Elsa Gladiac 921DVI GeForce3 Ti500

Author : Wayne Date : 30th December 2001

3DVelocity would like to thank Elsa for their help and courtesy in providing this graphics card for review.

FSAA Performance:

VulpineGL :

I figured I'd make the Gladiac 921 work for its supper by using VulpineGL for the FSAA test. If the benchmark itself isn't demanding enough, throwing FSAA in to the mix is enough to bring all but the very latest cards to their knees.

It may not look like a result from one of the (if not THE) most powerful consumer graphics chip on the planet, but believe me when I say 41.1FPS using 4xAA with this punishing benchmark is no easy task. These scores yet again edged out Creative's card, though again we're talking a couple of tenths of a frame per second.

DVD Quality :

We've already covered DVD quality on the Ti500's before, so I'll just sum up by saying that you're unlikely to find better on any consumer grade graphics card or even dedicated hardware decoder card with the possible exception of ATi's Radeon series which seem to offer marginally crisper image quality. The difference however is minimal, and while it may be a problem for hardened video buffs it's unlikely most DVD video users will be aware of the differences.

Conclusion :

Elsa have done a great job with the 921DVI, the board looks classy without being tacky and performance is as you'd expect. My one concern is with the price. At £319.99 over at Jungle, this is a full £30 more expensive than Creative's Ti500, a price difference that's not reflected in the software bundle. The lack of DVD software is also disappointing, though the supplied full versions of DroneZ and 3DMark 2001 will allow new users to immediately see what this awesome board is capable of. Having said all that, the 921 is still very good value for money compared to many of the Ti500 bundles currently available and offers rock solid performance at a no frills price.

Overclocking, at least where the memory is concerned, was nothing short of stellar and if this is indicative of the kind of results you can expect from all 921DVI's then this adds immediate appeal. The core topped out at 265MHz though you may find you can push it a little further with different cooling, while memory made it to an awesome 580MHz for 3DMark and 590MHz for Quake 3. 2D applications were also running with the memory at a ridiculous 610MHz.

There's nothing really I can fault with the hardware, installation was as smooth and simple as with all similar boards and image quality was also every bit as impressive as with its peers.

The 6 year warranty is a nice touch that should offer some welcome protection for your investment, provided you can resist the temptation to tinker that is, not that you're likely to need it, Elsa have a good reputation for solid manufacturing and reliable operation.

The card remained stable even when heavily overclocked which again bodes well for the overall component and build quality as well as its cooling setup and if you can swallow the slightly higher price in return for the extra performance, German giants Elsa have a great product that will serve you well for some time to come.