Though the 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI card has been available to the gaming public for several days, 3dfx has just made their official announcement that this next-generation card is available for purchase. Although the press release is more focused on hype than actual features, the details of this card should be familiar to anyone who has been following the gaming news these past few weeks: dual VSA-100 chips, 64 MB of texture memory, the ability to do 2 and 4-sample Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing, and megatexel performance. Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

3dfx Interactive Inc. (Nasdaq: TDFX - news) today announced that the Voodoo5(TM) 5500 PCI for Macintosh is in full volume production and available immediately at leading retail outlets. Voodoo5 5500 PCI for Macintosh is the first 3D accelerator for the Mac platform to offer full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) in hardware, and offers substantial performance advantages over competitive offerings.

``This marks an important step in reaching our goal of revolutionizing the Mac graphics market,'' said Alex Leupp, President and CEO of 3dfx Interactive. ``As the glowing reviews of the product validate, we believe the Voodoo5 is superior to any other graphics card for the Mac. We are excited about becoming the market leader for Mac graphics solutions.''

``This product launch marks our official entry into a market that we knew was in desperate need of a superior graphics solution,'' said Bryan Speece, director of Macintosh business development at 3dfx Interactive. ``No other graphics accelerator offers the kind of high visual fidelity and incredible 2D and 3D performance that Voodoo5 for Macintosh delivers.''

After awarding the Voodoo5 5500 PCI the coveted ``Best of Show'' award at Macworld Expo, MacWEEK Magazine's (www.macweek.com) David Read wrote in a July 27, 2000 article, ``The release of 3dfx's Voodoo5 5500 graphics accelerator marks a fundamental change in how we view 3-D graphics on the Mac. MacWEEK's tests show it to be fast, but more importantly, it renders larger, higher-quality images than any currently shipping Mac graphics board. It also provides impressive features, such as full-screen anti-aliasing. Voodoo5 provides the best image quality we've seen in a Mac graphics card without sacrificing performance.''

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