Ebook: The Legacy of 3dfx

The history of 3dfx is the history of consumer graphics. Martín Gamero Prieto an inspiring Spanish videogame collector and a tech-enthusiast examines the role and impact 3dfx has had on the evolution of the graphics industry. Prieto credits 3dfx with ushering in the 3D PC gaming revolution, raising awareness, expectations, and excitement.

His relationship with 3dfx started when he bought a Voodoo3 in 2000. Since then he’s been writing articles about 3dfx, collecting graphics boards and researching them. By 2014 he started developing the idea to write a book about the revolutionary company, and in September 2015 he fully committed to it. Four years later he finished and had a 546-page book, which can be called the definitive history of 3dsfx and the 3D revolution.

3dfx was founded in August 1994 by Gordon (Gordie) Campbell, Gary Tarolli, vice president and chief scientist and Scott D. Sellers vice president of research and development. Ross Smith came in as vice president of sales and marketing—as qualified a group of people as you could find at the time.

Prieto traces 3dfx’s developments and influence with a smooth, easy to read writing style, chronicling the introduction of several landmark concepts into the PC gaming industry. The idea of using multiple boards to increase performance, which was known as SLI and replicated by ATI, Nvidia, and others. The idea of using multiple processors on a board which required some clever and tricky power management and cooling schemes. And the establishment of a proprietary application interface (API), which later proved to be a handicap.