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Re: 3D Cards--3d Blaster?

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To: Public Netbase NewsAgent
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Subject: Re: 3D Cards--3d Blaster?
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From: Brian Hook <bwh@netcom.com>
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Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 17:47:35 -0700 (PDT)
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Article: rec.games.computer.quake.misc.23196
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Score: 100

> But the guy who told me that he coded something about the 3Dfx.. I just
> want to tell him, that yes, the Voodoo is very powerful.. The most
> powerful 3D chipset available. But for gamers, Verite or a S3 or Nvidia
> chipset will be the most supported by gaming comany.
I think that NVidia has pretty much faded into irrelevancy, at least their NV-1 chip has
gone the way of the dodo. The Verite hasn't shipped yet, so how can you say it's going
to be well supported? The S3 is shipping right now, and it is definitely going to be well
supported, but it's staking out the low end.
> Why? I recently read
> something intelligent (in the CGW of July) about 3D chipsets. They say
> that the Vérité is be near the Voodoo in gfx quality..
You're going to trust a staff writer at CGW to get the facts right about 3D graphics
accelerators, a technology that many game developers don't understand fully? The
Verite is a VERY good chip, but I think it's a stretch to even say that's NEAR Voodoo in
gfx quality. A simple way of putting it is thus -- Voodoo is the best in terms of
performance and features by a LONG shot, but it's also the most inconvenient for your
average computer user. Lack of Windows acceleration and video acceleration and VGA is a
big issue with the Voodoo, so I doubt it's going to have the market penetration that it
could have had if it was an all in one accelerator. For this reason "in between"
accelerators such as Permedia and Verite have the opportunity for very good market
penetration assuming that they ship soon.
The all-in-one device is appealing, but you have to remember that PC users aren't buying
these things, it's the motherboard manufacturers that are going to be buying the large
majority of these all-in-one devices, and if performance sucks and this shows up in PC
Magazine's latest performance round up, you can bet your ass they're going to drop the
substandard solution like a cracked vial of Ebola.
I doubt that Voodoo is going to reach the level of market penetration that S3 or Rendition
or 3DLabs will for the very reasons you state, I'm simply stating that market
considerations aside, it's the best 3D graphics accelerator available for the PC.
Brian



