When's the last time a PC gamer has been jealous of their Mac counterpart? The unbelievable is about to happen, as MicroConversions today detailed the release of the Game Wizard VooDoo 2 graphics card for the Mac OS, and tells MacCentral something interesting about the card's presence at the upcoming Macworld Expo in New York.
First, MicroConversions has revealed some of the technical details for the new VooDoo 2 card. With a base configuration of a 192-bit memory architecture and 2.2 Gigabyte per second of memory bandwidth, the Game Wizard delivers over 50 BOPS (Billions of Operations per Second). This configuration delivers an incredible 3 million triangles per second and 90 million dual-textured, bilinear-filtered, per-pixel MIP-mapped, alpha-blended, Z-buffered pixels per second.
What does all that technical jargon really boil down to? It means you'll get over three times the performance of the original Voodoo chipset cards! It also means really deep textures in real time for any PCI Macintosh.
Why will PC gamers be drooling for these VooDoo 2 cards on the Mac OS? Since these cards are 100% G3-compatible, Mac gamers will get the combination of pentium-toasting processor speeds combined with incredible 3D rendering power that equal blistering frame rates and amazingly detailed graphics in 3Dfx-enabled Mac OS games.
Furthermore, the Game Wizard is compatible with all Mac games that support 3Dfx's MacGlide (Glide for Mac) or QuickDraw 3D RAVE, meaning even some games not built around the 3Dfx standard will benefit from the wokhorse power of this card.
Worried that your PCI Mac might be too slow? MicroConversions says "There is no such thing as a PCI Mac that is too slow to run (3Dfx) games when a Game Wizard is installed. Even on a 601-based PowerMac, the Game Wizard will accelerate game graphics to blinding speed."
The big news at the Macworld Expo in New York is that Game Wizards will be used in all 24 G3 Macs which host the National Game Championships at the conference! Five lucky winners will also be awarded with the new card.
And finally, MicroConversions has put the pricing for the Game Wizard within reach of most Mac OS gamers. A version of the card with 8 MB of VRAM will be priced at $299 while a version with 12 MB will ring in at $349. Remember, MicroConversions is the only manufacturer making VooDoo 2 cards that are compatible with the Mac OS.
More information on this exciting product for the Mac gaming community is available from http://www.microconversions.com (Site currently down for renovation).
----------------------
This report was brought to you by MacCentral News. Visit our Web site at http://www.maccentral.com for the latest in Macintosh news and information.
X-From_: owner-mwdailytips@tipworld.com Fri Jun 26 02:04:07 1998
Return-Path: owner-mwdailytips@tipworld.com
Received: from listproc3.pcworld.com (listproc3.pcworld.com [209.1.23.114]) by smtp2.teleport.com (8.8.7/8.7.3) with ESMTP id CAA24468; Fri, 26 Jun 1998 02:04:01 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from listproc.pcworld.com (listproc.pcworld.com [209.1.23.15])
by listproc3.pcworld.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id CAA24730;
Subject: Re: R: (cww) [Fwd: Macworld's Daily Tip [3Dfx Cards for All!
Date: 28 Jun 1998 23:35:12 -0700
Wade Williams wrote:
> <<<<
> Of course every Mac user who buys a PC "just for games" takes another user away from the Mac gaming market, and gives the gaming companies even more justification for not bringing their games to the Mac.
>
> Wade
> >>>>
>
>
Well duh! I too was a long time Apple/Mac user starting with the Apple
IIe. I made the switch to a PC last March and I havn't looked back
since. Sure, I miss the personality of the MacOS. But, I consider
myself a hard-core gamer, and in order to stay at the leading edge, the
only answer is the PC. The main problem I have with your statement
about the Mac gaming market is that it should be the other way around.
Most Mac users have been around for awhile and have shown their loyalty
time and time again, in many ways. But what has it gotten them? The
iMac? I say SQUAT! The Mac will probably always get used as a graphics
and multimedia tool. It excels at that, and the industry knows it. But
as far as Business and Home use goes, The PC has got the corner on
that. The Mac user base is not going to increase unless new software
and hardware become more available. At the same time, new software and
hardware won't be made available unless the Mac user base increases. So
what you have here is a Catch 22. A self-fulfilling prophecy. IMO, it
will take a move on the part of the gaming industry to help build the
Mac market, not the other way around. Let me put it this way; Jumping
off a sinking ship is not going to make the ship sink any faster.
People live too much in the here and now. They want their high speed
computers now. They want their state-of-the-art software now.
Especially when it comes to games. Heck, just look at any poplular
message board of a game about to release a new update. :-) Either the
gaming industry sees the Mac as a viable market or it doesn't. The
downward spiral has already begun. Apple has come full circle with the
introduction of the all-in-one G3 and iMac. Perhaps a bit symbolic of
