On 20 January 1998 Creative, as the new partner of 3Dfx, announced their first Voodoo 2 graphics cards maps the first Voodoo and brought these briefly before the products of Diamond with the Monster 3D 2 on the market.

On 31 March Q3D opened its on-line Shop and offered in April their first Voodoo 2 products in large quantities under the name Obsidian 2. Before Quantum was the only company which had developed graphics cards, which combined several Voodoo 1 cards to a kind of combination (Quantum SB100-44x0) as a transition to the Voodoo 2 technology.

3Dfx called this technology SLI (Scan Line Interleave). This term should again have a lasting effect affect in the games sector during the times of the Voodoo 2…

The Voodoo 2 graphics cards made an impact into the computer game scene: It has never been possible to create so brilliant 3D worlds in such a short time – even though 3Dfx only strongly drilled out the best of the Voodoo 1. With a so called SLI-combination of two graphics cards it was the very first time possible to play computer games in resolutions of 1024 on 768 pixels. The downward compatibility to the Voodoo 1 and continuing of all well-known standards was well received by the developers.

New technologies like the Bump Mapping made the players’ mouth water.

June 1998 was the an absolute high point in the firm history of 3Dfx. For the first time a combined chip with 2D and 3D-kernel was announced, the Banshee. Although it became later on nearly the most unpopular product of 3Dfx, the company was very optimistic in the apron due to current success.

At the same time more and more Voodoo 2 based graphics cards among others of Canopus (Pure 3D) and Guillemot (Maxi Gamer) appeared on the market and introduced a new era of the computer gaming: The 3D-graphics cards became kind of standard for the players PC.

On 22 September 1998 it came to the first direct confrontation with the next competitor nVidia: 3Dfx filed an action because of a patent law injury in connection with the Multi Texturing technology.  Due to counter suits this law should further-pull itself until the fall of 3Dfx.

In October then the first Banshee graphics cards were published. These should animate among other things the OEM market of the PC manufacturers, however this unfortunately never happened. The Banshee never became a beloved product. One reason might be, that it just disposed of parts of the power of the Voodoo 2 cards.
 

Also competitor nVidia rung in the 32-Bit ages with a huge Hype. For the first time 3Dfx became aware of their competitors, because of their graphics cards were just able to render 16-Bit.

In the middle of November the next generation of the 3Dfx chips was announced, at the same time the appearance and the internal structures of the company should get to feel a fresh wind: A new firm emblem and the Voodoo 3 chip Avenger were announced.

On 14 December of the year 1998 3Dfx bought in the graphics cards assembler STB Systems in Mexico to be able to sell the whole graphics cards under their own name in the future. Only five months later the first card should reach the market.

The year 1998 was the most successful in the short firm history of 3Dfx: With the Voodoo 2 chip set both players as well as games developers were very contently. Consequently, products which were based on this technology stated in each month the salesman lists. The Banshee chipset couldn’t tie in directly with this success. However, OEM partnerships with Compaq, Packard Bell, Gateway and others resulted.

In the year 1999 everything should become new and fresh. Firstly, 3dfx presented itself (pay attention to the small, fine difference) both with the new business strategy and a new emblem.

The new head of the 200 men strong company became Richard Burns, a successful businessman with 25 years of industry experience. Besides that, 3dfx started a huge, expensive publicity campaign (20 million USD). For the first time self-advertisement of 3dfx appeared in magazines and on television.

However, in the background nothing had been really correct: STB and 3dfx did not blend well with each other as expected, business philosophies went much too far apart and therefore already first common dates couldn’t be kept. Besides that, 3dfx upset the so far well earning third manufacturers and shunt them into their competitors.

The pressure of the competitors grew. nVidia had fastly caught up with 3dfx and made the 32-Bit Rendering to a real marketing hype, what should turn out later as a serious problem.

At the same time 3dfx started a high-secret project around a new superchip, the Rampage. This superchip should secure the throne on further and was originally planned for the end of 2000. However, this project should turn out as one of the most serious erroneous trends of 3dfx, due to substantial problems and delays.

Only at 7 April the first Voodoo 3 2000 and 3000 AGP graphics cards appeared on the market. The price was enticing and owing to the good name and the unbeatable speed as well as the full compatibility to all games, these cards became again a large success.

The Voodoo 3 disposed besides a good 2D-kernel of excellent multimedia features, 3dfx seemed to have something learned.