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

To: Tae Spam Kim who wrote (11104)	3/13/1999 3:31:00 PM
From: Joe C.	Respond to of 16960

Tae, 7.5 out of 10 chose Voodoo or Banshee over TNT at Retail. Banshee was a much inferior product. I'm certain that Voodoo 3 will be faster than TNT 2 all around when the cards/drivers are final despite what nVidia Tom has to say. Chip yields are factor of the design and both chips are not designed the same. TDFX was quite successful with their design and got great yield on their first go - reason for early release. nVidia is giving us what they should have given us a long time ago. They are trying very hard to catch up to our old stuff. Good Luck to them. I have a Riva 128 (came with my Dell) and will never buy another nVidia based card again. The problems I had with it - driver support, color palette, lack of compatibility, etc. were enough one time. I'm not hoping for a Glide wrapper. I'm not quickly jumping to the compatibility section to find out if I'll be able to play the next cool game on my card. I want up to date drivers that are continually improving. I want people like 3fingers and the rest to work their magic with tweaks, etc. The decision to buy a TNT 2 or a Voodoo 3 is going to made based on all factors, including name, price, support, features, speed, compatibility, etc. I'm waiting to see the difference between the 3000 and the 3500 to see if the extra bucks are worth it. I'm not waiting to see the TNT 2 and there are many others like me (casual gamers) that would agree. Joe C.

To: Tae Spam Kim who wrote (11104)	3/13/1999 7:13:00 PM
From: Simon Cardinale	Respond to of 16960

chip yields don't depend only on who manufactures, Tae Kim And Michale, regarding chip yields... 3dfx and Nvidia use the SAME manufacturing company and besides Nvidia plans to ship a month later than 3dfx. Some chip designs are harder to manufacture than others. I imagine the fact that TNT2 is a lower clock speed than V3 is some indication of which design is more robust. Simon

To: Tae Spam Kim who wrote (11104)	3/15/1999 10:35:00 PM
From: Michael Madden	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 16960

Today's TNT2 press releases: A business perspective. Good businesses, not great technology, are good investments. In the technology sector, investors tend to equate technological superiority with the future ability of a company to make money. This narrow focus on technology can get investors into trouble. Investors become so enamored with the technology that they don't look deep enough to see whether the company can leverage the technology into profits. ATI seems to be the favorite example on this board. It makes money without delivering the clearly superior graphics product. So, what do the TNT2 press releases tell us about the business position of NVidia compared to TDFX. 1. The Diamond press release confirms that TNT2 cards will not ship until May. (In fact, Savage4 cards won't ship until May either.) Voodoo3 has anywhere from a five to nine week market lead without serious competition. An effective advertising campaign and in-store promotions can drive sales before the competition's product ever reaches the shelf. 2. The Diamond press release also confirms that the TNT Ultra cards will cost $230, which puts it in the same price league as the Voodoo3 3500. However, the Diamond press release makes no mention of an LCD interface, which is included in the 3500. The video output features of the Viper 770 have more in common with the V3-3000 which is fifty dollars cheaper and nearly as fast as the V3-3500. This gives TDFX two advantages. First, the Viper 770 is priced above the mythical $200 dollar range. Items above $200 generally sell well only to PC enthusiasts and hard-core gamers. Items below $200 appeal to general consumers. Second, the fifty dollar price difference is big enough to make any consumer wonder whether they really need that 32-bit 3D output and AGP texturing. 3. The NVidia press release states that the TNT2 is priced at a whopping $45 in quantities of 10,000. That price is 80% higher than the Savage4 or V3-2000. And, its about 25-30% higher than the V3-3000. [The Savage4 sells for $25 in quantities of 10,000. In the last conference call, TDFX said that the V3-2000 would be priced in the mid 20's and the V3-3000 would be priced in the mid 30's.] The TNT2 is a very expensive chip. Does this price price reflect a large profit margin or high chip costs (i.e., low yields)? If the latter, TDFX can beat NVidia on price while still making a profit. In my opinion, the TNT2 price is not very OEM friendly and relegates it to "showcase" systems. [Showcase systems are those $2500+ computer systems that vendors submit for reviews and sell to PC Enthusiasts. Overall, their share of the market has been shrinking.] This leaves the Voodoo3, Rage128, Savage4 as the main competitors for high-volume systems. Apparently, NVidia has bet its ability to attract high-volume OEM business on its upcoming Vanta chip, which has not been officially announced.