The 64 MB Version Under Scrutiny
Written: Sep 12 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good 3D Performance, very stable card.
Cons: RAM not good for overclocking.
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| Zeorai's Full Review: Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS |
The Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS card is a pretty standard, well except for the freakin' huge heatsink/fan. Other than that it follows the same basic layout of all of the GF2 boards. The difference between the 64 MB and 32 MB versions are TV-out and the extra 32 MB of ram. Most people who want this card will be looking for the best in performance, but don't be surprised if your not going to be out in front of those less expensive 32 MB cards. The performance difference is not due to memeory anymore these days. If you're game's got big textures then the 64 MB will come in to play, but if not then 32 and 64 MB cards will run pretty much neck and neck.
Later this month (Sept. 00) the Geforce 2 Ultra will come out, but with a price tag of about $500 it will be out of reach for the majority of gamers out there. The problem the GF2 Ultra solves is memory bandwith, or lack of it. In the current generation of GF2 cards the speed of the memory is actually hampering performance more than the CPU or the graphics chip. The solution is faster DDR RAM. Problem is faster DDR RAM is very expensive, hence the $500 price tag for the GF2 Ultra. The GF2 Ultra will come with 64 MB of 4.4 nanosecond DDR RAM. The current generation of GF2 Cards all pretty much come with 6 ns DDR RAM.
The Leadtek card comes with 6 ns DDR RAM, mine were made by Hyundai. The card's memory was clocked at 333 Mhz, the default and recommended setting from Nvidia. Currently, the only way to fill in the speed gap from GF2 to GF2 Ultra is to overclock your card's memory. Easily done with Powerstrip, a utility for clocking the Chip clock rate and the memory clock. Anyway, my results were disappointing. The Leadtek card, despite the huge heatsink/fan was only able to clock the memory to 350 Mhz. Anything faster than this and the card exhibited graphical glitches. For example, the mouse pointer had vertical lines covering it. It still worked, but it was obvious that the card was not stable at this frequency.
I also felt the software bundle was a bit weak. There were no bundled games at all, admittedly they're never that great, but it's always nice to have something ready to go. Included was the WinFast DVD player and some calibration software and that was it. Leadtek was definitely hoping more to compete on the price front and the large heatsink thing was supposed to be a plus too. As far as price goes, the Leadtek card is very competitive, maybe not the cheapest around, but it's definitely a strong company so warranty issues shouldn't be that big of a hassle should it arise.
My conclusion is that the Leadtek 64 GF2 card is pretty good, but I think you could do a bit better. I hear the Guilemot card is supposed to be good, but I'll have to get my hands on it before I say any more. Other contenders that may solve the performance gap are offerings from motherboard makers Abit and Gigabyte. In some reviews they're cards have been able to clock the memory at and amazing 400 mhz. Astounding. But I know a few friends who work at computer parts distributors and they haven't been able to find them yet, so they don't seem to be viable options right now. But keep an eye out for those cards, I think they'll be better at filling the gap. There's also another company called Suma, they do business in Korea, who're planning a GF2 card equipped with 5.5 ns DDR RAM, but details on this card have been poor as well. So if you want top notch performance you can't really go wrong with a GF2 card, but if you want even more performance, then you might want to wait just a little bit longer.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 360
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Epinions.com ID:
Zeorai
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Location: Irvine, CA.
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 14 members
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