329: A Plaid Decade

329: A Plaid Decade

From Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod. by Brad Shoemaker, Will Smith

March 8, 2026 · 1h 29m · Episode 329

About this episode

The episode reflects on the 25th anniversary of the GeForce 3 and discusses various retro tech topics.

We just passed the 25th anniversary of the GeForce 3, which felt like a good reason to dust off the April 2001 issue of Maximum PC. We reflect on both a quarter-century of programmable pixel shaders -- the tech that's defined 3D rendering ever since -- and Will's cover story on the new GPU, including the secretive trip to Nvidia to benchmark it, a random Tim Sweeney interview, and more. There's also plenty of other fun retro tech to dish about in here, including super-early home wi-fi devices, the reveal of Windows XP, Pentium 4 RD-RAM weirdness, some classic Gordon Mah Ung hijinks, and more.

People in this episode

Hosts: Brad Shoemaker, Will Smith

Topics covered

  • GPU technology
  • 3D rendering
  • retro tech
  • programmable pixel shaders
  • Nvidia
  • Maximum PC

Keywords

  • GeForce 3
  • Maximum PC
  • Nvidia
  • 3D rendering
  • Windows XP
  • Pentium 4
  • retro technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nvidia, Maximum PC

Products: GeForce 3, Pentium 4 RD-RAM

More episodes of Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod.

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod. podcast page.