3dfx Voodoo4 / Voodoo5 Comdex 99 Preview

In case you’ve forgotten, 3dfx told us in July that products featuring T-Buffer would be available for the holiday season. Back in September, rumors started spreading around the web, and AnandTech confirmed, that the release was delayed until the first quarter of 2000. It turns out that 3dfx was having trouble with the back end design of the chip, literally the last stage of design before it is sent off to the fabs.

What it all boils down to is that 3dfx does not actually have working silicon back at this point in time. All they could tell us is that they are "eagerly awaiting" their first samples. At Comdex, they were still showing T-Buffer demos using Quantum 3D’s 8-way Voodoo2 SLI setup.

The delay means that by the time VSA-100 is available, NVIDIA will be preparing their spring refresh, known internally as NV15. This GeForce follow up will most likely move to a 0.18-micron process that should allow for higher clock speeds. Whether or not this will enable NVIDIA to match 3dfx’s monster fill rate is impossible to know right now, but it does not seem likely. Of course, if NVIDIA is successful in evangelizing transform and lighting, 3dfx could be in big trouble.

AnandTech will of course have full details, including the usual plethora of benchmarks, on the Voodoo4 and 5 as soon as samples are ready from 3dfx.