The 3Dfx corporation is known for its outstanding work in the video card field. Well, it was up until last Friday (December 15, 2000). That say was a huge blow to Mac users as 3Dfx reported that it would sell its assets to rival Nvidia. This comes to a huge surprise to many Mac gamers, and leaves thousands in the dust.

While Nvidia isn't known for it's Mac support like 3Dfx was, they have shown interest at entering the Mac arena. Up until the latest report, I could have cared less if Nvidia entered the Mac market (those Voodoo cards were really doing wonders), but now, it's almost a life and death situation for Mac Gaming. Why? Because ATI sucks, that's why.

Even with the new Radeon, ATI cannot compete in the gaming market. Its cards put out too low of numbers, and don't offer anything like T buffer or Full Screen Anti Aliasing. Sure, they do make some of the greatest 2D cards, but their 3D has never been up to snuff. That gave us one option for real gaming, the Voodoo line of graphics cards from 3Dfx.

But now, it seems as if that thread that Mac gamers were holding onto will break, and we will be left in the cold. That is unless Nvidia can really put their products were their PR is. They have been half way promising Mac compatible cards for a year now, and have yet to deliver. In my humble opinion, Mac gaming will die if Nvidia does not come out with a Mac compatible board, it's as simple as that.

If there was no real 3D graphics cards for the Mac, do you think any big time games such as Myth, Deus Ex, or even Unreal would have come to the Mac? No way. Why produce a game, when it's bound to look terrible without true 3D acceleration? They would have just set themselves up for failure. While I do know that it's not only graphics that make up a game (read this article for proof), these games made it because of their awesome graphics.

But let's look on the bright side. If Nvidia comes through with a Mac board, we will finally have the top of the litter for 3D graphics cards. Nvidia's cards have been touted as much faster than 3Dfx's cards. This means better graphics, more realistic anti aliasing, and smoother game play. When it comes to games, you want the best machine possible, and without these cards, you will never have that machine.

However, what about all of these games that currently use 3Dfx's graphics engine called "Glide"? Will the Nvidia cards support it, or will all of our Glide games be left without a proper card? On the same note, what about OpenGL. Even since the Voodoo 3 cards arrived, we have had both OpenGL and Glide in one package, will this continue with the Nvidia cards? I sure to hope so.

While it's been a great past with 3Dfx, we could have a greater future with Nvidia. I thank those wonderful people at 3Dfx for making top quality graphics cards, and coming to the Mac platform when most other companies wouldn't even consider it. I hope our time with Nvidia is as fulfilling as our time with them.