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Elsa purchaser's have been had. Get Visiontek and get MORE.

R

RobsTV

Platinum Member
I finally got around to comparing my Visiontek GF2 GTS to a friends Elsa Gladiac GF2 GTS card.

The Visiontek had a 2 unused connectors for an unknown purpose, and a section where it looked like a connector was left off, and I thought that the missing connector must be the connector for the Elsa ViVo add on module. Wrong. In fact, the Elsa has the connector left off as well, AND it is also missing one of the connectors that the Visiontek has. It didn't include the small connector next to the large one. So the Visiontek actually has more potential options available. Already flashed the Visiontek Bios to Elsa, so now the card can use the Elsa ViVo module.

Comparing everything else on the 2 cards, and it makes it look like the Visiontek is the retail card, and the Elsa is OEM. The Visiontek assembly looks like a lot more quality control went into it, and even the cards mounting bracket has an additional screw securing it to the board, something the Elsa does not. Both use identical chips throughout.

This is not uncommon in electronics, and with Visiontek going Retail it makes sense. Another example of similar stuff happened to TV's. Curtis Mathis was supposed to be one of the best you could get. In reality, the chassis they used were made by Sharp, one of the low cost price leaders. But, these chassis were not of the same quality that Sharp used, and appeared to be parts that didn't meet their standards, so they sold them to Curtis Mathis. Failure rate was extremely high with the Curtis Mathis sets, and extremely low with normal Sharp sets.
 
Elsa Gladiac's are made by Visiontek! They just slap them in a Gladiac box and sell them as Elsa cards. My 32mb Elsa Gladiac Geforce 2 GTS card has a little sticker on the back of it that says Visiontek, INC. I forgot to add that it also has a little sticker that says GLADIAC.
 
Smbu, yes I was long aware that Visiontek made the Elsa cards, but I always thought the Elsa had more features, and available options, and that the Visiontek had less, since it was OEM. That was why I posted this NEW information. It's the Elsa that's stripped down, not the Visiontek. The Elsa card I saw was one from the newer buy.com deal, and it said made in Hungery. Take a close look at your Elsa card, and see if it has a large, unused black connector, and right next to it, a smaller unused black connector. The Elsa I have only has the large connector. Small one is not present.

It's actually in my system now, as my friend had problems and didn't know if it was video, so we swapped temporarily. Elsa card works perfectly at same Bios and settings as the Visiontek, so it's not the card.
 
Yes, mine does have both the large black connector and the smaller right next to it. I bought my Elsa Gladiac in July of last year, though. Maybe they are removing it from the newer ones, because it has no use.
 
General consensus is that Visiontek (and essentially Elsa) GeForce series cards exhibit the best 2D quality among all the others 🙂

I tried getting a Visiontek GTS back in November, but an ongoing struggle with the vendor, who I might add, still has my credit "pending", has prevented me from getting it 🙁 The credit company said "it'll take 90 days for further investigation".

I can only overclock this TnT2 so much...
 
Great link Compellor. These newest cards clearly show both connectors, and it looks like the daughter board is using both of them as well. I wonder why the new Elsa's only use the large connector, and also why does Elsa say made in Hungery? Perhaps Elsa is now buying cards from others besides Visiontek?
 
Maybe the VIVO module isn't using both only the larger one, which, would still happen to cover up the smaller connector, even though it's not being used. It wouldn't make sense for Elsa to start making cards that aren't compatible with their own VIVO module.
 


<< why does Elsa say made in Hungery? Perhaps Elsa is now buying cards from others besides Visiontek? >>



I think Elsa used to get them from Visiontek, because early reviews on websites of the GeForce 2 GTS from both companies showed the exact same card. The newer reviews I've seen of the Elsa have some differences (i.e. fan, PCB, etc.). It could be that Elsa found a better/cheaper supplier.
 
Just to correct my thoughts here.
Even though the Elsa has a sticker on it that says made in Hungery, and does not include the small connector, or the card mounting screw, the PCB's, fans, etc., are 100% identical to the Visiontek. But, quality in assembly was noticably worse with the Elsa such as SMD's installed crooked. So I wouldn't say Elsa is getting cards from a better distributor. Perhaps it is like the TV's I mentioned earlier. Cards that don't meet Visionteks standards, are sold to a liquidator, who then sells them to Elsa? That would also explain why the Elsa Retail cards many times cost less than the Visiontek OEM cards.
 
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