To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (13620 ) 7/6/1999 5:27:00 PM From: Yeagher Respond to
Thanks for your thoughts Pat. I never said I believed the register article, but I also don't think that Scott Sellers denied the contents of the article. He could have been unequivocal - but he wasn't. I think the idea that 3dfx would try to buy S3 for their GX4 chip, is ridiculous. I mean we are talking about S3 right? They aren't a leading edge company anymore. What _did_ concern me in the article, was the remark that the next product from 3dfx was supposedly lacking in features and performance. That was very troubling and Sellers didn't deny it. One thing I remembered which you may not know, is that in John Carmack's leaked mp3 interview, he made a distinct reference to a product from S3 that had geometry acceleration. I don't think that product is the GX4. It could be that 3dfx was interested not in the GX4, but a part which has not been publicly discussed. I think the next product from 3dfx won't have geometry acceleration. I do believe what 3dfx rep's have said: it is a very complicated and complex undertaking. So the next part will probably have a high fillrate and a fast core, along with 32 bit rendering. If no other company has any parts on the market with geometry acceleration, then it looks like 3dfx will be a winner. I personally don't think we'll see any next gen product from any company before q1 2000. But the next parts (from every company) should be much faster. Right now 3dfx looks real cheap. However, any bad news could send this stock several dollars lower. Maybe even lower still. OTOH, any solid good news could send the stock just as much higher. I think that 3dfx has a better chance than nVidia at really breaking out and making a lot of money (I have never been an owner in nVidia btw). So I'm sure I will come back to 3dfx, but if this company - after all these years of research - is finding that their next gen part is inferior to S3's, then it is in a lot of trouble long term. If anything, it would be the last nail in the coffin of management.
