A Call to Diamond Multimedia

It seems you can't get away from the next-generation 3D accelerator buzz. If there's one thing we've learned over the years, it's the axiom that software will never have trouble keeping up with the latest hardware advancements. In an ever-faithful twist of Murphy's Law, software also tends to be the cheaper of the two, and more easily accessible.

That leaves us with one all-overriding fact - we're all consigned to constantly yearn over hardware upgrades, just to keep up with the new features and glitz being introduced in today's (and tomorrow's) games.

On the shoulders of monsters

As most know, one of the biggest players in the graphics market is Diamond Multimedia, who grew to dominance with the venerable Monster3D, Monster3D II, and Viper V550 line of 3D accelerators. Seeing as 3dfx has ventured out on their own into the retail/OEM business, it seems Diamond (and everyone else selling retail 3dfx parts) is left with only their second-tier product line.

Thankfully, the power of the Nvidia TNT and the invigorating success of the S3 Savage3D have given Diamond more-than-sufficient platforms to base their next-generation high-end and budget platforms on. We recently had the chance to talk to Stacey Long at Diamond about their upcoming products, announced just today.