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Dependence of Contemporary High-End Graphics Accelerators Performance on FSAA Mode: VisionTek Xtasy 9800 PRO and Leadtek WinFast A350 TDH Graphics Cards Review (page 3)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin

[ 09/30/2003 | 11:30 PM ]

Leadtek WinFast A350 TDH VIVO: Closer Look

The Leadtek WinFast A350 TDH VIVO graphics card came in an ordinary paper box colored with black and silver. There are no garish pictures or slang, but rather sober words about the capabilities and accessories of this product. The “MyVIVO Edition” label indicates that the card has VIVO features. The “TDH” abbreviation means TV-Output (T), DVI input (D) and Hardware monitoring (H). Overall, the package of this product is less attractive than that of VisionTek, but looks more serious as if it implied a totally different target group for this product.

Now the box is open, let’s take a look inside:

• Leadtek WinFast A350 TDH graphics card;
• Installation guide;
• User’s manual (full);
• CD-disc with the drivers and system software;
• CD-disc with Ulead VideoStudio 7 SE DVD;
• CD-disc with Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 SE;
• CD-disc with Ulead Cool 3D SE;
• CD-disc with GunMetal game;
• CD-disc with Big Mutha Truckers game;
• DVI-I-to-D-Sub adapter;
• Universal VIVO cable (2 inputs and 2 outputs, S-Video and RCA);
• S-Video cable;
• PL-Plug power splitter.

As you see, Leadtek didn’t play a miser, but accompanied their card with all necessary accessories and a lot of bundled software, including two quite good computer games. The CD-disc with the drivers contained:

• WinFox 2.0 utility for overclocking and hardware monitoring;
• Video-capture program called WinFast PVR with support of Time Shifting and DirectBurn options and capable of working in the “picture in picture” mode;
• Software DVD-player aka WinFast DVD;
• Cult3D suite for publishing 3D content on the Web
• Software for color calibration: 3Deep, Coloreal and Colorific.

Yeah, you are buying this whole lot of software together with this card.

Let’s dwell for a while on the WinFox 2.0 Hardware Monitoring System. Here are a couple of screenshots from the utility responsible for hardware monitoring:

The WinFox 2.0 suite is multi-functional. It is responsible for overclocking and monitoring as well as for gamma-correction. It can display test tables for you to adjust the display settings in the most optimal way and can show you the memory subsystem parameters. It can even remind the user who has been sitting too long at the computer that it is time to make a break. Besides, WinFox 2.0 can re-flash the graphics card’s BIOS, update the drivers and itself in the Internet and control the WinFast Personal Cinema TV-tuner. All this eats up about 8MB of RAM and reminds of itself by the Leadtek icon, which appears in the system tray.