How Would PC Gaming Be Different If 3DFX Never Bought STB And not abandoned their 3rd party board manufacturers? \ VOGONS

How Would PC Gaming Be Different If 3DFX Never Bought STB And not abandoned their 3rd party board manufacturers?

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First post, by homestarmake2008

Posted on 2026-02-22, 18:43

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This is a question I always ask myself because many people in general tend to cite 3Dfx's purchase of STB as the reason why they were bought by Nvidia by the end of 2000, and, as a result, that brought about the end of 3Dfx in the process.

But what if that never happened? What if 3dfx decided not to buy STB and still kept their third-party board manufacturers? How would this impact the company? How would the Voodoo 3 (Avenger), Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 (VSA-100), and the scrapped Rampage project be affected? How would it also affect Nvidia or ATI and the future of 3Dfx?

Last edited by Dominus on 2026-02-22, 19:07. Edited 1 time in total.

Reason: Corrected capitalization

Reply 1 of 8, by SScorpio

Posted on 2026-02-22, 18:56

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It would have put less pressure on the company, but might have taken out some of the 3rd party partners instead. 3DFX would have needed to drastically improved beyond what they offered. NVIDIA was firing on all cylinders, and 3DFX just wasn't keeping up in terms of features.

3DFX dominated early, but then they just only did incremental improvements while NVIDIA was adding new features and doubling their performance every nine months or so. NVIDIA on the other hand had a failure with the NV1, and their deal with Sega on the NV2 ended up not being able to hit its goals. Then they found success with the Riva 128 and kept the pressure up.

Reply 2 of 8, by douglar

Posted on Yesterday, 01:36

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Not much would have changed unless 3dfx managed to release the voodoo4 6-12 months earlier and if 3dfx had a change of design philosophy with the rampage chip. Those were the things that doomed the company to follow Trident, S3 and Cirrus. The STB acquisition made the cash flow worse, but didn’t change the general trend.

Reply 3 of 8, by Aui

Posted on Yesterday, 01:49

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3dfx would still be around and your goto destination for the most sophisticated AI solutions ....

Reply 4 of 8, by CharlieFoxtrot

Posted on Yesterday, 05:21

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Nothing much, because the fall of 3dfx wasn't about any single decision the company made. It was gradually losing the edge they enjoyed over competitors in V1 and V2 glory days. Glide was going awat fast and competitors released improved designs and 3dfx couldn't keep up.

That is not to say that STB didn't matter, it surely put the company in financially much worse situation and most likely hastened the collapse considerably.

Reply 5 of 8, by st31276a

Posted on Yesterday, 06:42

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Aui wrote on Yesterday, 01:49:

3dfx would still be around and your goto destination for the most sophisticated AI solutions ....

They would play games on it...

Reply 6 of 8, by Kruton 9000

Posted on Yesterday, 18:49

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Such a thread definitely already exists on this forum.
In my opinion, a more interesting plot for an alternative history would be: what if VIA hadn't acquired S3, which at the time was the third-largest seller with a significant market share and promising developments.