The new year can be exciting. It's a time for renewal and resolutions, and even some times it's a time a new president. But this new year, it was also a time for gamers. At the consumer electronics show this past January in Las Vegas, a new graphics card was debuted, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285. Built upon the GeForce GTX 200 series architecture, the GTX sports a smaller die process that lowers power consumption and lowers heat, but packs more performance than its predecessors. And though the GeForce GTX 285 is the younger sibling to the GeForce GTX 280 that was previously NVIDIA's top of line offering, the brand new released GeForce GTX 285 is now definitely its big brother. - Bjorn3D

Leadtek WinFast GTX 285 Video Card Version Review

The GeForce GTX 280 also has a little brother, in the GeForce GTX 260 with 216 stream processors, and Leadtek offered an overclocked version of that video card in the WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme. And though while technically not as fast as its big brother the GeForce GTX 280, the factory overclocked GeForce GTX 260+ Extreme posted some impressive numbers, especially when it was coaxed into providing some extra speed with just a little extra overclocking. We had originally decided to drop the cardboard segment, but what changed our mind was the rather unique packaging that Leadtek employed this time around when shipping.

The bright orange box that the Leadtek WinFast GTX 260+ Extreme card came in that we saw late last year has been replaced with more subtle coloring and sports a nice looking car that looks like it should go fast, very very fast. If fast cars and fast video cards go together, then we're sure that the car that they decided to use on the box for the Leadtek WinFast GTX 285 is an excellent choice. Printed on the Leadtek box are the card's specifications and features. There's no big bight yellow sticker on this box screaming that this card is factory overclocked because it isn't, though that might still come some day.

But what they might have added is a big bright yellow sticker saying overclocker friendly, because this card is. It's fast, even faster that what the specifications on the box proclaim. Now the Leadtek WinFast GTX 285 graphics card itself, comes wrapped in an antistatic bag and it is nestled securely in foam packing material with its bundles adapters tucked nicely away in their own compartment. The Leadtek WinFast GTX 285 video card lies encased within the shroud of the two slot fansink design, just like its little brother. The only thing that's going to be buried with this fansink is heat, as this cooler has proven to be well designed.

The Leadtek WinFast GTX 285 is one of the fastest video cards on the market today and has graphics processing power that was unimaginable just a short time ago. It's also one of best overclocking video cards that we've ever run across and that adds a great value to an already great card. We like getting the extra graphics processing that this card can provide without paying the extra price. The silent fansink on this card is barley audible at its default setting, but if you want crank it up while gaming it will lower the card's temperatures by quite a bit. We don't notice the noise of the fan so much at 100% because we just didn't.

And because we fold so much when not gaming, we are truly impressed with the amount of folding work that it can do compared to the other video cards in our deck. And being that we do fold really so much of the time, the excellent power consumption that this board has is a welcome sight to our electric bill. The overclocker friendly Leadtek WinFast GTX 285 is an excellent video card that packs a lot of punch. The extra untapped power that lies beneath the hood of this card gives it a nice bang for the buck appeal that can't be dismissed.