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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 6, 2023 8:48:05 GMT -5
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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 6, 2023 9:41:42 GMT -5
From the article: I managed to miss that so I did some googling. hothardware.com/news/3dfx-rampage-gpu-performance-revealed-in-a-book-20-years-laterI wonder if the reason 3dfx threw in the towel is the stuff that was coming to market was going to be slower then the GeForce and had zero chance. When the GeForce DDR dropped in late 1999 in blew everyone's mind with how fast it was. I remember seeing benchmark after benchmark like this, I actually owned a Celeron 500 at the time I believe but mine was overclocking from 500 to like 565:  www.anandtech.com/show/429/9I couldn't believe you could run games that fast at 1600x1200  www.tomshardware.com/reviews/full-review-nvidia,134-13.html I preordered a GeForce DDR at CompUSA and patiently waited for it to come. I still remember picking it up with my girlfriend at the time and going out for pizza at the mall with high school friends before going home and installing it. First time I ever saw 1600x1200 3d accelerated in person I think. One of my friends got tired of waiting for the DDR so he got the SDR just so he wasn't going home empty handed. Anyway do you guys remember how emotional people would get arguing about videocards back then? I remember getting told I was "brainwashed" by Nvidia propaganda about hardware T&L. I didn't even know what T&L was till I read about it with my GeForce DDR already installed. It was the crazy benchmark numbers that got me to buy a GeForce. I remember someone said I was an idiot for saying I got the GeForce DDR in December 1999 and it was impossible. I could be wrong and got it in January of 2000 but I am pretty certain that it came December of 1999. Per wikipedia it started releasing in mid December 1999: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_256So hilarious looking back how angry people would become over something so pedantic. What difference does it make if I got a videocard the last week of December 1999 or the first week of January 2000? I guess it means everything if you are trying to score points arguing about videocards on the internet in the early 2000s. Good times. |
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Post by Coolverine on Mar 6, 2023 9:45:13 GMT -5
I heard the main reason 3dfx went under was because of mismanagement. I remember there were some stories about the higher-ups having very lavish and expensive parties/celebrations and not really paying attention to their product cycles.
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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 6, 2023 10:19:18 GMT -5
I heard the main reason 3dfx went under was because of mismanagement. I remember there were some stories about the higher-ups having very lavish and expensive parties/celebrations and not really paying attention to their product cycles. Up till right before they went out of business they were giving all employees free lunches, that was $50,000 a month. The company I work for now is more successful then 3dfx at its peak and we have a cafeteria which is very cheap but I still have to pay. Its a very long video but years ago someone did an interview with the founders and when it gets to the decline of the company you can see see emotions were kind of raw. The acquisition of STB seems to be one of the biggest issues that brought the company down. STB was never a great company to begin with and it didn't mesh well with 3dfx. They bought STB out of pure greed. 3dfx had the business model Nvidia had but they decided they wanted all of the money and didn't want the videocard makers to get a cut. That really pissed the videocard companies off a lot and when you factored in labor and other things selling directly to customers didn't net them mountains of money like they thought. Somewhere in this interview one of the founders calls STB a "3rd rate board company", looks like he was opposed to buying STB from the beginning. |
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Post by ForRealTho on Mar 7, 2023 9:02:41 GMT -5
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