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

To: Jeff Lins who wrote (7998)	10/8/1998 2:27:00 AM
From: Eric Howard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

Jeff, I think 3DFX got taken by surprise by Nvidia's TnT. Yes it shipped 35 mhz slower than it was supposed to, thank God, but it is still a very credible part. If you take TnT out the picture this Christmas then 3DFX's plans make perfect sense. If TnT is not around who does Dell and Gateway go with? I would sure think you could make a strong case for Banshee in this scenario. In terms of performance TnT is also the only card I think that has a chance at running games at 1024768 and above and allowing it to playable. If TnT does not exist and I want to play games at 1024768 I have to buy a second Voodoo2, there is no other option. Go back a couple months and there was alot of speculation whether TnT would ship at all by Christmas. There were rumors of it only having one TMU and I think the clock speed in the sample parts was atrocious. Well unfortunately it looks like desperation caused Nvidia to really bust its ass and deliver. They did not live up to their marketing drivel but they did deliver a very good chip. Right now to me they seem hungrier then 3dfx and they seem to be executing better. They are in horrible financial shape but sometimes a wounded animal is more dangerous. If TnT is not a big success Nvidia is dead. Their desperation has in part caused a card that we thought was going to cost $300 to now cost $169. I assumed at the time that TnT was not a threat to Banshee or the OEM market because it was too expensive and it was going to be too late. I think some 3Dfx people made the same mistake in judgement. Eric

To: Jeff Lins who wrote (7998)	10/8/1998 4:22:00 AM
From: Simon Cardinale	Respond to of 16960

Jeff: They were vague, don't forget. Banshee 2 in Q2? What the hell is with this? Crank it up 25MHz, and whoop-de-do! Nada. Banshee will be THIRD rate behind TNT, Rage 128, PVRSG, Permidia3. I know that these guys aren't even around yet, but I have a feeling that there will be significant new technology coming out in the next 6 months. And a Banshee shrink ain't my idea of new technology. Here are some questions that come to mind: 1) Do they intend to "follow up" their OEM offering (Banshee) with a retail offering (Rampage)? Or did they interpret the question as "OEM follow up"? 2) Do they consider the die-shrink/overclock/2X AGP a "follow up" product (Banshee 2) or part of the original product (Banshee)? 3) Could there be a retail product released (Rampage) before the next "follow up to Banshee"? I think that this wording was too vague to interpret at all. Any clarification possible on this, Sun Tzu? Simon