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The
Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 GTS
The
next generation GeForce makes its HotHardware
debut
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5/5/00
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By Dave
"Davo" Altavilla
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| HotHardware's
Test System |
| The
usual performance rig... |
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Full
Tower ATX Case w/ 300W PS, Pentium III
866EB, Soyo
SY-6ICA
i820 Motherboard 128MB of 800MHz (400MHz.
DDR) RDRAM, WD Expert AC418000 7200 RPM ATA66
Hard Drive, Kenwood 72X
CDROM, Leadtek Release Drivers based on NVidia
version 5.16, Win
98SE, DirectX 7.0a
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| Benchmarks
With The Winfast GeForce2 GTS |
| What
she's got! |
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Set
back at the card's default clock speed, we decided
to see what impact Full Scene Anti-Aliasing has on
the GeForce2 GTS as well as larger textures.
Quake3
Arena
Again,
impressive scores to say the least with FSAA turned
off. In 16 bit color FSAA is very playable
even at 1024X768. However, in the 32 bit color
scores, you can see that FSAA takes its toll.
Again, I tend to compare
2X FSAA scores on the Voodoo5 PREview to the
FSAA scores here because I feel the image quality is
comparable. You may not feel this way with
respect to the image quality of both cards, so come
to your own conclusions. Regardless, if you
want FSAA on the GeForce2 GTS currently, you will
most likely have to revert back to 16 bit color.
Let's
see what impact large textures have on the Winfast
GeForce2 GTS. We took the Texture Resolution
Slider in Quake3 Arena and set it to maximum.
As you
can see here, using high texture detail in Quake3
arena barely puts a dent in the scores. Two to
Three frames per second, on average, is the penalty
at the higher resolutions. I say, turn the eye
candy up to full and enjoy!
So, now
you that you have seen what a released, production
ready GeForce2 card from a real NVidia OEM can do,
what do you think? Sure, there have been
plenty of NVidia reference card reviews out there
but you can't buy a reference card, can you?
Our take on the Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 GTS and the
chip that drives it, is that it has a lot of
promise. However, clearly this card still
needs a little polishing with respect to
compatibility across multiple platforms. This
is not unusual for NVidia based products we have
tested in the past. A few BIOS and driver
revisions later, things tend to iron out pretty
well. It is your choice, you can dive in now
and take your chances or wait and see how things
develop. We will of course keep you
updated on the status of the Winfast GeForce2 GTS
and if things improve, we'll revise this review and
the rating.
Update
5/16/00
As
we had suspected, the Leadtek card we received about
2 weeks ago was still a little bit rough around the
edges. This was no surprise with all of the
scrambling there has been in the 3D Graphics Market,
to get new products out the door before the
competition. Leadtek sent us out a newer
revision of the Winfast GeForce2 GTS which
eliminated any incompatibilities and instability we
had experienced with the two BX chipset based
motherboards, we had tested it in previously.
We
were able to run the Winfast in both the Soyo
Sy-6BA+IV and Abit BE6 Motherboards we have here in
the Hot Hardware Lab. At this point in time,
it seems as if this card will only tolerate a 66
MHz. AGP bus within specifications. When tried
to run at an FSB higher than 100MHz., the card would
still lock up in testing. However you need to
remember, that there are other NVidia and other
manufacturer cards on the market today, that will
not tolerate this. Also, the BX chipset does
not officially support the PC133 spec and with its
1/1 or 2/3 divider, thus overclocks the AGP bus at
anything above 100MHz. It really depends on
the manufacturer and sometimes even the model of the
card, whether or not it will handle this type set
up. Again, perhaps a BIOS revision will
improve this for the Winfast in the future.
Here
are scores we took on what we would call a fairly
"mainstream system" with a Pentium !!! on
a 100MHz. FSB @ 600MHz. with the Abit BE6 Intel BX
Chipset based Motherboard. These scores
were taken at the High Quality Setting with
Maximum Texture Quality.
Again,
these are impressive numbers all around for the
Winfast GeForce2 GTS. A few of you in our Hot
Hardware audience, were interested in knowing how
the card will perform on a lower end system.
While the P3-600 and BX chipset is no slouch, you
can see here what a "budget box" can do
with the GeForce2. Not too shabby at all.
With
these better results on our BX testbed, we decided
to revise our rating of the Winfast GeForce2 GTS.
The score below is reflective of this update.
For now,
NVidia has a leg up in the battle for Frame Rate
Dominance but clearly 3dfx seems to have FSAA nailed
down a little better. We think there are
obvious advantages to both competing
technologies. However, your personal
preference and gaming needs should come into play
when making your decision on what will be your next
graphics upgrade. Keep in mind boards from
various vendors and chipset manufacturers are just
now being released. There is a lot to choose
from and that is a great problem to have.
We give
the Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 GTS a HotHardware Heat
Meter rating of....
Talk
about this review in the HotHardware Conference
Room!
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To HotHardware!
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