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

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (8004)	10/8/1998 3:41:00 AM
From: Chip Anderson	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 16960

Jeff and Pat, You guys are losing it. Let's review: 1.) At the time TDFX said Banshee would be the fastest 2D/3D "bar none at the time it ships," the entire industry was predicting TNT would be out at the end of this year as a .25u 125Mhz part. nVidia cut corners and shipped TNT 4 months ahead of schedule by switching to 35u and 90Mhz at the last minute. They had no choice - Banshee would have eaten them alive if the didn't rush TNT to market. They are having heat and chip yield problems as a result and people are reporting compatibility problems also. 2.) Everyone's forgotten about Banshee's 2D speed. This is what's critical for OEMs. Banshee is faster than TnT in this area. Not by a lot, but enough to justify 3Dfx's statement. (Too Clintonesque for you?) 3.) Anyone else notice that all of the other "Voodoo Killers" are now _COMPLETELY_ off the radar scope? Matrox, S3, PowerVR, i740, etc. are all toast at this point. 4.) Re: Shipping on time - 4a.) No one in the technology area _EVER_ ships "on time." Get used to it. 4b.) Average product life cycles are now much shorter than design cycles for the entire technology industry. Get used to it. 4c.) "On time" is defined by the press/web/street. 3Dfx's public statements always included lots of disclaimers which everyone immediately forgot. 5.) _We_ (stock board participants) are building up Oct. 12th _WAY_ beyond what it should be. It is the launch of a _marketing_ campaign for SLI, nothing more. For us to hope that it will be the launch of anything else is naive and ludicrous. Anyone who thinks otherwise deserves the disappointment they will feel when it is unveiled. Rampant speculation like this only serves to justify 3Dfx's secrecy policy (which I completely disagree with). 6.) Banshee is targetted at consumers that only want 3D acceleration if it is either _very_ cheap or part of a new computer. It is very well targetted for that (large) market space. If chips such as the TNT, S3, or PowerVR are offering better performance for the same price as a Banshee, then they are selling them for little or no profit because Banshee's single TMU V2 design is _very_ inexpensive to make. Makes you wonder about the long-term viability of those companies and their R&D budgets, yes? In summary: Realistic expectations should be for Banshee 2 (AGP 2x, 25u, 125Mhz) in the first part of next year and "Rampage" (AGP 4x, multiple TMUs, Geometry acceleration, and more) towards the middle of the year. Finally, rest assured that the driver and compatibility issues with the other boards are worse than the Banshee problems I (and others) have been reporting. Rest assured that 3Dfx has not been sitting on its hands since the release of the Voodoo2 chip. Rest assured that nVidia and the others have just _killed_ themselves to "catch up with Voodoo2" and have NOT been focusing on the next generation like 3Dfx's designers have. Rest assured that Banshee OEM deals will come - some on Oct 15th, more when Banshee 2 is available. Just rest assured. Chip Head Honcho, Iron Stomach Brigade

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (8004)	10/8/1998 4:12:00 AM
From: Simon Cardinale	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16960

Patrick: 2d/3d thing It's not because Banshee was late. They were reiterating it would be "the best 2d/3d at the time that it comes out" until recently. Here's my take on it. They didn't realize nVidia would push TNT out the door before getting it up to at least 100MHz and before it was working with all popular motherboards. They intended to beat nVidia by a month. They would have done it if TNT hadn't come out before it was quite done. In fact you could make a case that Banshee was the best 2d/3d at the time it came out, since it came out with flawless 2D before TNT got itself straightened out. Can you say the TNT was better while it was goofing up the colors in icons and web graphics? Maybe now after the drivers straightened it out, yes, but before? I think the way 3Dfx worded the statement they made it clear that the emphasis was on the "at the time of its release" not 2 weeks later necessarily. Their point was to reassure us that the 2D would be top notch (it is) and 3D would be comparable to V2 (it is). Simon