Monday, November 13, 2000

Voodoo5-6000 R.I.P. -- 5:20 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

This press release seems to indicate that the Voodoo5-6000, the hugely monstrously expensive video card from 3dfx, will never see the light of day. Here's a snip:

3dfx Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ:TDFX) announced today that it has licensed its 4-way Scanline Interleave (SLI) technology, based on the Voodoo5 6000 AGP project, to Quantum3D to be incorporated into their AAlchemy family of PC-based systems for visual simulation and training applications. The company also announced that its 4-way SLI technology, which has achieved 43 percent better Quake 3 graphics performance over leading competitive solutions, will be available exclusively from Quantum3D, and will not be available in the retail channel.

It will be interesting to see if 3dfx actually confirms this. It wouldn't be a big surprise since it would be prohibitively expensive (~$600). I can't remember exactly when this was supposed to come out, but it has been an eternity technologically speaking. Still, it seems rather stupid that they would be announcing how much faster it is in Quake3, but then tell gamers they can't buy it. That makes their claims very dubious at best. Thanks Shugashack.

UPDATE! I emailed their PR guy, Bubba Wolford, for confirmation. Stay tuned.

UPDATE #2! VoodooExtreme got confirmation from 3dfx that the Voodoo5-6000 has indeed been cancelled.

3dfx will not ship the product known as the Voodoo5 6000 to retail. We have opted to license our 4-way SLI technology to Quantum3D for use in their visual simulation and other high-end systems. As it is licensed to Quantum3D, specific product plans for the 4-way VSA-100 board will therefore need to be addressed by Quantum3D.

Is this the beginning of death throes for 3dfx?

The Master comments: To quote one of Tom Clancy's characters from Rainbox Six: Good night, Gracie.

News for 11/13/2000

The Haus is powered by:

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).