Demos are not typical and in no way demonstrate the general usage of a GPU. They use very dirty tricks to render out a specific output, and are practically useless otherwise.

Here's a list of actual software that was released in 1996:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_in_video_gaming

Notable entries for this conversation:

* Duke Nukem 3D * Civilization II * Quake * Command & Conquer: Red Alert * Diablo * Quake

These were good games, but not necessarily what anyone would consider graphical powerhouses with a modern frame of reference.

In addition to my sibling, we have no idea if those demo's are realtime. While we can see that the OP is realtime.

Compare a pixar film to your average AAA video game, hour(s) of rendering time vs millisecond(s).