Defunct GPU manufacturer 3DFX have (maybe) announced a comeback on Twitter, more in an announcement this Thursday

[dizmo]

I remember driving down a very dangerous highway with my dad in the pouring rain in the dead of night while my mom was out a few times as a kid to pick up 3dfx cards so that she wouldn't find out They always had great games thrown in. It'd be cool to see them come back, but I doubt it's going to be anything grand. I can't imagine a company going from nothing to going up against the big two (soon to be three) in that space.

[PocketNerd]

Sierra is supposedly coming back as well, so this should be interesting

[Murasaki]

2 minutes ago, Benji said:

I'd probably go with the others in saying it's some kind of hoax. Either that or it's really something minor like being an AIB (if they can all of a sudden shake out manufacturing capabilities, even though the company has been dead for a long time, which I really doubt), or rather being a short, small marketing stunt.

 

What I also find to be odd is the fact that every small, shitty YouTube channel or unknown person has a validated/verified Twitter account, yet the "official" account of a legendary graphics card maker is not verified at all, has no content and has "customer support" listed in their Twitter bio, even though they haven't had products in way over a decade that people might request support for? It somehow smells troll-y for me. Nobody can shake out products with no current knowledge and experience out of thin air, something that people would be actually interested in and that is competitive. They can't cast magic.

One thing is for sure - it gets you some followers

[Murasaki]

Just now, Benji said:

Indeed, but not that many

Still, it'll be interesting to see where it goes and if anything happens.

This Thursday its gonna either be a great or shitty day.

[cacoe]

If this is real, which I absolutely don't think it is, their copy writer needs to be sacked immediatley if thats a legit post.

 

If it actually transpires they sell a product, I expect it to be akin to the Commadore phone from a few years ago where someone tried to claim their trademark was out of use. Time wise, this seems to make sense.

 

The Commadore one was denied btw, but the company sold the product anyway, which was a cheap Chinese phone which was slapped with a layer of branding.

[Master Disaster]

19 minutes ago, Benji said:

I'd probably go with the others in saying it's some kind of hoax. Either that or it's really something minor like being an AIB (if they can all of a sudden shake out manufacturing capabilities, even though the company has been dead for a long time, which I really doubt), or rather being a short, small marketing stunt.

Not sure about a hoax (though it absolutely could be), more likely its Nvidia taking advantage of an expired trademark and the current hype surrounding all things retro.

 

I reckon they're gonna use the name for something, I'm just not sure what exactly.

[cacoe]

Just now, Eviljuche said:

It's either a hoax, or a new Nvidia subsidiary

Chances of nvidia using fanart from a Deviantart account? (and not making their own original artwork)

[cacoe]

If you take into consideration the current silicon shortage, it couldn't be a worse time for a company to start up in the GPU space. - Granted you could argue it was something else, but why else would you revive this brand?

 

Nothing about this makes any sense at all.

[Moonzy]

Yay, if they make more GPU

 

But as always, I don't care until there's actual product for sale, just like Intel's GPU

[cacoe]

2 hours ago, Kisai said:

All 3DFX trademarks are dead. So it could be anyone.

 

My bet is that it's just a 3DFX branded "something" but the most likely thing is that it's a hoax, otherwise they would have registered the trademark.

Even though the trademarks have expired, nVidia could contest it's use by a 3rd party, as did Commadore in the UK and were successful in doing so.

[Master Disaster]

6 minutes ago, cacoe said:

Even though the trademarks have expired, nVidia could contest it's use by a 3rd party, as did Commadore in the UK and were successful in doing so.

Not sure they could. Its a bit of a legal minefield but as I understand it, if a trademark goes unused for X years it automatically goes back into the public domain. Its different to copyright & patent which both have a firm coverage time.

 

Companies have to keep using a trademark otherwise someone else can contest and take it away from them.

 

The thing with Commodore is that their name is still very much in use by its current owners, Cloanto, who still sell updated ROMs and software as well as official emulator packs for Commodore hardware.

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Place your bets folks, real or an elaborate troll?

 

Quote

3dfx rapidly declined in the late 1990s and most of the company's assets were acquired by Nvidia Corporation on December 15, 2000,[3] mostly for intellectual property rights. The acquisition was accounted for as a purchase by Nvidia and was completed by the first quarter of their fiscal year of 2002. 3dfx ceased supporting their products on February 15, 2001 and filed for bankruptcy on October 15, 2002.[2]

 

 

Even if real 3dfx no longer holds the rights to any graphics technology so would have to be new IP and not infringe on anything by Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Intel etc. The fact that Nvidia didn't acquire the company outright is the only reason this could actually be possible at all, though I have to say I thought that was the case initially.

 

So can I place a custom vote? My vote is on "Pointless".

[trag1c]

I am thinking this a hoax since they're using a community created fan image from 2014. https://www.deviantart.com/vermaden/art/3dfx-Legacy-442592147

Spoiler

 

[MultiGamerClub]

If this isnt a troll account, i will be mighty impressed..

[Beerzerker]

32 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Ceased operation:  2002

SLI, all other tech, and IPs are owned by Nvidia.

The image in the tweet comes from a deviant art user/is fanmade.  The account is not proven to be official either, and the post has grammar flaws.  This is far from legit.

 

Agreed - I don't place any stock in this for these reasons at the very least myself.

[WhitetailAni]

Update:

A new tweet has been added with the poll "You all wanna see a new 3dfx Voodoo card?"

Chance that this is a troll is 99.8% instead of 99.9%.

[Spotty]

52 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

Chance that this is a troll is 99.8% instead of 99.9%.

Why would posting a poll on Twitter lower the chance of it being a troll?

 

45 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

However, I wonder what Nvidia has to say about this.

"who's 3D effects?" A spokesperson from nvidia said, probably

[Kisai]

39 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Why would posting a poll on Twitter lower the chance of it being a troll?

 

"who's 3D effects?" A spokesperson from nvidia said, probably

I'd laugh if they started posting screenshots from this thread

https://hothardware.com/news/3dfx-voodoo-5-6000-recreated-by-enthusiast-vsa-100

 

 

[Murasaki]

Okay now thats just pushing it LOL bringing back AGP cards amidst a chip shortage. Unless theres dozens of warehouses full of new-old stock, press X to doubt. I'm sorry, reposting this!

 

Edit: excuse me https://twitter.com/3d_fx

[WereCat]

If this is real the only thing they have to do is to make a HW accelerated graphics card with AV1 encoder and it will sell like hotcakes.

But this is not real so... what's even real these days? Certainly not prices.

[StDragon]

4 hours ago, Murasaki said:

Okay now thats just pushing it LOL bringing back AGP cards amidst a chip shortage. Unless theres dozens of warehouses full of new-old stock, press X to doubt. I'm sorry, reposting this!

 

louis_shitpost.webm 2.29 MB · 4 downloads

 

Edit: excuse me https://twitter.com/3d_fx

Possibly a revision of the older PCI cards, but with modern manufacturing (newer node, but not bleeding edge) for the retro market. Very niche.

[da na]

What I want to happen is a PCIe x1 Voodoo card for retro games. Fits in any modern computer but is able to natively run older games without VMs, Windows 9x emulators, etc. Probably not the case but would be interesting to see...

[Murasaki]

Just now, Mel0nMan said:

What I want to happen is a PCIe x1 Voodoo card for retro games. Fits in any modern computer but is able to natively run older games without VMs, Windows 9x emulators, etc. Probably not the case but would be interesting to see...

That would be pretty cool actually! But im sure it wont matter because Windows 10 will crap on it.

[Bitter]

My guess is someone still owns the older chip designs or bought them from nVidia and now, as mentioned, are going to spin back up production of some cards out of China on like a 65/45/22nm node that's super cheap to run and produce some 'new old' hardware either with all original interfaces or with yeah PCIe via a bridge chip or some mix of both to hit that niche surge in retro-gaming popularity. LGR will orgasm so hard he turns inside out and dies.

[Mark Kaine]

I for one am ready for the new RTX VOODOO 4000! (my wallet isnt however)