Leadtek WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B

AnandTech Video Card Rating

Performance

The WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B performs almost identically compared to other DDR GeForce cards on the market. This can be expected, given its reference design.

Fact that the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B performs on average when compared to other DDR GeForce cards and does not stand out in any single performance situation, the average rating is given here.

Price

As always seems to be the case, price increases as features increase. In the case of the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B, the MSRP of the card remains slightly higher than competing DDR cards with similar features. What must be kept in mind is that no other cards reviewed have had identical features.

One important aspect is that the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B is MSRP priced the same as its inferior Revision A sibling, meaning that Leadtek will not be charging much more for the card to get into the hands of retailers. It is quite likely, however, that the feature enhancements of Revision B will result in a price hike on the retail level.

Drivers

Naturally, the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B uses NVIDIA's reference drivers (with a few enhancements) to power the card. While the Direct X and OpenGL settings remain identical to the NVIDIA reference screens, the addition a built in overclocking utility is a definite plus.

Quality

While we have gotten mixed results in Leadtek products, as a whole they seem to produce solid cards. The fact that 2D resolution is good shows that they did not skimp on any graphics filters and the addition of thermal grease shows attention to detail.

Features

It is here that the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B earns high marks. The super large heatsink and attached fan provide for excellent cooling that we have never seen on a stock GeForce card, thus resulting in an easy overclock.

The television out, powered by the commonly found Brooktree 869 chip, sets its self away from the rest of the GeForce cards in this price range with the addition of composite out (as well as the customary S-Video out).

Layout

Naturally, the board design is identical to that of NVIDIA's reference design, leaving the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B scoring average again.

Retail Availability

Leadtek has a relatively decent presence in market. While your best bet to find one of these is via mail-order, it is also possible to find one at your local computer store. This results in the same situation as encountered in many other DDR GeForce cards.

The place where the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B lacks is with the naming of the card as a Revision. By doing this, the consumer is left confused and retail stores wondering which box goes with which card.

Documentation & Software Bundle

The manual for the WinFast GeForce 256 DDR Revision B is solid, with many screen shots, descriptions and definitions. Bringing the score back down to a bit above average is the poor software bundle that is almost useless for the target audience of this card: the avid gamer.