In some cases 3dfx has obviously succeeded with their classic 'three tier distribution model' but in others, they've unwillingly created a 'grey' market. Clearly some Taiwanese 3D card manufacturers feel left out in the cold by 3dfx's merger with STB. A few of them (all of whom expressed that their source remain unnamed) have decided to take matters into their own hands and thus we're likely to see some very shady things goings on. One company in particular admitted that they were buying up Voodoo3s 'on the cheap' (from a Western Tier-two and -three OEM no less!) and then repackaging them with their own logos. They declined any 'official' comment on why the OEM chose to sell them the Voodoo3s in the first place. Although they did reason that the TNT2 seems to be picking up OEM design wins left right and center and that initial forecasts of Voodoo3 OEM sales may have been overcast. Other sources said that buying Voodoo3 chipsets from motherboard manufacturers also accounted for a small part of the availability. Thus, Voodoo3s were being shown to (by appointment and behind closed doors only) volume buyers and NOT by 3dfx.

End-users might well need to be wary of any non-branded PC doing a Voodoo3. What sort of quality assurance testing will the card have undergone? Where did it come from etc…The scale of the problem might be small enough in the US for 3dfx to regulate but as for the rest of the World, that's another story. We suspect Europe as being a prime target for these 'grey marketed' Voodoo3s. Will we see 'fake' Voodoo3s? Let's hope not… We've not been able to locate a 3dfx representative at Computex for obvious reasons but we'll get their comment on this situation upon our return, we're sure.

With the Voodoo3 unavailable (legitimately) to 3D card manufacturers, the most predominant chipset being used is undoubtedly NVIDIA's TNT2 chipset. We simply lost count of announced TNT2 products (strangely enough TNT2Ultra products were not all that scarce in a market geared towards competitive pricing). Although the focus will primarily be for OEM channels, there were a suprising amount of companies that insisted that they would be distributing their particular product in the US at a competitive price. ASUS, Gainward, BriTek, Skywell, and LeadTek (who shipped the first TNT2) TNT2 products are currently all available (if you look hard enough) in the US (so be on the look out for cheap TNT2s). It looks as though if you're going to be buying a new PC this year, the chances are that your system will come with a TNT2 of some sort.

Some companies also opted for NVIDIA's cheap/low-end VANTA chipset. There were a few interesting designs out there including the addition of TV-Tuners/Capture features etc…