Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD GeForce4 Ti 4600


The Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD GeForce4 Ti 4600 - Page 4

The Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD
The GeForce4 Ti Card With A Massive Heat Sink

By -Dave Altavilla
March 26 2002

 

MadOnion's 3DMark 2001SE is one of the most comprehensive and reliable Direct 3D Benchmarks available today.  It measures overall systems performance while focusing on the graphics subsystem and it's capabilities with leading edge 3D rendering functions, such as pixel and vertex shading.

MadOnion's 3DMark 2001SE
DirectX 8.1 performance with Remedy's Max Payne Engine
 

Once again, total domination is displayed by the GeForce4 Ti 4600 based Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD versus the Radeon 8500 card.  The differentials range from 25 to 40% at the higher 1280X1024 resolution.  Additionally, we see no significant performance difference between the the reference card and the Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD.

3DMark 2001SE Anti-Aliasing Performance
Stress testing with AA

We've shown you what the Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD can do with AA in an OpenGL based title like Quake 3 Arena.  So, let's show you what it can do in a DirectX 8.1 environment.  We decided it made sense to really push the limits as well, only testing 4X AA mode in this round of tests.

Here we see a 26 to 35% lead over the ATi product with either the reference card or the Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD.  Additionally, we see the same sort of linear tracking of frame rates between the two GeForce4 Ti 4600 cards, with no real advantage for either GeForce4 board over the other.  Also, notice that in the 1280X1024 test 4X AA test, the Radeon 8500's driver automatically drops down to 2X AA mode in 3DMark at this resolution, using benchmark's 4X AA setting, versus the drivers themselves.  Regardless, even when comparing 4X AA on the GF4 Ti cards here versus the Radeon at 2X, the GeForce4 Ti 4600 driven Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD still pulls past the Radeon by almost 1000 3D Marks.

 

Overclocking The Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD
So, how does all that shiny heat-sink hardware really perform?

Before we call this article a wrap, we thought it made sense to see just how far we could push this new GeForce4 Ti 4600 card, with its fancy looking cooling gear and dual fans helping to dissipate the added heat.  Here are our findings...

Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD @ 325 Core / 740MHz DDR SDRAM Clocks

What we've come to find out, over the last few weeks of testing various GeForce4 Ti 4600 cards, is that there isn't one card we have tested yet that can overclock as well as our reference GeForce4 Ti 4600 card, that was given to us directly from NVIDIA.  It seems as if the card we received from NV was indeed hand picked.  However, the closest any card we have seen to date, has ever come to the 335/750 clocks we achieved with the reference card, are the numbers you see here for the Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD.  This also includes some cards we have yet to even publish evaluations of.

 

What's not to love about this card?  We ran into a small snag with the Leadtek version drivers but other than that, this GeForce4 Ti 4600 card is ready for just about anything you could throw at it.  We applaud Leadtek for providing a card that has an innovative active cooling design that not only looks impressive but performs equally as impressive, besting any retail card we have seen to date here in the lab.  Additionally, this card has most all of the features that are currently available for the GeForce4 Ti 4600, including TV Out and DVI.

The only thing that holds back the Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD is its price point.  At an average retail price (various price search engines were checked) of $415, this card is one of the more expensive GeForce4 Ti 4600 cards on the market.  However, if you are looking at dropping around $400 for a new graphics card, the extra $35 or so that you'll pay versus some of the lowest cost cards we've found, will be well worth the investment.  Finally, if you are one of those "plexiglass window case" types, this card is definitely a show piece, with its bright extremely large heat sink sure to turn a few heads.

We're giving the Leadtek Winfast A250 Ultra TD at HotHardware Heat Meter Rating of...

And based on it's overclocking prowess and overall quality, we're giving it the HotHardware Editor's Choice!

 

 

 Come get some in the HotHardware PC Hardware Forum, now!

 


Tags:  GeForce, 460, Win, Ultra, force, leadtek, fast, DT, ULT, EA, K

Related content