MaximumPC 2004 09

H

ere we are again. Two mortal

combatants, squaring off in the

death-ring that is the Maximum PC

testing Lab. In the green corner, we have

the Leadtek Winfast A400 Ultra TDH. In

the red corner, Visiontek’s X800 XT

Platinum Edition. Both cards represent the

pinnacle of 3D rendering technology from

the best and brightest in the biz.

Both of these extremely expensive cards

are absolutely smoking fast. In most of our

tests, they run at around twice the speed of

the fastest cards from the previous

generation. To determine which is best, we

rely primarily on performance and image

quality, but we also look at the number of

slots a card uses, the card’s inputs and

outputs, and its power requirements.

Which card has enough grit to whup the

competition? Read on to fi nd out.

—WILL SMITH

Leadtek Winfast A400 Ultra TDH

Leadtek’s 3D offering sports nVidia’s most

powerful GPU—the GeForce 6800 Ultra-

based, 16-pipe, 200 million transistor

NV40—running at its highest clock speed.

A processor this big runs hot, despite the

0.13-micron process nVidia uses to build the

NV40 GPU.

nVidia’s recent high-end videocards

have utilized some rather bulky cooling

apparatus, but nothing we’ve tested to date

compares with the monster Leadtek affi xed

to the A400. Don’t fret though—this large

two-slot solution is actually much quieter

than most two-slot coolers and is more than

suffi cient to keep the massive GPU cool. We

were able to overclock the A400 from its

stock clock of 400MHz to 430MHz without

any problems at all, and we were also able

to crank up the DDR3 memory a tad to

560MHz from the default 550MHz.

The reference design of the 6800 Ultra

we tested in the May issue performed very

well in synthetic benchmarks, but back

then, it couldn’t compete with ATI’s Radeon

counterpart in our real-world gaming

benchmarks. This time around, the tables

have turned. The nVidia card dominated

in nearly every benchmark—losing only

in 3DMark 2004: Game 4 and Unreal

Tournament 2003: Flyby.

The other hot topic surrounding the

GeForce 6800 Ultra was its insanely high

power supply requirements. Since launch

however, nVidia has made some BIOS and

hardware tweaks that have ratcheted down

the power requirement to a much more

acceptable 380W.

Visiontek’s X800 XT Platinum Edition

You already know that Leadtek’s GeForce

6800–based Winfast is smoking fast. What

you don’t know is that Visiontek’s Radeon

X800 XT-powered card is only slightly

slower. We’re talking less than a 5 percent

performance difference in most of our

benchmarks. What’s more, this card fi ts

into a single AGP slot.

The Visiontek card is based on ATI’s

spicy new Radeon R420 GPU. Like the

GeForce 6800 Ultra, the Radeon X800

XT includes 16 pipelines and uses a 0.13-

micron core. Unlike the nVidia board, the

Radeon is clocked at very high speeds—an

astounding 520MHz for the core and

560MHz for the memory. But while these

high clock speeds help performance, it’s

still not enough to beat the lower-clocked

nVidia card reviewed above. What’s more,

these high clocks combined with the

card’s single-slot cooling also prohibit

overclocking—especially if you have a

PCI card adjacent to your AGP slot. Our

mightiest overclocking efforts resulted in a

mere 5MHz boost.

Let’s sum things up: Our only real gripe

with the nVidia card is the fact that it

needs two slots for its cooler.

Although this immediately

precludes it from use in most

small formfactor rigs, its

improved performance gives

it an edge over the slightly

slower ATI card, albeit minor.

No matter which card you

choose, you’ll experience

tremendous frame rates in

your gaming. But before you

plunk down the cash for a

$500 card, you might want

to take a close look at the

performance of the $400

cards on the next page.

The fastest one-slot AGP card we’ve tested...

ONE-SLOT

TWO-SLOT

...but it’s not fast enough to beat the nVidia card.

$500, http://www.visiontek.com

MA XIMUMPCVERDICT 9

ATI Radeon X800 XT

Platinum Edition

The Leadtek Winfast A400 Ultra

renders a 3D scene without breaking

a sweat—but can you cope with its

monster two-slot cooler?

The Visiontek X800 XT Platinum

Edition is ever-so-slightly slower than

the GeForce card. But it requires only a

single slot.

MA XIMUMPCVERDICT 9

Leadtek Winfast A400 Ultra

SHORT NAMES

LONG NAMES

This is the fastest AGP card money can buy.

It’s only slightly faster than the single-slot

Radeon.

$500, http://www.leadtek.com

BENCHMARKS

Leadtek Winfast

A400 Ultra

Visiontek X800 XT

Platinum Edition

3DMark 2003 – Standard 12281 11678

3DMark 2003 – Game 2 (fps) 99.2 90.5

3DMark 2003 – Game 4 (fps) 66.2 72.2

UT2003 Flyby (fps) 276.4 294

Halo Timedemo (fps) 64.4 61.4

Far Cry 1.1 (fps) 66.09 65.70

3DMark 2003 – High Quality 4332 3876

3DMark 2003 – Game 2 – HQ (fps) 28.1 18.9

3DMark 2003 – Game 4 – HQ (fps) 31.2 37.4

Best scores are bolded. All benchmarks are run at 1600x1200 except for Far Cry, which is run at

1280x1024, and the standard 3DMark 2003 run, which uses the default settings. High Quality

3DMark 2003 runs at 1600x1200 with 4x AA and 4x Anisotropic Filtering turned on. An average

hippopotamus can hold his breath for about fi ve minutes.

80 MA XIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 200 4

Reviews

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