Nvidia announces GeForce 8800 GTX unboxing simulator, available on Steam to celebrate “20 Years of a Legend”

Nvidia is perhaps the last brand you’d expect to release a simulator game on Steam, and that assumption technically still holds true. Nonetheless, the tech giant is today highlighting a new “semi-interactive tech demo” on Steam that transports you back in time to a 2006-era bedroom, complete with a gaming setup. Players will be able to unbox and install the iconic GeForce 8800 GTX.

GeForce 8800 GTX – 20 Years of a Legend is now available for free on Steam, and it’s the work of Unreal Engine artist Dylan Browne, who previously worked with Nvidia to release Through The Ages shortly after the release of the RTX 5090, celebrating just how far the company’s graphics cards have come. The latter is purely a tech demo, but the new 20th anniversary special offers some interactivity.

Nvidia is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the GeForce 8800 GTX

Released on November 8, 2006, the GeForce 8800 GTX helped define a generation of PC gaming, powering iconic titles like Crysis, BioShock, and Company of Heroes. It was also NVIDIA’s first CUDA-capable graphics card, helping lay the foundation for GPU computing beyond graphics and the accelerated computing platform powering modern AI applications.

To celebrate the anniversary, Unreal Engine artist Dylan Browne, with support from NVIDIA, created “GeForce 8800 GTX – 20 Years of a Legend,” a free-to-download, semi-interactive Steam demo that recreates the excitement of owning the legendary GPU.

Source: Nvidia PR

The much-loved GeForce 8800 GTX was an influential card, to say the least, launching as the first graphics card with Nvidia’s CUDA technology. As a high-end GPU, it was also associated with demanding games of the time such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which launched just before the 8800 GTX. Fun fact: the game didn’t initially recognize the card, but it soon became a go-to GPU for benchmarking.

Browne’s demo utilizes some of Nvidia’s latest RTX graphics technologies, including path tracing, DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction, Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, and RTX Mega Geometry to recreate the detailed 2006 gamer bedroom. Plenty of easter eggs are included. Nvidia says the demo is “coming soon” to GeForce NOW Ultimate, which allows gamers to play on RTX 5080-class servers via the cloud.

As we said, the demo is free to play, but be warned that the system requirements aren’t exactly lenient (at least as far as the GPU is concerned) – Browne lists an RTX 4070 as the minimum spec, but recommends an RTX 5080. 32GB of system RAM is also a minimum. You can read more about Nvidia’s 20th anniversary celebrations in its official blog post.

Written by

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is most responsible for reporting on and editing news. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.

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