So, Nvidia can afford to be smug. They're on target to break $300 million in revenues by the year end, and that's quite a feat. However, it is pointless to compare Nvidia and 3dfx, and although I have raised this point before, I think that the recent financial results make it quite obvious. Nvidia is selling $25 chips, and 3dfx is selling $80 boards. In fact, I would go as far as to say Nvidia should be compared to ATI, and 3dfx should be compared to Matrox. There are a lot more similarities in those two pairings than might seem apparent at first.

Nvidia and ATI are organizations that will live and die on their execution, while 3dfx and Matrox will rise and fall on their ability to work their respective channels. If 3dfx wants to be successful in the OEM market than it should emulate Matrox, rather than try and position itself against Nvidia and ATI. Now, the differences between an ATI and Matrox are very subtle, but they've been in business for a hell of a lot longer than Nvidia and 3dfx so, they're worth exploring.

ATI, in the last five years, has managed to tune its processes and systems to be able to accommodate the schedules of the PC makers. This has meant ATI shadowing Microsoft and Intel on every platform enhancement, and delivering timely solutions to PC OEMs. So, when a PC OEM gets ready to ship AGP for the first time, there's ATI with products in the socket. When everyone upgrades to DVD drives, there's ATI with support. When a new version of DirectX is out, there's ATI with WHQL approved drivers. It's actually a very tedious and mechanical process, but both Nvidia and ATI are doing an exceptional job of meeting the demands of the PC OEMs.

In Matrox's case, the focus has been similar, but Matrox has worked the add-in board channels better than almost anyone I can think of. I don't know how they do it, but from personal experience, I can attest to Matrox's extreme sense of responsibility to the system integrator channel, and distribution, and international customers, and even, big corporate customers. The company makes you feel like sacrifice its young to accommodate your wishes. Although the metaphor is a disturbing one, the results speak for themselves. In this case, I think 3dfx really has to step up its activities. The company has done a fine job in retail, but I am not sure that they are geared up for other distribution channels in the same way. STB was great at OEM, but their channel management was relatively weak. 3dfx needs to start moving some of its resources out of high-profile promotions, and into creating a more effective channel services structure, however, I can't see that happening while the company continues to try and keep a lock on the gaming market.