MattRocks wrote on Today, 10:03:

I bought a lot of untested graphics cards. This is the first time I've made such a purchase, and the second photo shows specifically what I've gambled on.

Leadtek Winfast Geforce 256 DDR (LR2820). Nice card.

Grem Five wrote on Today, 13:43:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-21, 20:38:

Well, both. […]
Show full quote

Law212 wrote on 2026-05-21, 20:31:

Are you buying parts for a particular build or just to have?
luckily it should be somewhat easy to replace the caps

Well, both.

I'll bid on something if I think it's an upgrade on what I have. So, I did bid strategically on the GeForce2Ti because I consider the novel WinFast cooler to be an upgrade on the vanilla cooler on my other GeForce2 Ti. The cooler is somewhat historically significant because at the time the various board makers were all cloning NVIDIA reference boards and producing the same performance, so a novel cooler is one of the only differentiating qualities.

But, my interest is building plausible BBC workstations - video and audio workstations. The GeForce2 Ti does not belong in those projects. I'd select silent cards for audio monitoring, or most specialist video cards for image control.

They put those coolers on their GTS cards as well, I dont know if the cooler is an upgrade it just looks better is about it. I had to replace the fan hub on mine as when I 1st got it without thinking I grabbed it by the end and my finger pushed on the fan and broke a fin off of it. Took some time to find a replacement hub that match except for the color and then of course I had to repaste the heatsink because since the cooler is cantilevered over to one side if you press on that side it the spring pins allows it to be tilted off the die. Definitely not a cooler you want to bump once you repaste it as it might change how it is seated.

The attachment OJXchap - Imgur.jpg is no longer available

IIRC, it is an upgrade but not in the overclocking sense. My recollection is users were frequently leaving the first PCI slot vacant or leaving the side panel off - efforts to give GPU coolers more breathing space. There is no evidence the WinFast coolers actually cooled more than alternatives, but WinFast coolers were designed to be slimmer so that extra breathing space was less of a worry and so users could re-insert all their expansion cards and put the side panels back on.

Living wrote on Today, 15:13:

MattRocks wrote on Today, 10:03:

I bought a lot of untested graphics cards. This is the first time I've made such a purchase, and the second photo shows specifically what I've gambled on.

well? it paid off?

Don't know 🙁

Family isn't letting me escape to my workshop 😁

MattRocks wrote on Today, 15:47:

Living wrote on Today, 15:13:

MattRocks wrote on Today, 10:03:

I bought a lot of untested graphics cards. This is the first time I've made such a purchase, and the second photo shows specifically what I've gambled on.

well? it paid off?

Don't know 🙁

Family isn't letting me escape to my workshop 😁

Say something stupid and self-punish yourself to time-out in your room.
Workshop is a room.............. voilà!

MattRocks wrote on Today, 15:44:

IIRC, it is an upgrade but not in the overclocking sense. My recollection is users were frequently leaving the first PCI slot vacant or leaving the side panel off - efforts to give GPU coolers more breathing space. There is no evidence the WinFast coolers actually cooled more than alternatives, but WinFast coolers were designed to be slimmer so that extra breathing space was less of a worry and so users could re-insert all their expansion cards and put the side panels back on.

Two things there, I have another Winfast GTS Pro with the standard cooler and the Winfast side fan mounted one is not any slimmer height wise if that is what you meant and if you did put a card under it unless it was a half length pcb then fan would still be close to the card just closer to the end and yes near the end might draw a small amount of more air. Number 2 this cooler does nothing to allow any air travel over the memory where as the more basic cooler the air would spill out the sides and at least allow a tiny bit of air over the memory and a tiny bit of warmed airflow is better than no air flow. At stock memory clocks either are fine but since GF2 and GF3 cards gained more performance by overclocking the memory then the core. About this time is when you 1st see heat sinks start covering the memory as they really could use them as in my GF2 Ultra and all my GF3 cards.

I agree the cooler looks better and has more thermal mass but in a practical sense I have absolutely noticed no difference except by checking with a thermal sensor the memory seems to run hotter.

Grem Five wrote on Today, 16:13:

MattRocks wrote on Today, 15:44:

IIRC, it is an upgrade but not in the overclocking sense. My recollection is users were frequently leaving the first PCI slot vacant or leaving the side panel off - efforts to give GPU coolers more breathing space. There is no evidence the WinFast coolers actually cooled more than alternatives, but WinFast coolers were designed to be slimmer so that extra breathing space was less of a worry and so users could re-insert all their expansion cards and put the side panels back on.

Two things there, I have another Winfast GTS Pro with the standard cooler and the Winfast side fan mounted one is not any slimmer height wise if that is what you meant and if you did put a card under it unless it was a half length pcb then fan would still be close to the card just closer to the end and yes near the end might draw a small amount of more air. Number 2 this cooler does nothing to allow any air travel over the memory where as the more basic cooler the air would spill out the sides and at least allow a tiny bit of air over the memory and a tiny bit of warmed airflow is better than no air flow. At stock memory clocks either are fine but since GF2 and GF3 cards gained more performance by overclocking the memory then the core. About this time is when you 1st see heat sinks start covering the memory as they really could use them as in my GF2 Ultra and all my GF3 cards.

I agree the cooler looks better and has more thermal mass but in a practical sense I have absolutely noticed no difference except by checking with a thermal sensor the memory seems to run hotter.

We might each be partly right. HotHardware suggests, "Using this design, the fan is mounted in a position where it can draw cooler air from the center of the case and then push the warmer air away from the GPU. Unfortunately, this unique design doesn't provide much of any direct cooling of the onboard RAM."
https://hothardware.com/reviews/enhanced-lead … ce-2-gts?page=2

Nexxen wrote on Today, 15:51:

Say something stupid and self-punish yourself to time-out in your room.
Workshop is a room.............. voilà!

🤣. Unfortunately they follow me 😉

Socket3 wrote on Today, 15:24:

Leadtek Winfast Geforce 256 DDR (LR2820). Nice card.

I'm not sure it's a WinFast. The bundle actually contains three cards from the same source: same PCB colour, same sticker arrangement, same serial number format, same fans, etc. And, among those cards is a GeForce 2 Pro that is not a WinFast. Further investigation needed. They might be ProLink PixelView?