3dfx: Great Stuff, but a little too late???

[OneOfTheseDays]

Its great that 3dfx is finally stepping up to the plate and delivering driver improvements that greatly enhance gameplay. However, isn't it a little too late? If they had done this when they released the voodoo 5 then they would have sold a lot more boards. I know personally that I will not switch from my geforce 2 because the NV20 is on the horizon and its really not worth it. A lot of people here at the forum bought geforce 2's because they were out way before the voodoo 5 was and I think its just not worth switching over to the voodoo 5 when the nv20 is just around the corner.

 

[NFS4]

Well the driver updates are not to sway people to go out and buy a Voodoo 5 IMHO. They are to help out the folks that already have a Voodoo 5 and give them a performance boost.

I do think that it is a little long in coming though for a performance boost to put it into GF2 territory.

 

[Soccerman]

"If they had done this when they released the voodoo 5 then they would have sold a lot more boards."

well in order for that to have happened, they would have had to acquire Gigapixel ALOT earlier.. the only real reason they're releasing these drivers, is cause they found ways to impliment alot of tricks (mostly from Gigapixel) into the drivers.

so it's not necessarily their fault, not being able to do this earlier, however, I don't see nVidia doing the same thing!

possibly because they don't have as good R&D on this topic (something where 3dfx is now a leader in, because of acquiring Gigapixel)..

3dfx pretty much had their drivers tweaked to the max, which is why we didn't see many updates at all, until recently.

ahh screw it.. try not to take what I said above as nVidia bashing.. I don't want to go back and edit everything to be more.. Anandtech BBS correct?

 

[NFS4]

<< however, I don't see nVidia doing the same thing! >>


Puhleassssssssssssssse. Surely you haven't forgotten the 6.xx drivers which boosted performance like crazy across the GeForce lineup (GF and GF2). nVidia is constantly adding speed and features to their drivers.

 

[Soccerman]

&quot;nVidia is constantly adding speed and features to their drivers.&quot;

and bugs! hehe..

you're correct though, I don't see why those things weren't integrated into the drivers already, but oh well.. I don't care much anymore..

 

[NFS4]

Me either, NV20 and Rampage BABY!!!

 

[Booty]

The driver improvements could improve sales...but not for a little while. When the price of a V5 drops some more, and people want a solution a little more ballsy than an MX but don't want to cough up the dough for the NV20-genre solutions, they'll be considering GF2's, V5's, and Radeons...

I just bought the original GF a few months ago...wish I had waited a month for the MX to come out, but still...couldn't afford $300 for the GF2, and didn't want a TNT2 or whatever...

I'm sure there's others like me...hell, if the Voodoo 5's performance increases enough and price gets low enough, I'd definately consider one in a few months as an upgrade, even though I've been using Nvidia since I started building my own systems...

 

[Soccerman]

&quot;Me either, NV20 and Rampage BABY!!!&quot;

can I get a HELL YEAH!?

 

[Booty]

Then again, they'll probably have the NV20 mx cards...so who knows. Guess we'll have to see how long it takes them to come out and what gives the best performance/price, huh?

 

[snow patrol]

I disagree, NFS4. I think that these driver updates and the prospect of improved drivers in the future, coupled with the fact that you can now pick up a Voodoo 5 5500 for under $150 with rebate - will sway a reasonable amount of people that a Voodoo 5 is worth getting.

If I wasn't so strapped for cash now, I'd certainly be going for one

 

[Soulcannon]

In any event, it seems 3dfx is REALLY on the ropes...they're shutting down their own card manufacturing and halting production of the V5000 altogether: http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/11/14/technology/3dfx/

And their shares are down to $4 a share. That's really bad.

 

[zsir]

Snow Patrol

Rebate..........did you say Rebate..........??????


If that $50 rebate is still around, I'm buying one right now!!!!!!!

 

[kami]

<< I do think that it is a little long in coming though for a performance boost to put it into GF2 territory. >>


from the benchmarks I saw, it was wooping GF2's ass in the high res benchmarks, not just in its territory...not bad for a card with a considerably smaller amount of theoretical fillrate.

where's Hardware in this one? No pathetic little comment followed by his overused! exclamation! marks! bwahaha...

anyway, I bet all you V5 owners are pretty happy

 

[Sephiroth_IX]

My Voodoo 5 has treated me right from the start. I think it's great that they are helping more and more now with speed increases. This truly is starting to become the card to have out of the &quot;big three.&quot; (Radeon, GF2, V5)

Hopefully things will keep going better and better. I assume Nvidia will pick apart 3dfx's drivers and implement some of the features into their cards before long, but I really have been becoming more proud to be a 3dfx owner lately. It also raises thoughts on the Rampage, because if this card, that puts out 667mpix and mtex can outperform in some situations a card that has double that, (although bandwidth limited) it looks like good things for a more equal solution.

 

[TheBeast]

Soulcannon,
Very informative post there, not one piece of correct information and very on topic.

1)3dfx is selling their board manufacturing plant, not shutting it down
2)What is a V5000?
3)3dfx never started production of V5-6000's. They liscenced the 4 way SLI to quantum
4)3dfx stock closed at $2.75 today and hasn't been at four for over 2 weeks

 

[NFS4]

snow patrol, I didn't think about it that way...good point.

 

[Pete]

I think that rebate was a one-week deal that expired a long time ago. Decades ago in Hot Deal years.

 

[DaveB3D]

The thing to realize when buying a 3dfx product is that the focus was on stability. So when the product first ships, the thing that was paid most attention to was stability because that is the most important thing. So right away even if it isn't quite as fast, don't worry about it. Speed gets added later on. The focus really is stability at first though. IMO anyway.

 

[Hardware]

I am dunno why thw HSR driver is sometimes a TFA driver.
TFA = THROWING FRAMES AWAY
We know now that the 3dfx drivers throws frames away (when it takes too much time) should we consider this cheating?
Dave?

 

[NFS4]

Hardware!!!! WTF are you talking about????????????????????? :Q:Q

 

[RoboTECH]

well, hardware, welcome

Guys? He has a valid point here.

Let's wait until the drivers finalize before we start getting too happy

There is still some &quot;work&quot; to be done on its rendering.

 

[Wingznut]

&quot;Only a dead zombie is a good zombie &quot; --Hardware

Hmmm... Hardware has called me a zombie many times.

Real nice, man.

 

[Hardware]

NSF4:

<< Hardware!!!! WTF are you talking about????????????????????? >>


If you dont know something its a bad style to flame it.
I thought its common fact that the drivers throws frames away but....

 

[LXi]

Hardware:

Dont pretend you know something when you really dont, its very embarrasing.

 

[Soulcannon]

TheBeast,
Screw you.


There's certainly no need to be rude about it, but since you're intent on having it so...

As for the info itself, I gleaned it from rivazone. Sorry if their interpretation was incorrect at all.