Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marc who wrote (13577)	6/30/1999 12:49:00 PM
From: Plaz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16960

I still don't understand the fan thing. No Voodoo3 has ever shipped with a fan. From Sharky's review of the V3 3000: ------------------- The layout of an STB Velocity 4400 board resembles the Voodoo3 3000 (and indeed 2000). Except… there's a bloody great, huge, massive, heat sink (well as the picture of the board shows, it's BIG). As bizarre as the heat sink looks, it seems to do the job it's meant to do adequately. That is to say we never experienced any lock ups whatsoever during the three day benchmarking period (no Easter bunnies for us folks). Another plus point of a heat sink as opposed to an on-board fan, is that there's no extra noise generated. ------------------ It comes with a lifetime warranty, if you're worried about the heat. Not that I've ever seen ANY article that says there's a problem with Voodoo3 failure rates... What is PEAK? Do you have a URL please? How did they get those numbers? Maybe the Voodoo numbers are higher because they sold more? I would have to know the methodology behind how those numbers were generated before drawing conclusions based on them. I tend to doubt them though, as I have read a couple of reviews that imply that TNT2 has had more problems with Super 7 systems than V3. Intel's 740 was supposed to kill 3dfx too. Glad we're both still around... :-) Plaz

To: Marc who wrote (13577)	6/30/1999 1:05:00 PM
From: Ben Wu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

From your reference: To get an idea of level of problems with the Rage Fury card relative to the VooDoo and TNT2, here is listing of problems surfacing on motherboards built with either ALI or VIA chipsets that power all Super7 and Socket7 motherboards: VooDoo problems: count=71,000 TNT or TNT2 problems: count=11,000 Fury problems: count=1,600 those numbers don't make sense without the relative numbers. For example. Does V3 have 71,000 problems out of 800,000 cards sold? does Fury have 1,600 problems out of 1,800 cards sold? I assume that the problems your source refers to problems in after market card sales. 3dfx clearly dominates over ATI in that respect. So the larger problem list would be expected. Also, since OEMs would not release a computer that does not work, I assume that all problems refer to after market sales. Given the popularity of Socket7 motherboards with performance gamers, if there were widespread incompatibilities with the ALI or VIA chipsets, people would be up at arms all over the net. Since they aren't, I would have to assume those problems are on an individual board by board basis. Plus many of those problems are usually fixed by a bios update (i've had plenty of firsthand experience with new hardware and the need for bios updates, argh). Secondly, heat. Heat problems with chips have always been overblown in my opinion. Current chips output what? 15W-20W of power? But that heat generated is over a very small footprint and can be dissipated quickly over a large heat sink (ala V3). CPU's generate MUCH more heat than any graphics chip, and now one complains about that. With that out of the way, I completely respect ATI. They have a brilliant management team that has take them this far and will remain a formidable opponent to 3dfx in the future. ATI strength is it's execution, not with any technology. In that respect, I doubt that Intel will make any headway with their integrated graphics solution simply because Intel's execution as of late has been horrible. BTW, that was an excellent article Pat. The OpenGL ICD was really interesting. Though I question trying to make the ICD as fast as MiniGL. Sure, you may lose a couple of FPS here and there, but you're alienating a huge portion of prospective business users. Just get something out that works decently, and update it later. -b