As another launch date approaches, it is perhaps inevitable that the rumor mills have started. Will NVIDIA meet its targeted mid-April release for its mid-range GeForce 8 cards, the GeForce 8600 and 8500 models? There have been some murmurs that though the hardware is done, it may not be the hard launch that we have become accustomed to from NVIDIA. From what we've gathered in our talks with NVIDIA graphics card vendors during our CeBIT trip, the new cards are all ready to go and just awaiting the NDA expiry. What's available at the moment is the higher end GeForce 8800 series, with the 320MB variant of the GeForce 8800 GTS being the most affordable of the lot. - Hardware Zone

Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GTS 320MB Edition Review

Quite a few manufacturers have embraced this variant, since the lesser memory allows it to be sold at a more palatable price point for consumers. Today, we have yet another such card to look at, this time, it's the Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GTS 320MB. Since it does not come with the Extreme moniker, it's supposed to be at standard clock speeds though that should still be very fast given its GeForce 8 pedigree. We had noticed some unusual clock speeds for the GeForce 8800 GTS cards before, including the 640MB version from Leadtek. This also seems to be the case for the 320MB GTS from Leadtek.

Instead of the nice round numbers of 500MHz for the core and 1600MHz effective for the memory, the core clock for the WinFast PX8800 GTS 320MB is 513MHz. Meanwhile the memory clock is set at 1584MHz. This is no cause for alarm though, since the minor differences in clock speeds will not adversely the performance and in most cases, the higher core clock should in fact be beneficial. And Leadtek has also modified the stock cooler, replacing the plastic shroud with its own metallic looking version. It seems to be wholly cosmetic and we didn't find any significant changes in either noise or temperature.

Since the Leadtek wasn't overclocked by default like its competitors, we decided to find out how much it can be overclocked. The result surprised us, as the Leadtek ended up as the most overclockable card of the three retail GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB versions. The memory clock was the most impressive at 2000MHz effective, while the core was tied with the MSI at 660MHz. However, the internal overclocking, faster stream processors present in the MSI meant that the memory clock advantage for the Leadtek was eroded and so the differences between the two were almost non-existent.

With ATI delaying the launch of its competing R600 and other derivatives of that GPU to the midyear, the way is clear for NVIDIA to further consolidate its position. According to some reports, ATI plans to release a complete range of products then, including both enthusiast and mainstream products. NVIDIA however has gone for the typical practice of releasing the high-end GeForce 8800 series first before the mid-range and lower variants. No matter which approach is chosen, the end result should be the same. But in the meantime, while ATI prepares, NVIDIA has taken the early mover advantage.

Who knows, the performance of the R600 may just surprise us, but at least NVIDIA has already chalked up some decent sales and the latest 320MB variant of the GeForce 8800 GTS probably contributed to this, due to its relatively good price performance ratio. Leadtek's GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB that we saw in this article is not its Extreme, overclocked version. This is a rather average graphics card and it may find itself facing competition in the marketplace due to its unorthodox but still relatively mild clock speeds. But it did perform better than expected in the overclocking segment.

As for the rest of the package, Leadtek has included a decent collection of applications, games and accessories, of which the only major complaint is that the games are getting a little old. Because the Leadtek WinFast PX8800 GTS 320MB is not too strong on the price factor either, costing around $329 and that is more costly than some of the other brands available now. Our past experiences with Leadtek products have shown that they are generally reliable and decent and though we don't doubt that's the case for this GeForce 8800 GTS, it may just be a bit too middling and ordinary.