Posted: November 6, 2000
Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen

Introduction

Wow, it’s been a long time since we’ve reviewed a GeForce2 based card. If you agree with me, then you should definitely be reading more. But if you don’t agree then you probably know what the GeForce2 is all about already. So the GeForce2 Ultra won’t be much of a surprise for you.

Today we take a look at Elsa’s latest offering, the Gladiac Ultra. This card also happens to be the first Ultra card on the market. Perhaps the early release has something to do with the relationship that Elsa has with NVIDIA, or it could be that the Gladiac Ultra follows NVIDIA’s reference right down to the traces.

Speeding Things Up

Were you guys here when the NV1 was around? I saw that thing face to face. Most of you remember the days when NVIDIA was just starting out with the mainstream hit from the Riva128, which definitely wasn’t a bad chip. Then came the TNT and TNT2. They were really big hits and I think they were the ones who stole the crown from rival 3dfx. The TNT2 Ultra was my favorite though, not just because it was my first NVIDIA purchase but because how it was conceived.

Jen-Hsun Huang, President and CEO of NVIDIA had a little talk with me while I was sitting in his office and he pulled out a very ugly looking card with this peltier cooler on it. It was a TNT2 with massive cooling and it was also overclocked massively. That was the concept for the TNT2 Ultra.

This is basically the same concept that’s used for the GeForce2 Ultra. Of course it doesn’t come equipped with a peltier cooler, but it does come with ultra fast memory with an ultra fast core.

As a side note, while I was in his office, there was this bulletin board behind me with products and architectural stuff written on it. While Jen-Hsun was talking away about how the TNT2 Ultra came to be, I was busy gazing at the board noticing many interesting things. Then he said “Uh, don’t look too carefully! Hehe.” So I turned back my attention to him and said “Oh! Hehe, I understand hehe,” and turned my eyes back to the board. Sorry Jen-Hsun! But don’t you worry; I haven’t told a soul about what I saw. :)

Elsa

Being the first to market brings advantages as well as disadvantages. You can gain market share, but others can also improve upon your initial product and add more appealing features. But nevertheless, releasing early usually means everyone’s happy, especially the hardcore users like us!

Let’s take a look at the card.

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