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

To: Jay Fisk who wrote (12415)	5/11/1999 1:11:00 AM
From: Obewon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16960

One of the more interesting factors that I see with the introduction of Voodoo3 3500TV is that 3dfx is addressing a known market demand rather than trying to create it for a new product (LCDfx) at a minimum additional cost. Point #1: As far as I can tell, STB has been selling TV cards for around $99. Thus manufacturing cost are probably about $55. Now since many of the components of the graphics card and TV card are the same combining the functions on the same card leads me to think that the additional cost of combining the cards is about $20 at most more than the regular Voodoo3 3000 board which I am estimating costs about $90 to make currently. Now a Voodoo3 chip clocked at 183Mz costs no more than one clocked at 166MHz as its just a matter of yield (a Voodoo3 chip that cannot be clocked to 183MHz isn't discarded, it's just used at 166MHz). However, the Voodoo3 3500 about uses more expensive memory, cooling, and requires more testing adding about $25-30$ more per board. This brings the Voodoo3 3500TV manufacturing cost up to approx. $140. Point #2: Jay has brought up a good point with the following statement: <<'Spose the 3500 has the ability to overlay synthetic gameplay over digital interactive video ? Makes texture size irrelevant. >> The interactive gaming market is still in its infancy. Capabilities and a great idea drive new "must have" products. Alot of people have talked about the Professional Gamers League and building infrastructure to support gaming as an actual sport. Well, the business model driving most sports is either audience viewing or audience participation. Right now, imagine you could watch "Thresh" win the World Championship at QuakeIII Arena. Or maybe switch views to be one of the other competitors in mid match. Right now there is no credible way for people to view these history-making competitions unless they were there on an admin server while the games being played. By hooking into VCR's or newer digital recording devices, these matches could be captured and rebroadcast to millions (or watched in realtime once bandwidth issues are resolved). Going further, imagine " 'Thresh's' Guide to QuakeIII: Arena Strategy" shipped on the QuakeIII Arena DVD showing the moves instead of just describing them. Talk about simulation! Obewon