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

To: Paul A who wrote (4774)	6/26/1998 10:19:00 PM
From: stephen wall	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16960

Paul, I just spent 1 1/2 hrs at Best Buy in Columbia, S.C. talking to one of the sales guys (hardcore gamer) and a college student from Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C. (hardcore gamer and builder of his own computer). Salient points: 1) This particular store is working on it's 5th shipment since April. (I asked, but he didnt know how large the shipments were.) Originally had problems getting Voodoo2 but once in stock they flew off the shelves. Big seller was Diamond 12mb Voodoo2. Currently, they do have cards in stock, but only 4. They have more 8mb but I didnt count. They are still selling but not like the original rush which is understandable. 2) Neither the clerk or the college student will consider anything other than 3dfx unless they screw up. The college student wont consider anything other than Diamond. 3) While I was talking to them about 10 people walked by the card section and not one, NOT ONE, looked at anything other than the Diamond cards. 4) This is South Carolina where spreadsheets are still calculated with an abacus and the only talk among teenagers and college kids is about getting laid or Carolina/Clemson football. I was shocked at the number of people that came up and started talking about gaming. One guy looked like he had just come out of the infield from the Southern 500 stockcar race in Darlington, S.C. after a 3-day binge and he started talking about playing Unreal. 5) Take these statements however you want but the impression I came away with was one of shock. South Carolina is about Baptists, beer, football, good ole boy politics, and a 1000 year old senator that has to be jump started in the morning in order to babble about pig pickings and the military. There is something else going on here and the redneck from Darlington showed it to me....gaming. regards, stephen

To: Paul A who wrote (4774)	6/26/1998 10:35:00 PM
From: Don Westermeyer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16960

Paul, FWIW - I think the Banshee will be reasonably successful also. - Great 2D (top dog I think). - Very good 3D - If it doesn't actually come in 'first' it will be a close 'second' I'm sure. - Good price. Hope they pack a good game with the retail cards (I realize TDFX has no control over that). - No x2 AGP. Big deal, the performance is still good. That may keep them out a few OEM deals, but I can't believe it is important - even from a marketing standpoint. At the retail level for this x-mas I'm sure that will have almost zero effect. Benchmarks, price, and game bundles will determine how the card does in this area. - I'm sure the next chipset will probably support x2 AGP (along with other improvements of course). Hopefully that will come next spring. The current Banshee is obviously only intended for this year. - Intel? They are a threat, but not the big monster people believe it is. Intel used to sell motherboards with built in sound and graphics. Those didn't sell all that well. I guess if they get serious about it bad things could happen, but I'd actually be surprised if Intel aggressively went after the 'low margin' graphics market. That is somewhat unlike them. I plan on buying a Banshee product myself. I hope that it is all it is cracked up to be. I'm sure everyone already knows all this stuff. I'm just venting after a very bad quarter for TDFX. Hopefully the next quarter will prove to be better for this miserable stock. Have a nice holiday next week. :)