It has been some time since we checked out a video card. Our previous video card articles have been ATI cards so it's nice to check out something based on an NVIDIA chip. Today we will be taking a look at the Leadtek WinFast PX8600 GTS video card and we will see how it will perform against some of those ATI cards we previously looked at. This time we have a got a GeForce 8600 series graphics card which features the G86 chip, and our version is the GTS which is the highest version available. As many of your know this is a mid-range graphics card and very popular in that segment, delivering excellent performance at a very nice price tag. Who wouldn't feel atracted? - ThinkComputers

Leadtek GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB Graphics Review

The WinFast PX8600 GTS comes in a nice retail package. Just like most video card boxes there is a action figure on the front. On the back there is a list of features and specifications. The WinFast PX8600 GTS is a relatively small card. It is not long like a lot of new cards and the cooling system on it does not take up an extra expansion slot. It is a pretty basic looking card with a green PCB and a cooling system that takes up most of the card. The cooling system is powered by a small fan at the end that pushes air out of the back of the card. The rest of the cooling is an aluminum block that covers the GPU and memory.

Towards the back of the card you will notice a 6-pin PCI Express power connector, but incase your power supply does not have PCI Express connectors Leadtek has provided one. We really enjoyed testing and using the WinFast PX8600 GTS from Leadtek. We were able to play some of our favorite games at the maximum settings to get their full potential and really experience them how they are meant to be played. And we also played some new games like Unreal Tournament 3, Call of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2. Each game played great, even at high settings which it great for a mid-range graphics card.

The smaller size of the card makes it easy to fit into any size case and the small fan is extremely quiet so you don't have to worry about it making a lot of noise. Also it was nice to get a few free games with the card. If you compare the card to the Radeon X1950 PRO, they both perform about the same and they both have the same features. Both cards are HDCP capable, both have 256MB memory, and both support dual link DVI, but the main thing that sets these cards apart is that the Radeon X1950 PRO is a DirectX 9.0c card and the WinFast PX8600 GTS is a DirectX 10 card and also is about $40 cheaper.