Introduction

Here at ThinkComputers we have not checked out a video card in some time. Our previous 5 video card reviews 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. Let's see how it will perform against some of those ATI cards we have previously reviewed. Geeks.com was nice enough to send it over and is a great place to find inexpensive video cards.

General Features:

- Powered by Nvidia Geforce 8600GTS GPU
- 675 MHz engine clock
- 400 MHz RAMDAC Technology
- Max. Resolution at 2560 x 1600
- 256 MB GDDR3 memory
- 2 GHz memory clock
- 128-bit memory bus width
- PCI Express x16 interface
- 6-pin PCI-Express power connector
- Microsoft DX10 support
- DX10 Shader Model 4.0
- NVIDIA Lumenex Engine
- NVIDIA Quantum Effects
- OpenGL 2.0 support
- True 128-bit HDR lighting
- 16x Full-Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA)
- PureVideo HD
- HDTV Ready
- H.264 decoding suport
- NVIDIA Essential Vista
- SLI Ready
- HDCP Ready
- Dual Link Dual DVI connectors
- NVIDIA ForceWare Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
- RoHS Compliant

External Connectors:

- Two (2) Dual DVI-I Connectors
- TV-Out (S-video) Connector

Regulatory Approvals:

- FCC
- CE

Packaging

As I have always said Geeks.com does a great job with packaging. The video card came in box a little bit bigger than the retail box. The extra space inside the box was taken up with air bubbles, which I prefer over packaging peanuts.

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 specs.

The box easily opens up and inside you will find the PX8600 GTS video card, DVI to VGA adapter, S-Video to HDTV adapter, PCI-Express power adapter, Serious Sam II, Joint Task Force, Bonus software CD, Driver CD, user's manual, and quick installation guide.