Who will notice when 3dfx is gone?

Letters On Tuesday we reported the effective demise of 3dfx, the graphics chips designer, with the sale of assets to arch-rival Nvidia We asked the (rhetorical) question: "Who will notice when it's gone?"

These people will...do we detect the beginnings of an Anti-Nvidia backlash

"Soon the company is to be no more. Who will notice, when it's gone? " Prices of the video cards in Australia have increased over 50% since they went bust. To answer the question, YES! your wallet will notice now.

Example. Voodoo 5 5500 - A$550 vs Gf2 (ASUS models) A$450. NOW they are OEM value at around A$1200. And retail is around A$1500. The industry needs more competition. Nvidia should have helped them out by investing in them to help keep the prices down.

Now there is only ATI and Matrox as the major competitors with cards of around the same price now as a voodoo 5 5500 and and no one is buying. Now i cant even afford to get a decent model video card because of the increase in costs. I want a GF2 and I should have got one before 3dfx went bust. Bummer. :)

Brendan McLaughlin Developer/Analyst Microsoft Technologies Developer

"Who will notice, when it's gone? ®"

Probably all the loyal 3dfx fans. Sooner or later, the consumer will, since there is no more good competition against nvidia, hence the prices for 3d-accelerated graphics cards will not drop as soon in the future, until an AMD stops by and gives us something like the 'Athlon 3d' and make nvidia fall from its 'Geforce 3 will be $900' throne,

Gregor Kronenberger, proud owner of a 'reasonably' priced Voodoo 5 - 5500

"The final curtain approaches for 3dfx, the graphics chip designer". .. "Who will notice, when it's gone?"

I will. Nvidia releases drivers every freaking day and still have compatibility issues and don't work with a lot of games. true, 3dfx made a lot of mistakes, but an extremely irresponsible press that failed to mention how most nvidia products won't work with your games without a crapload of fiddling around sure helped Nvidia gain a lot of market share they didn't deserve. now without any competition people are just gonna keep getting screwed. sigh..

Andy Crosby

Who will notice, when it's gone?

I will. 3dfx was like the neighborhood badass. I remember seeing quake 2 running on a voodoo2 for the first time. I nearly wet myself. It'll be sad to see them go.

Thanks, Eric Lathrop

Drew, I will have noticed... Not only has my $7000 investment shrunk to $150... but, my expectations for the Fusion Chip set which 3Dfx would have started shipping had it secured a bank loan. Having got a sneak peak at the chip set (which was ready to go to the foundry) I quickly noticed that it KICKED BUTT. It was faster in 1024x768 running Q-III than anything else I have seen to date.

Note: I have not yet been able to see the Latest WildCat or Fire GL-2 cards as yet but I don't think they would have had it when it comes to frame rate. The sad thing is most of the employee's were fairly upbeat before the Ax came down and 3dfx went belly up. 3dfx did approach 3 other companies who offered them worse deals than arch rival nPukia....

I thank Al Gore for this bank loan debacle... Yes, Al Dorf caused major freezes on high risk loans. I read that other companies not just 3Dfx were caught in this same bank loan brain freeze. They got stuck in the LOCK BOX ! So... I too grieve for the loss of the good friend of gamers world wide...

Ron Davis