The legendary gaming graphics cards supporting 3D are remembered by the adult generation. Undoubtedly, most users of early Pentium and Celeron computers have tried out Voodoo 3 Velocity 100 in games, which was priced under $100 twenty years ago. But the manufacturer underestimated the competitor nVidia (with the slow Riva TNT 2 accelerator). After the appearance of nVidia MX series cards with 32-bit support, 3dfx lost its market position.
3dfx Interactive – dreaming is not harmful
In their presentations, the team of 3dfx Interactive announces their new developments in graphics card manufacturing. However, for most buyers, this brand remains unknown. And fans of Voodoo have long since moved away from gaming computers. With an 80% market share for nVidia and 20% for AMD, it’s unlikely that 3dfx products will change their position for the better.
But there is hope. If the company’s engineers manage to reduce the price of accelerators for the mid and high-end segments, they could attract 5-10% of buyers. But all this sounds good only in words. Industry giants are unlikely to release even 1% of potential customers. And 3dfx has little hope on the modern gaming graphics card market.
Interesting facts about 3dfx Interactive
Did you know that the SLI (Scan-Line Interleave) technology was invented within 3dfx? As early as the 2000s, it was possible to combine two gaming accelerators into an array, boosting system performance. Now, SLI technology is owned by nVidia.
The last accelerator, 3dfx Voodoo5 6000, which the company worked on for several years, never reached the masses. Simply because the technologists relaxed too much, not noticing competitors like nVidia and ATI on the market. As a result, they paid the price. The GeForce 2 Ultra and ATI Radeon 7500, which entered the market, had lower prices and demonstrated high gaming performance. The 3dfx accelerator became the first gaming card to become morally outdated almost immediately after release.
In the 2000s, 3dfx Interactive had enough money to buy ATI, which had just entered the market and faced financial problems. However, the management of 3dfx considered the deal a bad investment. As a result, ATI was acquired by AMD along with its developments and patents. All gaming cards in the budget segment under the AMD brand are now created within ATI. And 3dfx remains only in the memories of enthusiasts.
