The graphics card we prepared for you today is called the WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme, and as you already know, this GeForce GTX 260 is a great gaming card, decently priced and appealing to many gamers. It's been a while since we've checked those Leadtek graphics cards, and we're quite glad that Leadtek decided to send this card, as you'll surely find it interesting. This is a new 55nm version of the GeForce GTX 260 card with 216 stream processors, whereas the old version was built in 65nm and had 192 stream processors. This card's main contender, performance wise, is the Radeon HD 4870 1GB, which is a tad slower and priced some $25 less but rather an equal or less performer. - FudZilla

Leadtek GeForce GTX 260+ Extreme Version Preview

We were surprised to see Leadtek's WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme to be one of the lowest priced GeForce GTX 260 boards, especially knowing that it has factory overclocked core and shaders and a free gift game Overlord. At press time, the card is available at $249, which is only $10 more than the cheapest reference GeForce GTX 260 board. We see that Leadtek's WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme is no different than the reference, except for the sticker of course. The card kept the reference cooling that deserves praise, despite not being the quietest around. That's not to say that it's loud, far from it as it presents a great compromise.

The picture on the box reminds us of OCZ's GeForce 8800 GTX card announced just two years ago. Most of you probably don't even know that OCZ temporarily entered the graphics market with then very popular GeForce 8800 GTX card. The card is nicely wrapped. In fact, it's been a while since we have seen a board as wrapped as Leadtek's WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme. The video card comes in a standard antistatic bag, but it's pre-wrapped in plastic used by Leadtek alone it seems, and only then will you find the plastic, a standard wrapping for most of today's cards. The card is powered via two 6-pin PCI Express connectors.

Leadtek WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme comes factory overclocked, but note that it's not that high as an overclock. The core runs at 602MHz which is only 26MHz more than the reference. The memory is still at reference speeds of 1998MHz effective. However, Leadtek's card has nice further overclocking potential, which we will show you a bit later. For now, you should know that we had no trouble pushing it up by 100MHz. Unlike the previous GeForce GTX 260 card, the current version of the board has no protective hood on the back of the card, since all memory chips are put to the front of the card due to the die shrink.

Leadtek's WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme is a great gaming card that comes pre-overclocked to 602MHz. And a great thing about this card is undoubtedly its price, as it's one of the lowest priced GeForce GTX 260 cards. This is the latest version of the GeForce GTX 260 card and it comes with a 55nm core and 216 stream processors. It runs quiet and dual slot reference cooling does a great job. It even allowed us to reach 700MHz for the GPU and 2400MHz for the memory with no problem whatsoever. The card also comes with a gift game Overlord, and thanks to rock solid performance at a reasonable price point.