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Hooray! (Mostly.) (4/12/00)
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We have some good news and some so-so news. Which do you want first? The good news is that 3dfx Interactive has finally made a concrete commitment to its months-old vague promises to support the Mac platform; Mac-specific versions of its screamingly-fast, jaw-droppingly-beautiful Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 graphics accelerators are due this July, according to MacWEEK. The so-so news, however, is that these cards are PCI-based, and no Mac-specific AGP models are yet planned. So those of you with new G4 systems won't get to take advantage of your speedy AGP slot-- you'll have to sacrifice one of those three PCI slots instead.
But wait, there's more: apparently the Mac-specific cards are going to cost more than their PC counterparts, too. Granted, it's only about $30 more, compared to the double-the-price gouging we Mac folks used to take back in the Voodoo and Voodoo2 days, and the cards are only going to cost between $200 and $330, but still, we're a little confused as to what is so "Mac-specific" about these cards that they should cost more. The drivers will be different, of course, but the hardware is largely the same. Oh, wait; it's not. 3dfx doesn't make PCI versions of these particular cards for PCs-- they're AGP-only. So there's that. Plus, it sounds as though these Mac-specific cards will have Digital Visual Interface ports, meaning they'll be usable with Apple's LCD Studio Display and (more importantly) the Cinema Display. Imagine Unreal Tournament on a G4 with a Voodoo5 card output to a Cinema Display. Drool, drool, slobber...
Now, what would make that scenario even more droolworthy would be if the Voodoo5 in question were zipping along in that G4's AGP slot instead of in one of the three scarce PCI slots. Still, given that we don't own a G4, a Cinema Display, or any time to play Unreal Tournament, we're willing to let it slide... this time. So, gamers rejoice! Some serious speed is only a few months away.
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SceneLink (2226)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/12/00 episode: April 12, 2000: The gushing tech wounds on Wall Street continue, and AAPL takes a big hit even on the heels of an analyst upgrade. Meanwhile, rumors swirl that Mac OS X is out to break the land speed record of startup times, and 3dfx finally commits to the Mac market-- with PCI versions of its existing Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 graphics accelerator cards...
Other scenes from that episode: 2224: How Low Can You Go? (4/12/00) Wheeeee! Okay, so it wasn't a roller-coaster death drop like last Tuesday's "Redmond Justice"-inspired free fall, but the sizeable NASDAQ losses for the past three days were still fun to watch, in a prolonged downhill luge-run sort of way... 2225: Einstein's Spinning (4/12/00) Let's just state, right off the bat, here, that we're not interested in debating the relative merits and weaknesses of Mac OS Rumors. Yes, we're aware that some people think the site fabricates everything it posts-- heck, there's even a highly entertaining web site dedicated entirely to debunking MOSR and launching personal attacks on the site's proprietor...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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