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What's the hash rate?
Lloyd Center?
And now... 17 years later? What do we have? People rich &/or stupid enough to pay 800 dollars for a GFX card they don't need.
I don't think the video cards could do compute at that time.
Remember when GLQuake hit the scene? For us old timers it seems like it was just yesterday. I don't know about anybody else, but that game and technology grabbed a hold of me and made me a gaming fiend for many years. The Voodoo graphics card that drove that game was a godsend for gamers used to bland 2D gaming and ushered in an era of 3d gaming goodness that still continues today. So what happened to 3Dfx and why aren't we still gaming on their products today? Here's another take on the subject and one worth reading if you are interested in the history of 3D gaming/technology.
Strangely, 3Dfx didn’t so much draw interest as blow the lid off of a trend that redefined how we think of video games. Its graphics processing units were just the right technology for their time. And, for that reason, the company was everywhere for a few years … until it wasn’t. So, what happened-why did 3Dfx turn into a cautionary tale?
Definitely was a leap for gaming on the PC.
The fall of 3DFX ? they were too good, and Nvidia pulled a Disney ( if you can't make something better, buy the competition )
I still haven't read the article, but from what I remember at the time it was mostly caused by them being greedy and trying to vertically integrate.
They wanted a bigger piece of the pie, so they bought video card maker STB in order to sell their own video cards rather than just GPU's.
When they started phasing out their other board partners they shrunk their distribution network at the same time as they had so much money tied up in STB that they had less to spend on R&D and fell behind Nvidia and ATI in the GPU development race.
This resulted in constant delays and trying to slap more GPU's on a single board to make up for disappointing GPU performance and eventually bankruptcy.
I've posted this video before, but it's frankly better than any article. Watch the full thing, it's really interesting.
The big stand out thing to me is really how nothing has changed much from what 3DFX first innovated on over two decades ago now, and how it was basically the innovation of Gary Tarolli that made it all happen.
And yes - It was basically the choice to waste a bunch of time trying to make AIO cards / vertically integrate that killed them. If they would have just stuck with selling a chip and focused on doing what they did best by just putting out a higher performing 3D GPU they likely would have survived.
This is precisely what happened. However, as I recall 3DFX was already falling behind NVIDIA technologically speaking at the time they bought STB. Basically, the company was mismanaged and run into the ground. It made a decision that I don't think anyone would have thought was a good idea if they had known 3DFX's exact financial situation.
nVidia's focus on OGL and DX (instead of a proprietary API) also helped them secure a strong OEM supply chsim revenue stream, while 3Dfx relied solely on the "small potatoes" niche of gaming PCs, since their attempt of partnering with gaming console manufacturers failed. Couple that with the debt of the STB purchase leaving little room for R&D, this left nVidia in a position to throw a lot of money at R&D from that OEM supply chain revenue.
Back at the time of 3Dfx's ultimate demise, I worked for Compaq/HP performing assembly and run-in. In almost every business desktop with an add-in video card, it was almost always an nVidia based card of some sorts.
Matrox was second (cheaper, but less capable).
ATI third (more expensive, and oftentimes backordered due to tight supply).
While 3Dfx was attempting to ride their former coattails of success during the V5 release, nVidia was sewing new coattails for themselves. The rest is history.
That game was hardly the first full 3D rendered game available. One is example is the game "Descent". It came out much earlier and eventually was made to use the 3DFX Glide driver.
Still own a mint pair of stb voodoo 2 12mb 3dfx cards installed in a vintage win98 build and another vintage build with a voodoo 5 5500.
Also a banchee? (Can't spell it) i got in an old Pentium 250mmx Packard bell system I bought years ago at a salvation army.. I think I paid $60 bucks for it.. but didn't care.. could not walk away from it as it looked identical to the first ever pc I bought back in 95. Hehe.
I could light this place up with many boxed photos from all the 3dfx cards I've owned and sold off over the years.
Voodoo1,v2,v3.. never bought the voodoo 4 or 5 back when they were at the stores :/
Wish 3dfx would come back and give nvidia some competition and regain there status!
Wish 3dfx would come back and give nvidia some competition and regain there status!
Yes I know but I think you what I mean.. they bought them for there sli tech.
IIRC SLI was dead for quite a while until PCI-E came out.Except SLI on NVIDIA cards has nothing in common with 3DFX's SLI. Scalable Link Interface is different than Scan Line Interleaving.
I remember it well, I had bought the Voodoo 5 5500, was such a blazing card, then 3dfs was bought out, my card was no longer supported, it became a boat anchor at that point. Bought my first Geforce card after that and never went back.
I know this is old but I bought 3dfx stock shortly before nvidia took them over because it was dirt cheap.....well it didnt work out. If I only invested in nvidia at that time I think they were at 30ish.