Discussion Is 3DFX Interactive GPU maker making a comeback after 20 years (rumor)?

Hello, first of all, before continuing let me make this clear that this rumor/leak/news has not been FULLY verified by any other source yet. Though, the new Twitter Account of 3DFX Interactive company as shared below does seem to be legit to some extent. But we need to exercise some CAUTION here.

To make things clear, it appears that 3dfx Interactive, one of the iconic and old GPU makers, is making a comeback after 20 years. A new Twitter account which is supposedly run by the company has tweeted out that the company is making a return and going to make a major announcement next week. We all have owned or heard about the Voodoo series of graphics cards, all of which were designed and made by 3dfx Interactive.

The company used to be a major rival to other GPU manufacturers, primarily NVIDIA back in the day but after lackluster product launches, the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy and most of their assets were acquired by NVIDIA in 2002 for $70 Million.

This new account seems to suggest that 3dfx Interactive is coming back after a 20 years wait and their first major announcement will be made on Thursday (5th of August) which is next week. We don't know what the company plans to announce but if this is indeed real news, then we will have another major player in the GPU market aside from NVIDIA, AMD & Intel.

It could also be a very well-played troll account IMO. Do you guys really think 3DFX Interactive will really jump into the Gaming GPU bandwagon ? I highly DOUBT this, since it makes little sense to enter the GPU market, when you already have 3 rivals in the wild. Which is AMD, NVIDIA and INTEL.

Or maybe 3DFX might give use some entry-level low-profile GPUs, based on a new design and architecture ? I guess we will know next week for sure, assuming this new Twitter is NOT fake. 🙂

View: https://twitter.com/3dfxofficial/status/1421244991297376262
 
Even if the account is legit, it could just be somebody that bought the trade/copy mark whichever it is.
Commodore came back a few years ago and released a new...smartphone.
which was just a dropshipped rebranded cheap phone.
https://pocketnow.com/commodore-smartphone-vaporware

Actually I was also wondering the same, as it might be possible some company bought 3DFX's trademark. But why would someone do that at this time ? Oh btw yes, I read about the Commodore computer brand news before. I also found this trademark link since 2016, and a new FACEBOOK page of this company as well.

.https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/show...h&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query

https://www.facebook.com/3dfx-Interactive-747561532714773/
 
Being realistic, if Intel is wanting to get into gaming cards, it probably still takes a while to develop. I think I saw one of their xe cards was around a GT 1030. Not like intel doesn't know anything about graphics, but to be honest, they aren't known for high end graphics.
 
If that’s the case, if the Twitter account is real, maybe nvidia with their higher prices these days will attempt to rebrand 3dfx as another line of cards. In other words maybe the nvidia cards move to being high end luxury type cards, and 3dfx your entry level or something.
 
Not like intel doesn't know anything about graphics, but to be honest, they aren't known for high end graphics.

To be honest, even I think Intel would have a very hard time competing with the likes of AMD and NVIDIA next year with their XE-HPG DG2 architecture. But the company has already made this clear that they only intend to capture the Mainstream and Mid-range gaming GPU market segment. Their cards won't target high-end spectrum.

It also all depends on how good the Intel discrete GPU drivers are going to be, apart from the new and refined ""XE-HPG"" gaming architecture. I wouldn't hold my breath though. As far as 3DFX is concerned, I seriously doubt any other company can easily enter the gaming GPU market.
 
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Being honest, mid range these days is pretty good lol. Today’s mid range is basically yesterday’s high end. And if it’s profitable for a few years you could see them going towards high end.

Yeah, I totally agree on this though. We have come a long way with GPU architectural improvements, after each generation of lineup. Current mid-range cards easily match and even surpass the performance of previous-gen Flagship GPUs. Not to mention the efficiency gains with each gen, which also provided us with more performance/Watt as well.

The semiconductor industry/segment is still advancing at a steady pace, and we can expect even HUGE performance uplift with next-gen RDNA 3 and Nvidia's ADA Lovelace gaming GPU architectures. But the main concern these days is the Pricing and the availability of these GPUs.
 
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Agreed. If they keep prices like this, instead of trading cards as often I may try to keep my 1070 and buy a 3060-3070 range card, or 4060-4070 if they are out by that time and hold onto that longer. Thankfully I still game at 1080p, 144hz monitor though, so I’ll probably not be too quick to move from that resolution since higher resolution takes more power.

But that’s what I’d expect people to do is keep cards longer as they’ve done the last year. But even for used cards the market would stay inflated in that case.
 
As a side off topic note, I like this GPU MOD though. The 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 where the graphics card was recreated with a modern touch to it. You might have seen this as well.

As designed and made by modder Anthony, this GPU utilizes a custom PCB design with five VSA-100 GPUs, each with 8 MB (166 MHz) SDRAM for a total of 32 Megabytes of memory and each GPU connected to an active heatsink solution powered by a 4-pin power interface. The card also rocks a PCI interface (not PCIe) and features dual VGA ports for display output.

https://www.modlabs.net/page/voodoo_5_6000_pci#.YQSTHI4zb8A

But yes of course, this is just a fan recreation and cards like these aren't going to make much sense in today's GPU market aside from nostalgic reasons ! But I digress. :p :)

1_11.jpg
 
This now gets even more confusing ! There is no such registered company which goes by the name Jansen Products , lol.

BTW, I need some clarification. Isn't creating FAKE or dubious Troll Accounts against the policy and guidelines of TWITTER in the first place ? Surprisingly, no other company has taken down these Tweets yet, nor have complained regarding this issue, especially NVIDIA.

View: https://twitter.com/3dfxofficial/status/1422814559870455809
 
Update.

More tweets. Tom's does just posted an updated and a new article on this as well. We're now being asked to believe is that a Voodoo 6 graphics card running on the PCI bus (not even AGP) will be available this winter, accompanied by a smart TV, Bluetooth speaker, a phone, and a tablet. Sounds kind of weird to me now, lol.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/the-return-of-3dfx
 
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