Why did 3dfx disappear?

[Micah]

I need to do a case study of a company that was in a time of transition. I'd like to do a study on why 3dfx went from almost a total monopoly to disappearing in only a few years.

So, basically, I am begging for links to news stories, news sites, or anything you can think of that would help. I know the story is old and cold, but even a posting like "I remember seeing something at www.some-site.com about it..." will be a big help.

Thanks a lot,
Micah

P.S. Personal opinions are welcome as well, but I really need reputable, quotable sources in order to get a passing grade

 

[Acanthus]

I dont have any links, but its ultimite demise was its expensive multi-chip solutions, coupled with its latest solutions being totally outclassed by cards that supported Hardware T&L.

They simply couldnt make money anymore.

 

[Micah]

Oh yeah, one more thing:

Anyone know where I can get business numbers? I'm thinking things like sales, profits, etc. I know they have to report that sort of stuff, but I don't know where to look, nor do I know if that info would still be around after the last few years.

Micah

 

[Lonyo]

Limited feature set, took to long to get the products out which were then underpowered.
Other people came along and did it better.

 

[Genx87]

The reason for their demise was they bought STB and took over manufacturing of their own cards. This created a larger cost burden on the company and IMO overnight shrunk their marketshare.
Back then people were very loyal to brandnames but not necessarily chipset vendor names. People who bought diamond stayed with diamond cards.

I also think this is what helped to push Nvidia to the front of the pack from 1998 to 2002.
They also had some issues with not being as feature rich as the cards from Nvidia but I think that was just a minor problem compared to the added costs of manufacturing their own cards.

3dfx also lacked the OEM business a company like ATI had and Nvidia now has.

 

[VIAN]

I will post some sites later as soon as I switch HDDs.

3dfx's prime was the Voodoo2.

Then a new symbol, slogan, tv spots, buying STB.

After all that, they release the Voodoo3 which lacked AGP texturing, 32-bit color.

Then the 6month delay of the expensive voodoo5, which initially could only ship in limited quantities because they couldn't produce it fast enough, hit them hard, little money coming in and a lot of money going out.

Some people say today that gamers shouldn't have to pay so much for old R300 architecture, but 3dfx was the king of squeezing out the performance. The voodoo5 was just 2 of the original voodoo chips made in a smaller press, with the T buffer a 2d core and dual textures.

 

[Genx87]

Dont forget it also did FSAA in hardware

 

[edmundoab]

They lost out by signing a contract with STB to be the sole producer of their products.
That happened from Voodoo 3 onwards.

Financially bleeding even with 3dfx fans who continue to support them.
As they lost out to the Geforce 2 GTS badly.
It was already about the end of them with no point in recovery...


sob sob.. which is why the Voodoo 5 6000 had not been launched.

 

[VIAN]

Dont forget it also did FSAA in hardware

That's part of the T-Buffer.

 

[VIAN]

http://tiger.towson.edu/~tzeger1/3dfx/index2.html

http://www.falconfly.de/3dfx.htm

http://www.x-3dfx.com/

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/3dfxdemise/default.asp

http://money.cnn.com/2000/11/14/technology/3dfx/

http://welcome.to/3dfxPS

http://digilander.libero.it/F1Land/3dfxarchive/

http://hardware.articlecentral.com/cat.asp?deptid=31

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jfeelder/voodoousers/links.html

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=412

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=413

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=414

http://www.3dfxzone.it/

 

[Cerb]

Voodoo: great
Voodoo Rush: first low-end 3d card. Brilliant.
Voodoo2: all hail 3Dfx.
Banshee: late and...what?
STB...why? Let other guys take the board costs!
STB...why? You just ruined your market penetration by srying up all the company ties you had. You had companies wanting to build your cards...now you leave them behind. Way to go.
STB...why? You start having trouble, don't innovate in a cost-effective manner, and then merge to another another company having financial problems?! What are you guys smoking?
Voodoo3: OK, you put a Voodoo2 on a 2d card. Such a feat.
Voodoos after that speak for themselves with guide rails for being full-sixed boards.
Sure, you beat NVidia's performance by like 10%, but at what cost? A big one it looks like.

 

[Cerb]

Voodoo: great
Voodoo Rush: first low-end 3d card. Brilliant.
Voodoo2: all hail 3Dfx.
Banshee: late and...what?
STB...why? Let other guys take the board costs!
STB...why? You just ruined your market penetration by srying up all the company ties you had. You had companies wanting to build your cards...now you leave them behind. Way to go.
STB...why? You start having trouble, don't innovate in a cost-effective manner, and then merge to another another company having financial problems?! What are you guys smoking?
Voodoo3: OK, you put a Voodoo2 on a 2d card. Such a feat.
Voodoos after that speak for themselves with guide rails for being full-sixed boards.
Sure, you beat NVidia's performance by like 10%, but at what cost? A big one it looks like.

 

[Schadenfroh]

3dfx had HORRIBLE management, they spent WAY too much money on things. they bought STB, which hastened the downfall of them and they never merged correctly, the fab plants at mexico were only profitable towards the end when they started renting out factory space, but that was not enough money to ease the other expenses. they had BRILLIANT engineers, which left to their own doings, would have made wonderful graphics solutions, but management forced them to do it other ways. 3dfx went under due to bad management, not because of bad engineers.

schadenfroh < proud owner of 3 voodoo2s 12mb, 1 voodoo1, 1 voodoo3 2000, 2 voodoo5 5500 agps

 

[sandorski]

STB!! :|

Despite the Voodoo5 5500's shortcomings(err, long...pehaps) it was an awesome videocard. The GeForce2 may have been faster, but the 5500 owned in output quality.

 

[edmundoab]

yeah in short, the marketing strategy failed.

 

[Conky]

3dfx's biggest problem was that it stopped making product in a timely manner.

The Voodoo3 although faster than the TNT was very very late. The Voodoo5 came out extremely late too, after Nvidia had released the TNT2, the TNT-Ultra, and the original Geforce. The Voodoo5 was really great but it was huge, had an extra power requirement(like modern cards), and the GF2 was released very shortly afterwards which was at least as fast if not faster and didn't have all the size/power problems of the V5. The V5 had the superior visual quality but that doesn't mean much if you have alienated all of your customers by stretching the old 6-month product cycle out to 18-months.

3dfx died because they didn't bring a new product to market for almost 2 years and, as we all know, 2 years in the computer business is a lifetime. They got fat, then lazy, then dead.

 

[edmundoab]

I gotta agree with you..

when Nvidia started producing 32MB cards,
they were still relaxing with 16MB cards.

 

[OinkBoink]

Originally posted by: VIAN
http://tiger.towson.edu/~tzeger1/3dfx/index2.html

http://www.falconfly.de/3dfx.htm

http://www.x-3dfx.com/

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/3dfxdemise/default.asp

http://money.cnn.com/2000/11/14/technology/3dfx/

http://welcome.to/3dfxPS

http://digilander.libero.it/F1Land/3dfxarchive/

http://hardware.articlecentral.com/cat.asp?deptid=31

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jfeelder/voodoousers/links.html

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=412

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=413

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=414

http://www.3dfxzone.it/

did the voodoo5 5500 have h/w TnL?how cud it play painkiller and halo?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: nikhilesh

Originally posted by: VIAN
http://tiger.towson.edu/~tzeger1/3dfx/index2.html

http://www.falconfly.de/3dfx.htm

http://www.x-3dfx.com/

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/3dfxdemise/default.asp

http://money.cnn.com/2000/11/14/technology/3dfx/

http://welcome.to/3dfxPS

http://digilander.libero.it/F1Land/3dfxarchive/

http://hardware.articlecentral.com/cat.asp?deptid=31

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jfeelder/voodoousers/links.html

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=412

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=413

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=414

http://www.3dfxzone.it/

did the voodoo5 5500 have h/w TnL?how cud it play painkiller and halo?

the VSA100 did not have HWTnL, .25 micron DirectX6 compatable silicon. supported SLI in HUGE configurations, i think up into the 100s. hence the name Voodoo Scalable Archetecture

 

[VIAN]

did the voodoo5 5500 have h/w TnL?how cud it play painkiller and halo?

There is a program, I think it's called 3danalyze that you can find at 3dfxzon.it and it will allow you to disable some of the games features that your card doesn't support and then you will be able to play it. Although, games like Halo might take alot out of the 5500, you may need a 6000. I wasn't able to play COD at a decent fps and all details low.

 

[413xram]

After making the Voodoo 2 12mb cards, which by the way with two of them in SLI and playing Unreal in Glide with a Pentium 2 was just well.........lets just say UNfnnnnREAL, the engineers heads got to big and their heads eventually exploded and the rest is history. LOL ) That of course is my opinion.

 

[SickBeast]

IMO nVidia single-handedly put 3DFX out of business. At least they had the courtesy to buy them out afterwards.

3DFX did have something to do with it on their own though. They got lazy with the Voodoo5 and didn't actually invent anything; they just put more old chips onto a new card.

If you really want to learn more about the "Voodoo People" you have to listen to "The Prodigy". :roll:

 

[Marsumane]

They also were forced to sell the Voodoo 3 for cheaper then it had cost them to make it. They LOST money on that card. Quite a misfortune due to their only being 2 heads of the gpu market today.

 

[rimshaker]

Because they rested on their laurels, and underestimated their main rival... simple as that.

Goes to show even the pioneer can be slain in business.

 

[Slaimus]

Buying STB, without a doubt, is the single biggest thing that killed 3Dfx. It dramatically increased debt, lowered margins, the factory was always working way under capacity, and it delayed Rampage by over a year.

Voodoo3's actually sold very well in retail. nVidia, however, had the killer in the form of the TNT2 M64 and Vanta, which took over the OEM market. 3Dfx's Velocity 100 and 200 did not go well with the OEMs because it did not have a "Voodoo" name. They were later renamed Voodoo3 1000, but was too late.

The VSA-100 delay was attributed to problems with their simulation software, which completely failed, and they had to do the transister layout manually.

Although it is still pretty interesting that the graphics market has remained ex-Silicon Graphics vs ex-Silicon Graphics: 3Dfx vs nVidia is now nVidia vs ArtX (why do you think the R420 is still based off of the R300 design?).