E3 2000 Report

Matrox
Not really a lot to say here. The G450, which should be out in June/July timeframe, was the main topic of discussion. Matrox also discussed with us the entertainment SKU for the G450 line, more information will follow on that shortly. There has been a lot of talk about the next generation of Matrox cards, but most of it is rumour. The focus of the G450 is not the gaming market, that much is clear. This video card is directed at the home/business user. Does this mean Matrox is not interested in competing with the gaming cards out now? No.

Matrox G450 Document: Document

Nvidia
Again, not much new here either. Nvidia has released their products, so most of E3 is centered around the Gforce 2. We did inquire about NV11 and the mobile version of the Gforce. Let's just say that this is not the primary focus right now for Nvidia. Since G-Force 2 is out, another logical question comes to mind: what about Quaddro 2? It will come, in time for Sigraph.

3Dfx
3Dfx managed to show us a Voodoo 6000 running in one of the booths. We watched as they played Quake 3 at 2056 -- smooth as butter. We had a look inside the case, at the monster full-length board, and almost tripped over the power supply :). If Windows 2000 is your bag, then you will be pleased that in about two weeks after Voodoo 6000 ships (June 15th), the Windows 2000 drivers will be out.

ATI
ATI picked us up on Friday and we headed over to their hotel. There, they had a Radeon demo machine running with some demos showing off the Charisma engine. The video quality was impressive, to say the least, and smooth. The facial demo of indexed skinning was quite realistic. ATI did let us know that there will be a Radeon MAXX part later this year. They also told us the driver developers are hard at work on Windows 2000 drivers. The Radeon will ship with Windows 2000 drivers included.