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

To: Joe C. who wrote (9551)	12/11/1998 11:53:00 PM
From: Jim Brannon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 16960

Joe, I couldn't agree more with your assessment of the 32-bit issue. And I couldn't agree less with much of the negative sentiment expressed lately on this board about 3DFX as a company and an investment. It is beginning to show who here is an investor and who is a trader looking for short term rewards. I can't believe how quickly some of you start spreading the FUD when there is some decent competition. Bottom line: 3DFX is an innovative, growing company with cutting edge and well-respected products in an exciting part of the high-tech market. Compared to their competition, they are in fantastic financial condition. Great products now and in the pipeline and great engineering talent combined with competent management and marketing. I can't see any GOOD reasons for starting the doom and gloom...and so I'm getting suspicious of the motives. Personally, I use their products and I can't wait to see what my $15 shares are worth in 1 to 2 years. Hopefully there are other 3DFX investors out there who share my sentiment. Jim

To: Joe C. who wrote (9551)	12/12/1998 9:01:00 PM
From: jttmab	Respond to of 16960

Joe, I'm going to raise your two cents and put in my five cents (that's a pun).....This is going to be a little longer than I wanted but please bear with me and there is a question at the end for Banshee owners. I've read a bit here about 3Dfx's claims about near equivalent quality vs. performance and the subsequent challenge to that assertion. But at the market that Banshee and V3 is targeted at it seems that the important aspect is "does it look good" and do/will they have the perceived quality of "looking good". IMO 32 bit, at least contributes to the perceived quality aspect. I'm going to diverge some towards the "does it look good". I have a Creative 3D Blaster Banshee. It installed flawlessly (exception being the mouse cursor problems which were corrected in a subsequent release of the new drivers) and during the setup process I clearly noticed the improved visual quality in terms of both color and clarity. While I have not seen a TNT, the 3D blaster did pass the "it looks really good" test. I did subsequently recommend the card to a friend who purchased one and is equally pleased. Note also that if I go to Display Properties, Settings I see "True Color 32 bit" selected. If I'm the above average consumer, I'll notice this; if I'm the average consumer...What's Display Properties? Let me try your patience a little and return to the setup. I went through the Colorific setup, annoying as it was. The Colorific setup establishes the color balances so that you, the user, can see the games as the author intended. Seemed plausible. Only problem was that after I went through the setup, it didn't seem as "good" as when I installed the drivers....must be my brain fooling me. Anyway, I lived with the settings for a while, went through the Colorific setup again because I just wasn't pleased but it turned out the same...a little dull and a little washed out...but I also noticed on some of the Banshee threads similar complaints of "washed out". Being the persistent individual that I am...I decided to go back to Blaster Control and 3 Deep and reset to the factory defaults (also noticed that the monitor had been changed to a generic plug and play monitor, so I picked my monitor) and manually adjusted the contrast, brightness and tweaked up the 3Deep setting...and skipped the Colorific setup. It was like a new card! The colors are bright and rich and the clarity is great (1024 by 768 on a 17"). My perception is that the Colorific setup produces something rather arbitrary and not something that is tuned to the preferences of the consumer. So the question to the other Banshee owners is: did you go through the Colorific setup and do you have the sense that the colors aren't quite what they should be? Best Regards, Jim P.S. I would also think that the reviewers might have gone through the Colorific setup as well, whereas 3Dfx didn't bother. Could this be a contributing factor to the negative ratings?