PC enthusiast finds relic Nvidia 3D Vision 2 glasses for $2.99 — PC gaming artifact from 2011 cost $149 new, was once Nvidia's 'vision' for the future of gaming

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The glasses would have cost $149 or $99 at launch, depending on whether they included the IR transmitter.

Nvidia 3D Vision 2
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Do you remember Nvidia’s 3D Vision 2 glasses, which launched about a decade and a half ago? It isn’t clear whether retro gaming Redditor sinrivers does, exclaiming, “I can’t believe this find” after unearthing a pair buried in a thrift store’s home décor bric-a-brac section. They bought this sealed Nvidia retail box featuring the 3D glasses for just $2.99. That’s a great saving on the launch price of $149 or $99, depending on whether they included the IR transmitter. But what use are these artifacts in 2026?

I can't believe this find from r/nvidia

Nvidia’s solution was 3D Vision (AMD offered HD3D), and to enjoy the experience as intended, you would want a compatible GPU plus a LightBoost-certified monitor, providing both a 3D HDMI 1.4 input and a dual-link DVI input. On the human side, you’d wear active-shutter glasses like these Nvidia 3D Vision 2 spectacles, and an IR emitter was also necessary – but sometimes built into the 3D monitor you bought.

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The experience was loved by some, but others considered it overrated. For a snapshot of the ecosystem and its capabilities at the time, check out the Tom’s Hardware archives. For example, in September 2011, we published a 22-page, 18-game comparison featuring the best solutions for Nvidia 3D Vision vs AMD HD3D glasses users.

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Nvidia 3D Vision 2 testing
(Image credit: Future)

Whatever your opinion, it is undeniable that the 3D glasses and 3D monitor-driven experience faded rather quickly. So, what can sinrivers do with their $2.99 bargain today?

As the simplest option, they could leave the package untouched as a shrink-wrapped pristine tech artifact. It would also probably be possible to make a quick profit through sites like eBay. Alternatively, if enough complementary ecosystem components are within sinrivers’ grasp, there are classic 3D gaming experiences of the era to enjoy, some 3D movies of the era to soak up, and even some emulators covering consoles of the era that support this system. Please note that Nvidia removed 3D Vision support from its GeForce drivers in 2019.

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Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Jabberwocky79
    Do I remember?... Why yes, in fact, I still own 3 pairs, the emitter, and a 3D-Vision ready Asus monitor, all collecting dust in the attic. 3D Vision was, and still is, the single most significant addition to PC gaming, and unfortunately the world will never know it.
    Reply
  • Notton
    Yeah, I remember these nvidia 3D glasses. They were on the heels of the Nintendo 3DS, which didn't require glasses.
    Granted, the image quality is significantly worse on the 3DS, but not requiring glasses was a boon.

    Honestly, if monitor makers are going to push 8K, they should add stereoscopic 3D as a feature.
    Reply
  • Rand0m_Guy
    Still have a pair and my kid uses the monitor they came with; 120Hz with the dual-link DVI cable the size of a fire hose!
    Reply
  • retro3dfx
    Back in 2001 or so, I had the Elsa Gladiac GeForce 2 GTS with the 3D Revelator glasses. They were the same style shutter glasses. The reason there was a large gap in the timeline where we didn't see them again for almost a decade was due to switching over to LCD technology where the 120Hz+ requirement wasn't available until faster consumer grade panels came out.
    Reply
  • Z-Gradt
    I bought the monitor without the glasses. Its an okay 144hz TN panel that I had been taking to Quakecon up until a couple years ago. Theres nothing special about it as far as i can tell apart from the decent refresh rate for its time. Had the big dumb looking 3D logo on the stand though.
    Reply
  • hwertz
    I went into a 3D cave at the university that used a setup like this. They had intermittent bugs (depth would invert) on their setup because literally every other 3D cave user at that point of these caves was switching from an SGI (they still had their ~$250.000 SGI sitting there, this was not a desktop but one of those fridge sized models) to Linux desktop with nvidia quadro(s) and the University here switched to Windows. They were using Quadro cards at that point. The 3D affect in that cave WAS pretty incredible.
    Reply
  • laxman10100
    Notton said:
    Yeah, I remember these nvidia 3D glasses. They were on the heels of the Nintendo 3DS, which didn't require glasses.
    Granted, the image quality is significantly worse on the 3DS, but not requiring glasses was a boon.

    Honestly, if monitor makers are going to push 8K, they should add stereoscopic 3D as a feature.
    I'm sure that they will. But it'll certainly take them a while before it happens. I mean, we currently have stereoscopic 3D on one 4K monitor. IIRC, it's the Acer SpatialLabs dual-layer 3D monitor. It provides a no glasses 3D experience in the same way that the 3DS did (hence the dual layers).

    But the problem is the price.... Since that 4K model costs roughly 2K USD, nobody is buying it.....which means support may fall off within the next 6 months....and an 8K model (if it were ever created) would probably cost more than 4K USD... and with good OLED options now here and with MicroRGB being on the horizon, I can't see another glasses-free 3D option showing up for at least another 7-8 years.
    Reply
  • Jabberwocky79
    ^^ Not just that, but back in the day, you had to have a proper beefy GPU to play smoothly in stereoscopic 3D because, and I'm simplifying here, you are basically rendering every frame twice. During the 3D Vision age, I started with two GTX 580's in SLI, then a 690, and eventually a 1080Ti, which was the last GPU that natively supported the tech. And that was all to get playable FPS in 1080p. Given the current push to 4K and beyond, it would take some massive GPU power to run - GPU power that currently isn't all that attainable for the masses.
    Reply
  • warezme
    Yup still have a pair somewhere. They were awful and dim but they worked, mostly. I prefered my original 3 monitor setup with SLI. So long ago. I remember going out and buying 3 27" Alienware 120Hz monitors sitting on a custom 3 monitor stand.
    Reply
  • GiinTak
    Wait... This isn't an April fools???
    Reply