Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS

Conclusion

Of the cards to travel the on-line retailer route, the Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS should be one of the first ones that will be readily available through your favorite on-line retailer. Other cards have a habit of showing up in larger stores first, but Leadtek does not have the brand name recognition or market saturation to do this yet. A simple search on the web should provide plenty of retailers who currently carry or are planning on carrying the Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS.

How does the card compare to the other GeForce 2 GTS based cards review? As we discussed in our ASUS V7700 review, it seems that every GeForce 2 GTS manufacturer has been adding features to their card to promote sales. We have seen features such as comprehensive warrantees and hardware monitoring. Leadtek attempts to add its feature with the overly large heatsink. Unfortunately, the heatsink does not have the planed effect. The card would have made a much larger impression on the market if it were to have used a normal heatsink and chose to cut prices instead. The Leadtek's WinFast GeForce 2 GTS additional "feature" is really eyecandy meant to lure in the unsuspecting buyer.

This is not to say that the card is bad; not by any stretch of the word. The Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS proves its ability to play with the big boys by performing as well as competing products in many tests. The $10 video-out option is one of the least expensive video-out daughter cards we have seen, making the video-out powered card for $359 a very strong buy. The quality of the card is also up to par, as is shown by the clear 2D graphics and texts at resolutions as high as 1600x1200.

The software bundle of the Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS is rather weak compared to some of the competition. With your purchase, you get a software DVD player, a few useless color calibration utilities, and a demo of the modeling tool Cult3D. Software bundle has never been a selling point for AnandTech reader, but more of an added bonus. Unfortunately this bonus proves to be small in the case of the WinFast GeForce 2 GTS. What is the final decision? If you can find the WinFast GeForce 2 GTS at a good price, one significantly lower than the more feature rich competition, it would be a good purchase. Although the card misses out by incorporating such a large heatsink, it remains a quality GeForce 2 GTS based card. It seems pointless, however, to drop $349 on a card that lacks some of the features of the competition.