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ALL 3dfx products removed from Best Buy shelves today

C

Chriz

Senior member
I just today witnessed the removal of all 3dfx products off the video card shelves at best buy. This included Voodoo 3, Voodoo 4, Voodoo 5, and the Voodoo 200 TV. That was about HALF of the space on the video card shelves. It looks barren now....I saw about 3 different ATI cards, about 2 or 3 NVIDIA based cards, and the rest were like TV cards or video editing stuff. I was told the 3dfx products were removed this quickly because of service/support issues due to 3dfx being bought out and probably dissolved (Best buy customers will eventually be complaining of no support for 3dfx cards probably).
 
I just got back from Best Buy (Woodbridge, New Jersey) and they had all 3DFX cards still on the shelf, maybe we can buy them now and sell them on E-Bay once there all gone, at an inflated price.
 
Go ahead and buy 'em all. I have a feeling the are going to go down in value, not up. Somehow they are going to be liquidated, just like the rest of the company.
 
Weird. I was just there yesterday wondering if prices would drop. Guess there won't be a 3dfx clearance at BBuy. Too bad. 😛
 
Yet the BBY website still has them listed for sale hmmmm

And the website says I can order a 5500 and pick it up at a local store
That will throw them for a loop if they really have pulled them 🙂
 
Yeah Mopar go ahead and buy them all and try to sell them. With no warranty, no tech support, and no future driver updates, there's no way in hell anybody would buy these unless they are heavily discounted.
 
I for one am hoping the price will drop! I think linux driver support shall continue...heck, they still haven't finished yet. Maybe both will happen at the same time, that would be cool!

Who here really needs tech support?
 
Can you imagine how insane people would be getting... If Intel were to buy AMD, and then pull all of the AMD product away from the consumer?

It'd be a madhouse around here, with people screaming monopoly and such.
 
<<It'd be a madhouse around here, with people screaming monopoly and such. >>

Arent we already comparing nVidia to Creative Labs and screaming monopoly?
 
I don't know what Nvda's reasoning behind pulling the cards is, but, it does seem to be a responsible thing to do. At least to give them time to sort things out, and not rip unknowing consumers.

How many people wandering into BestBuy are going to be digging out Linux drivers? Or, even know what Linux is?

A nice touch, if they don't provide future driver support (almost a certainty), would be to sticker them with a notice that no future enhancement support will be provided by 3dfx or nvda. Has any other mfg. done that sort of thing? None come to mind.
--Randy
 
Sure Randy it has everything to do with Nvidia wanting to protect people from not having driver updates, rather than fattening the bottom line by a couple of million because theres no longer any competition. Also I have a rather nice bridge to sell you. 😛

Well with the current stockmarket/banking scenario we have going 3dfx took what it could get, and went with the mentality that something is better than nothing. Whatever happens i'm sure the management will get plenty of somethings, and the stockholders will get plenty of nothing. Same as it ever was I guess, but not any easier to swallow.
 
Removing them from the shelves was a responsible thing to do. It would make no sense to continue to sell a product that will not be supported. Look for the prices of them to plummet and the stocks to go out to surplus dealers and auctions. Sad, but reality.
 
Well the last 3DFX product I bought was the Voodoo 2(great card at the time) and since then they've been hammered buy Nvidia, like they say only the strongest survive... and I was kidding about buying them all, but thats how some people think!!!
 
I was under the impression that Nvida only bought the technology of 3dfx. They did not buy the buildings and the voodoo line of cards. They bought the technology the cards used and all the technology that could have been usesd on future cards. This must be a 3dfx move. It suprises me because I woould think they would want to give their stockholders as much money as possible. This is a loss. I do agree though that from a consumer standpoint it is the right thing to do.
 
I would buy all the V4's at Best Buy if they were $50... time for some skeet shootin 😉

I think its the responsible thing to do, you know there are tons of dumbasses that wander in and pick up a card without any knowledge of it.

I wonder what they're going to do with them...
 
Give me a break. People are missing the point here. Nvidia could have very easily bought the technology and the people (they hired 100 engineers from what I read) WHILE agreeing to provide warranty service and minimal driver support for the old Voodoo lines. Warranty service would be a piece of cake with the old inventory from 3dfx (which I believe WAS purchased by Nvidia, chip stockpiles were at least).

As it is, drivers, warranties, and current card stock will disappear. By providing warranties and minimal driver support, Nvidia could have squeezed money out of the remaining 3dfx cards floating around. Instead, their value disappears overnight. I don't think Best Buy is wrong for pulling the cards, especially if they will receive their money back when they are returned.

3dfx was between a rock and a hard place. Either they sold piecemeal to Nvidia, or they went into bankruptcy liquidation and would be purchased by Nvidia anyway, for less money. They took the controlled implosion route, which is much wiser.

3dfx made an enormous mistake in ignoring business and OEM customers while focusing on retail sales. Your average computer Joe is not going to buy an aftermarket part for his pre-built HP machine, even assuming you could put a new card into those propietary boxes. They should have stayed in the chip manufacturing business and left the card development to CL, Hercules (oops, gone!), STB, and various others. Not only did 3dfx die, but STB was taken down, too, if only in spirit now.

Bad year for computer component manufacturers -- Diamond, S3 (video), Hercules, Aureal then 3dfx. A littered battlefield of fallen companies!
 
Why in a marketplace where Aureal sound cards are still sold and the Diamond Viper 2000 was sold after their companies demise should 3dfx be held to a higher standard? The V3 drivers are about as stable and refined as they come, obviously it's not an ideal situation, but I think this has more to do with Nvidia's desire to eeek out a bit more profit than any kind of service to the customer.

Looks like the deal isn't going through too smoothly anyway, there may be no deal.
[l]http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/story=/news/stories/dj/20001221/BT20001221003233.htm&amp;symbol=TDFX[/l]
 
Keep in mind this was NOT an NVDA decision, it was strictly a Best Buy decision. I've seen the message that was sent out to the stores (I work there part time). Best Buy felt it was in their customer's best interests to discontinue selling the Voodoo brand because of the upcoming liquidation (or whatever you want to call it). After Feb 15, 3dFx is supposed to stop supporting their current product line according to the message....
 
This is not what i've heard, I've heard that it was Nvidia that requested this since 'they owned the rights now'. You'll notice that on-line retailers such as Amazon.com have removed 3dfx cards as well.
 
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