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

To: Obewon who wrote (12456)	5/11/1999 7:10:00 PM
From: Jeffrey P	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16960

Once again, Mercury research has dumbfounded me... ( and ticked me off ) mercuryresearch.com They did a breakdown of cards as reported in this PR: biz.yahoo.com ..<scratch head> ... okay... Nvidia TNT2 ultra placed # 1 on 3d. Problems: What manufacturer? Using reference design? If so, was this the "superclocked" TNT2 ultra? ASP's for tested parts? I mean seriously, did the TNT2 ultra have a kryomax cooler on it?!? added after initial post- I just noticed... TNT2 ultra is Diamond CLOCKED AT 200mhz memory as per the Diamond press release ( biz.yahoo.com ), The Viper V770 graphics accelerator will ship with default speeds of 125MHz engine clock speed and 150MHz memory clock speed. The Viper V770 Ultra graphics accelerator will ship with default speeds of 150MHz engine clock speed and 183MHz memory clock speed. They DON't EVEN MAKE A CARD defaulting to 200mhz!!! But they do have that overclock slider. Does that mean that Mercury OVERCLOCKED the TNT2 for "unbiased" testing?!?! And Last year they would not even TOUCH the banshee's REFRESH rate?!?!? Man am I ticked!!! Obvious problem # 2: no V3 3500. Seriously confusing problem # 3: 2d breakdown had Tnt2 #1, BANSHEE #2, with V3 2000&3000 clocking in at 8 & 7 !!! Huh?!?! I did not like these guys last time because I thought they were biased and their testing procedures were flawed, but this is quite frankly, OUT THERE! Jeff "what the heck was that" P. added after post - I REALLY don't like these guys now... Am I Wrong?!?!? Did I misinterpret this report or did they REALLY pull this crud again?!?!

To: Obewon who wrote (12456)	5/11/1999 7:31:00 PM
From: Synapsid	Respond to of 16960

One notable fact from the Mercury Research report is that NVIDIA is going out of their way to produce different versions of the TNT2 to target different segments. The results include a mysterious "TNT2 Model 64" (apart from the TNT2 Ultra, TNT2, and Vanta). I have a suspicion about what is going on. Memory prices for 64 Mbit memory chips have fallen dramatically. Meanwhile, 16 Mbit memory chips have risen in price. Due to technical reasons, 64 Mbit memory chips cannot currently be utilized on graphics boards that use a 128-bit local memory bus (such as Voodoo3 and the "true" TNT2). However, with a smaller 64-bit memory bus, the ultra-cheap 64 Mbit memory chips can actually be used but only with a minimum 32MB framebuffer. Performance suffers, but they are playing the numbers game with 32MB. It is not inconceivable that the actual memory cost for the 32MB framebuffer in this configuration is cheaper than currently used 16MB framebuffers. Previously, only S3's Savage4 with its fixed 64-bit memory bus allowed the use of this cost-effective memory solution, resulting in a plethora of 32MB board announcements. It appears that in response to this, NVIDIA has "created" a version of the TNT2 that cuts the memory bus to 64-bit, enabling cheap 32MB TNT2 boards. I expect these new 32MB TNT2 boards to be marketable in the $100-$150 range or lower, in direct competition with Voodoo3, with the "true" high-end TNT2 solutions remaining in the $150-$200 area. I wouldn't be surprised if Creative were the first to pull this trick on the TNT2. How can 3dfx respond to this? Since the Voodoo3 is limited to 16MB, there options seem limited, even if the Voodoo3 can work with a 64-bit memory bus. Can 3dfx's brand name stand up against an onslaught of 32MB boards that undercut 3dfx's 16MB boards in price?