System setup
Hardware
- Leadtek WinFast A360TD GeForce FX 5700, 128MB, AGP8X, 450/552
- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, 128MB, AGP8X, 400/800
- ASUS Radeon 9600XT/TVD, 128MB, AGP8X, RV360 499/594
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 2000MHz
- Biostar K8NHA Pro NVIDIA nForce3 150 motherboard
- Corsair XMS3500C2, 2 x 256MB, 2-2-2-6
- Samcheer 420w PSU
- Zalman 7000Cu S754/478 cooler
- IBM 120GXP 40GB Hard Drive
- Dell P991 19" flat-faced CRT monitor
Software
- Windows XP Professional w/SP1
- ATI CATALYST 3.9
- Detonator FX 52.16
- NVIDIA 3.13 driver set
- DirectX 9.0a Runtime
- 3DMark 2001SE v330
- 3DMark03 v340
- AquaMark3
- Serious Sam 2 (SDC demo, quality)
- Unreal Tournament 2003 Retail (patched up to 2225) (HEXUS custom demo)
- X2: The Threat Rolling Demo
- Tiger Woods 2004 (HEXUS custom best shot)
Notes
The Leadtek WinFast A360TD installed correctly first time. We must note that our initial sample was dead on arrival. Leadtek replaced it without fuss. The second sample operated flawlessly through a weekend of testing.
2D was decent from both analogue and digital sources. The gap, if there is one, between ATI's and NVIDIA's 2D is extremely small. Leadtek has a reputation for using decent 2D filters in its range of cards, and we'd have no problem using it daily. TV-Output was crisp too.
The GPU's fan was pretty quiet in use. System integrators usually attempt to keep their machines as quiet as possible. We'd be amazed if the GPU's cooler could be heard over the other noise-making components inside a modern PC.
Overclocking
This was a letdown for the most part. The GPU core would begin to cause artifacts if pushed at anything above 465MHz core - that's only 15MHz above the rated speed. Similarly, card RAM began to lose integrity at 585MHz. We're a little concerned on the GPU side of things. That's not to say that it wasn't absolutely perfect at its default speeds of 450MHz / 552MHz - it was. It's just that we expected a little more core headroom. Leadtek cuts it fine with this model. We'll pass on overclocking benchmarks as the card only produced marginal gains with its minor speed bump at.
