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3DFX Not Quitting Video Card Business

Posted by Hemos on from the i'm-not-dead-yet dept.

CitizenC writes "According to this GameCenter.Com story, at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Wolford told Gamecenter that the Voodoo5 6000 has not been cancelled, that 3dfx will not start selling current chipset technology to third parties such as Creative Labs and ELSA, that Voodoo products, including current graphics and TV cards, will continue to be manufactured, and that the company isn't going belly-up any time soon."

7 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. V5-6000 no by 3dfx by Steve+Gibson · · Score: 3

    The article is a bit misleading, Several people got confirmation from Bubba after that article came out on cnet with word that 3dfx will not be bringing the V5-6000 to retail. Here's the story I posted about it a while ago with a quote from the same Bubba Wolford:

    3dfx not bringing V5-6000 to retail


    -Steve Gibson

    --
    -Steve Gibson
    Shacknews.com
  2. Re:3DFX by Dr.+Merkw�rdigliebe · · Score: 4

    It's perhaps more tragic than Netscape's downfall. In 1995 it was generally assumed 3D-cards would be the next big thing in graphics. nVidia was one of the first with their NV1 chip. Then others followed, all with their own API, since Direct3D did not yet exist in usable form. There were so-so chips such as S3's Virge and excellent add-on cards with Rendition's Verite or the PowerVR.

    But one company simply outclassed 'm all. The Voodoo 1 was somewhat expensive, but in a league of its own. With its excellent API (Glide) and John Carmack's GLQuake port it conquered the market.

    I don't think they lost it because they didn't innovate, they lost it because their innovations (high fill-rate, FSAA) weren't what the market wanted. This is how nVidia after their desastrous NV1 and NV2 chips came back with the NV3 and especially the NV4 (TNT).

    High fill-rate was secondary to 32-bit color and sound OpenGL support. 3dfx realised this too late and it's been downhill ever since.

    --
    - Also Sprach Doktor Merkwurdigliebe
  3. Rumors are not news unless they're marked as such. by Antaeus+Feldspar · · Score: 3

    I realize that Slashdot is not a traditional journalism site, and it doesn't have the resources to go out and verify every single story submitted to it.

    But still, it's a disquieting thing when a story like this comes out, saying "Hey, looks like those rumors weren't true!" about something which we had been told was fact and not rumor.

    It's so easy; just a "May Be" or "Rumored To" in the headline. And not using it makes one wonder whether someone's going the way of Harry Knowles and Matt Drudge* and enjoying their role as purveyor of information so much that they lose the intelligent selectivity that made people choose them as an information source in the first place.

    * (ok, Drudge was sludge from Day One. Drudge has always been a sleazy little rumor-monger wet-dreaming that his ability to regurgitate steaming clumps of fact and fiction faster puts him in the company of real journalists. The point is, I don't want to see Slashdot go that way, do you?

    --
    If people are to respect the law, perhaps the law should begin by respecting the people.
  4. the register has this too by fluxrad · · Score: 3

    you might check the register

    they have a very interesting article about this as well. apparently the plant that they're getting rid of is not necessarily going to be completely outsourced. at the worst, it appears that 3dfx would pick a single company to manufacture the boards for them.

    right now, the only fact we have is that 3dfx is selling it's facility in Juarez, Mexico. - who's to say what that will lead to.


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network

    --
    "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
  5. New motto? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3

    Slashdot: Rumors for Nerds. Stuff that Matters

    or:

    Slashdot: Rumors for Nerds. Stuff that Might Matter if it Pans Out (TM)

    or because nerd is something of an epithet to some people:

    Slashdot: Rumors for Geeks. Stuff that Doesn't Matter for Most Other People (TM)

  6. As said before, they're going back to their roots by Hadean · · Score: 3

    From Anandtech's article on the future of video card manufaturers, 3dfx is basically going to license Quantum3D to manufacture the cards, nullifying the entire purchase of STB, which started the whole process of 3Dfx (with a capital D back then) creating their own cards... Nothing will change, 'scept 3dfx will be able to focus more on creating the chipsets (which'll be a GOOD thing, since their latest ones have been pretty shoddy).

  7. 3dfx may not be abandoning the market. . . but: by kfg · · Score: 3

    If they don't get their act together, and fast, the market is surely going to abandon them.

    Marketing is a two way deal between the supplier and the consumer.

    Now, the fact of the matter is that I have a brand new V4 in my box, but I have special reasons. The only game I spend any real time in is an old glide optimized, 16 bit color, hard coded to a limit of 36 fps old timer.

    The entire VooDoo line is now an obvious kludge. The V5 6000 is kludge taken to the max. I wouldn't go near one of these things with a ten foot video bus. Obviously I didn't even go near the V5 5500.

    I hope their engineers are burning some serious midnight oil or they are, very simply, and f*cked company, no matter what their " intentions " are.