nVidia did "not" purchase 3dfx. They purchased 3dfx's technology/patents/name/logos. 3dfx the company still existed after the sale, but they are in the process of winding up the company itself.

Technicalities...if I buy everything that is your reason for existance, I pretty much own your soul...right? ;)

If you buy GeForce 3 now, you probably won't see much improvement from GeForce 2 Ultra. You may ask why. GeForce 3 and GeForce 2 Ultra have pretty much the same hardware spec. Same number of pixel pipeline, same core speed, and same memory speed. So when you run a program that isn't optimized for GeForce 3, you won't see much improvement. The reason why GeForce 3 is able to utilize complex texture shown during Apple's show is that it has programmable engine of some sort. It is quite technical and I really can't explain it well. But the point is, unless you have a program that is optimized for DirectX 8(or the updated version of OpenGL API - I believe nVidia will be releasing their own extension of it), you won't see the eye-candy you saw in Doom 3. And these games won't be released for at least 6 months, and as for Doom..it's at least a year. So most experts say that you should wait about 6 months for the next nVidia release(by then, ATI will have their own DirectX 8 compatible similar to GeForce 8). So for now, I'd say keep your money in your pocket. It won't do you any good to buy GeForce 3 now.

Um...ATI blows chunks....just thought i'd toss that out there... nVidia is THE only worth while graphics chipset manufacturer.

Good grief, they unveiled this weeks ago. There was a very nice demo of Doom 3, too :)

/me pokes Betanews

Don't worry about the price... that's just taking advantage of the saddos who want it so badly they'll camp outside the store the night before :)
Once the rush is over, they'll drop the price to something sensible. And anyway, I'm sure they'll make budget versions - this model will be the bleeding edge for those who want it.

No it wasn't. See http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010227/0220.html. February 27, the day this article was posted.

Guess you're right.

I never understand unveilings, they always seem to do it twice? ... .

I am a process engineer at IC packaging plant so many NVIDIA's products I already have see, this Geforce3 package is highest pin I/O and use heat spreader tech., I think the performace of this package is better then other graphics card u have ever seen but more heat will produce.

$500 for the most incredible graphics card in the world? SCREAMING DEAL!!! Come on! Think about it...the best graphics engine EVER was the 3dfx 'Glide' nVivia now owns that. If they have brains they are releasing the new engine with the Glide technologies built into it...it's going to be the fastest card in the world. Allready the GeForce2 beats the V5 with OpenGL apps(the V5 still rocks on games with Glide). Now, if a card that is allready faster uses the better graphics engine of the other...WHAT HAPPENS? You get an incredibly fast card that supports OpenGL, D3D, and Glide. I say $500 is a deal for such a quality product. I was planning on getting the 64mb UltraPure...but now I'm going to wait! :)

Uhm, 3dfx realized Glide was dying a slow and painful death. OpenGL was being embraced by pretty much the entire software industry. THAT is why 3dfx abandoned Glide by open sourcing the API. Furthermode, Glide was only better on programs written for that api. I personally preferred the 32 bit colors, the 32 bit textures and a company innovative enough to do it with 1 chip rather than 4 with an external power supply.

Not to mention that Glide looked REALLY cheap.

I run Q3:TA, full effects, highest quality, in 1024x768, 32 bit color and get more than 60 FPS on my plain vanilla GeForce 2 GTS.

What engines coming down the pipeline are going to stress my video card more than Q3:TA in the next 2 years? Doom 3? Maybe.

Bottom line....hardware is a good 2 years ahead of software right now.

here here

WTF!! They want to sell but they keep getting the price up...someday they will fall like 3dfx. BTW even 3dfx was stupide to higher there price on there new(crap)v5 5500. i got a v3 3000 and i'm VERY happy with it and i only paid 200$ in canadian dollars. My opinion is to wait for the price to lower or buy the x-box, at lest you'll got a complete working console not just the video card.

Come on guys, in '92 an ATi VLB 2MB VRAM card was $600.
At work I just paid $1,600 each, for some 3DLabs OpenGL cards that can't touch the GF3 in performance for the desktop user. The price point for out this world graphics hasn't changed and neither has what people are willing to spend. They'll sell, without you buying them.

Oh god, shut up people, you have no clue, look at the ultra prices, look at prices in the past, the geforce3 is an amazing card, you think they are making these things cheaply? Why don't some of you get some information about the card and the industry, instead of just whinning about the price tag.

The 3dfx Voodoo cost upwards of $500 when it was first introduced.

If you are happy with your V3, good for you, but in my eyes the V3 is a load of crap to even the TNT2.

I agree! My TNT2 easily outperforms my friends V3. I am glad i didnt waste my money on a geforce1/2 now that the gf3 are here :D

Indeed, if you want a cheap, crapy card, go buy any of ATI's products.

Everyone go ATI! Oppose the hideous Nvidia front! Get yourself a All-In-Wonder Radeon! The best video card out there right now! What games are going to use all the power of the GE3? Read some reviews of the Alienware Area 51 for January 2001 and you will see that it plays QIII almost faster than the eye can see... c'mon, aren't we exxagerating a little?

ATI, ha! Good one. They have the worst record in modern times of producing stable drivers, or even drivers at all. Last I checked many of their not-too-old cards still didn't have Win2k drivers.

LOL!!!

That was funny...ATI!?

LOL

Ain't that right... I am still waiting for a solid Win2k driver for my ATI TV Wonder card. ATI drivers SUCK. Repeat... S U C K.

then i suppose you can tell me how to get my nvidia geforce 2mx driver to work... (without crashing my system after 10 mins)

Try installing it.

Yes, but, Creative drivers for their GEFORCE cards are even worse. If anyone out there has purchased a Creative video card with an NVidia chipset, I suggest you go to http://www.nvidia.com and download their drivers. They actually know what they're doing.

Just a whim, but try changing the AGP apature size in BIOS to a lower setting (i.g. 256MB to 64MB)...

ATI CARDS ARE THE BIGGEST PIECES OF CRAP ON THE MARKET. THEIR DRIVERS ARE CRAP. THEY HAVE TO MAKE "SPECIAL PURPOSE" DRIVERS JUST TO TRY TO KEEP UP. THEY SUCK. BUY nVidia, DON'T BE A FOOL.

Um, you are on crack...if you knew anything you would know that creative only knows how to make one thing: sound cards, NOT video cards.

Yeah, and if you knew anything, Creative makes one of the top performing nVidia chipset cards on the market, they make great speakers, they have tons of great products, why don't you get your head out of that big a** of yours?

Creatice makes as good a video card as Compaq makes computers, they both suck. nVidia chipset or not, they don't know what they are doing. Buy an ELSA or Hercules.

This is what WE pay for NVidia's 3dfx takeover.
I'd expected such ego-driven - monopoly crap! :(
I bet it will be cheaper getting an XBOX and then disassembling the Ge3 plus the HD ;)

THAT'S RETAIL YOU IDIOT'S!!!

There is no need to buy on of them now, just wait 3 months, then pick one up on pricewatch for half that. Plus in another 6 months we will see the Ultra version of the card then by the end of the year there next generation card will come out. It's an upgrade battle, if you want the best stuff you have to pay for it.

A GeForce 2 Ultra costs just over $1000 here in Australia, anyone want to take guesses at what the GeForce 3 will cost when it hits the shelves?

While my GeForce 256 SDR is still 6th in the MadOnion hall of fame, I won't be forking out any more cash. The cost of these things is just becoming ridiculous.

Hands up those of you will be upgrading to a GF3 from anything newer than a GF256?

The money really isn't the issue: it's the technology. Just think about it for a moment: if someone invented a "time machine", do you think they would need to set competitive prices? No! There IS not competition, and as for the GeForce3, don't argue for ATI....the Radeon, since its birth, has been called the "economy" graphics card, and that's exactly what it is. ATI, a somewhat struggling company, making higher-technology cards at very low prices targeting, no offense to the people complaining about cost, the unwashed masses.

ATI would not be struggling if their programmers would get their heads out of their asses and write some decent drivers to support their hardware.

NO, even then ATI would suck...

No, and if you had half a brain rather than an anything but blah sucks type of attitude, you would realize it too.

ATI makes a great card, their drivers are just beyond stink.

NO, their cards AND their drivers suck...What good is a crapy card with crapy drivers? And Createive's nVidia cards suck. Once again, the only thing they know how to manufacture are sound related (aka sound cards, mp3 players, etc.), NOT video. And their PC speakers suck, buy Bose or Boston Acoustics, dumb ass.