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Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH 256MB Review |
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Written by Mavke
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Friday, 30 June 2006 |
Bit-Tech reveals a review on the Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH 256MB graphics card. NVIDIA's engineers were an extremely excited bunch when they created G73, the chip behind NVIDIA's GeForce 7600 GT in fact. They were even more excited than they were when they created GeForce 6600 GT. The G73 is manufactured on TSMC's 90-nanometre process and features twelve pixel pipelines, five vertex shaders and eight pixel output engines. Leadtek's card comes clocked at NVIDIA's reference GeForce 7600 GT frequencies, but it isn't just another reference design. Leadtek has refined the PCB design and moved away from the noisy cooling solution.
 Leadtek WinFast PX7600 GT TDH 256MB Review
Leadtek has implemented a new cooling design onto its WinFast PX7600 GT, this is a big improvement on the tiny heatsink/fan combination that was used on NVIDIA's reference design, and all early GeForce 7600 GT cards. The reference fan was loud at times. We found this a little strange when we looked at GeForce 7950 GX2, because that card uses a pair of fans the same size, but still manages to keep quiet under heavy gaming load. Obviously the heatsinks are considerably larger on GeForce 7950 GX2, but it proves the point that the fan wasn't the problem, it was the size of the heatsink.
The design, which is exclusive to Leadtek's cards, uses a variable speed 60mm fan. The heatsink is much larger than the reference cooler and the main cooling area is made from a much thicker piece of copper, while the shroud is made from aluminium. This combination of characteristics give the cooler a feel of quality. This is in stark contrast to the cooler on the reference card that didn't look like it was up to the job. That is probably a little harsh, because it was capable of cooling G73, it just wasn't very quiet in the process. Leadtek's new cooling solution is pretty quiet.
Leadtek has redesigned the PCB layout too. There are differences in the positioning and number of capacitors on the top of the PCB. At the same time, Leadtek has rotated the DRAM chips by 90 degrees. All of the reference design GeForce 7600 GT's use Samsung 1.4ns memory, while Leadtek has opted to switch to Infineon's 1.4ns part. There are differences on the back of the PCB, too. The good thing here is that Leadtek has used a decent clamping mechanism on the back, meaning that the load is spread across more of the PCB, allowing for better contact between the GPU and heatsink.
We overclocked Leadtek's WinFast PX7600 GT TDH using NVIDIA's registry hack. This should give an indication of how well Leadtek's WinFast PX7600 GT TDH overclocks, but please bear in mind that your own mileage may vary. We cannot guarantee that manufacturers aren't sending us samples that overclock particularly well. The stock clocks for Leadtek's GeForce 7600 GT are 560/1400MHz. We were able to overclock it to 607/1544MHz without any problems with stability. These clock speeds are higher than the frequencies on BFG's GeForce 7600 GT OC and that it outperformed the card at the higher frequencies.
Leadtek's WinFast PX7600 GT TDH performs just like any other GeForce 7600 GT clocked at the reference clock speeds. However, Leadtek has changed the cooling solution for something a bit more substantial. The cooling solution is quiet and works well, it's much better than the reference cooler, in our opinion. Both the ATI Radeon X1800 GTO and BFG's GeForce 7600 GT OC were both very loud during gameplay, whereas Leadtek's WinFast PX7600 GT TDH remained reasonably quiet. To us, this is as important as higher detail gameplay on a mid-range card, and when the graphical advantages are small.
Aside from the modest clock speed differences, the only reason to opt for BFG's GeForce 7600 GT OC over Leadtek's is the true lifetime warranty that BFG bundles with all of its video cards. If you consider a warranty longer than two years to be an important factor, it could sway your purchasing decision away from Leadtek's card. If the warranty isn't an issue, there is no reason not to add Leadtek's WinFast PX7600 GT TDH to your short list.
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