zlacker

>>BirAda+(OP)
>Voodoo Graphics and GLide were the standard in the PC graphics space for a time. 3dfx created an industry that is going strong today, and that industry has affected far more than just gaming. GPUs now power multiple functions in our computers, and they enable AI work as well.

>This tale brings up many “what ifs.”

What if 3dfx had realized early on that GPUs were excellent general purpose linear algebra computers, and had incorporated GPGPU functionality into GLide in the late 90s?

Given its SGI roots, this is not implausible. And given how NVidia still has a near stranglehold on the GPGPU market today, it’s also plausible that this would have kept 3dfx alive.

>>MontyC+K8
I don't think so. Part of what made consumer GPUs viable at that gate count was their laser like precision on their specific rasterization workloads. More general linear algebra solutions wouldn't have been viable on the marketplace. You wouldn't see the viability of more general hardware until the bro layer 90s advent of register combiner hardware.