[citation][nom]spookyman[/nom]S3 lost the fight when 3Dfx graphics came out.[/citation]
not really, cause at the beginning 3dfx couldn't stand alone. It needed a 2d card to work. Only with the second generation did it get challenged, and the '16bit only' limitation of voodoo made other options better (despite performing worse). In the end, it was the advent of directx and true 2d and 3d capable graphics cards from ati and nvidia that made the difference. Before then s3 was fine. It had enough memory, and was sufficiently vesa compliant (means almost all dos games would work without needing univesa or anything else).
in short 3dfx might've started the 3d wave, but can't be credited for S3's failure to keep up.