SO DAMN AMazing..

waterloo · Jun 19, 2005, 11:45 PM

how fast technology moves (i had to say that). Anyone know if 3DFX ever going to come back? Darn Nvidia.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jun 20, 2005, 10:45 AM

No 3dfx will never come back. Nvidia bought them out shut them down
thier "FX series" was the 1st to use technogly they aquired from the takeover

*Raff_3DC* · Jun 20, 2005, 11:51 AM

Most of the ex-3dfx engineers now work for nVIDIA, so it's not likely that 3dfx will ever come back -- at least not the way they were before. They are dead and we have to accept that. It's not possible to found a graphic chip manufacturer with 5 people and a small budget, like in 1995 ...

Well, technology moves on. But there's something that's really "poor" IMHO: 3dfx' RGSSAA, integrated in the Voodoo4/5 series via T-Buffer, is still one of the best-looking AA modes available. And it was introduced in 2000 -- 5 years ago! It's a shame that there are so few improvements on this territory ...

Greetings from Germany,
Raff

BWX · Jun 20, 2005, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raff_3DC

Well, technology moves on. But there's something that's really "poor" IMHO: 3dfx' RGSSAA, integrated in the Voodoo4/5 series via T-Buffer, is still one of the best-looking AA modes available. And it was introduced in 2000 -- 5 years ago! It's a shame that there are so few improvements on this territory ...

Greetings from Germany,
Raff

Check out the crossfire SSAA and FSAA combinations- I think they are catching back up to the year 2000 now : )

Super antialiasing � Uniquely, CrossFire rigs may provide image quality benefits even in games where fill rate and geometry throughput isn't normally at a premium via its Super AA capability. Super AA comes courtesy of the CrossFire compositing chip, which can combine images with different sample patterns produced by the two cards. CrossFire AA offers several new antialiasing modes from 8X up to 14X. 8X and 12X AA modes double up on 4X and 6X multisampling, respectively. 10X and 14X AA modes, on the other hand, combine 2X supersampling with 8X and 12X multisampling, respectively.

waterloo · Jun 20, 2005, 04:00 PM

Nvidia.... HHMMMMMMMmMmmmmmmmmmmm. ATI Crossfire mobo thingy not bad

swatX · Jun 22, 2005, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWX

Check out the crossfire SSAA and FSAA combinations- I think they are catching back up to the year 2000 now : )

Super antialiasing � Uniquely, CrossFire rigs may provide image quality benefits even in games where fill rate and geometry throughput isn't normally at a premium via its Super AA capability. Super AA comes courtesy of the CrossFire compositing chip, which can combine images with different sample patterns produced by the two cards. CrossFire AA offers several new antialiasing modes from 8X up to 14X. 8X and 12X AA modes double up on 4X and 6X multisampling, respectively. 10X and 14X AA modes, on the other hand, combine 2X supersampling with 8X and 12X multisampling, respectively.

yea thats only for crossfire not for single card users.

BWX · Jun 22, 2005, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swatX

yea thats only for crossfire not for single card users.

Check the G70 reviews- it can do higher quality SSAA with one card- and I bet the new ATI single cards will be able to as well.. at least I would hope so.

Actually - even my 9700pro can do FSSSAA @ 1024 x 768...

waterloo · Jun 22, 2005, 10:51 PM

DAMN Redickulous price

*Raff_3DC* · Jun 24, 2005, 05:48 AM

I think only nVIDIA is on the right way. They provide SSAA since the GeForce2 (rather poor at that time, no comparison with 3dfx' method). Now they offer nice Transparency-AA which kills Alpha-Testing more efficient than "pure" SSAA could do. Everything on single cards, too.

The only thing I'd wish to get: Sparsed Grid SSAA! They could spend some hundred-thousand transistors to get hardware support. The quality boost would be nice. Gamma-corrected SGSSAA would blow away every Voodoo ... =)

Greetings,
Raff

waterloo · Jun 24, 2005, 09:04 PM

how did NVIDIA just POP UP and KILL 3DFX?

*Raff_3DC* · Jun 25, 2005, 03:44 AM

Well -- they didn't.

Their first creation, the "NV1", wasn't successful and used a weird way of accelerating 3D graphics (not polygone-based) ... so they made a break. Later, the "Riva 128" a.k.a. NV3 could compete with 3dfx' Voodoo Graphics in Direct3D -- but of course not in Glide, but it was a jump. The "TNT" in 1998 was the first nVIDIA creation that could beat a 3dfx card if you look at the features. 32 Bit, 2048x2048 textures. And this thing was as fast as a Voodoo2.

Then, in 1999, with the TNT2 it became worse. The "Ultra" version was often faster than a Voodoo3 3000 and the later released GeForce256 kicked everything with it's speed and hype (T&L). Just in Glide games the V3 3500 was faster.

In 2000 - we alle know this year as a bad one for 3dfx fans - nVIDIA threw their GeForce2 series on the market. Being a tuned GF256 it was damn fast -- faster than 3dfx' answer ... the Voodoo5 5500.

Combined with a series of management mistakes 3dfx went down and nVIDIA bought all relevant brands etc. for a dumping price. You could see this positive: If they didn't, many 3dfx engineers would't be employed now ...

Just a short-version of the story. Look in the internet, there are many articles about this topic.

Greetings,
Raff

swatX · Jun 25, 2005, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raff_3DC

Combined with a series of management mistakes 3dfx went down and nVIDIA bought all relevant brands etc. for a dumping price. You could see this positive: If they didn't, many 3dfx engineers would't be employed now ...

Just a short-version of the story. Look in the internet, there are many articles about this topic.

Greetings,
Raff

and if it werent for 3dfx management failures, Nvidia wouldnt get a headstart on its version of SLI.

Actually Did Nvidia borrow anything from 3dfx's SLI version besides the three letters?

waterloo · Jun 25, 2005, 03:48 PM

bad management

�amage� · Jun 26, 2005, 01:57 PM

Yes.. it was a sad day when 3dfx went out. Being I was a hardcore 3dfx fan and all, but such is life "C'est ca la vie" and thank god ATi picked the ball up, because now I dont have to put up with the craptastic cards from Nvidia.. lol I remeber thinkin when I bought my voodoo5 5000 and they went out.. i was so flabergasted, thank god sites like voodoodrivers.com were still around so that I could keep my card somewhat updated.. "somewhat" Oh well.. now I am a harcore ATi user and thankfully I dont see them going out anytime soon, and their a Canadian based company which is even better ha!

waterloo · Jun 26, 2005, 06:56 PM

man ATI is getting in big sh*Tl. The company anit canadian no more