Power consumption was a big issue with the original GeForce with users saying they suck more power than they power supply can afford. By using the .018-micron process, Nvidia has solved this issue by cutting the GTS's power requirements (8W) to almost half of what the original GeForce needed (16W). In comparison, the Voodoo5 needs (44W). Needless to say, you won't need to be plugging in any extra power connectors to the board anytime soon. With less power comes less heat. Today's graphics cards are notorious for being fire demons. Not that they actually catch fire but they really get hot enough to singe a few fingers. I remember a time when I was playing around in my case after playing a few rounds of quake and I nearly melted my hand trying to take out my Voodoo3. To combat this, cardmakers are doing a variety of things to make the cards cooler such as adding larger HSF's and in the case of 3dfx, finally adding active cooling. Nvidia doesn't really have to worry about heat because the GeForce2's generate less heat than their brethren because of the new 0.18-micron process alongside better cooling than previous cards.

If you've been following hardware news lately, you would know that Elsa's Gladiac was without the doubt the first GeForce2 GTS board to enter the mass market. If you cruise around ebay or trading boards, you would know that the Gladiac's in people's possession outnumber any other GeForce2 card. This was because everyone wanted a GF2 and they jumped on the chance when the Gladiac came out weeks before the competition. They debuted at Fry's electronic in the west coast area for around $350. Even with the hefty price tag, they sold out pretty quickly. Before the Gladiac, Elsa has had a very fulfilling relationship with Nvidia. Elsa manufactured cards based on almost every chipset Nvidia created from the pre-TNT days to now the GF2 days. When I received the Gladiac for testing, I first noticed that it wasn't purple as implied in the preview pictures floating around the web. No biggie. Upon closer inspection of the card, I realized that Elsa did not make this card but rather Visiontek. Visiontek also manufactures their own video cards but I was curious why they were making them for Elsa. Then logic set in and I realized that the manufacturing of the Gladiac has been outsourced to other companies to meet customer demands. Heavier demands in this case because of the early introduction of the Gladiac. If you have read our reviews of the Erazor II and III, you would know that we regard Elsa in the highest way. They have made quality products and had extras such as revelator 3d glasses. Now with the Gladiac, Elsa has pushed the bounds of manufacturing by releasing the actual retail board 4 days after Nvidia's initial announcement of the GeForce2 GTS. I can recall my initial surprise of finding a GeForce2 in stock at many Fry's stores a couple of days after the launch. This was because of the miniscule shelf presence of GeForce1 cards after their launch. It is true that products are always on low availability after their launch but Elsa has managed to get enough Gladiacs to meet initial demand an then some. The hefty price tag of $350+ of the Gladiac also helped to keep it in stock =).