3D Hardware Acceleration

Because rendering 3D graphics requires too much computation for a lone CPU to handle in real time, specialized RT3D graphics hardware has been developed. These 3D video graphics cards were developed for PCs, and similar specialized 3D graphics processors were added to game consoles, such as the PS2 or Nintendo GameCube . Consumer handheld devices and phones do not have specialized 3D hardware today but will in the near future.

To better understand what this hardware does for the task of 3D rendering, the origins and evolution of this hardware will be examined.