Wednesday, August 4th 2021

Seemingly Fake Twitter Account Claims the Return of 3dfx Interactive

Nostalgia is perhaps the most present feeling among many gamers across the globe, and someone is seemingly playing with ours as there is a Twitter account claiming the return of a company that has been dead for 20 years. 3dfx Interactive, once a giant in the graphics card industry, is allegedly returning after 20 years to give gamers a new choice of a graphics card. According to a Twitter account that claims that 3dfx Interactive is returning, we are seeing a massive amount of hype being built around the seemingly fake and bad attempt of playing with our nostalgia.

3dfx went bankrupt in 2000 and was acquired by NVIDIA, who took over the rights to trademarks and everything involved with the brand. In the latest tweet, the alleged resurrected company is claiming a return after 20 years. It says that Jansen Products, also an alleged investment firm, that we couldn't find in any database of registered firms, is now the owner of 3dfx Interactive brand and its trademarks. A simple Google search points towards a Belgian building firm, not an alleged San Francisco investment company.. Together, this is making the alleged return seem just like a joke, as someone must be playing with many gamers that used 3dfx's famous Voodoo lineup of graphics cards.
Building a modern GPU is a very difficult task, even for the folks like NVIDIA and AMD. It requires a massive R&D budget to develop a GPU that offers competitive performance, and a huge amount of highly skilled engineers to design a chip. A successful chip tapeout, along with the development of drivers and software, is also very difficult to achieve, so we are deeming this as a fake attempt to produce hype around an old brand that is no longer relevant in the fast-paced technology industry. On the other hand, we've seen brands like Commodore, Atari attempt returns, with limited success. Also it could be that the "new 3dfx" is simply another NVIDIA AIC—like MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte and others, who buy GPUs from NVIDIA and build their own boards around that, using NVIDIA's technology exclusively.
Source: 3dfx Twitter Account
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55 Comments on Seemingly Fake Twitter Account Claims the Return of 3dfx Interactive

#1
laszlo
to be legit they should have asked a crowdfunding... :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#2
TristanX
they wil use GPU from NV / AMD for desktop gaming. But also may develop some small and cheap graphics cores for smartphones etc. Not every graphics asic require billions $, and there are probably many graphics cores that may be good for start developing custom graphics cores.
Posted on Reply
#3
Hardware Geek
I remember drooling over new 3dfx graphics cards and was truly sad to see them go bankrupt. Back in my fanboy days I was definitely a 3dfx fanboy. Even if they only made boards for Nvidia and/or AMD, I would be tempted to buy one, if only because of nostalgia. That being said, I don't do the fanboying thing anymore because I care more about performance than brand.
Posted on Reply
#4
iO
Bought the assets last week, haven't tradmarked the name yet but will lauch GPUs by the end of the year.....:kookoo:
Stop feeding the troll.
Posted on Reply
#5
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
laszloto be legit they should have asked a crowdfunding... :laugh:
That wouldnt make them legit. That would make it an elaborate scam.



or a 'legit scam' - whichever fits best.
Posted on Reply
#6
GreiverBlade
old timer want to believe the hype, young'uns want to belittle/troll old timer for fun ...


i am glad i "am" an old timer ...


in short: do not care about the news but want to believe the hype (that does not mean i will forgive the "hype inducer" if they turn to be scammer or lower than that )
Posted on Reply
#7
ogharaei
GreiverBladeold timer want to believe the hype, young'uns want to belittle/troll old timer for fun ...
Yeah, I want to believe as well. My first discrete graphics card was the 3dfx Voodoo 3. Those were the glory days.
Posted on Reply
#8
Ferrum Master
ogharaeiYeah, I want to believe as well. My first discrete graphics card was the 3dfx Voodoo 3. Those were the glory days.
It just Glide over everything.
Posted on Reply
#9
TheDeeGee
3Dfx Glide Retro Console :p

I had a couple of cards back in the day, a Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo 3 3000 PCI and Voodoo 5 5500 AGP.

Always loved the boxart of their final models.
Posted on Reply
#10
bug
If Nvidia sold those trademarks, it would have made the news long ago.
Posted on Reply
#11
defaultluser
TheDeeGee3Dfx Glide Retro Console :p
There's not a very long list of 3dfx exclusives to fill that list, but assuming you're right:

If you want to get it working, you nwill have to take the overhead of running a windows 95 inside a VM with hardware pass-through (plus glide wrapper.), not exactly a painless endeavor on an Atom box.
Posted on Reply
#12
freeagent
Unless the nvidia name will go for HPC, and 3dfx for consumer stuff.. outside of that I don't see them coming back. They have been assimilated. Only 1 person that I am aware of has been able to escape the borg.
Posted on Reply
#14
NotHereMan
First 3D Accelerator was an voodoo 2. I bought the thing knowing I needed it to have colored lighting in Quake 2, but didn't know how to install it until my brother's friend told me all I needed was a screwdriver. Changed my life :p
Posted on Reply
#15
Ubersonic
defaultluserThere's not a very long list of 3dfx exclusives to fill that list, but assuming you're right:
In fairness it wouldn't just be useful for games that only had Glide or software as the render options. There are plenty of games from the 90s that have Direct3D and/or OpenGL options but look much better in Glide.
Posted on Reply
#16
Dirty Butler
I still have my Voodoo, Voodoo 2 and Voodoo 5 5500 in a box. I was sad to see 3dfx go back in the day.
Posted on Reply
#19
Franzen4Real
NotHereManFirst 3D Accelerator was an voodoo 2. I bought the thing knowing I needed it to have colored lighting in Quake 2, but didn't know how to install it until my brother's friend told me all I needed was a screwdriver. Changed my life :p
This was my first video card as well and for exactly the same reason! :toast: No one in my family had a clue on how to install it, so since it was the family PC my dad took the reins. It's crazy to think of how intimidating that process was--- just opening a case side panel and putting the card into the only slot that it could physically fit into... like we were handling plutonium or something :roll:

Did anyone else have that friend/acquaintance that had two of them running SLI? I only knew one person that had that setup back in the day and I just remember after seeing how huge of a difference one card made in my pc, the thought of having TWO of them was mind blowing!
"bad attempt of playing with our nostalgia"
I admit it... a moment of weakness struck for a split second and the dang trolls played my like a fiddle :cry:
Posted on Reply
#20
Chrispy_
Nvidia owns all the rights to 3DFX.
Until Nvidia confirms they've sold the brand name to Jansen this is likely just a crowdfunding scam.
Posted on Reply
#21
windwhirl


"an major announcement"

"an major"

Ultra fake, learn to write.
Posted on Reply
#22
NotHereMan
Franzen4RealThis was my first video card as well and for exactly the same reason! :toast: No one in my family had a clue on how to install it, so since it was the family PC my dad took the reins. It's crazy to think of how intimidating that process was--- just opening a case side panel and putting the card into the only slot that it could physically fit into... like we were handling plutonium or something :roll:

Did anyone else have that friend/acquaintance that had two of them running SLI? I only knew one person that had that setup back in the day and I just remember after seeing how huge of a difference one card made in my pc, the thought of having TWO of them was mind blowing!
For real! It was like "Don't touch it! You're inside the damn thing!". Tried to get the tech guy who repaired my CTX PC to install, but wouldn't saying "Besides, it's only for video games". Yeah, that's the whole point!

I heard/looked up the SLI configuration. Was curious to doing it myself but never went through on it. I had no idea what my bro's friend was running(Or if anything). He was the only kid that I knew with intimate knowledge of computers in the neighborhood. So it really made a difference? I feel left out!
Posted on Reply
#23
TheoneandonlyMrK
windwhirl

"an major announcement"

"an major"

Ultra fake, learn to write.
I think you an right but I wish you weren't, It could be an outlet for that Chinese GPU manufacturer for example?!.
Posted on Reply
#24
Cheese_On_tsaot
TheoneandonlyMrKI think you an right but I wish you weren't, It could be an outlet for that Chinese GPU manufacturer for example?!.
Anecdotal and an wedge.
Posted on Reply
#25
TheoneandonlyMrK
Cheese_On_tsaotAnecdotal and an wedge.
Na, I have just wanted an new GPU so long I'm waiting it out again FFS, I might even buy Xe day 1 an this point, or this in full vapour ware, we will dispatch in 2022 mode, giz dat GPUS ffs
Anyway I already have a vodoo something or other Evil king GPU so they'll have to go some way to beat that on Agp.
Posted on Reply
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