Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS (Page 6/6)

Posted: June 13, 2000
Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen

Screenshots

Here are few screenshots of Quake 3 running in the special NV15 level NVIDIA created to show off GeForce 2 GTS. Click on the thumbnails to open a larger image. The large images were captured at 1152x864.

Summing Things Up...

Performance:
[ 8.3/10 ]

The WinFast performs like any other GeForce 2 GTS based card. However, with the shipping drivers, it's really bad. But once you upgrade to 5.16 or higher drivers, then performance should increase drastically.

Innovation:
[ 7.8/10 ]

Not much has been added to the WinFast card. The large heatsink is cool and everything but didn't do much in terms of helping the card overclock higher. It actually overclocked less than cards with smaller heatsinks. On the driver side, we appreciate Leadtek's extra stuff that they added but also some features such as FSAA were missing, and besides, the drivers are based on ancient Detonator versions.

We'd like to see color controls for video overlay, FSAA in OpenGL and Direct3D and it would be better if Leadtek moved the control panels to a sub level in the Display Properties for people who want to use multiple display adapters.

Installation and Setup:
[ 7.5/10 ]

Installation was without hassle. Nice and easy.

Bundle:
[ 6.9/10 ]

Inside the box is a S-Video cable for video out, a manual and two CD's. One CD contains demos and drivers while the other one contains Colorific, 3Deep and Leadtek's DVDMagic software DVD player. It actually looks very nice but requires more CPU power to decode DVD than PowerDVD.

Price:
[ 9/10 ]

Current pricing for the card is around $280 most places. This is a few bucks cheaper than the Gladiac, but it's still quite expensive for a video card. For only $10 more you can get the VIVO module (if you really need it).

Conclusion

Leadtek has done a good job with the WinFast GeForce 2 GTS. Though the card performed well, shipping driver issues need to be addressed. We could go with a better gaming bundle. No games are included and there isn't anything like the Elsa Select gaming option. This is a standard GeForce 2 GTS card with no gimmicks and frills, just the meat. If you're tight on cash, then this will be a good card to get. We recommend you download NVIDIA's latest Detonators and use those until Leadtek comes out with a better revision of its driver implementation.

You will be able to find the WinFast online and at good competitive pricing deals than in stores. Leadtek has yet to establish a good market hold, but you should find the best deals online.

Leadtek has produced a good card worthy of being on your purchase list. Our Annihilator 2 review and Asus V7700 will be up soon, so keep an eye out. Until then...

Overall Rating: 8.4 / 10.0

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