ArtX

ArtX was a company formed in 1997 by a group of twenty former Silicon Graphics engineers, who had worked on the Nintendo 64's graphics chip. The company was focused on delivering a graphics chip for IBM PC compatibles that was both high performance and cost effective, and hoped to be able to compete with then-dominant 3dfx and fledgling competitors such as nVidia.

ArtX was led by Dr. Wei Yen, who had been SGI's head of Nintendo Operations, the department responsible for the Nintendo 64's fundamental design. David Orton, who was head of the advanced graphics division of Silicon Graphics, was appointed President of ArtX.