The Evolution of AMD/ATI Radeon Graphics (2000-2022)

My recent video "The Evolution of Nvidia GeForce Graphics (1999-2022)" was very well recieved from all the viewers and most of them asked in the comments to do a same Video on Radeon Graphics, after a long research and editing I've finally made this Video on AMD. It was very difficult considering the naming scheme on AMD cards is way more confusing than Nvidia's, I've still managed to pick some of the flagships that AMD and ATI showcased back in the days. The tech demos were also extremely difficult to find and to run on current hardware, that's why in some parts of the Video the quality of tech demos varies from time to time. At some point, AMD after acquiring ATI decided to not release anymore tech demos to the public to showcase the power of their Graphics Cards. I personally enjoyed every single Tech Demo that I've gotten to play and I really hope that in the future, AMD and Nvidia too work on Tech Demos that users can run on their GPUs.

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'Awake' by Sappheiros is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0)

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro - ATI/AMD Radeon History
0:42 ATI Radeon 7200
1:29 ATI Radeon 8500
2:06 ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
2:59 ATI Radeon X800 XT
3:47 Nordpass
5:03 ATI Radeon X1800 XT
6:24 ATI Radeon 2900XT
7:23 ATI Radeon HD 3870
8:09 ATI Radeon HD 4870
8:58 ATI Radeon HD 5870
9:46 AMD Radeon HD 6970
10:38 AMD Radeon HD 7970
11:27 AMD Radeon R9 290
12:48 AMD Radeon R9 FURY X
14:02 AMD Radeon RX 480
14:50 AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
15:25 AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
16:04 AMD Radeon RX 6900XT/6950XT
17:04 AMD Radeon RX 7900XT
18:09 Thank You for Watching

Some of the Tech Demos that were used on this Video were:
ATI Island1 , ATI Island2 , ATI Island3 , ATI TOYSHOP , Ruby: The Assassin , Ruby: DoubleCross , ATI PipeDream , ATI Crowd , Ruby: Whiteout , ATI: Mecha , ATI HK2207 , AMD Leo , unreleased RX 290 Ruby Tech Demo, RDNA 2 Ray Tracing Trailer.

[NikTek]

Hey everyone, I've just noticed that I've been writing "Radeoon" instead of Radeon on the GPU names, it is repetetive throughout the Video which went unnoticed from my part. I'm very sorry for that

[zeghetti]

AMD is life’s best example of “Never give up.”

[jackofficialTM]

Bro this kind of content was least expected but it sure had me hooked

[Tate]

Good to see AMD came so far, i wish good luck to Intel as well, team Green is pissing me off lately.

[rattlehead]

The HD4870 was just 20% slower than the gtx 280, but the HD4870 was 300$, the GTX 280 was 650$
The HD 4870 was a 256mm^2 die size chip, the gtx 280 was 576mm^2 die size
The HD 4870 was 150W the gtx 280 was 250W

[DjVortex-w]

I'm enormously appreciative of AMD as a company. For the longest time they were kind of the underdog, first trying to compete against the absolute behemoth that's Intel. Then, not fearing a battle on two fronts, they then took on another absolute behemoth, Nvidia. Sometimes they succeeded in challenging the two giants, sometimes not so much. However, they persevered and their efforts have been paying off during the last few years, and at least on the eyes of the wider public they have become worthy rivals of both giants.

The absolutely great thing about this is that AMD keeps both Intel and Nvidia in check. They don't allow either company to become lazy and just rest on their laurels, nor become greedy. Healthy competition is good for the end consumer, and nowhere is this truer than on the CPU and GPU market. I am absolutely certain that without AMD, modern CPUs and GPUs would be a fraction of their current efficiency, and several times more expensive.

Even if you don't have a single piece of AMD hardware, you have to at least appreciate that. Thanks to AMD you can afford your high-end Intel and Nvidia products.

[ScytheNoire]

I bought an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro when it first launched.
It was a card far ahead of the competition. It lasted a long time. Every so often, there is a card that comes out that is far ahead of the curve and lasts a long time.

[toespic]

When you can buy the highest end gpu on the market with 299$:

[BoGy]

I totally forgot about RUBY... i still have a big ruby figurine from AMD... I had a repair business in those days and the distributor gave me a nice high quality ruby figurine (and a quite big one) as a present, if i'm not mistaken it was very limited (1000 were made for the whole world) and they told me our country only got 10 of those, so quite a nice present. It's collecting dust on top of it's clear plastic box, but the figurine is still in pristine state. I'll never sell it unless it ever becomes so rare that it would be worth thousands :) (and even then i'd only sell it if i really really need the money....)

[silverwatchdog]

Honestly surprised at how good some of those demos looked. The 2007 looks really good. I am assuming though that the card did not run it at 4K or even 1080p though, so it probably looked worse then.

[BattleToads]

My first ever GPU was an ATi Rage 128 Pro 16MB. I still remember the excitement years later when I got my Radeon 9800 and I was able to turn all the sliders in games all the way up. Almost 20 years later from that (holy shit I'm old) I got my Radeon RX 6800 and can crank those settings again. Team red ftw.

[scotttait]

Have been using team red from 2000, never had an issue many of my older cards still function to this day, I have recently bought a 7900xtx for my 7800X3d pc ...very impressed 👍

[kolsa]

These tech demos could be made into a whole game

[provugab]

I remember when bought my first GPU, the Radeon 9500 Pro, I could play everything I threw at it. Also I couldn't stop myself from smiling at the "radeoon" typo.

[darryljack]

Wait... you can talk? I thought communication was only possible through memes.

[cerisem]

@NikTek
You should make a timeline on AMD and Intel processors, it would be interesting to see how far both companies have come.

[johnpooky]

I bought an 8GB RX 580, and a Ryzen 7 2700, back when I built my first PC, back in 2019.

Last week, I replaced them with a 16GB RX 7600 XT, and a Ryzen 7 5800X.


AMD is really great, and I've only had ONE issue with them, and that's only happened this week (the current latest drivers don't want to download from AMD Software Adrenalin).

[jeremygeorgia]

I loved ATi. My first card was a Rage II based All in Wonder card. It allowed me to take video from a VHS-C camcorder, and save it on my computer. As a bonus, it allowed me to watch TV on my computer. It was just a gimmick, at first, but I ended up getting used to having a little inset TV on my computer, as I did other tasks. It may not have been the fastest card, but it did the job that I wanted it to. I eventually became pleasantly surprised, as the All in Wonder series actually started getting competitive, as far as graphics/gaming performance.

The last Radeon I had was an All in Wonder X1900. It was a phenomenally useful card. By then, my computer was fast enough to function as a VCR, with adequate capture performance. It ran hot, but it could tackle about any game, at the time. It ran warm, though. It wasn't as hot as a 3DFX 3000, but it could heat up a room, eventually. I always loved the tech demos. The first one I saw was the one for the Rage 128. I think the one that impressed me the most, at the time, was the Toystore one. Finally, I enjoyed the Ruby series & always looked forward to new chapters. I miss the artwork that used to be on the fan cowls.

[foxcannon]

AMD went from an underdog company that was attempting to stay competitive in a market with the giants that were and still are Intel and Nvidia and many times FAILING, to being established today as the bringer of better valued products than either of the other two companies. What a god damn beautiful story.

[C-M-E]

Man, weird how many memories are tied to the GPU you were using at the time as I oft went back and forth across the fence of red vs green depending on my budget. I still fondly remember when 3dfx and openGL were battling out the GPU wars.