Awesome!!
Written: May 26 '00 (Updated May 26 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fastest card available today. When ELSA releases the VIVO module, this will also be the most fully featured card available.
Cons: price
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| stevelarrison's Full Review: Elsa GLADIAC, (32 MB) AGP Video Card |
The hazards of early adoption. This review is being migrated from it's own, unclassified subject where it generated 14 hits since being written in the first week of May. For the 14 people who have seen it, I am adding some content based on more experience with the card, but for the most part, this is the same review. The purpose of the migration is not to generate duplicate hits, but rather to allow the review to be found.
When I heard the Nvidia announcement last week about the earlier than expected release of the NV-15 aka Geforce 2 chipset, I went to Electronics Boutique ( www.ebworld.com ) and checked out what they had in the area of pre-orders. After examining the various offerings ( Note: www.ebworld.com is a good place to pre-order hardware), I saw that the Elsa Gladiac would be the first shipping Geforce 2 video card. Although disappointed that the shipping card does not include TV output, the existance of a TV-out port, and promises from Elsa of a daughter card called VIVO at the end of may were enough to cause me to trust this early release card.
What does the card have?
It is pretty bare bones. It is a 32MB DDR (333MHz) video card with a Geforce 2 chip. No real bells or whistles. The only thing it really has is awesome power, and exceptional image quality. The VIVO daughter card is much anticipated because it will allow Video Input and Output capabilities. This should make the Elsa Gladiac the Geforce 2 equivalent of the Asus 6800 Deluxe. This card also supports the Elsa Relevator 3d Glasses. As far as game bundles are concerned, I have an interesting experience to report. At the time of this writing, I have no included software. I have read that Elsa was including an option that allowed you to choose any 2 full version games from a list they have, and purchase up to 3 titles at extreme discounts. However, unfortunately, the Gladiac I received did not contain the information to get my games. I will have to contact Elsa on this issue.
Can you overclock your video card too?
Anyone who has read my reviews for a while knows that I like to push processors to their limits. (This review is being written on a Pentium III 650 running at 891MHz. See my review on how I did it.) What about video cards. We know that Nvidia has bumped the processor speed of the Geforce 2 up to 200MHz from the 120MHz the Geforce shipped at. Also, the speed of the memory has been increased from 300MHz (DDR) to 333MHz. While the speed benefits of the stock speed increase are enjoyed, it doesn't stop me from wanting to overclock it further. (A separate article on overclocking the Geforce 2 will be written) I am proud to say that I am able to run by Gladiac with a 240 MHz core and 385 MHz memory. The 40 MHz core speed increase represents a 20% overclock. The 52 MHz speed increase in memory speed is a 16% overclock. This was accomplished without additional cooling. I am going to be making some modifications to my video card cooling setup in an attempt to see how fast I can make this thing go. New content: Experimentation shows that the Geforce 2 appears to be memory bandwidth impaired. i.e. When you overclock the processor, but leave memory at stock speed, you get next to no performance gain. When you overclock memory, but leave the core processor speed alone, you get dramatic speed increases. Overclock your memory to maximum stability. (Anandtech.com has an excellent article on this), then start overclocking the graphics processor.
Is it fast?
How does 87.1 Frames Per Second in Time Demo 1 of Quake III with 32 bit color, trilinear filtering, and all effects turn on to max level. At that isn't all. There have been no tweaks applied to Quake III. I can get better numbers from this machine. (For reference purposes, this is a Pentium III 650 running at 891MHz with a Geforce 2 video card, 256 MB RAM, 7200 RPM IDE Disk )
What about FSAA?
Two issues to FSAA. One is image quality, the other is performance hit. The image produced in games like Quake III and Unreal Tournament is simply gorgeous. Those screen shots you have seen on various hardware review sites simply don't do the real thing justice. 1024x768 looks amazing. 800x600 looks better than 1024x768 without FSAA. Sadly, the other issue is performance. 1024x768 isn't playable on a Pentium III 891. Chances are, it won't be playable on your machine either. 800x600 show promise though. It is a little "jerky" for my taste at times, but if I optimize Quake III 800x600 will be playable. (Keep in mind, the only experiments I have done with FSAA were with 32 bit color. Going with 16 bit will reduce the performance penalty significantly ). In my opinion, Full Screen Anti Aliasing will be most useful for TV output at 800x600 resolution, but you better have a powerful system if you plan on using it. New content: After about 3 weeks with FSAA using both the 5.16 and even the 5.22 beta drivers, I have determined that FSAA is very playable at high resolutions with 16 bit color, or at 800x600 or lower with 32 bit color. Keep in mind that this is on a 891MHz machine. If FSAA is important to you, you may want to look into a Voodoo 5 5500. The initial shipment has been recalled, but I assume that 3dfx will be re-releasing it soon.
All in all, I would highly recommend this card to anyone. The availability of the Relevator 3d glasses, and the soon to be available VIVO Vido Input/Output module make the fastest video card on the market one of the most full featured as well. The only downside to this card is the cost. Without 3D glasses, or VIVO, the card will run you $350. If you get wireless 3D glasses, you are set back another $99 ($69 for wired glasses). The pricing of the VIVO module hasn't been announced yet, but plan on spending at least another $75. Therefore, with all the bells and whistles, this thing will run you about $525.
Recommended:
Yes
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stevelarrison
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Member: Steve Larrison
Location: Scottsdale, Az. USA
Reviews written: 171
Trusted by: 198 members
About Me:
Beer, the answer to, and the cause of all life's problems.
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