VGA Card Buyer's Guide 07/2003

Leadtek

Based in Taiwan, this company is known mostly for its motherboards and graphics cards, although it produces other multimedia add-ons as well. Leadtek's graphics line-up consists entirely of NVIDIA based products. The technical support offered on the international website is limited to support by email.

Once you understand the naming conventions of Leadtek's cards, the different models and their features can be easily identified (T = TV-out; D = DVI; H = HW monitoring). In addition to these features, cards belonging to the MyVIVO series also sport a TV-in connector, while the Cinema series comes with an integrated TV tuner. The cards' three-digit product names are based on the name of the NVIDIA chip used, e.g. NV34 alias FX 5200 = Leadtek A340.

Leadtek WinFast A340 TDH

This card is based on NVIDIA's GeForceFX 5200 and features 128 MB of 128 bit DDR RAM. The small, silver colored fan that cools the chip is a bit on the loud side. The memory chips receive no additional cooling. Leadtek ships two cables for the TV-out. At 1.10 m (S-VHS) and 1.00 m (composite), they are very short, though.

The WinFox 2.0 tool suite that comes with the card lets users check the 3D chip's temperature, the core and memory voltages, and the fan speed (5720 rpm) during operation. The utility can also be used for overclocking and gamma correction.