Autor: Przemek (skwara_at_friko.onet.pl)
Data: Tue 20 Jan 1998 - 13:15:39 MET
VIDEOLOGIC AND 3Dfx WILL LOCK HORNS THIS YEAR WITH VOODOO2 Vs POWER VR3
If you thought that the feud between 3Dfx and Videologic was bad in 1997,
then 1998 should hold some surprises for you. Both hardware developers have
new technology waiting in the wings and they've both learnt some serious
lessons over the last couple of years. The end result will be a titanic
battle for control of the 3D accelerator market on hitherto unimaginable
scale.
According to 3Dfx, Voodoo 2 can deliver 50Bops (billion of operations per
second), shifting 2.2Gb of memory per second. Its 192-bit architecture can
shift 3 million triangles per second and 90 million dual-textured,
bilinear-filtered, per-pixel MIP-mapped, alpha-blended, Z-buffered pixels
per second. If that all sounds like techo-garble then let me put it this
way - it's three times quicker than the existing Voodoo chipset (according
to both company and independent testing) and it's scaleable, which means you
can join two cards together for double the power.
3Dfx have clearly learnt some valuable lessons from the Voodoo Rush debacle
and the good news is that Voodoo 2 is completely compatible with Voodoo,
meaning that all 150 Voodoo enhanced games will run on the new system. Such
is the power of the new hardware (featuring two texture processors) that
3Dfx reckon that GL Quake runs at over 110fps.
Videologic have got a seriously busy year ahead of them. Just before
Christmas they did a press tour of all the leading magazines (which did of
course include us) during which they outlined their plans for the year.
Amongst the many announcements they made, they revealed that they are
attacking the PC market, the console market and the arcade market at the
same time.
Videologic have made terrific in-roads onto the high street, signing up
deals with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and stores. They look set
to take advantage of that in 1998 with no less than five new chip level
products released during the year. And whilst the full announcement hasn't
been made yet (that comes at the end of January), those chips will include
Power VR3, the new Sega console chipset and an arcade level chip. Reading
between the lines we also reckon that they've got their own sound chip
waiting in the wings.
After spending vast amounts of cash, Videologic are finally seeking
widespread developer level acceptance of Power VR2, as well as increasing
levels of third party development, such as the Matrox M3d. The company
believe that the forthcoming Direct X6.0 is good news for them, because it
is optimised directly for tile-based processors such as the Power VR
architecture.
So who's going to win this battle? We see the market polarising over the
course of 1998 between two completely distinct camps. 3Dfx will occupy the
high ground - they'll have to, because there's no way on earth that they can
match the pricepoint of Power VR. Voodoo 2 will undoubtedly become a popular
choice with hardcore gamers, but the high retail price will discourage
newcomers to the sector. Videologic will cheerfully dominate the mass
market, getting their cards shipped inside PCs, selling through the high
street and, we think, eventually winning the war through mass-product
selling. As good as Voodoo 2 is - it's unlikely to be any better than Power
VR3 and is destined to become a niche product in what's rapidly becoming a
mass market PC hardware sector.
-- \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Przemyslaw Skwara skwara_at_friko.onet.pl ICQ: 5671657 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
To archiwum zostało wygenerowane przez hypermail 2.1.7 : Tue 18 May 2004 - 16:56:53 MET DST