Review: Elsa GLADIAC Ultra (Page 3/9) Posted: November 6, 2000
Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen Specifications - NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra GPU
- 256-bit graphics engine
- 250MHz core/230MHz DDR memory clock (effectively 460MHz)
- 31 million triangles/sec
- 1000 MPixels/sec fill rate
- 2 GTexels/sec fill rate
- 4 pixels per clock
- 1 GPixel/sec
- 8 texels per clock
- 7.4GB/sec Memory bandwidth
- Hardware Anti-Aliasing
- 32-bit colors, Z/stencil buffer
- 350MHz RAMDAC
- Max Resolution 2048x1536
- 64MB DDR SDRAM
- VIVO (Video In/Out) module interface (VIVO module not included)
- AGP 2X/4X including fast writes and execute mode
- DirectX texture compression
- S3TC support
- Windows 9x/NT/2000 compatible
- 6 year warranty

Not too shabby with the specs huh? :) Check out the core and memory speeds. 460MHz DDR SDRAM. Smoking! It might interest you to know that NVIDIA’s specs call for 500MHz (250MHz x 2) SDRAM, but Elsa clocks down the RAM just to make sure their card is nice and stable. All you overclockers are probably rubbing your hands together right about now. I know I am.

Just a reminder, the VIVO module is not included in the package but let’s take a look at it since it came with our card and some of you might decide to purchase it.

VIVO Module

The VIVO module is a small attachment that connects to your Gladiac (and other cards) with the expansion grid that is on your card (some cards don’t feature it). Here’s what the module looks like:



This little bugger here will provide you with S-Video/Composite in and out features. You don’t need to add extra drivers to support it as Elsa’s shipping drivers and NVIDIA’s own will provide appropriate functions. The module uses a Philips SB9744VDO codec.



Images look pretty good on a TV at 800x600 -- don’t try reading text though. When you’re playing Quake 3 on a 56” projection TV through S-Video, try not to wet your pants… not that I did or anything.

Let’s take a little backgrounder on the architecture. Architecture and Improvements If you’re expecting architectural improvements in the Ultra from the GTS, prepare to be disappointed because that’s not what the Ultra was intended to be. The Ultra is intended to be the card that eliminates the bottleneck that plagued the GeForce2 GTS -- memory bandwidth. It does this by equipping faster DDR SDRAM rated at a smooth (and expensive) 4ns. Another thing that was improved upon was core speed. NVIDIA up the ante to a speed 250MHz from 200MHz. This should keep everyone happy for a few more months. Next Page