And the monopolistic wheels begin to turn...

[Xayd]

Quoted from the Voodoo Extreme Forum

3dfx Video Cards Pulled 03:22 PM - Chris "Outlaw" O'Brien - Hardware: 3dfx

It looks like all of the 3dfx products are being pulled from store shelves. Chuck "mojo" Wastell sent a memo which was sent to all Best Buy departments pertaining to having all 3dfx products pulled off of the shelves, as well as discountinued technical support. Here it is:

"3dfx announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement with Nvidia Corporation to sell to them most of 3dfx's assets. With this agreement it has also been announced that 3dfx will discontinue techincal support after Feb. 15th. Concidering the nature of this product, we feel that continuing to provide this product to our customers will jeopardize their satisfaction with both BBY and the product long term."

"We are asking that you pull all 3dfx skus listed below off of your shelves and hold in the warehouse. The product will then be sent during our January brown goods return. Your complete execution is needed on this."

3916329 - Voodoo 4 4500 PCI
3605370 - V3 3000 AGP
4029116 - Voodoo TV 200 PCI
3916338 - Voodoo 5 5500 PCI
3916310 - Voodoo 4 4500 AGP
3915927 - Voodoo 5 5500 AGP
3605398 - V3 2000 PCI
3764661 - Voodoo 3000 PCI

"Thanks for you attention and execution of this plan."

Last minute Xmas shoppers at Best Buy apparently get a GF2 MX, or a Radeon, or a Radeon, or maybe a GF2 MX.

On a lighter note, a forum and site are up apparently staffed by recently laid off 3dfx tech folks, http://www.x3dfx.com. They're apparently looking immediately into driver support for the Voodoo line, as well as other possible things down the line, at least until they get enough steam behind them for Nvidia to have the lawyers stamp them out.


Xayd

[madthumbs]

Better 3dfx than Nvidia; Nvidia didn't give us any proprietary API's causing a rift among gamers or promised products that weren't delivered timely and at a reasonable price. Also, ATI is producing some top quality graphics cards these days and Nvidia and ATI aren't going off in two totally different directions making the developers have to program for two totally different sets of features. If Nvidia gets lazy ATI will blow past them, and if nothing else Nvidia will be competing with its own graphics cards for price since technology always gos down in price.

[Andrew Cz]

Originally posted by madthumbs Better 3dfx than Nvidia; Nvidia didn't give us any proprietary API's...

3dfx gave us a API that at one time gave us better fps and superior image quality. Enough said.

Its very disappointing to see them go. Coruption in the powers was no doubt to blame.

Andrew.
http://www.clan-xenon.com - Proud supporters of 3dfx, with majority of members owning 3dfx cards.

[madthumbs]

So I suppose it won't matter to you that you may have problems someday playing an older game that was made for Glide? Or You were never influenced in anyway to get a slightly slower video card for more money just for Glide support? Wouldn't you have just liked to be able to choose a card on it's performance merit?

[Xayd]

My opinion on Glide is the same as Andrew's. The way I see it Madthumbs is yes, it's a shame that 3dfx tried to keep Glide proprietary, but that doesn't take away from its merits as an API. I sound like a broken record with Unreal Engine praises, but with a K6-2 450, 128 megs of RAM, and a Voodoo3 you could play Unreal Tournament (that still looks equal to if not superior to any of the T&L games that nVIDIA sings the praises of) at about 40-50 frames per second, with that 300 dollars of hardware.

3dfx's business practices I never agreed with, and they eventually sank them. From a technical standpoint, the year or so era of Glide games was a milestone in 3D game evolution.

Xayd

[madthumbs]

You should be able to get Quake 3 running half way decent on a K6-2 450/ V3 also.

[Andrew Cz]

Ive got P2 300 @ 450mhz and V3. And Ive got all the setting in Q3 Demo on maximum or best @ 800x600 and getting smooth play. Dont know how to get fps sorry! NE1 know?

[hackercarlos]

Andrew Cz,

About getting the FPS to show in Q3.

Type the following in the console ( to access the console hit the following key ~ )

/cg_drawFPS (deafult: 0)

Will display your framerate in the upper right of the screen. (0=off, 1=on)

[Andrew Cz]

Thats funny. I booted q3 demo up on the fly with about 8 IE windows, ICQ, Messenger, Zone Alert and Norton Virus, and got fps between 40 and 80!!! ***? (@16bit 800x600) better than UT! I played on q3dm7.

And thanks Hackercarlos for the quick reply!

Andrew,
http://www.clan-xenon.com - we're not gimps!

[kraken]

Alls not lost in the 3D wars yet. There may be a new kid on the block (actually an old one who's making a comeback).

Videologic have released a mid range card to compete against the Gforce MX cards. The chipset is the PowerVR KYRO and it is showing some interesting features like tile rendering. It has environmental bump mapping so it has good visual qualities.

Who knows what will come next from this manufacturer. Its early days yet and the drivers are apparantly a bit on the buggy side, but I will be watching this one for improvements.

[Andrew Cz]

What happened to Matrox? aren't they into it anymore?

[kraken]

matrox have left the high end 3D business to concentrate on other things at the moment. We will probably see them return in a year or two with something totally new.

[Andrew Cz]

Yeah the ability to plug in 4 monitors to one card ROTFLMAO

[kraken]

Andrew

Obviously you have never thought of CCTV monitoring. Matrox are going for the business end of town, as trying to compete with Nvidia at the moment is draining their bank balance.

[Andrew Cz]

My geforce that wont work has CCTV monitoring!

But! the bast majority of people who use a GEFORCE dont use the CCTV do they?

So for gaming that feature is of no value

[kraken]

CCTV as in close circuit TV. Multiple (many) monitors connected to multiple cameras utilising one control console.

I suppose a web cam connected to a PC and utilising a monitor can be classified as CCTV. But not in the business sense.

[Andrew Cz]

The software that came with my ASUS was for the Duluxe model with TV in. It monitors for movement and automatically records whats happening and will allert u.

I haven't seen if it would work with a webcam.

[kraken]

Andrew

When I mentioned CCTV I was referring to the type of setup that will run 40 - 50 monitors simultaneously. Its the sort of setup that you would see in casinos, street watch cameras, government and large business security setups.

Matrox has stated that they are no longer willing to compete for the top end of the PC market. ATI have made their money (and they are the biggest supplier of video chips in the market) concentrating on the business sector and specialty cards.

The G450 which is the latest matrox card isn't worried about frame rates but is concentrated to the quality graphics required by business. It is focusing on its dual head technology to generate sales.

They also have the G200MMS (Multi-Monitor Series) for attaching up to 16 monitors and is aimed at the finance sector. No doubt they will come back when they need to test their next generation design after the G450.