Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH Extreme 256MB

Faster and Faster

Progress can be such a relentless force used to justify (and name) everything; like the oft-heard phrase, "…in the name of progress…" coming from the mouths of politicians and archetype villains in movies alike. There are two sides to this coin, which we won't go into, but in the limited application of this word to technology, progress is generally for the better of consumers and of course the companies involved. After all, progress is what enables us to afford ever larger LCD monitors year after year, faster processors and the ever-increasing frame rates and image quality that we get moving from Quake 1 to 4.

Returning to the graphics card realm and inferring to the above phenomenon, the recently reviewed whose reign at the top of the GeForce 7600 GT pack in our labs was abruptly put to an end barely a week after the arrival of Leadtek's aggressive and extreme version of its GeForce 7600 GT.

With the new Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH Extreme, there are probably quite a few who can remember , which was an overclocking speed demon that wowed us with its performance and quiet operation. Therefore, our expectations of this new GeForce 7600 GT version were extremely high to begin with. Featuring rather excessive clock speeds for both the core and the memory chips (rated at 1.2ns), the Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH Extreme stands poised to succeed its sterling GeForce 6600 GT predecessor. While we know you are eager to know how it scores in our benchmarks, let's take a look at Leadtek's package and specifications first:

Leadtek's Extremely Fast GeForce 7600 GT

Feeling slightly weightier than the reference design in our hands, the Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH Extreme (shortened to Leadtek Extreme for this review) sports a solid cooler that takes up much more PCB real estate than the standard issue. As if to show that it means business, the minimal decal blends with the metal shroud, coming off as industrial and functional rather than the usual pretty decal stickers that you would find. Certainly, with many vendors adding fancy extras like LEDs on fans and whatnots, the Leadtek Extreme seems a throwback with its mean and lean look.

Of course, knowing that the core of the Leadtek Extreme runs at a blazingly fast 590MHz out of the box went some way into conjuring that image. The memory chips are no slouch either, as they are clocked at 1600MHz DDR. Compared to the 575/1500MHz clocks that we found on the already impressive XpertVision GeForce 7600GT Sonic, the Leadtek Extreme promises more of the same electric speed and hopefully the benchmarks later will show what separates the two over-performers.

Like the XpertVision and its redesigned bright red PCB, Leadtek stuck to the green PCB but the layout differs slightly from the reference cards in terms of component placement like capacitors. The other aspects of the Leadtek Extreme thankfully follow the reference design, like its dual DVI outputs, one more than that on the XpertVision. Its noise level was also favorably lower than the standard GeForce 7600 GT and to our untutored ears, probably on par with the XpertVision card.

If the high clock speeds don't seem all that special to the jaded among us, Leadtek has spared no efforts in its bundle, which is one of the better ones we have seen for the mid-range GeForce 7600 GT. Besides the standard accessories, there's also the relatively new CyberLink Power DVD 6.0 as the de facto DVD playback application. Those who experiment with home videos may also find MuVee 3 a useful video-editing tool. Finally, the Leadtek Extreme comes with two games, including the sequel to the sleeper hit Serious Sam, imaginatively titled as Serious Sam II. Overall, this is an above average (read as good) bundle that attempts to balance the needs of non-gamers and gamers alike. There's something for everybody as you can see in the list of items below:

• 1 x DVI-to-VGA adaptor
• 9-pin mini-DIN to Component dongle
• User Manual
• Quick Installation Guide
• Driver CD
• CyberLink Power DVD 6.0
• MuVee 3
• Trackmania Nations (full game)
• Serious Sam II (full game)

Test Setup

Continuing with our revamped test system, which got a CPU upgrade to an Athlon 64 FX-55 and MSI's K8N Diamond Plus (SLI X16) motherboard, we added 1GB of Kingston low latency DDR400 RAM to it, running in dual channel mode. A Seagate 7200.7 SATA hard drive was used, installed with the latest Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2. This was followed with the most updated DirectX 9.0c end-user redistributable package.

Our most recent GeForce 7600 GT review was the excellent XpertVision GeForce 7600GT Sonic, overclocked to an impressive 575/1500MHz. The Leadtek Extreme however, tops that with its default 590/1600MHz, so hopefully the benchmarks will show how significant the differences are between them. Finally, MSI's reference clocked card is thrown into the fray to highlight the typical performance level of a vanilla GeForce 7600 GT. All three cards were using ForceWare 84.21 drivers and we tested the following benchmarks:

• Futuremark 3DMark05 Pro (version 120)
• Futuremark 3DMark06 Pro (version 102)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory (version 1.3)
• F.E.A.R
• Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (version 1.1)
• Quake 4

Results - 3DMark05 & 3DMark06 Pro

The results tell their own tale: the Leadtek Extreme was between 5% to 6% faster than the overclocked Sonic from XpertVision in 3DMark05. This margin extended to 9% once you throw in the reference MSI card as the comparison. Moving on to 3DMark06, the trend was similar though with a more modest gain of about 3% to 4% over the Sonic instead. Nevertheless, it was rather obvious that we are dealing with the fastest off the shelf GeForce 7600 GT in the market now.

Results - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory & F.E.A.R (DirectX 9 Benchmarks)

The results of the three cards split themselves into three distinct performance levels in the two DirectX 9 games - the third installment of Splinter Cell and F.E.A.R. The 5% increase in frame rates in Splinter Cell over the XpertVision meant a couple of extra frames, useful in a pinch, especially at the higher resolutions like 1600 x 1200, where the Leadtek managed to hit the requisite 30 frames per second for smooth gaming. In F.E.A.R, the higher clock speeds of the Leadtek saw slightly higher frames rates too, though this extremely demanding game brings all the cards to their knees at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 and even the fastest GeForce 7600 GT will struggle.

Results - Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (OpenGL SM2.0+ Benchmark)

The Leadtek Extreme took the spotlight again in Chronicles of Riddick, leading the trio of cards easily. On average, it was about two to three frames faster than the overclocked XpertVision so there's probably no doubt that the Leadtek would still make a difference to gamers who already have a GeForce 7600 GT.

Results - Quake 4 (OpenGL SM2.0+ Benchmark)

A couple of frames were again the rough differences between the two overclocked cards in Quake 4, with the Leadtek Extreme naturally the fastest among the three. As all the cards were more than capable of handling this OpenGL game, getting the Leadtek will allow one the satisfaction of getting that extra frame or two when running Quake 4 with its full set of graphical effects enabled.

Temperature Testing

The core of the Leadtek Extreme was well cooled by its large and capable cooler as shown by its comparatively low temperature of 44.5 degrees even at its default overclocked speed. It was too bad that this positive aspect came with a price, namely the memory chips were much warmer than the other GeForce 7600 GT cards that we tested. These chips were under the shade of the cooler but as there was no direct contact, it didn't help as much as hinder it by trapping heat around the memory chips. Hence, we noticed the much higher temperatures for the memory chips. Thankfully though, that didn't hamper the overclocking spirit of the card as we've found out – more about that on the following page.

Overclocking

As the Leadtek Extreme already has such highly overclocked frequencies, it's only expected that we had developed lofty expectations of the card too. Hence, it was quite a dampener to find that the Leadtek's core could only be slightly overclocked to 630MHz, which was far short of the 670MHz that the XpertVision managed. However, the Leadtek did equal matters somewhat by overclocking the memory chips better than the XpertVision despite the fact that the XpertVision had dedicated heatsinks for its memory. The final reckoning still remains in the benchmarking results and in 3DMark06, the Leadtek narrowly squeezed ahead of the XpertVision. Of course, overclocking can be a hit or miss affair so you may have better (or worse) luck.

A Picture Perfect GeForce 7600 GT

With all the major vendors releasing quite a few permutations of this chipset differing in clock speeds and features, the GeForce 7600 GT is turning out to be exactly like what the GeForce 6600 GT was in practically every aspect. Users can also witness for themselves the progress made by NVIDIA moving from the previous generation to the present as the similarly mid-range GeForce 7600 GT leaves the GeForce 6600 GT in the dust in both performance and features. More importantly, the excellent price performance ratio of the GeForce 7600 GT is probably the main reason why there is a deluge of these cards from vendors keen to capitalize on its burgeoning popularity. Leadtek has joined the party with a bang with its overclocked Extreme and going by the benchmark results, it will be a crowd pleaser with gamers and enthusiasts alike.

Showing why clock speeds are the main obsession of the graphics card business, the overclocked Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH Extreme toppled our previous GeForce 7600 GT performance king, the XpertVision Sonic by an average of around 5%. Compared to a typical reference card, this performance margin increased to around 8%, which is a very decent amount for its price. It is a rather simple equation as invariably, the higher clocked card emerges as the winner of these graphics cards duels, unlike other products like mobile phones where the criteria can be more varied and 'fuzzy'. The larger heatsink and cooler for the Leadtek allows the card to be overclocked higher than the XpertVision while at the same time, maintains a decent noise level that would not infringe on your ears' comfort. The temperatures for the Leadtek were also quite reasonable for the most part, with the memory chips taking the brunt of it due to the design of the cooler. Coupled with the two years warranty on the card, that should assure most users that the Leadtek Extreme can handle the heat.

Besides the attraction of its default, speedy self, Leadtek ensures that it has a stellar supporting cast to match its star. The bundle fits that description aptly, with two games, including a relatively well-known title like Serious Sam II and the latest version of CyberLink's popular DVD playback application. As you can expect from such a premium product aimed at the enthusiasts, the Leadtek Extreme cost more than your average GeForce 7600 GT. Fortunately, at S$369, it is only a little more, considering that most of its other major competitors were going for about S$349. This extra cost should cover its slightly more comprehensive bundle and its higher clock speeds more than adequately. That's just our opinion of course as some may prefer the bare card by itself at a lower price. However if you are looking for a complete, premium GeForce 7600 GT, the Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH Extreme fits this bill perfectly. Overclocked, yet fairly cool and quiet, a nice bundle and a reasonable price to boot – what more can you ask for?

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