I agree with your main point that this whole 3dfx vs. nvidia thing is retarded and that both companies offer great 3D products.
However, I would like to point out that your post failed to mention a couple of very important points.
First, in regards to the 3dfx cards, GLide as an API was introduced at a time when DirectX simply sucked. Ask any developer who was making games from 1996-1998 1/2 which API they would rather be programming for and GLide would win by a land-slide. Since the time that the Voodoo1 appeared on the scene and revolutionized home gaming, Microsoft has slowly been improving DirectX to the point where it is feature-rich, fast, and good-looking. There are still some developers who prefer GLide and especially OpenGL, but DX is now fairly good and has it's place. And since Microsoft is backing it the industry has little choice but to accept it. Bottom line: 3dfx was a pioneer with their hardware and GLide was a means to give developers an easy way to deliver top-notch content to the masses. Without GLide I'd shudder to think how far back we'd still be. In regards to it being an "unfair" business tactic or setting the tone for an unhealthy biz environment, well...I'd have to strongly disagree. GLide's presence pushed the industry FAR faster than it would have moved without it. Microsloth had to get off their butts and actually improve Direct X. Further, 3dfx had every right to make it proprietary...it was part of their biz model to make the 3dfx card line a "gaming platform" unto itself on the PC. Will we see Sega letting Sony integrate Dreamcast support into their PS2? Not hardly. It's called competition and free-market economy and it's what drives companies to outdo each other and offer us, the consumers, better and better products at ever lower prices. Now, with that said, I would agree that at some point...perhaps a year or so ago...it would have benefitted 3dfx to turn GLide into an open API. Once it was clear that DX was taking over, it would have made sense to open it up to other card manufacturers and maybe collect small royalty fees for it's use. It was a sound biz decision to keep GLide exclusive for quite awhile, but the market changed and I believe 3dfx was too slow to respond. So, because of that and the fact that 3dfx hasn't spent any resources upgrading GLide, it WILL most likely die. But won't the last batch of GLide games kick some ass?
Can't wait for Duke4.
Now, with all that said, there is something FAR more important than GLide when it comes to current 3dfx products...it's called hardware FSAA. Simply put, this puts the 3dfx Voodoo5 series in a class of it's own when it comes to image quality. Don't pay attention to anyone out there that tells you otherwise...if someone says that it isn't any big deal or that nvidia's version is almost as good, just as good, etc...they are simply talking out of their ass. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who games with 4X hardware FSAA on a V5 5500 will never be able to go back to gaming without it. All of the hub-bub over 32-bit vs. 16-bit color is a total joke compared to the difference between non-FSAA and (properly done hardware) FSAA. It's that big of a difference. Screen shots and videos online, no matter how good, simply cannot convey how damn cool it is. It completely eliminates pixel popping and texture shimmering as well as getting rid of all jagged edges. Games take on a painted and/or photorealistic quality. My jaw still hits the floor when I play any game with the V5, it's that cool and it makes your gaming experience better than ever.
Now in regards to the GeFORCE line, let me say first that I also like nvidia products. Whereas 3dfx started out by leading the industry, I think nvidia has taken over as the company which is pushing the envelope with more and more features on their cards. 32-bit color, T&L, per-pixel shading, etc.... Now, it can be argued that 32-bit color isn't that big of a difference (it is in some games, not in others), it can be argued that the TNT2/Ultra was really too slow to use it right. But nvidia had it first. It can be argued that T&L is useless except for in demos, which is pretty much true. It can be argued that by the time any games come out which actually use T&L effectively all of the GeFORCE products will be obsolete. Which is also true. It can be argued that per pixel shading is also useless as of now and probably for another 6-9 months. Also true. It can be argued that nvidia hypes useless features to sell product while 3dfx hypes only useful features. Pretty much true. It can be argued that the software-FSAA that nvidia tried to hack into their drivers is slow and very poor quality compared to 3dfx's method and that nvidia has tried to downplay the importance of FSAA b/c they know how good it really is when done right. All true. It can be argued that the GeFORCE line is severely bandwidth limited and therefore does not come close to the fill-rate or real-world numbers that nvidia hypes. Very true. But there is one big thing in favor of nvidia in this argument: they were FIRST in all of these technologies in terms of bringing them to the home user (except hardware FSAA). They may not really be useful YET, but they are pushing the 3D gaming business envelope faster than 3dfx right now. In the end, the most important feature of the nvidia products has nothing to do with 32-bit color, per-pixel shading, or T&L...it's all about the speed baby. Despite being very bandwidth limited the GeFORCE line, especially the GTS Ultra, is BLAZINGLY fast, sometimes exceeding the Voodoo5 by a wide margin in Quake 3. Then again, I think Quake 3 sucks big-time and I don't play it, so to me this does not matter.
To me, it's simple: 3dfx produced the single biggest USEFUL feature on a 3d card to date when they unleashed hardware FSAA on the V5 series. Games simply look beautiful and I'll never go back to gaming without FSAA again. Once you get a video card capable of doing it RIGHT you won't either, trust me. On the other hand, nvidia as a COMPANY has succeeded where 3dfx has recently failed b/c they are managed better and know how to market their products to OEMs, regardless of how useful the feature-sets are to the end-user.
In the end it comes down to this: do you want ultimate image quality or ultimate speed? The image quality king is definitely 3dfx, no contest. If you want balls-to-the-wall speed and play nothing but Quake 3 online all the time then get a GeFORCE.
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