Out of The Box Experience:

Actually the experience starts before we even open up the box. Just look at this shot of the box the card came in. Yes, the box is made out of wood! I actually keep mine on top of a speaker in the computer room, it's much better than that decoration stuff you get at stores.

When I saw all this on the outside I reminded myself not to judge a book by its cover, I had to see what was inside before I made up my mind.
Opening the box I was greeted by very neat packaging, this thing was definitely not going to be damaged in shipping. Also inside I found a free copy of MDK2. There was also a coupon to be redeemed for a copy of Icewind Dale and Soldier of Fortune (I'd rather see copies inside the box but at least it's 'free'). To top it off there was also a deal with 'Software Choice' where I could logon to Absolute/3DPower's website and choose a game to receive free of charge. Four games is definitely not bad for a $349 card (price from ComponentsDirect).

The first thing that stands out when you look at the card is the ICE-Cube© cooling system. The golden memory heatsinks contrast really nicely with the jet-black PCB, but I would have passed on the purple heatsink for the core. The card's TV-Out is powered by the Bt869 encoder chip. The only thing missing was a cable for the TV-Out but that can be found in any hardware store.

The board itself has the same lay-out as most other GF3 based cards out there. The back of the board is pretty clean, a few rogue chips but nothing major. There's also a logo of each company silk-screened on both the front and the back of the black PCB.

Now that you know what to expect let's move on to some numbers.

Overclocking:

Overclocking has become a big factor in choosing the right GF3 board. All GF3 boards out there perform just as fast while running at default clock settings so the overclocking potential has become much more important than before. Please keep in mind that because the card I tested achieved these settings there is no guarantee that you will do better or worse on your tries, and also remember that this may lead to early 'ageing' of the silicon and even damage to the chips in some cases.

I used PowerStrip 3.0 to be able to change the memory and core clocks. Some drivers aren't compatible with the PowerStrip software but the 12.90's are and they're also the fastest drivers right now (until detonator 4's came out). PowerStrip is really easy to use, I took the core clock up until it crashed, then brought it back down to 230 MHz where it stabilized. The memory reached all the way up to 545 MHz but I had to lower it to 515 MHz to get rid of artifacts. Not the highest memory clock out there but the core is right up to par. But you're probably tired of reading so here's some benchies to rest your eyes on.

Benchmarks:

All benchmarks were run in single CPU mode without any multi-threading support. All settings for the Quake III Arena benchie were set as high as possible. One bit of good news to the overclocking crowd is that I was assured by 3DPower they only sell A5 stepping chips on their retail boards and this new stepping is a better overclocker than the older A3 stepping.

I was a little skeptical on the results of the 4x AA setting so I had to take out some numbers, 3DMark 2001 wouldn't run 4x AA at anything higher than 1280x1024 @ 16bit, Quake ran 4 x AA at every setting but the numbers clearly showed that it wasn't actually being used. This is expected though since 4x AA is not supported in higher resolutions.

Quake scores look pretty good, it's amazing what difference the Quincux and 4x AA make on the picture quality. I'd post some screen captures here but to get the full effect you need the game itself, static pics don't look as good as it does when you're running through the halls fragging.

3DMark scores are not too surprising, AA gives the score a big hit when enabled but the difference in picture quality is easily noticed.

The extra 55 MHz from the memory shows up here. The scores without AA seemed to gain the most benefit, probably because they weren't as limited by the bandwidth bottleneck in the AGP bus.

Again the greatest performance increase is seen without Anti Aliasing enabled. The highest resolutions also gained more then the lower res settings, also most likely because of the extra juice acquired from the memory.

Conclusion:

The Morpheus is definately a card to be considered if you're looking at a GF3. It comes in a very nice bundle and falls right in the middle of the price spread for these babies. The only concern is the overclocking side which wasn't exactly stellar, specially with the new GF3 card coming out from ELSA promising amazing clocks, up to 250/560 MHz without any extra cooling. Even with that in mind I have no problem recommending this card, especially if you really pay attention to how good your hardware looks :o)

BCH