I still have my Oxygen 402 [1] that I learned 3d modeling on, you needed these pro cards to work in OpenGL apps like Softimage. It went for $5k in early 97 but by mid 98 it had fallen to ~$750 when I got mine. The 90s were wild for how fast hardware went obsolete.

[1] https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/1067-dynamic-p...