[EDIT]hmmm.....whats going on at AMD? (and history of 3Dfx Rampage)

[ocre]

Of course, they were just overclocking the memory to test the headroom of the memory.  250MHz was the max stable clock, not the expected spec (which was 180-200Mhz DDR, or around 400MHz effective).  It didn't mean that the card would be faster than Geforce2 Ultra.  

I do agree with you though, that they didn't test the Sage T&L unit.  

The VSA-100 was much bigger than the Voodoo3 chip, because it implemented several new features, like 32-bit color that everybody was demanding just a year earlier, and giving 3dfx all the flak for it, giving Nvidia all of the attention.  Voodoo3 was the powerhouse 2d/3d integration that brought the $500 Voodoo2 SLI plus 2D acceleration into one card costing $200 or $300 (I think, it was $200, even though I bought it on launch day at CompUSA, April 1 1999, I think, but I can't even remember the price).  That was in response to Nvidia TNT.  But then customers were still not satisfied, since TNT 2 Ultra came so damn close in many games, and also offered 32-bit color compability plus 2048x2048 texture capability rather than just 256x256.  Then stubborn 3dfx had to tweak their chip for multi-chip architecture, and doing 2 chips on a single board was the first for them (remember how ATI miserably failed with their Rage MAXX which was supposed to rock the world)?  The MAXX was actually launched and marketed, even though it was pure bull, lulz........   the embarrassing shame carries on in ATI/AMD's blood as a recurring disease.  

It was largely a "buy-me-out", with most of the employees at 3dfx receiving an attractive portion of the lump sum.  IMHO, they could've kept up with Geforce3 with the dual-chip+T&L card if it did work out successfully, by the end of 2001 (beating Radeon 8500 as well), but Geforce4 would've come out a couple months later, and been just as fast, and cheaper to produce as well.  It would've only made Nvidia more aggressive with Geforce3 Ti500 (using faster DDR memory, and clocking it a bit higher), and Geforce4 Ti4600 (with higher clocks) as well.  If 3dfx was indeed going to tape out the next gen after Rampage, called Fear, by April 2001,

Fear- The first part based on 3dfx and Gigapixel technology. Fear actually consisted of two separate parts: Fusion and Sage II. Fusion was derived from combining 3dfx and Gigapixel technology. This was a part targeted at DirectX8-9 (though the specification was nothing near final). Being from Gigapixel, it was a deferred rendering architecture. At the time of 3dfx closing shop, Fusion was considered RTL complete and tape out was expected in March of 2001. Sage II was slightly behind Fusion, but it was making ground.

It would certainly have bashed Geforce4 to bits, but with the 9700Pro coming out in mid 2002, there was just no way it could've kept up.  So 3dfx was doomed anyway.  Oh well.  If ATI bought 3dfx instead, I think Nvidia would've swapped places, being 2nd to ATI ever since. 

Nice history debate, hehe.. 

Most mind-blowing launches ever:
1)  8800GTX  (an asteroid that brought DX10 to earth)
2)  9700 Pro  (a comet that brought DX9 to earth, plus up to 6x RGMSAA and 16x AF that enhanced older games)
3)  Geforce 2 GTS (the proverbial reason 3dfx gave up with voodoo5 6000 and went out of business)
4)  Voodoo2 SLI (actually 2 cards, but like 3-3.5x faster than Voodoo1, while so many games other than just Quake were finally 3d-accelerated)
5)  6800 Ultra SLI (although SLI introduced lag and microstuttering (or somewhat, like 30% "artificial" frame rate doubling) in AFR mode in the few games supported at first, unless SFR offered decent scaling not less than 50%, if it was compatible with a game)
6)  HD 5970 (although Crossfire was still highly non-synchronized microstuttering mess, and having 2 of these for Quadfire totally sucked)
7)  7800GTX-512 (although extremely short-lived with its crown before X1900XTX came out - it was amazing how much further Nvidia pushed G70 when ATI had nothing since X850XT, and the X1800XT was an utter disappointment.  Also mindblowing was that it was the first $750+ card)
8)  What do you think?  Titan X with 12GB, still on 28nm, or what?  
6)  and what do you think it is?  yep, me and you nerds here.

Geez..
That is a great list, but I am unsure about the titanX. You know, it was decent and a very respectable achievement. But imagine.........imagine if maxwell debuted as 20nm like originally intended. Even if it is not nvidia's fault the had to scratch 20nm plans, the actual performance jump from the Titan black to Titan x is not what it could have been.

I imagine things will get slower and slower, that's the reality of PC these days. But we could finally be on the verge of another landmark. Pascal

We all want to see another 8800gtx, boy would that be awesome......
Kind of makes me giddy inside........sort of like thinking about fallout 4