Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Michael Linov who wrote (7307)	9/16/1998 6:31:00 PM
From: Patrick Grinsell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

It is clear to me now that most of the investors we've had so far are in it for the fast buck. If so, you've picked the wrong stock. You are sadly mistaken if you think the recent turn of events should only be a concern to the short-term investor. On the contrary, if the company can't make a profit topping the retail accelerator charts at least one eyebrow should be raised. Praying that unannounced products (of which there is only speculation) will save the day is not is not investing it's playing the lottery. What will stop my bitching? A clear open roadmap with a commitment to investors on schedueled timeframes. Either that or me selling my entire wad of 3dfx. I will wait for the conference call to see if this develops. If I'm not satisfied, I will sell. (I guess electing Jeff Czar of 3dfx is a third option, but I don't consider it a likely scenario.) Pat

To: Michael Linov who wrote (7307)	9/16/1998 6:35:00 PM
From: Mark K.	Respond to of 16960

<<Like it or not, its a long road to the top. 3dfx has to grow at a sustainable pace, expand its product lines, acquire key companies. This won't happen overnight, and there may yet be many quarterly losses ahead. This is the beginning, and any short term predictions would be little more than gambling. The long term, though looks bright.>> I'm not so sure that 3DFX is really in it to become a huge company. If you look at Ballard's track record he has a habit of taking very small companies to a decent size and then selling them.

To: Michael Linov who wrote (7307)	9/16/1998 7:26:00 PM
From: dumbmoney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

This is the beginning, and any short term predictions would be little more than gambling. The long term, though looks bright. Which is easier, gambling when you know some of the cards, or gambling when you don't know any of the cards? The latter may seem easier (nothing to analyze!) but the outcome is random.

To: Michael Linov who wrote (7307)	9/16/1998 8:01:00 PM
From: Eric Howard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Hi, I have been following this thread for about six months now and have been invested in 3dfx for about a year now. I first bought the stock because I loved the product, I had a 3dfx Voodoo card and it worked great. When the Voodoo2 came out I bought one of those and later upgraded to the Obsidian X24. At this point though I am concerned about 3dfx as a company because I believe they have temporarily lost the technological leadership role they used to hold. I really believe the performance and feature set of the Nvidia TnT chip took them by surprise. If the TnT did not exist then Banshee might have been good enough to lock down a majority of the major OEMS. From the STB conference call though, we now know that Dell and Gateway are going to use TNT on at least some of their models. Banshee also has an undisclosed OEM win but is that really going to be enough to carry the company for any length of time? In my opinion early next year they need to introduce a new high end product which can match the image quality of the TnT and the Matrox G200. I am going to buy a 2d/3d card for my computer and I will probably pick up the Spectra 2500 even though I already have an Obsidian board. Image quality is a big deal and this will become 3dfx's weakpoint if it is not addressed early next year. Personally I hate Nvidia's PR department and their misleading press releases but the TnT at 90Mhz is still a very good chip. If you want confirmation of this,read the latest plan files from John Carmack and Brian Hook of Id software. They complement Nvidia on the feature set of the board as well as the robustness of the Open GL drivers that Nvidia provided. In another plan file today a developer from Raven is mentioning how a problem in the Open GL drivers from 3Dfx will probably prevent them from initialing shipping colored fog in Heretic II. He goes on to say that 3dfx knows about the problem but they are spending all of their time working on the Banshee drivers so he does not think it will get fixed before the game ships. He then goes on to mention how cool the Tnt card is that they have. This kind of information concerns me because these are the places I would go to determine what should be my next video card. Like it or not I think for the first time 3dfx has very valid competition and they are going to have to respond or face serious problems. I have bought 1 Voodoo card and three different Voodoo2 cards but if I was going to buy a computer today I would get the TnT card because of its feature set and image quality. I might also add a Voodoo2 card for Glide games but assuming that this API will be enough going forward I think is a big mistake. Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to add another perspective to the mix. I am long 3dfx but I am concerned and I agree with Pat that there are serious issues to be dealt with.