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Comment by userbinator | Hacker News Reader

Every time I see the sizes of GPUs increase, I'm reminded of this from over 2 decades ago:

https://vgamuseum.ru/wp-content/gallery/bitching-fast/bitchi...

The fact that even the “not to be sold in china” bit is so on point even today is kind of scary

Or it is relaxing to be reminded, that all those geopolitical tensions and struggles are basically nothing new, so should not be taken too seriously.

Haha: "Bitchin'fast!3D²⁰⁰⁰ supports neither OpenGL nor Direct3D, nor does it fit in any case known to man."

Almost like some giant graphics cards...

The sgi onyx reality engine "graphics card" was composed of like 5 motherboard sized pcb's.

https://hardware.majix.org/computers/sgi.onyx/onyx.shtml

I think it was 3 to 6 VME-sized boards. There was 1 Display Generator board, 1 Geometry Engine board (12 x Intel i860 processors in the RealityEngine2), and 1, 2, or 4 Raster Manager boards (for framebuffer and texture memory). I’m not sure if the maximum configuration of 6 boards could fit in the deskside chassis. That might have required the full rack chassis which had space for several sets of cards for multi-pipe systems. As for cooling, I know the full rack chassis had a huge blower. I’m not sure if the deskside models had blowers or more traditional axial fans.

415 Bungholiomarks ought to be good enough for anyone.

This has to have been before every graphic card advertisement included a 3D rendering a scanty-clad heroine.

Here is a video review of the BitchingFast 3D 2000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmCEXbspWuI

The same Youtuber did a 4090 "review" for April fool day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0frNP0qzxQc

"256 MB of curiously high bandwidth"

If you watch the linked YouTube video, one of the card's marketing materials — which clearly exactly 0 people read prior to publication — is quoted (screenshotted, in the video[1]) as,

> has a total length of 2704mm and a surface area of 905637mm²

We're going to need a bigger case.

[1]: https://youtu.be/mGARjRBJRX8?t=990

Looks like not only won't it fit to any case, it may even have some problems fitting in some smaller home offices as well. But hey, it doesn't need a support bracket!

This was a fun Time of humor: https://youtu.be/ZAtzN_ScKXY

It exists! I looked at that and was sure it was a spoof until I saw the video of it.

yeah, but most of the weight on the new cards is just heat management stuff like heat pipes fans and heat-blocks/sinks.

That card is huge, but I bet it's a fair bit lighter than most of the gaming sector cards now.

> * ugly mutha heatshinks sold separately

Hmm, multiple GPU chips on the same board? Could this be where did Nvidia came up with the idea?

I am so glad I'm not the only one.

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