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

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (13132)	6/6/1999 9:35:00 AM
From: Michael G. Potter	Respond to of 16960

I also am interested in a long-term, profitable 3dfx. That means that they should be up there in technology (and with all the talk about how V3 will be the slowest product this year they had better deliver), but they also should be making chips at the right price point with the right features. This quarter's results will be fairly telling. Competition at retail (PC Data should have May results fairly soon) and the start of OEM shipments. I'm also waiting for the 10-Q from last quarter (haven't seen it yet) so I can llok at the pro-formas. Michael

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (13132)	6/6/1999 1:06:00 PM
From: Yeagher	Respond to of 16960

Those are good points Patrick. I remember Sharky and Tom predicting the end of 3dfx after seeing the PVRSG. You know, gamers and (to a large extent) stockholders, have a lot of faith in this company. Why? I don't think it's because we believe that the Voodoo3 3500 will be better than the TNT2 Ultra. It's because of their past performance with the Voodoo and Voodoo2 chips. It's because of all the innuendo about their next gen part. It's because we _want_ to believe that 3dfx can still produce a card that leaves us awestruck. When the general gaming public _lusts_ after 3dfx's top of the line card - the OEM wins should be easier to come by. I know that there are many things that go into OEM wins, but if 3dfx was once again the cutting edge (at least in appearance) company they used to be, wouldn't it be a lot easier to get the major OEM's? I know ATI isn't "top of the line" but with 3dfx lagging behind the competition (in terms of feature sets, and a few glaring omissions on spec sheets - no 32 bit rendering or AGP texturing) how can they become ATI's biggest threat? They can't, obviously. This is why I think it does matter what card comes next from 3dfx. This has been going on for so long and with so much whispered hype - it's like waiting for the messiah. I think that 3dfx will do what it can to inform the game software companies about the next version of Glide which will work with the next gen part. If they can produce some rolling demos and movies to show off to the public when it is announced (like Sony with the Playstation 2), then that will generate a lot of publicity. I don't think 3dfx would just put out a press release and a spec sheet. Obviously, it would be a major multimedia event. I think that 3dfx won't fail Patrick, as long as the software companies are excited about their new abilities, and they are able to work with the technology and not wrestle with it. There may be a few feature's that 3dfx tries to implement that is in direct competition with other companies innovations, but so what? If they are the clear leader in technology (and sales :) then might not they have the power to steer the market in a direction they prefer?

To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (13132)	6/6/1999 5:51:00 PM
From: Peter Kerling	Respond to of 16960

Pat, >>The more crap they add, the more complicated the chip. The more complicated the chip, the harder it is to design. The harder the design, the greater chance of delay or outright failure. If 3dfx tries to go too far with their design they may shoot themselves in the foot.<< I agree. Therefore I would appreciate the new geometric-acceleration -card to be produced as an add-on-card like the first Voodoos or the V2. There would be no performance hit for the original Voodoo-chipset. When do we expect TDFX coming out with details for the next Voodoo-chipset? Peter