Canopus Switches from Rendition to 3DFX

Canopus, who produced the Rendition video card for Sierra along with their own card based on the V1000, have done a 180 and now moved to 3DFX instead. The detail came out in the GameCenter news post below:

Canopus is preparing to announce a new 3D graphics accelerator based on 3Dfx’s Voodoo Graphics chipset. Called Pure3D, the card will feature two important firsts for a standalone Voodoo card: NTSC video out and 6MB of memory (4MB for texture storage and a 2MB frame buffer).

As with other Voodoo Graphics cards, users will route the video from their 2D accelerators through the Pure3D. But this card has been designed so that the output from the 2D card can also be sent to the Pure3D’s NTSC video out port (composite and S-video jacks are mounted on the card’s bracket).

In terms of bundling, Canopus is doing a complete 180 from the strategy it followed with its first consumer board, the Total 3D. That card, based on Rendition’s Vérité V1000 chip, came with a bunch of games and 3D LCD shutter glasses; the Pure3D will come with nothing more than its drivers, a VGA pass-thru cable, and a set of long video and audio cables (to reach the back of your TV).

Why no game bundle? “We don’t think people want game bundles anymore,” said Canopus’s product marketing manager, Ken Feinstein. “People who like to play games already have them. We wanted to make the product as inexpensive as possible. We think features like video out and the extra memory are worth more to our customers than pack-in games they probably already have.”

Feinstein said Canopus’s engineers put more memory on the card because “Intel is pushing game developers to use more textures in games because of AGP. It won’t be long before two megabytes of texture memory just aren’t enough.”

Considering that Canopus is one of Rendition’s biggest customers (the company also designed and manufactures the Screamin’ 3D card for Sierra On-Line), we had to ask whether they had plans for Rendition’s as-yet-unannounced V2200. “It’s an excellent chip,” said Feinstein. “We’re evaluating it, but we don’t have a V2200 card to announce yet.”

The Pure3D will be priced at $179 and available direct from Canopus in early September. Look to Gamecenter for a hands-on review in the coming weeks.