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

To: Jeff Lins who wrote (7049)	9/10/1998 4:22:00 PM
From: Simon Cardinale	Respond to of 16960

1999 is "the year of 3Dfx" Here's a post I made over on yahoo that I'd like comments on: [Someone said Ballard hadn't given adequate reasons for his statements about 1999 being "the year" for 3Dfx. By adequate he meant reasons which would allow investors to feel confident about 3Dfx's long term survival, and keep the price from collapsing.] I think that Ballard's statement about 1999 is based on two things: 1) The OEM success of Banshee (the version coming out right now) and the resulting OEM support for the next version of the Banshee in 1999. At one point he called the .25um version of the Voodoo Banshee the real cash-cow, which scared many investors who assumed that he meant the .35um Banshee (today's) will be a flop. Quite the opposite. He's assuming it'll be a success, and by next year there will be wider OEM support. From what I've seen of the chip's reviews, and what I see in the explosion of 3D and internet multiplayer gaming, I think he's absolutely right. 2) The introduction in 1999 of 3Dfx's on-board geometry accelerated 3D cards (rumored to be called "Voodoo Rampage") which will hurdle the current CPU bottleneck and bring back the enormous retail margins. And so, I think that the reason he hasn't given an adequate rationale is that he can't. It would be based on the success of specific products in an uncertain market, and their ability to follow up on those successes with the next generation. Assume for a moment that I'm exactly right. What would you expect him to say? SEC rules allow him to make vague statements like 1999 will be "the year of 3Dfx" but if he says "Banshee will sell well, and OEMs will be begging us for the next Banshee" he could get his ass sued if he's wrong. So you're quite right that there's uncertainty about 3Dfx's future. It comes down to this: Will Banshee be a success? I've got my money down on 3Dfx. They've delivered in the past and I think they'll keep doing it. Now that Banshee's been independently reviewed I am sleeping pretty well. Simon

To: Jeff Lins who wrote (7049)	9/10/1998 9:36:00 PM
From: Jeff Lins	Respond to of 16960

2 tidbits for you: 1) in the latest MacWarehouse (catalog for Mac software) is a full page spread for Virtual PC 2. It allows you to run IBM PC software on a Mac. It has a number of bullets listing features such as: Full version of Win 98, Ethernet networking support, AND....Full support for Voodoo2 and Voodoo graphics for superior PC gaming!!! 2) I love this one. This months PC Games reviews the Starfighter PCI graphics board. This is the original Intel i740 chip based card, designed to show off the superior power of Intel's awesome graphics chip, and promote the incredibly important and useful AGP feature. Except this is the PCI version...The board has 16mbs of memory on board (the AGP only has 8mb) for what Real 3D (the card maker) calls "AGP on board". What a joke! I guess we can emulate AGP by putting enough memory on the board! Duhhhh! Using the AGPs increased bus speed makes sense, but using main memory for textures just ain't as good as on board memory.