What were they like?

[sovietdoc]

so if 3dfx was bombing the videocard market back in the day, how did nvidia came about and overtook them?

[WaroDaBeast]

Originally Posted by sovietdoc

so if 3dfx was bombing the videocard market back in the day, how did nvidia came about and overtook them?

Well, I was about to make a bunch of guesses, but after reading the article on 3dfx over at wikipedia... it seems that the acquisition of STB was their downfall (article says "main contributor to [it]"). Their eyes were bigger than their belly...

[Veteran]

Originally Posted by sovietdoc

so if 3dfx was bombing the videocard market back in the day, how did nvidia came about and overtook them?

They bought them out i guess with a -=HUGE=- pile of cash

[austin865]

Originally Posted by WaroDaBeast

Well, I was about to make a bunch of guesses, but after reading the article on 3dfx over at wikipedia... it seems that the acquisition of STB was their downfall (article says "main contributor to [it]"). Their eyes were bigger than their belly...

yup it was STB
what hapend was they no longer sold gpu's to 3erd party's
so the 3erd party was no longer supporting them

[Mufflore]

Originally Posted by austin865

yup it was STB
what hapend was they no longer sold gpu's to 3erd party's
so the 3erd party was no longer supporting them

yep
Without the exposure and outlets, going it alone sunk them.

ps you have a sound blaster f-xi pci

[PurpleFish]

All I can say is WOW

[FamousAmerican]

while never a 3dfx card owner, "always to expensive" I do remember these days quite well, and I remember buying my Riva 128ZX those where the days, long days with Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2 and Need for Speed 2 SE

[sykozis]

Originally Posted by sovietdoc

so if 3dfx was bombing the videocard market back in the day, how did nvidia came about and overtook them?

3DFx and nVidia playing with lawyers didn't help matters....

[Paul L]

I always thought that 3Dfx's demise was all down to the fact that nVidia
had 32-bit colour support in 3d with the TNT gen of cards. Whereas 3DFX
didn't at that time. Thus they lost a mindshare/market share. At the time
I remember I had an Orchid Righteous card then a friend got his TNT & I
became envious.

[SaberJ2X]

everyone keeps forgetting the fact that 3dfx stuck with voodoo arch until it was basically unrecognizable (VSA-100) and never finished their next-gen arch (rampage) so voodoo 2 thru 5 where just "stop gaps" until rampage...

aside from that, 3dfx never learned to make short cycle simple production vga chips... (like nvidia's 6 month schedule which they had and ATi until the other day basically)

and if they did so, it was only to glue them together to make them go fast... hence... SLI route

[Mufflore]

Originally Posted by Paul L

I always thought that 3Dfx's demise was all down to the fact that nVidia
had 32-bit colour support in 3d with the TNT gen of cards. Whereas 3DFX
didn't at that time. Thus they lost a mindshare/market share. At the time
I remember I had an Orchid Righteous card then a friend got his TNT & I
became envious.

The TNT wasnt fast enough to use 32bit (24bit really) colour though.
I still had to use 16bit after switching from Voodoo2 to TNT.
Very much a sidegrade rather than an upgrade.

[Paul L]

Ooops my bad I meant a TNT2

[GAR818]

I still have a Voodoo 2 at my computer store, on the wall! 3dfx will always have a special place in my heart I remember my high school years, my first card was a 3dfx voodoo 1 (4mb) card, then got voodoo2 sli cards, then moved over to riva TNT.