandoned property. I want old Runescape 2. I want Xbox and Playstation 2 and Gamecube and Dreamcast. I want PS3 to be a fancy technological marvel again. I want old Toonami with Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, DBZ. I miss it all... Everything Except the 360 RROD.

[@pdmywlduzmqk]

😭

[@geeknproud321]

@@pdmywlduzmqk I'm glad this hit someone some sort of way. I miss the old days.

[@konstantinosmichos9579]

Awsome collection! Could we have an update including the ones missing? X-Isle (Geforce 2 era), Kyro demos (village mark and another one with pyramids, can't remember the name, both showed off HSR, and a third one with a bottle showing EMBM) and 2 from nVidia, principles of 3d and principles of shading (Riva era)

[@jasonmatthew8650]

What the hell were they smoking when they made that Luna demo. Creepy as hell.

[@praxis22]

I remember 8 & 16bit computer demos, part of the demo scene, the stuff made by GPU companies are just pretty nothings. IMO The only really memorable moment was when Dawn was hacked to work on ATI hardware, and it ran better.

[@ruxandy]

Haven't watched the whole video yet, so not sure if this has been mentioned, but nVIDIA just removed all demos that featured female characters...

[@RANDOMdevyn]

Wow, they’re so woke.

[@kinbbink6435]

You can still get them from alternative sources like Guru3D i think.

[@kinbbink6435]

EDIT:- Just checked and yes, they are still hosted on Guru3D

[@ruxandy]

@@kinbbink6435 Well, obviously, but that's not the point :-)

[@sebastianaliandkulche]

You should also talk about console tech demos. That old man head of PS2 surprassed Zoltar imo and it was released 2 years before on a console! It somehow still looks great, but unfortunately console tech demos are like 1000 times rarer, and i think only we had the ones of PS1 leaked.

[@helljester8097]

Great video

[@Lacusmons]

I always loved the Ruby tech demo story arch.

[@tomtom98]

Wow Nvidia removed their female demos? Good thing I downloaded them before the removal.