3dfx Oral History Panel with Ross Smith, Scott Sellers, Gary Tarolli, and Gordon Camp

Amazing video. Watched it yesterday and enjoyed it immensely. It seems to me that so many companies have failed by making a single fatal decision. Few companies recover, most don't.

Oh, just in case: they way they're sited by the table is Tarolli, Sellers, Smith, Campbell.
 
I want that shirt
nz3l2Bn.jpg
 
Anyone willing to make a quick summary of the reasons they acknowledge to be the main factors that led to 3dfx's demise?
 
ToTTenTranz said:
Anyone willing to make a quick summary of the reasons they acknowledge to be the main factors that led to 3dfx's demise?
Click to expand...
There wasn't much emphasis on that part, but for most of the part the consensus fell on the acquisition of STB and the subsequent alienation of the rest of the OEMs. There was quite few references to Nvidia as well, on different topics. On the technical part -- a lot of details about the development of the Voodoo GFX (Voodoo 1) were discussed, as well as the Quantum 3D spin-off. No word on Voodoo Rush and there was just a brief mentioning of Rampage and its TnL implementation.
 
The acquisition of STB coupled by their own products delays, which led them to become alienated by board manufacturers without a timely and significantly competitive product which could make their vertical integration successful. They conceded repeatedly that nvidia was right to focus on meeting OEM's schedules
 
I remember starting with voodoo 3 they started to fall behind on the performance compared to others.

Then voodoo 4 & 5... and they fell further behind... plus their costly voodoo rush campaign. Every single magazine publication had a multipage add for voodoo rush with moto cycle racing.
 
When did ATI start to supply graphics chips to manufacturers instead of making their own boards? It's around the same time I think.
 
Interesting video. Thanks! Since they only mentioned glide I wonder whether voodoo supported OpenGL or DirectX at that time.
 
yes voodoo supported direct 3d they supported it from the beginning up to dx7 as long as the game didnt insist on hardware t&l (you could get round it by using 3d analyse)
as for opengl they supported a subset of it (minigl) enough of opengl to run games
 
Priyadarshi said:
Interesting video. Thanks! Since they only mentioned glide I wonder whether voodoo supported OpenGL or DirectX at that time.
Click to expand...

Depends on the timeframe. Eventually the Voodoo 1 and 2 supported miniGL and DirectX, but at that time both those APIs (OpenGL and DirectX) sucked heavily. There really wasn't much use of OpenGL that went outside the realm of what their miniGL layer provided.
 
what was wrong with opengl at that time (there was plenty wrong with many ihv's opengl drivers) but opengl itself ?
 
Pixel said:
I remember starting with voodoo 3 they started to fall behind on the performance compared to others.

Then voodoo 4 & 5... and they fell further behind... plus their costly voodoo rush campaign. Every single magazine publication had a multipage add for voodoo rush with moto cycle racing.
Click to expand...

You clearly remember wrong, Voodoo 3 3500 was as fast as TNT2 Ultra and ATI wasn't that fast back then. What it did fall behind on was supported technologies like 32bit colour (only 16bit (/22bit post filer) output), 2kx2k textures etc.

VSA-100 was delayed, but IIRC some of that was from lawsuits rather than 3dfx just being slow?
 
The big mistake was buying STB. Being vertically integrated amplifies your profits when you are market leader, but it also amplifies your losses when you're not (as was the case with V5).

On top of that, it's nigh on impossible to be a chip merchant and vertically integrated at the same time; You're basically against your own customers.

Too bad, it was a wonderful technology company while it lasted.

Cheers
 
Hmm..
SHAYNE HODGE: All right, we're reconvening after a break with some props this time. The panelists will describe them at the appropriate points: one of the original 3dfx boxes, [a] quad board system, another board in the back I can't see, and apparently an iPhone, which I didn't realize was 3dfx.

ROSS SMITH:]No. This has about the performance probably of Voodoo 2 maybe]?

SCOTT SELLERS: I don't know actually what's in there.

GARY TAROLLI: Some power PowerVR.

ROSS SMITH: It's a power PowerVR chip.

GARY TAROLLI: I've lost track, yeah. Or more. I mean, it's amazing--

ROSS SMITH: It probably has better geometry performance.
Click to expand...
Probably. And maybe a touch more fill rate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Where r the EX3dfx employeers?
2
Replies
23
Views
6K
Nappe1
N
R
3dfx chronicle
Replies
10
Views
7K
Rookie
R
Back
Top