Whatever happened to 3DFX?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (More info?)

Oh yeah. That was great for about 6 months.Still got mine too.Except they are
8M. Anyone want 'em? $50 for the pair.



>No way--Voodoo2 SLI rocked! Yeah, it was expensive, but it gave you
>performance that couldn't be touched by anything else, and for some
>time it was the only way to run Quake 2 at 1024x768 with an acceptable
>framerate.

>
>I can still remember firing up Quake 2 after I installed my first
>Voodoo2. The difference was like night and day.
>
>I still have both of my Diamond Voodoo2 12meg cards (not installed).
>I'm saving them because someday they are going to be collector's
>items.

 

[jlc]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Your Daddy" <esp_spambin@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4ae138b4.0408190649.5ef4af98@posting.google.com...
> opticreep@yahoo.com (Opticreep) wrote in message
news:<9e1f277e.0408182035.22f77d5@posting.google.com>...
>
> *snip*
>
> > Then came Voodoo2, and it was even more popular than the original
> > Voodoo cards. I *did* start having doubts though, when 3DFX started
> > peddling that whacky technology of hooking up two Voodoo 2's together
> > in the same computer. That was just plain dumb.
>
> *snip*
>
> No way--Voodoo2 SLI rocked! Yeah, it was expensive, but it gave you
> performance that couldn't be touched by anything else, and for some
> time it was the only way to run Quake 2 at 1024x768 with an acceptable
> framerate.
>
> I can still remember firing up Quake 2 after I installed my first
> Voodoo2. The difference was like night and day.
>
> I still have both of my Diamond Voodoo2 12meg cards (not installed).
> I'm saving them because someday they are going to be collector's
> items.

You my friend you are the "dumb" one for saying that SLI was dumb. It killed
ass and ran circles around my Diamond V550 16meg TNT card when it came to
Glide games. Back in the day just try playing Unreal with a Nvida card. It
was a joke. But my trusty duel Creative 8meg Voodoo 2 cards ran it smooth as
butter at 1024x768 with all the eye candy on high with a P3 350 cpu. I got
my cards cheap because they where refurbs, paid $60 each for them. Best
money spent on that rig. JLC

 

[jlc]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"NightSky 421" <nightsky421@reply-to-group.com> wrote in message
news:10iac89jfbgta9f@corp.supernews.com...
> All of the talk of 3dfx in this thread, along with a bunch of old computer
> publications and ads I've come across recently (from 1999 and 2000), has
> made me seriously think about digging up my old 433MHz Celeron and
re-living
> things as they once were! I have a 16MB Voodoo3 3000 AGP video card in
that
> computer right now. Unfortunately, I do recall coming across a few driver
> issues with the Voodoo3 with games from that era.
>
LOL! Just make sure you give the guts of that old PC a good blast of canned
air or you just might have a dust fire on your hands! JLC

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"JLC" <j.jc@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:TgeVc.41563$mD.15584@attbi_s02...
>
> LOL! Just make sure you give the guts of that old PC a good blast of
canned
> air or you just might have a dust fire on your hands! JLC
>


Haha, no doubt! Actually, the ol' Celeron has been sitting in a dark corner
of the basement for a while now and I removed the floppy drive (since I
needed it for another system). So who knows, there could even be spiders
and cobwebs and God knows what else inside the case! 🙂

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

opticreep@yahoo.com (Opticreep) said:

> Then came Voodoo3, and that just fell flat on its face.

The Voodoo3 was very popular in the beginning, but all the hardware
yahoos kept telling us that it was inferior to the TNT2 because it
didn't have 32bit support, never mind that you couldn't play any games
in 32bit. The Voodoo3 was killed by bad press from the hardware sites.

Remember that the top game at the time was Unreal Tournament and UT ran
like greased lightening on glide. On the one side, people were
criticizing the Voodoo3 for being 16bit, but complaining that the TNT2's
32bit was useless.

> After Voodoo3, all subsequent releases from 3DFX became a
> laughingstock in the industry.

You're overstating it. The problem with the Voodoo4 & 5 were the long
delays and unkept promises from 3dfx. After the jokers on the hardware
sites had hounded 3dfx, I think some of them really believed that 3dfx
would return with a vengeance, but it didn't happen. When Nvidia
released the Geforce, 3dfx had no answer.

3dfx realized too late that marketing to gamers alone wasn't going to
produce enough cash flow to pay for R&D & marketing. By the time they
began courting OEMs, it was too late.

Don't forget that Nvidia, which had risen from it's underdog status with
allegations that it had stole technology from 3dfx, was doing a very
good job of suing 3dfx out of business.

> So what went wrong? Was Microsoft's backing of Direct3D technology
> simply too much for 3DFX to overcome? Or was it because 3DFX got too
> comfortable sitting atop of its perch in 1997? Or perhaps the
> management at 3DFX just made one horrendous decision after another

Yes, yes & yes; these were factors also.

> resulting in a catastrophic downfall bigger than anything I've seen in
> the computer industry?

Don't forget that ATI was the 800lb gorilla back then and Matrox was
still competitive.
--
Mac Cool

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"inferno2000" <inferno2000@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:a9390719.0408190416.721277e1@posting.google.com...
> zmike6 <zmike6@*SPAMBLOCK*yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:<k3f8i0hb60macf338ppoqqetval50f74ct@4ax.com>...
> > Basically, the 3dfx story is one of horrible mismanagment combined
> > with cutthroat competition = doom. I personally consider 3dfx to be
> > more dishonest than Enron, as an investor who lost thousands in both.
> > 3dfx management swore everything was okay, and they were not going to
> > sell out to Nvidia, about a month before they did exactly that. It
> > wasn't even a sell-out, it was a "take-under" where shareholders got
> > nothing. They ran the ship aground, scuttled it, and then got bonuses
> > and free jobs at Nvidia. How can it be legal to run a company into
> > the ground, get a severance bonus, and then go to work for the
> > competition? Alex Leupp = Trojan Horse?
>
> Why would 3DFX want to buy a graphics card company and no longer allow
> other graphics card companies to use their chips since Voodoo3, was
> something that always interested me. I thought the downward spiral of
> 3DFX actually began at that point.

Easy, think OEM market, same thing ATI had done for years.

3DFX was great for the high end however the low end is where the money is
made and that was what they were looking for.

 

[Aardvark]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

> The Voodoo3 was very popular in the beginning, but all the hardware
> yahoos kept telling us that it was inferior to the TNT2 because it
> didn't have 32bit support, never mind that you couldn't play any games
> in 32bit. The Voodoo3 was killed by bad press from the hardware sites.

A really great working card!

> Don't forget that Nvidia, which had risen from it's underdog status with
> allegations that it had stole technology from 3dfx, was doing a very
> good job of suing 3dfx out of business.

The demise of 3dfx was that they had stolen technology from nVidia! With
those V-100 chips, doubled-up on the 5500 card. That court case was won
by nVidia, and everything of company and hardware stock went to nVidia
via purchase, 3dfx now dead. nVidia WON that case legaly. The theft was
proven in court.

Alex

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"AArDvarK" <ahem@notquite.net> wrote in message
news:dvwVc.10554$yh.4178@fed1read05...
>
> > The Voodoo3 was very popular in the beginning, but all the hardware
> > yahoos kept telling us that it was inferior to the TNT2 because it
> > didn't have 32bit support, never mind that you couldn't play any games
> > in 32bit. The Voodoo3 was killed by bad press from the hardware sites.
>
> A really great working card!
>
> > Don't forget that Nvidia, which had risen from it's underdog status with
> > allegations that it had stole technology from 3dfx, was doing a very
> > good job of suing 3dfx out of business.
>
> The demise of 3dfx was that they had stolen technology from nVidia! With
> those V-100 chips, doubled-up on the 5500 card. That court case was won
> by nVidia, and everything of company and hardware stock went to nVidia
> via purchase, 3dfx now dead. nVidia WON that case legaly. The theft was
> proven in court.
>
> Alex

I don't know about that case but Nvidia bought the intellectual property of
3dfx for about 100 million however they didn't actually buy the company
itself which sortly afterwards folded

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"AArDvarK" <ahem@notquite.net> said:

> The demise of 3dfx was that they had stolen technology from nVidia! With
> those V-100 chips, doubled-up on the 5500 card. That court case was won
> by nVidia, and everything of company and hardware stock went to nVidia
> via purchase, 3dfx now dead. nVidia WON that case legaly. The theft was
> proven in court.

No, Nvidia had access to 3dfx technology through a 3rd party. Similiar
technology was used in the Geforce card and 3dfx sued Nvidia, Nvidia
countersued and kept suing. 3dfx was already teetering and couldn't afford
the lawsuits so they sold out to Nvidia to put the suits and the company,
to rest. AFAIK, nothing was ever proven in court.
--
Mac Cool

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Mac Cool" <Mac@2cool.com> wrote in message
news:Xns954BE303E5696MacCool@24.25.9.41...
> "AArDvarK" <ahem@notquite.net> said:
>
> > The demise of 3dfx was that they had stolen technology from nVidia! With
> > those V-100 chips, doubled-up on the 5500 card. That court case was won
> > by nVidia, and everything of company and hardware stock went to nVidia
> > via purchase, 3dfx now dead. nVidia WON that case legaly. The theft was
> > proven in court.
>
> No, Nvidia had access to 3dfx technology through a 3rd party. Similiar
> technology was used in the Geforce card and 3dfx sued Nvidia, Nvidia
> countersued and kept suing. 3dfx was already teetering and couldn't afford
> the lawsuits so they sold out to Nvidia to put the suits and the company,
> to rest. AFAIK, nothing was ever proven in court.
> --
> Mac Cool


http://www.theregister.co.uk/1998/09/22/3dfx_sues_archrival/

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/q22000/gee2000829002244.htm

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"N" <n@invalid.invalid.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:l6t9i017pg43din4casrt21eukqn4dlg1g@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:57:40 GMT, Kokoro
> <kokoro@kokorolibrary.something.net> wrote:
>
>
> I didn't find that particular TV ad online, but instead I just found
> two other hilarious 3Dfx TV ads on this page:
>
> http://www.punchbaby.com/clip_ads.htm
>
> Search the page with the keyword "3dfx".

Thanks a bunch, lost my old ones to some format, much appreciated.