Leadtek WinFast PX6800 Ultra TDH 512MB Review --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

The Lull Before the Launch

With both ATI and NVIDIA planning to release their next generation graphics processors soon, there has not been that much movement in the graphics card market as of late. Yes, ATI has introduced its CrossFire technology to counter NVIDIA's SLI but they are not found in retail channels yet. So what do graphics card companies do while working on the next technological breakthrough? Answer: they double the memory size of their existing products. It has happened in the past (RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB anyone?), it is happened very recently (the relatively new RADEON X800 XL 512MB) and it will likely happen again. Size does matter; with the profusion of all sorts of numbers on the packaging of a graphics card, some consumers may be confused, leading them to fall back on their own assumptions such as this:- "512MB is surely better than 256MB, right? It's twice as much and costs a bomb! Of course it MUST be better". Other more knowledgeable buyers may just desire that extra memory for the bragging rights of having the most powerful graphics card ever available (period). But how true are those assumptions?

Is more always better? Leadtek's 512MB GeForce 6800 Ultra.

There is a definite increase in performance for typical applications going from 128MB to 256MB now, given that the graphics controller is of midrange standard at least. However as we have seen in our review of the Sapphire RADEON X800 XL 512MB, the performance gains may not be as impressive as the frame buffer size seems to indicate. While the 512MB version of the ATI RADEON X800 XL managed to grab the headlines from NVIDIA for a while - which may well be the whole point of the product - there are already a few 512MB versions of NVIDIA's top range GeForce 6800 Ultra in the market for a little while now. Today, we will be looking at one such rare card, the Leadtek WinFast PX6800 Ultra TDH 512MB. Below, we list its technical specifications:

Leadtek WinFast PX6800 Ultra TDH 512MB Technical Specifications

GraphicsEngine	NVIDIA GeForce 6800Ultra GPU Stock 2D GPU clock= 400MHz Stock 3D GPU clock= 400MHz 16 pixel renderingpipelines 6 vertex pipelines(geometry engines) 256-bit DDR3memory controller CineFX3.0 Shading Engine Vertex Shaders Support for DX9.0 Vertex Shader 3.0 DisplacementMapping VertexFrequency Stream Divider (GeometryInstancing) Infinitelength vertex programs (supported inhardware) Pixel Shaders Support for DX9.0 Pixel Shader 3.0 Full pixelbranching support MultipleRender Targets (MRTs) Infinitelength pixel programs (supported inhardware) Texturing EngineFeatures Up to 16textures per rendering pass Support for 16-bit and 32-bit floating pointformats Support forsRGB texture format for gamma textures DirectX andS3TC texture compression Full128-bit FP Precision Graphics Pipeline Native supportfor 32 / 64 / 128 bits per pixelrendering modes UltraShadow IITechnology (accelerates shadowcomputations) Intellisample 3.0Technology 16x AnisotropicFiltering Adaptive TextureFiltering Rotated GridAntialiasing Fast antialiasingand compression performance Loss-less Color,Texture and Z-Data Compressionalgorithms (in real time) Fast Z-clear High-resolutionCompression Technology (HCT) increasesperformance at high resolutions. Advanced Video andDisplay Functionality Dedicated on-chipvideo processor MPEG videoencode and decode WMV9 decodeacceleration Advancedadaptive de-interlacing High qualityvideo scaling and filtering IntegratedNTSC/PAL TV encoder support resolutions upto 1024x768 with built-in Macrovision copy protection DVD and HDTV-readyMPEG-2 decoding up to 1920x1080iresolutions Dual 400MHzRAMDACs that support resolutions of2048x1536@85Hz Dual DVO ports forinterfacing external TMDStransmitters and external TV/HDTV encoder Microsoft VideoMixing Renderer (VMR) nViewMulti-display Technology Digital VibranceControl (DVC) 3.0 NVIDIA High-PrecisionDynamic-Range (HPDR) Technology Advanced thermalmonitoring and thermal management
GraphicsMemory	512MB Graphic DDR3SDRAM Default memory clock =1050MHz DDR 256-bit memoryinterface
RAMDAC	Dual integrated 10-bitper channel 400 MHz DACs thatsupport resolutions of 2048x1536@85Hz Integrated 165 MHzTMDS transmitter (DVI 1.0 compliant andHDCP ready)
Connectors	1 x S-Video output 2 x DVI-I connectors
Drivers& Software	Driver support forWindows 98 / Me / 2000 / XP Splinter Cell: PandoraTomorrow Prince of Persia:Warrior Within WinFast DVD
OtherInformation	2 free PCI Expressslots required Minimum 350W PSUrequired



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