![]() ![]() And I think that's a divergence that really occurred in the late 90's when standard RAM sizes grew to the 10's of megabytes - enough to comfortably multitask provided all applications are optimized for memory size. The progressive enhancement of the web to the degree that it taxes a modern machine, on the other hand, is like a fitness function that has become overly relaxed. With games it's been simple: more detail on models and textures, more expensive lighting computations, more accurate physics and more complex animations. Where previous graphics advances were mostly focused on larger RAM usage and had clear benefit everywhere(higher resolution, color depth, etc.) the ordinary computer user in the 1990's had no reason for a GPU except to play games or engage in 3D content creation and visualization.Ī high-end PC from 1996 or so is basically competent at doing everything that was envisioned in the 1970's, if not in practice, then certainly in theory - the things that come after, are there because we started looking for ways to keep applying more computing power. In the late 90's not only did the specs accelerate very quickly, but the media started pushing to cover this enthusiast segment(e.g. What I think changed was that as the scale of everything picked up, it became increasingly possible for a gaming enthusiast market to emerge, distinct from general computing and console gaming. Through the later years of the Amiga's commercial life, most games were focused on the lowest common denominator because markets were small and everyone wanted to pick up the largest userbase, and the computers likewise had some balance of capabilities, with gaming features existing as one of several considerations. ![]() The nature of PC gaming really changed in the 90's. ![]()
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