Now that NVIDIA basically owns 3dfx, what do you think?

Does ATI or Matrox have any chance against the giant NVIDIA?

I want to know your opinions

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I think ATI will be ok because of its business contracts. They still have that market wrapped up. The gaming market will have no competition though. Review found on the web will now be comparisions between different cards in Nvidia's lineup...

HighonHelium

Agreed, I think the only market ATI has is OEM really. They are sorta coming back, but I don't know, NVIDIA is killing the competition in my opinion. They even had talks with ATI earlier about aquiring them as well...

Wouldn't that be a monopoly?



It kind of already is that, it's just that a lot of the manufacturers are cheap and pretty much sell the original version of the card. They don't even do much stuff with the drivers nowadays....

Hopefully with 3dfx gone, we will see more differences between each manufacturers NVIDIA cards.

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ATI's weakness, even since the Rage128, has been their driver support (their time to market wasn't exactly great either, but at least Radeon is out with relatively decent timing; it wasn't released too long after the GF2 gts). People have often said that if ATI could get their driver quality up, that they'd be much more likely to be able to contend the for the top spot.

One example, is the lack of Win2k support for the Rage Fury Maxx. I don't think I have to give other examples....

In an interview recently at www.sharkyextreme.com , Dave Orton said the following.

On page 4, the following is said.

Sharky Extreme: In the past, ATI has been chastised for poor driver development. What changes have been made to ensure that the driver model in place remains robust for all future ATI products? Indeed our own in-house testing has revealed what appears to be support for dual-chip solutions already built into the driver. Can you confirm?


Dave Orton: ATI continues to strive to deliver the highest quality and performance in our drivers. Radeon has made a significant improvement in the quality of our s/w drivers, and we will continue to raise the bar for the industry. The improvements are attributed to our processes, our architecture, and our people. We are building a universal driver architecture that will allow all Radeon products and all future generations to build on the strength of the Radeon drivers. We have received good feedback on the quality of Radeon drivers. We intend to build on this trend. In terms of support for dual-asic solutions - ATI is committed to MAXX technology. The Radeon driver was developed with these plans in mind.

Aside from the MAXX info, that sounds rather a LOT like how Nvidia develops drivers. Well, they could certainly take a clue as far as timing and quality is concerened (not visual quality, rather, driver quality). If they are indeed restructuring how they develop drivers, I can see ATI's technology finally having the software to back them up.

one i think that ATI and Maxtor are going need to get it's butts in gear and either aquire or partner with the other, now befor i get flamed for saying this, here is my reason for this

1)nvidia now has more tools to use, it won't be to long befor you will start to see G-force cards with 3dfx ideas incorporated in to them

2)even the last ati card jus barely stacks up to nvida... so right there they are still behind the 8 ball

3) very few companies have ever made it in the catch up game ... it is more like the buy out game they start playing

4) the only logical way to even have a chance, they will need partner with another company and combine the best of each, and if that happended then there would be a contendor

5) if Maxtor or ATI want to do it on there own ... it is going to be one hell of an up hill battle

but in my oppion i don't think there is going to be much of a challenge for NVIDA to keep on top ... jus as log as they don't start making there own boards ...


PS: spelling mistakes left in for those who need to correct others to make there lives more ffulfilled

[This message has been edited by J (edited 12-20-2000).]

noone has mentioned s3 grafics inc (now sonicblue) they are still making cards.. there's a preview of all the new chipsets at

www.savage2000.com

according to the comparision nvidia is in for a rough ride but it is only gonna get stronger now the it has 3dfx's resource's...
my geuss is in about 3-5 years nvidia is gonna make a really strong competitor...

hopefully be then a new 3d card company will be out offering us better chips... mabey even star a 3dfx like company all over agian

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um....3-5 years? Nvidia became a "really strong competitor" back in 98 with their TNT. Even their RIVA 128's were some of the best performing 2d/3d combinations, though the image quality was lacking in 3d.

S3 (sonicblue) sold their graphics division to VIA. It is now up to VIA to continue any work that S3 (Sonicblue) began. Considering VIA's traditional role as "less performance, but considerably cheaper" manufacturer, I doubt much will come of those technologies.

With regards to that, VIA has integrated the Savage4 core into chipsets, which is higher performing than both the i815, and the newest SIS chipset in 3d (not 2d though). If the remnants of S3 are to be successful in the way that VIA seems to be positioning, VIA will need to come up with something like deffered rendering, AND dual channel DDR or dual channel RAMBUS chipsets just to get the bandwidth needed if they are to be UMA chipsets, like they are now.

Even with a card that "just stacks up" to the latest nVidia card (that actually seems more forward thinking than the NV15 IMO), ATI seems to be getting on the right track.

If you compare their previous chip (the Rage128 Pro) to the current Radeon, there is quite the leap in performance. In addition, they are currently undergoing a restructuring of their driver department, and are using the Radeon has a foundation for new unified drivers that will probably help overall stability.


I wouldn't discount Matrox either. They've been quiet, from our perspective (the poweruser). They're still making money, and they brought us EMBM. I'm curious what they'll cook up with the G800.

I think Matrox has now moved towards the more proffesional budget group rather than the gamer....

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I wonder if the Glide api will dissolve altogether? That always seemed to be 3dfx's ace up their sleeve. It wasn't until they lost that lawsuit against Creative. Allowing them to use a unified glide driver. It seemed to go downhill from that point on. Maybe they just saw how hard it'd be to compete with nVidia and just wussed out.

Don't ever expect to see S3 back this way again. Diamond decided to go off into that disappearing market known as "Information Appliances". S3 may have re-grown a graphics division, but VIA has already said that it will only be used for integrated video logic in chipsets. Of course, there's also the possibility that S3's new graphics division may have been formed simply to insource parts for net appliances like what Diamond seems to want to make.

Of course, I've heard this schpiel (sp?) out of LOTS of companies in the last two or three years, and I've yet to see any evidence that it's really the next "big" thing. So, expect to see S3 slowly drift off into the sunset, and eventually to quietly fall off the face of the earth...kinda like Rendition after they were bought by Micron...and Bitboys Oy too. :-)

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What the hell ever happened to bitboys? Fake hype for the past god knows how many years.

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Bitboys Oy, after draining funding for years and never finalizing a product design, had an ultimatum pitched by their financiers - Get something tangible, or get out. In this case, a compromise was struck, where most of the management was replaced, and instead of focusing on product sales, Bitboys Oy is now a technology developer. They leave the implementation to others. Kinda like what Rambus was once, except without all the lawsuits.

In other words, there will never be a Glaze3D, but you may end up seeing the technology in a chipset near you one day.

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