Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1100 XT
NV35 as the GPU base means a board layout we've seen many many times in the past.
Molex power, separate memory heatsinks for the eight DRAMs on the front side of the board, along with Gainward's usual GPU heatsink design, are the main board features. Red PCB colour and heatsink detailing was a given from Gainward. Each memory heatsink cools an adjacent pair of DRAMs.
The cooler is single slot by design and Gainward don't make any mention of you being unable to use the PCI slot next to the AGP slot the card will sit in, potentially blocking off air flow around the board. That's an explicit warning that other board makers will show you and it's probably wise to leave that slot free anyway for other reasons, IRQ sharing being one of them, but should you desperately need to fill all your PCI slots, you can do so with the Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1100 XT.
The fan on the heatsink isn't the quietest in the world, but it's not the loudest either. Mid-range noise on a mid-range graphics card seems fitting somehow. More on the noise a bit later.
The back of the board is bare since the card only carries 128MB of memory, but if you really want to see it you can click here (53.6KB).
If red is your thing, the Gainward will appeal. Before we cover the presentation and bundle, a quick shot of the display connectivity options you get. If you were hoping for dual DVI or VIVO, keep hoping, there's no such finery here, just the standard options you'll find on nearly everything else.
Unlike some other Gainward boards I could mention, the Gainward FX PowerPack! Ultra/1100 XT has no trouble booting with a single display hooked up to the DVI port.
Display quality on both analogue VGA and DVI outputs was exemplary, especially when using an analogue CRT on the corresponding port. It seemed unusually crisp and colourful, a comment I rarely levy at other cards. Excellent analogue 2D is something to consider.
