Drivers/Software

Setup

This was about as easy as it can get. Turn off the computer and drop the card into the slot. Power-on, toss in the driver CD and click on install. Capiche? We encountered no problems in performing this task.

Elsa Info

D3D

Drivers

Elsa took the time to give a cosmetic lift to the NVIDIA 5.30 reference drivers, along the way they tossed in a few other options that might come in handy. All the normal NVIDIA options are still there, the layout is a little different though, a drop-down menu was added to mix-up navigation of the drivers. Aside from that they added a handy little info tool. This will give you all the information you might or might not need in your video card experience. Another addition was a quick tool bar. Their implementation was rather, for lack of another word, crude. It seemed as though the tool links were done with some macro program that anybody could make. For instance when accessing the OpenGL options through the tool bar it would go through the exact same motions required to get there. Go to video properties, click on settings, go to advanced, followed by the OpenGL settings.

Scroll down selector

Anti-aliasing

OpenGL

Ooo... overclocking!

Software

One aspect of buying a video card from Elsa has been rather pleasing. Elsa gives you the option of getting games with your video card. Most companies tend to toss in a game bundle that includes one or two good games, with the rest barely being fit for coaster duty. Through the Elsa Best Select Offer, you are given the option to choose up to three games. One game costs $10, two weighs in at approximately $17, three games costs in the region of $22. Not too shabby if I must say.

The current game selection is as follows: Croc II
Die Hard Trilogy 2
Messiah
MDK2
Earthworm Jim 3D
Renegade Racers
Honda Motorcross GP
Super One Karting
Super Hornet F1A-18E
Evolva
F-16 Agressor
Viva Football
Sports Car GT

The current list, while filled with games I wouldn't play if paid to, still contains quite a few good titles - MDK2, Messiah, and Evolva.

VIVO

The Elsa MX board ships with support for the upcoming Elsa VIVO module. The VIVO module brings video-in and video-out support to the card. This attachment should be made available in September of 2000; the price should hover in the $40 region. Along with the usual input/output functions, the VIVO module allows for the following: video editing, video playback, and video capture.

Refesh rates

Color control

Toolbar