Quake's Polygon Rendering Capacity

The original "Quake," developed by id Software and released in 1996, was a pioneering game in terms of its 3D graphics engine. While modern games boast the capacity to render millions or even billions of polygons per frame, games in the mid-90s operated under much more constrained hardware capabilities.

"Quake" didn't rely on hardware acceleration initially; it was rendered in software mode. In software mode, Quake's performance heavily depended on the CPU. The actual number of polygons "Quake" could render per frame varied based on the scene, the level of detail, and the capabilities of the machine it ran on.

Typically, Quake's scenes ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand polygons. The more detailed scenes could potentially push towards the upper end of this range. With the advent of hardware-accelerated graphics (like with the introduction of 3Dfx's Voodoo graphics cards), "Quake" could benefit from increased performance, allowing for smoother gameplay at higher resolutions.

It's worth noting that this is a very general estimate and the actual number could vary based on multiple factors, including scene complexity, active game entities, and hardware specifics.