The Leadtek Winfast GeForce256 DDR
Double Your Data Rate - Double Your Fun

Our Test System HotHardware's Setup - Please make note

Full Tower ATX Case w/ 300W PS, Pentium3 -533B Overclocked to 600 MHz., Also Pentium3-500E (Provided By OutsideLoop Computers) overclocked to 750MHz. for some of the Quake3 tests, Abit BE6 Intel BX based motherboard, 128MB of EMS PC133 HSDRAM, WD 18G 7200RPM DMA66 Hard Drive, Leadtek Winfast GeForce256 DDR , Kenwood 72X CDROM, Win 98SE, DirectX7,
Leadtek Winfast GeForce256 Driver Build 1.06

OK, one thing to note with any Quake 3 Arena benchmark you see here, or anywhere else on the web for that matter, is the settings of the game.  Take a look at the bold faced print up in the header of this section.  We used the HQ Setting with Medium Geometric Detail (default with the HQ setting) and Low Quality Sound.  It is important to note how these tests are set up so you can make an accurate assessment on performance.  

All scores in benchmarks are not created equal unless they are... well, created equally.  :-)  The setting above is the way we do all of our benchmarks in Q3A at HotHardware.com, unless we state otherwise.  It is the default "High Quality" setting and we simply change the color depth and resolution for the individual tests.  We also like to set the sound quality to low since we want to minimize the impact any given sound card will have on the benchmark.  This "normalizes" the tests even further.  OK, enough with the fine print.  Let's Quake!  

Oh my, isn't that sweet?  Almost 40fps at 1600X1200 when the card is overclocked.  I am really beginning to feel the DDR version of the GeForce is the only way to frag.

Ahhh... Yes!  60fps at 1024X768X32 !!!!!!!  You folks with a 19" monitor will know what I mean when I say that this type of performance at this resolution and color depth is sheer Fragging Nirvana!  All this done on a mid range P3.  No Coppermine needed here.  

Oh what the heck...  We have a Pentium!!! Coppermine in house so we might as well use it!

Woa Nellie!  Things got seriously fast in the lower resolutions and even in 16 bit 10246X768.  However, as you can see at 1600X1200X16 and 1024X768 and up at 32 bit color, the Winfast GeForce256 DDR hits it fillrate.  These scores correlate very well as there is no difference at all no matter how fast your CPU when you are running at high res. with 32 bit color.  This speaks very well for Quake3 Arena as a benchmark platform too.  The scores are very repeatable.  

OK, so the moral of the story?  Save your money on that new CPU if you are running anything in the P3 camp.  There is only so much fill rate available from the GeForce DDR design.  If you are looking for more frame rate then your only choice is to overclock the GeForce DDR and squeeze every amount of processing power you can out of it.

Let's put a cap on this.

Final Words and The Heat Meter

The Winfast GeForce DDR is an excellent example of refinement of a circuit design.  We experienced significantly better performance across the board and the stability during testing was every bit as solid as the SDR version.  With the exception of the minor glitch we experienced with the i820 board and the somewhat spartan active heat sink, the card is near perfect.

Obviously, you are getting the extra bang for your extra buck here.  However, it is nice to see just how much.  As a side note, we typically don't talk about price too much here at HotHardware.  Our perspective is that we'll show you the best of the best in hardware.  Only the "hottest" products regardless of price.  

However, just for reference the Winfast GeForce256 DDR is said to list at a $279 suggested retail price.  We have seen the SDR Winfast GeForce256 listed for $229.  So, you decide, is $50 adder for DDR worth it?  For those who only want top shelf performance, I would say the answer is a resounding yes.

We give the Leadtek Winfast GeForce256 DDR a Hot Hardware Heat Meter Rating of...