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The Tech Archived · VIDEO ESSAY

What Happened to 3dfx? Why the Company That Invented the GPU Disappeared

In the mid-1990s, 3dfx Interactive built the hardware that made real-time 3D gaming on a consumer PC possible for the first time. Their Voodoo graphics cards dominated the market for years, outselling every competitor and shaping the entire direction of PC gaming. But by the end of 2000 the company was gone, acquired by NVIDIA for a fraction of what it had been worth at its peak. This video breaks down exactly how that happened: the technical decisions, the business moves, and the structural shifts that turned the most dominant graphics company in the world into a footnote inside of eighteen months.

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In the mid-1990s, 3dfx Interactive built the hardware that made real-time 3D gaming on a consumer PC possible for the first time. Their Voodoo graphics cards dominated the market for years, outselling every competitor and shaping the entire direction of PC gaming. But by the end of 2000 the company was gone, acquired by NVIDIA for a fraction of what it had been worth at its peak. This video breaks down exactly how that happened: the technical decisions, the business moves, and the structural shifts that turned the most dominant graphics company in the world into a footnote inside of eighteen months.

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