Here it is, the dawn of a next generation and nV News is still posting GeForce reviews. Why? The GeForce, believe it or not, is about to become a "budget" card. Not quite in the sense that it will be cheaper, per say, but the scale is opening up at the top end with the NV15 pushing the whole nVIDIA family down a notch. The GeForce will be the mainstream choice for gamers and OEMs alike and it will stay that way for at least six more months as the NV15 takes root and comes down in price.
Let's face it, NV15, Ati Rage6c, Voodoo5 will be the top scale cards catering to the crazed gamer that benchmarks as much as he plays Quake3. (That's me, BTW).
I would like to introduce you to the Absolute MultiMedia Outrageous Ultra GeForce DDR. If you feel like brushing up on your GeForce geek speak, ditch over the introduction page of the Creative Labs Annihilator PRO review.
A new kid on the block, Absolute released its TNT2 card on February 1st and opened up Software Choice on February 10th. The GeForce versions have been finally trickling down to the user in the last two months. Stationed in San Jose, CA, London, England, and Stockholm, Sweden, Absolute seems to want to take a hold on the European market, using its division in San Jose as the liason office to nVIDIA. Distributors and resellers are popping up in the states.
Here are the basics.
Hardware:
- NVIDIA GeForce 256
- NVIDIA reference design
- 32MB DDR SGRAM 150MHz (effectively 300MHz)
- Brooktree (Conexant) TV-Out
- "Orb"-like 12V Heatsink and Fan
Software:
- Driver CD
- NVIDIA Reference 3.68
- Full Version Drakan (One game included)
- Software Choice option for three game titles
Outrageous Ultra GeForce DDR - Front
Outrageous Ultra GeForce DDR - Back
As you can see, the heatsink is damn smooth looking. The vertical fins have associated ridges on the bottom of the heatsink that spiral outward from the center, that help the 12V fan cool the chip. The additional surface area sheds heat from the 20 million transistors below. High-speed. Will it help with overclocking? We'll see.
The review unit is a "revision B" card. Apparently, the revision includes the new heatsink and a workover of the reference design with cleaner memory traces, all aiding in more stable board for overclocking.
Let's go on to some installation and benchmarks.
Next Page: Plug and Play
