ELSA, maker of the esteemed ERAZOR series, has released their ERAZOR X², which adds DDR RAM and TV-Out to the original ERAZOR X (the SDR RAM GeForce card). With performance similar to the SDR cards in low resolutions, the benefits of having a DDR card are best seen at high resolution, where memory bandwidth is most stressed. Greater resolutions result in smoother lines and better looking games overall, so the reason gamers would like to see more playable high resolutions is obvious.
Strikingly similar to a reference DDR board, the ERAZOR X² boasts 32MB of Infineon 6ns SGRAM, the same as our NVIDIA reference design GeForce 256 DDR board. Rated for 166MHz performance, ELSA has clocked their boards at 150MHz, ensuring stability. Since the RAM is indeed Double Data Rate, the resulting bandwidth is equivalent to 301MHz, impressive to say the least. So how does this new memory technology affect real-world gaming? Read on, for the answer lies therein.
First, lets take a look at the card's spec sheet. Looking very much like the reference card, the ELSA board doesn't bring any innovative features to the table, opting to go for tried and true simplicity. Like previous GeForce reviews, we'll give you a short run down of what you'll find on an ERAZOR X².
32 MB 6ns DDR SGRAM
256-bit Data transfer bandwidth
350MHz RAMDAC
AGP 4x/2x/1x with fast writes
S-Video TV-Out
Peak fill rate of 480 million bilinear filtered, multi-textured pixels
Up to 15 million triangles per second at peak rates Integrated transform, lighting, setup and rendering engines
DVD and HDTV-ready motion compensation
DVD sub-picture alpha blending
5-tap horizontal and 3-tap vertical video filtering
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