3Dfx Interactive has let the secret out of the bag on the Voodoo3 and we've also done our own preview based upon having tested the board for a few hours. Since the announcement, we've obviously had a lot of feedback from you our readers. Most of you seemed enthusiastic and others amongst you, for whom mere speed isn't enough, expressed several concerns. Thus we've rounded up a few of the concerns and discussed them with Gary Tarolli, CTO and Co-founder of 3Dfx Interactive.

The first major concern most of you had was with the fact that the board we tested harbored an AGP interface rendering the possibility of SLI (scanline Interleave) virtually impossible. Those of you accustomed to SLI will of course be saddened by this fact. Even though it's theoretically impossible to do SLI due to the single available AGP slot, perhaps 3Dfx could have indeed attempted to implement some kind of 'daughter card' add-on. Tarolli stated this on the matter:

Well, anything is possible, but because the target for Voodoo3 is an AGP bus slot (PCI will also be supported, but we feel in this time the majority of sales will be AGP cards), and there's only one AGP bus slot in any given computer, we felt that bringing the product to market sooner than going to much more difficult measures to add SLI capabilities was the right choice.

Of course, this is good news on two counts. It'll mean OEMs and gamers wanting the board as soon as possible will actually be able to get their hands on it sooner. It looks as though Tarolli hasn't totally decided against aiming for the more ambitious SLI set up. If 3Dfx don't do it, will Quantum 3D try it? They've done it before with their Obsidian line of products so anything is possible. Either way it looks as though 3Dfx has left the door firmly open for implementing further TMUs (texture memory units) via SLI on either a single board or indeed with the aid of a daughter card. Either way the fastest you're most likely going to get in Q1 1999 is a Voodoo3 -3000, albeit minus SLI. And if you're still craving for SLI perhaps it may return sometime late next year (let's hope?).