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To: Paul Ma who wrote (22809)	12/18/2000 12:46:41 PM
From: fyodor_	Respond to of 275872

Paul Ma: wow nvidia up 2 3dfx down 90%, should have shorted it a long time ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just thinking about 3dfx makes me sad. They showed such great promise... developing one of the 2 first consumer 3D chips, really pushing the envelope. You have to hand it to such a ground-breaking company - they really did some great stuff. Too bad it started going sour almost from the get-go. 3dfx kept developing multiple-chip solutions, whereas others were able to do pretty much the same with a single-chip solution. Even after their products no longer showed a clear superiority, they kept trying to push their proprietary OpenGL-ish (subset) clone. Even with the launch of the Voodoo2 there were some ruminations that it was basically just a couple hacked Voodoo1s (on a better process, so able to be clocked higher). Banshee confirmed that pretty much zero innovation was happening at 3dfx. That it took 3dfx 3 chips to do what others could do (better) with 1 didn't help matters. Then came the T-Buffer technology and it looked like 3dfx was finally back. Unfortunately, the momentum had been lost and the ability to execute shot. The VSA-100 chip was certainly innovative, if a tad large compared to the competition, but delay after delay made it virtually uncompetitive when finally introduced. Their next-gen solution (Rampage) was also a no-show and simply stacking multiple older chips isn't a competitively viable option. Not for ATI, not for 3dfx. Sigh, such great promise... so little to show for it. -fyo (Voluntary disclosure: I'm an NVIDIA fan. I loved my Voodoo1, but 3dfx's attempts to monopolize the industry through GLide was despicable and for mainly that reason, I bought a Riva TNT when the time came, instead of a Banshee or a Voodoo2. I've never invested money in either company, but did recommend NVDA to everyone who cared to listen right after the TNT came out).