3Dfx - E3 2000
3Dfx was the first manufacturer that really delivered the goods. Since the advent of the original Voodoo 1 graphics cards, 3Dfx has been able to lead the pack up until recently. The Voodoo 3000 series of cards delivered high quality 3D acceleration, but nVidia seemed to make their mark with the release of their GeForce graphic cards. The engineers at 3Dfx are used to being number 1 and have no plans on trailing another company, so at this year's E3 they were showing demos of their Voodoo 5500 graphics card behind closed doors. After meeting with both nVidia and 3Dfx, I am still undecided as to which company makes the "best" card. I saw positives and negatives for both cards. Having such fierce competition will only help spur better prices and quality products.
| Voodoo 5500 - The demos shown at the 3Dfx booth showed side by side comparison between the Voodoo 5500 and the nVidia GeForce 2 card. Before telling me what card they were using, I chose the one that had the better colors, better fill rate, etc. Without a doubt, 3Dfx had the better card. Some demos it was obvious that the 3Dfx card had much higher fill rate. I don't know if the game was optimized for the GeForce card, but regardless, the 3Dfx card performed extremely well. I would love to see the engineer we spoke with get into a debate with the nVidia engineer I met with. They were very technical and know each others cards better than anyone else at E3. Bottom line, I think the 3Dfx card may perform better with direct 3D games, but I would want to do some more testing before making a final decision. |
