Chip, your point is valid only for FPS games. However, Q3 and the like are a small portion of all the things that people do with their home computers. For many of us the graphics quality does matter. Consider all the RPG games, flight simulators, digital imaging and video editing programs, etc. None of them require high frame rates, but they all need as much realism as possible. Not to mention that there are other features which I'd like to see in a graphics card that have noting to do with game play. If you've ever had to match the colour between your photo, the scanner output, the image on your monitor, and your colour printer's output, you know what I mean. If you have not had to do that, let's just say spending 3 hours on a dentist chair in a more pleasant experience than that.
Now I know that digital imaging is not the focus of 3dfx cards, but focusing only on FPS games is too narrow. Part of ATI's success is that their cards are good enough for most applications, rather than being superb for few.
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