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The GeForce 256 went on sale on October 11, 1999, marketed as a graphics processing unit because it handled geometry and lighting work the main processor had previously done. The term outlasted the product by decades.
A category name entered general use and stayed there, describing a component that grew from a game accessory into one of the most consequential pieces of computing hardware in the world. Moving geometry and lighting onto dedicated silicon also set the architectural direction later consoles and modern parallel computing both followed.
