NVIDIA GeForce 10-series “Pascal” Generation Turns 10

NVIDIA GeForce 10-series “Pascal” Generation Turns 10

By TechPowerUp
Publication Date: 2026-05-06 16:33:00

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-series graphics cards turn 10 today. In May 2016, NVIDIA debuted the GeForce GTX 1080, powered by the “Pascal” graphics architecture on the TSMC 16 nm FinFET foundry node. This would go on to be the final generation of NVIDIA GeForce GPUs to truly comply with Moore’s Law. To illustrate, the GeForce GTX 1080, a predecessor to the current RTX 5080, needed a single 150-Watt 8-pin power connector, and could play AAA games of its time at 4K Ultra HD with the game being rendered at native resolution (no upscaling). “Pascal” established phenomenal standards of performance-per-Watt over the GTX 9-series “Maxwell” generation.