Voodoo 3 roll-out ...
biz.yahoo.com
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Friday February 12, 8:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc.
3Dfx Debuts First-Ever Voodoo Branded
Graphics Boards With Voodoo3 2000, 3000 And 3500
Company Reveals Details on Industry-Leading Performance and
Competitive Pricing as Retailers Enact Pre-Sale Programs to Meet
Swelling Customer Demand
SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- 3Dfx Interactive® Inc. (Nasdaq: TDFX - news) today
debuted Voodoo3(TM) 2000, Voodoo3 3000 and Voodoo3 3500, the first graphics board products to
carry the highly acclaimed Voodoo® brand name, through in-store and online pre-sale programs.
Based on 3Dfx Interactive's hotly anticipated Voodoo3 family of advanced graphics chips, the new
boards are expected to deliver the world's fastest 3D and 2D performance, and provide support for ultra
high-resolution displays. In the near future, 3Dfx plans to announce the anticipated date for retail
availability of its Voodoo3 products.
Answering widespread demand for the new PC add-in boards, select consumer electronics and
computer retailers are launching special pre-sale programs that will allow shoppers to reserve their
own 3Dfx Voodoo3 boards weeks before they are available on store shelves. To meet mounting requests
for high-performance graphics boards, CompUSA Inc., today announced that it will begin accepting
orders for the Voodoo3 3500 flagship product at compusa.com. Additionally, Babbage's Etc.,
and Electronics Boutique (EB) announced that they are launching pre-sale programs both in stores
nationwide and online for the new Voodoo3 cards.
''The Voodoo3 family of products will be our first 3Dfx-branded boards and we are committed to
delivering the best possible experience for our customers,'' said Greg Ballard, president and CEO for
3Dfx Interactive. ''With today's announcement, we are resetting the bar for performance and delivering
an exhilarating visual gaming experience.''
Industry-Leading Performance
At $129.99 (suggested US retail price), the 143MHz Voodoo3 2000 AGP and PCI boards are expected
to generate up to 6 million triangles and 286 Megatexels per second at resolutions of up to 2,048 by 1,536
pixels. Targeting mainstream performance users, the Voodoo3 2000 boards will feature a 300MHz
RAMDAC and 16MB of SDRAM.
For $179.99 (suggested US retail price), the 166MHz Voodoo3 3000 AGP board is expected to generate
7 million triangles and 333 Megatexels per second at resolutions of up to 2,048 by 1,536 pixels.
Manufactured by STB Systems, Inc., Voodoo3 3000 designed for true 3D game enthusiasts, will feature
a 350MHz RAMDAC, TV/S-Video Out capabilities as well as a yet undisclosed game bundle featuring
best-selling titles. The Voodoo3 3000 will also feature 16 MB of SDRAM. The Voodoo3 is expected to
lead in real-world game performance by delivering super-fast frame rates for the most popular games.
At $249.99 (suggested US retail price), the 183MHz Voodoo3 3500 AGP board is expected to deliver up
to 8 million triangles and 366 Megatexels per second at resolutions of up to 2,048 by 1,536 pixels.
Designed to support the latest digital flat panel displays, the Voodoo3 3500 will include 3Dfx's proprietary
flat-panel support, LCDfx. Manufactured by STB Systems, Inc., Voodoo3 3500 will be available in
limited quantities for consumers who require flat panel support. Voodoo3 3500 will feature a 350MHz
RAMDAC, TV/S-Video Out capabilities as well as a yet undisclosed game bundle featuring
best-selling titles. The Voodoo3 3500 will also feature 16 MB of SGRAM.
Using the industry standard Quake II time demo benchmark, demo versions of the Voodoo3 product are
capable of generating record frame rates of over 106 frames per second at a resolution of 800x600, over
84 frames per second at 1024x768, and a remarkable 35 plus frames per second at 1600x1200.
The entire family of Voodoo3 boards are designed to include such advanced features as: single-pass
single-cycle multi-texturing for bump mapping and trilinear mip-mapping, dual 32-bit internal
rendering, per-pixel mip-mapping, sub-pixel and sub-texel correction, 8-bit palletized textures,
programmable exponential fog tables, Gouraud shading, a full 128-bit 2D accelerator, DVD hardware
assist, and support for DirectX®, Glide® and OpenGL®.
Pre-Sale Promotions at Leading Retailers
To address growing consumer demand for the new boards, retailers CompUSA, Babbage's Etc., and EB
today announced nationwide promotions to allow game and entertainment fans to reserve a Voodoo3
board online and at stores throughout the United States.
CompUSA Inc., America's largest computer superstore retailer, announced that it is taking orders and
deposits for the Voodoo3 3500 board today at its online superstore. The company also plans to sell the
record-setting accelerator board at its approximately 200 superstores in 84 major metropolitan markets
when the Voodoo3 3500 becomes available. This product will be available in limited quantities.
''We expect the 3Dfx Voodoo3 will generate strong interest among game enthusiasts,'' said John
Lostroscio, vice president of merchandising at CompUSA. ''We're also excited to launch a new
premium version with digital flat panel support, which compliments our wide assortment of flat panel
displays.''
Babbage's Etc., announced it is mounting a pre-sale campaign at its more than 470 stores nationwide.
Consumers can visit any Babbage's and Software Etc. store to pay a $10 deposit to receive one of the
first commercially available Voodoo3 2000 or 3000 boards when they become available in the next few
weeks.
''We created a special 3Dfx section in our stores last September because demand for Voodoo-based
products continues to explode,'' said Dan DeMatteo, president of Babbage's Etc. ''With the debut of
3Dfx's first consumer board products, we expect consumer hunger for Voodoo products to intensify
even more.''
Electronics Boutique, the largest mall-based retailer of computer software and interactive games with
over 600 stores throughout the world, recently implemented a 3Dfx direct-to-consumer pre-sale
program to ensure immediate delivery of Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 boards once they become available on
retail shelves. Electronics Boutique also offers pre-release sales of the boards in store and online at
ebworld.com.
''Because our customers are constantly asking us about the pending debut of 3Dfx Interactive's
Voodoo3 boards, we have implemented a full-scale program to make it easy for the biggest Voodoo fans
to have boards as soon as possible,'' said Jerry Madaio, vice president of merchandising-PC division for
Electronics Boutique. ''Because Voodoo3 transforms the PC into a mainstream entertainment platform,
we expect these new 3Dfx Voodoo brand products to be extremely hot sellers.''
3Dfx Leads US Retail Market
According to the most recent tally of retail sales by PC Data, 3Dfx Interactive's Voodoo product family
led the US retail market in the fourth quarter of 1998. In its Hits List for October through December
1998, PC Data reported that 3Dfx Voodoo technology powered 73 percent of the video cards sold in the
performance/gaming segment. PC Data, which ranked the retail market's best-selling video cards, also
reported that in the fourth quarter, 3Dfx-based products earned the top five selling spots in the
gaming/performance segment.
About 3Dfx Interactive
3Dfx Interactive develops high-performance, cost-effective 3D media processors, software and
related technology that are designed to enable a highly immersive, interactive and realistic 3D
experience across interactive electronic entertainment platforms -- personal computers,
coin-operated arcade systems and location-based entertainment. Current 3Dfx Interactive products
include the Voodoo family of accelerator chip sets, Voodoo2(TM), Voodoo Graphics®, Voodoo
Banshee(TM) and the anticipated Voodoo3. Visit the company on the Web at 3dfx.com.
NOTE: 3Dfx Interactive, Glide and Voodoo Graphics are registered trademarks and Voodoo, Voodoo2,
Voodoo3 and Voodoo Banshee are trademarks of 3Dfx Interactive. All other names may be trademarks
of their respective holders.
Certain of the statements in this press release, including the statements relating to the Company's
expectations for commercial and shipping availability of the Voodoo3 family products as well as the
performance expectations for the Voodoo3 family of products, are forward-looking statements that are
subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations.
Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, manufacturing and other delays relating to
new products, difficulties in the fabrication process and dependence of the Company on third party
manufacturers, general industry trends, including cyclical trends in the PC and semiconductor industries,
the impact of competitive products and pricing alternatives, market acceptance of the Company's new
products and the Company's dependence on third party developers and publishers. Investors are
advised to read the Company's annual and quarterly reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly those sections entitled ''Factors Affecting Operating
Results,'' for a fuller discussion of such risks and uncertainties.
SOURCE: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. |
