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

To: Pierre-X who wrote (7058)	9/10/1998 10:02:00 PM
From: Simon Cardinale	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Hey Pierre, welcome back. <<While 3dfx's reputation in the 3D world is second to none, the banshee is their first real attempt at a 2D-3D card.>> No. Was the Rush was a "fake" attempt? Rush wasn't all 3Dfx. They didn't do the 2D. The 3D part of rush worked okay, though driver issues gave many people headaches. (Purchase a Riva 128 and you'll get even more headaches, of course._ <<Without a track record in the area, OEM's would be foolish to give a contract to an unproven design, by a company new to the field.>> No. RIVA 128. <<Once the design is proven, 3dfx will have no trouble selling Banshee>> Can you define the criteria to met for a design to be "proven"? He was referring (I think) to a statement by Sun Tzu that OEMs should have announced support for Banshee before it was shown to them. I (and others) said that they'd have no reason to do this, and much to lose if 3Dfx handed them a dud after they'd announced it was going into their next line. I don't think that OEMs announced they were going to use the Riva 128 before the chipset existed. However they may have preannounced support for the Riva 128ZX (a minor improvement on a proven design). Likewise 3Dfx should have an easy time selling the .25um version of the Banshee to OEMs happy with the .35um design. Simon

To: Pierre-X who wrote (7058)	9/10/1998 10:25:00 PM
From: Michael Linov	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Clarification of some of my points :) No. TSMC has quite a bit of capacity, certainly more than 3dfx is likely to challenge in the near future. >In 4th quarter, yes, but they're in ramp up now. That limits the no. of chipsets they can ship THIS quarter. No. Was the Rush was a "fake" attempt? The rush was a 2D chipset designed by Alliance. It was a poor choice, and 3dfx suffered because of it. The Banshee is a brand new, as yet unproven design. Riva 128 Is a proven OEM design (even if the drivers were never finished). The TNT is NOT, but is viewed as a 2nd generation 2D chipset. Can you define the criteria to met for a design to be "proven"? For banshee to get (a significant number of) design wins, it must a) Must be released to a large customer base, and proven to be cost effective from a customer service/support point of view. This means drivers must work flawlessly, and the design must be reliable. b) Be cost effective c) Have good performance in benchmarks in the target audience for the amchine. Companies like compaq want things that work. They do not want tech support calls, unreliable cards, or lack of drivers. Many OEM design wins go to last-years cards precisely because of this. Dell and Compaq may choose a new card (like the TNT) for its high end models, but that's not where the volume's at. If 3dfx does their job right, Banshee should be a PERFECT oem card. Consider its strengths: a) Cost effective ($30 chipset) is lowest of the new generation chipsets b) Best 2D performance in class. Critical for business contracts. While corporate purchasers aren't necessarily interested in 2D performance, the high-benchmark #'s will raise the overall perceived value of the machine. c) Better performance than other chipsets on low end-hardware d) Complete support of all API's (Glide , Direct3D, OpenGL). This also means less service calls about software compatibility etc. Banshee's (perceived) weaknesses lie mainly in its lack of support for 32 Bit 3D, and 2x AGP, Things that good marketing, and some benchmarks can easily resolve. I see banshee as paving the way for 3dfx's real entries into the graphics race. It will prove 3dfx's ability to compete in the marketplace, and set the stage for market leadership in all areas of the graphic field. In 1999, I see banshee/v2 selling at $50-$100, Banshee 2 at $150-$200, Rampage at $250-750. I also see 3dfx entering into the professional 3d market. Time will tell. I think 3dfx's strategy so far has been impeccable. While it is regretable that Banshee shipped a little late, it is also nearly inevitable considering the need to deliver a quality product. While many of our competitors have shipped products, they have shipped them early, sometimes compromising reliablity, missing / or buggy drivers, hardware running below spec, etc. 3dfx stands to gain alot from the experience of those who were fullish enough to buy these boards. Its good to see that the 3dfx PR department got off its butt, and is actually publishing stuff. I see many adds/ co -sponsorships from 3dfx in this month's literature. Things are really looking up. I know I may sound a bit overoptimistic at times, but I'm really not that closed minded. I actually own just about every video card ever made (it will even include a TNT, if they ever produce a stable design). Most of my machines use Matrox video cards ( Milleneum, and G200's). When the banshee becomes available (I will only by an SGRAM one), I will likely upgrade most ( but not all) of my machine with both PCI and AGP Banshee's. I am disappointed by the lack of a Video Out, and an OpenGL driver on the G200. I hope 3dfx gets it right, out of the box. Matrox is a company I respect, and so is 3dfx. Both companies deliver what they promise. This has not allways been my experience. The ATI Rage Pro Turbo, Permedia 2, Verite 2200 ( I do respect rendition, but their technology is too far behind now) ... All have been EXTREMELY disappointing. I have sold / or given away most of these cards for peanuts. It is safe to say that I will take claims from the above companies with a grain of salt. Sorry about the rambling post... I guess I just had to write SOMETHING :)