3dfx slash prices

3dfx have announced that they have reduced the recommended price of their Voodoo 5 5500 AGP graphics card from £249 to £199 in time for Christmas, with the Macintosh variety of the card also cut by £50, to £229. The cards have been topping the retail sales charts for some time, although sceptics will no doubt point to the fact that leading rival NVIDIA sell their GeForce 2 graphics cards through several vendors, splitting their market share. Either way, the price cut certainly makes the cards a more viable option for gamers wanting to upgrade their graphics during the festive season, as at the old price point they were actually more expensive than many brands of the slightly faster GeForce 2.

3dfx EMEA vice-president Mandy Bedborough came out fighting, saying that "we have no intention of giving up our number one retail position" during the vital Christmas period. "This cut in price reaffirms our strong commitment to the consumer. We want to see Voodoo cards installed in as many homes as possible and it is our firm intention to make leading edge technology more affordable to end-users."

Whether the company can afford the price cuts in the long run remains to be seen though, as their financial results have been far from healthy in recent times, and price cutting on the old Voodoo 3 range when their new generation of cards were delayed helped contribute to the company's current problems. One thing is sure though, if you are in desperate need of a new graphics card the price cuts can only be good news for you...