VOGONS


Bought these (retro) hardware today

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Reply 59140 of 59160, by Socket3

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MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 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.

Reply 59141 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Grem Five wrote on 2026-05-31, 13:43:
MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-21, 20:38:
Well, both. […]
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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.

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59142 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Living wrote on 2026-05-31, 15:13:
MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 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 😁

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59143 of 59160, by Nexxen

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MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 15:47:
Living wrote on 2026-05-31, 15:13:
MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 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!

PC#1 Pentium 233 MMX - 98SE
PC#2 PIII-1Ghz - 98SE/W2K

- "One hates the specialty unobtainium parts, the other laughs in greed listing them under a ridiculous price" - kotel studios
- Bare metal ist krieg.

Reply 59144 of 59160, by Grem Five

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MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 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.

Reply 59145 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Grem Five wrote on 2026-05-31, 16:13:
MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 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 2026-05-31, 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 2026-05-31, 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? In either case the ADDA AP4512MX-J90 fan has seized and may need replacing before testing.

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59146 of 59160, by Socket3

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MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 17:41:
We might each be partly right. HotHardware suggests, "Using this design, the fan is mounted in a position where it can draw cool […]
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Grem Five wrote on 2026-05-31, 16:13:
MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 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 2026-05-31, 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 2026-05-31, 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? In either case the ADDA AP4512MX-J90 fan has seized and may need replacing before testing.

PCB on the card sais "LR2820". It's definitely a Leadtek card.

https://hothardware.com/reviews/leadtek-winfa … geforce-256-ddr

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/leadtek- … review,157.html

Like I said, I owned two identical cards. One with the green fan like yours, one with the white "winfast" branded fan

MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 17:41:

Further investigation needed. They might be ProLink PixelView? In either case the ADDA AP4512MX-J90 fan has seized and may need replacing before testing.

Prolink cards share the same PCB as Asus cards, and are not branded "LRxxxx". They usually have a yellow sticker on the back with the text "MVGA-NVG256AL", "MVGA-NVG256AM" or "MVGA-NV10DDR". PCB on the Prolink cards is either Gold or Green.

Reply 59147 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Socket3 wrote on 2026-05-31, 19:55:
PCB on the card sais "LR2820". It's definitely a Leadtek card. […]
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MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 17:41:
We might each be partly right. HotHardware suggests, "Using this design, the fan is mounted in a position where it can draw cool […]
Show full quote
Grem Five wrote on 2026-05-31, 16:13:

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 2026-05-31, 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 2026-05-31, 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? In either case the ADDA AP4512MX-J90 fan has seized and may need replacing before testing.

PCB on the card sais "LR2820". It's definitely a Leadtek card.

https://hothardware.com/reviews/leadtek-winfa … geforce-256-ddr

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/leadtek- … review,157.html

Like I said, I owned two identical cards. One with the green fan like yours, one with the white "winfast" branded fan

MattRocks wrote on 2026-05-31, 17:41:

Further investigation needed. They might be ProLink PixelView? In either case the ADDA AP4512MX-J90 fan has seized and may need replacing before testing.

Prolink cards share the same PCB as Asus cards, and are not branded "LRxxxx". They usually have a yellow sticker on the back with the text "MVGA-NVG256AL", "MVGA-NVG256AM" or "MVGA-NV10DDR". PCB on the Prolink cards is either Gold or Green.

There is no "LR" on the silkscreen, and no WinFast branding. There is a "282" but that could be a shared reference, or just coincidence. The serial numbers also don't match WinFast patterns. Identification might follow interrogation of PCI bus identifiers but at this stage I'm kind of expecting them to just say nVidia.

Check out this common pattern from three different cards in the same lot - it shows they came out of the same distribution channel. That's not a positive identification, but it means all three would have carried the same brand.

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59148 of 59160, by Ahrle

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SC-88 Pro, first part of project 357575 (35th birthday, computer #75 in collection, P75 equivalent (already failed but yeah x))

Also ordered and on the way:
MIF-IPC-B
MPU-401
SC-55 MK2
Gainward W32i 1MB
CT3900 + 4x16MB (upgrading an SB32 while at it)
Similar style miditower (vlb crippled/insufficient space in current case)
DFI 386 board + DX33 and 8MB RAM for desktop case

PC spending PR beaten by over 100%, otoh just half a 5090 for all this amazement 😁

The attachment IMG_20260601_131547707.jpg is no longer available

Victim in question, bonus points if you can guess the game 😁

The attachment IMG_20260601_034759049[1].jpg is no longer available
Last edited by Ahrle on 2026-06-01, 12:59. Edited 1 time in total.

Project Final-End 357575: ECS U4914-G | 486DX2-66 | 64MB | ET4000/W32i 1MB | CT3900 28MB | MT-32, SC-55 MK1 & 2, TG-300
Alt: IBM PC300PL | PIII-750 | 256MiB | Diamond Viper + V2 SLi | CT4500 | SC-88 Pro

Reply 59149 of 59160, by Socket3

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I saw this on the PCB:

The attachment 2820.png is no longer available

While it does lack the "LR" lettering, so did many other early Leadtek cards with this gold on green PCB.

If you choose to ignore the silk-screened model number and revision on the PCB, the layout is identical to the Winfast 256 DDR, and so is the infineon memory. Here's a side by side comparison:

The attachment 2820 copy.png is no longer available

At the top is your card, picture taken from your post. A LR2820 rev B, it lacks the DVI connector and comes with a green fan instead of the Winfast branded one.

At the bottom is the reference Winfast Geforce 256 DDR, LR2820 rev A.

Your cards, both this geforce 256 and the PRO are most definitely Leadtek. The TNT2 might be leadtek as well, and if it is, it's not a very common card - I'd appreciate you posting a clear picture of it here.

Leadtek are as far as I know the only manufacturer to use this green on gold PCB for geforce 256 to geforce 2 line. After these two generations they switched to their signature green PCB. Asus and Prolink used an orange on gold PCB.

Reply 59150 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Thank you for pushing this. "LRI" is stated on the GF2Pro! But, did LeadTek claim that identifier or is it something only eBay listings associate with LeadTek?

  • Their shared distribution stickers, the shared Conexant Bt chips, and the shared PCB colour strongly suggest all three are the same brand.
  • None have an FCC identifier, indicating these were not for the US market.
  • Their yellow PCB colour matches several possible brands including but not limited to LeadTek WinFast.
  • They are made in Taiwan, which matches several possible brands including but not limited to LeadTek WinFast.
  • Some of the silkscreen is in Taiwanese (I assume, but not confirmed by translation).
  • All have PAL TV out, indicating they were intended for Europe or Asia.
  • The GF256 shares the same PCB as the WinFast GF256 - I hesitate because that could be the nVidia reference PCB.
  • The GF256 has no electrolytic capacitors, in common with WinFast GF256.

Reason for doubting they are WinFast:

  • The GF2Pro silkscreen does state "LRI 2840," but I only see this identifier attributed to LeadTek WinFast by secondary sources.
  • WinFast TNT2 M64 with TV would be a previously undocumented card?
Last edited by MattRocks on 2026-06-01, 14:00. Edited 1 time in total.

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59151 of 59160, by Grem Five

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MattRocks wrote on Yesterday, 13:37:
Thank you for pushing this. "LRI" is stated on the GF2Pro! But, did LeadTek claim that identifier or is it something only eBay l […]
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Thank you for pushing this. "LRI" is stated on the GF2Pro! But, did LeadTek claim that identifier or is it something only eBay listings associate with LeadTek?

  • Their shared distribution stickers, the shared Conexant Bt chips, and the shared PCB colour strongly suggest all three are the same brand.
  • None have an FCC identifier, indicating these were not for the US market.
  • Their yellow PCB colour matches several possible brands including but not limited to LeadTek WinFast.
  • They are made in Taiwan, which matches several possible brands including but not limited to LeadTek WinFast.
  • Some of the silkscreen is in Taiwanese.
  • All have PAL TV out, indicating they were intended for Europe or Asia.
  • The GF256 shares the same PCB as the WinFast GF256 - I hesitate because that could be the nVidia reference PCB.
  • The GF256 has no electrolytic capacitors, in common with WinFast GF256.

Reason for doubting they are WinFast:

  • The GF2Pro silkscreen does state "LRI 2840," but I only see this identifier attributed to LeadTek WinFast by secondary sources.
  • WinFast TNT2 M64 with TV would be a previously undocumented card?

Interesting your Geforce 2 "Pro" has the slower 5.5ns memory as my "Enhanced" one does but in 32 meg instead of 64 meg

Re: Hybrid Leadtek GeForce2 GTS/PRO?

Leadtek did alot of weird things in the GF2 lineup.

Reply 59152 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Grem Five wrote on Yesterday, 13:51:

Leadtek did alot of weird things in the GF2 lineup.

If sticking with the LeadTek hunch, you realise these would be "low volume" "non-WinFast" "not-for-USA" variants with their own silkscreen - does that sound economically plausible?

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59153 of 59160, by Grem Five

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MattRocks wrote on Yesterday, 14:07:
Grem Five wrote on Yesterday, 13:51:

Leadtek did alot of weird things in the GF2 lineup.

If sticking with the LeadTek hunch, you realise these would be "low volume" "non-WinFast" "not-for-USA" variants with their own silkscreen - does that sound economically plausible?

I believe its a Leadtek as it has a pcb 2840 and both of my cards have the pcb 2842. Looks like an earlier version as far as I can tell the pcb 2842 they mostly just added the hardware monitoring leds although I havent looked at the differences to hard.

Look at https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/lead … st-geforce2-pro and the stock photo from Anandtech is a pre production sample and its fuzzy but you can read pcb 2840. I know I have read that Anandtech article it came from but since their site flush all articles down the toilet I would have to look up on wayback machine to find it.

Edit: I went back and and found that article on anandtech that the pic on RTW is from and its an article on the Geforce 2 GTS. https://web.archive.org/web/20240909085025/ht … com/show/579/19

Reply 59154 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Grem Five wrote on Yesterday, 14:26:
I believe its a Leadtek as it has a pcb 2840 and both of my cards have the pcb 2842. Looks like an earlier version as far as I c […]
Show full quote
MattRocks wrote on Yesterday, 14:07:
Grem Five wrote on Yesterday, 13:51:

Leadtek did alot of weird things in the GF2 lineup.

If sticking with the LeadTek hunch, you realise these would be "low volume" "non-WinFast" "not-for-USA" variants with their own silkscreen - does that sound economically plausible?

I believe its a Leadtek as it has a pcb 2840 and both of my cards have the pcb 2842. Looks like an earlier version as far as I can tell the pcb 2842 they mostly just added the hardware monitoring leds although I havent looked at the differences to hard.

Look at https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/lead … st-geforce2-pro and the stock photo from Anandtech is a pre production sample and its fuzzy but you can read pcb 2840. I know I have read that Anandtech article it came from but since their site flush all articles down the toilet I would have to look up on wayback machine to find it.

Edit: I went back and and found that article on anandtech that the pic on RTW is from and its an article on the Geforce 2 GTS. https://web.archive.org/web/20240909085025/ht … com/show/579/19

I see the resemblance, but mine are consistently unbranded, consistently odd for LeadTek by not exactly matching known retail specifications, and consistently have a different silkscreen - even Chinese characters in the silkscreen.

They also look untouched/unmodified: The nylon plugs are not stretched, the fans are seized with age, no signs of disturbed solder. Yet, no WinFast heatsink, no LeadTek branding, no LeadTek sticker! It feels like “yes but no, maybe!”

I considered the possibility that LeadTek may have operated an OEM line, but it costs money to ship a variant so that needs to be high-volume to make sense (e.g. DELL partner or similar). That hypothesis runs into problems because there is no evidence of high-volume.

One off-spec card is an anomaly, but three is a pattern. And I would not normally look at an M64 so I don’t know much about them - but when I look into that card, if it is a LeadTek, it’s an undocumented variant.

Have I stumbled on pre-production samples?

Last edited by MattRocks on 2026-06-01, 20:13. Edited 2 times in total.

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59155 of 59160, by Grem Five

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I have seen many Leadtek cards that are labelled on the cards themselves that dont match anything exactly from the Leadtek web pages on wayback machine from back in the day, in that regard they are about as bad as Visiontek.

Around the time of GF2 & GF3 things were changing fast and manufactuers did strange stuff, I have seen it from Asus cards as well and they were much bigger. Its almost like small changes happened in their products from month to month and it all depends on when they were sold.

Reply 59156 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Grem Five wrote on Yesterday, 19:47:

I have seen many Leadtek cards that are labelled on the cards themselves that dont match anything exactly from the Leadtek web pages on wayback machine from back in the day, in that regard they are about as bad as Visiontek.

Around the time of GF2 & GF3 things were changing fast and manufactuers did strange stuff, I have seen it from Asus cards as well and they were much bigger. Its almost like small changes happened in their products from month to month and it all depends on when they were sold.

Okay. I’ll chalk them up as LeadTek, even though they look way off when positioned next to branded WinFast cards! 😀

Desktop timeline [ MOS 7501 → 68030 → x86(P5/MMX) → x86(K6-2) → x86(K7*) → PPC(G3*) → x86-64(K8) → x86-64(Xeon) → x86-64(i5) → x86-64(i7) ] * lost

Reply 59157 of 59160, by Inhibit

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This beautiful piece of partially knackered hardware was just too tempting to pass up in the VCF free pile. I'll have to pull some video when I've got it apart; hopefully the display's just disconnected and parts haven't gone missing.

The attachment Where_in_the_Laptop_is_Carmen_Sandiego.jpg is no longer available

Reply 59158 of 59160, by Socket3

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MattRocks wrote on Yesterday, 19:20:
I see the resemblance, but mine are consistently unbranded, consistently odd for LeadTek by not exactly matching known retail sp […]
Show full quote
Grem Five wrote on Yesterday, 14:26:
I believe its a Leadtek as it has a pcb 2840 and both of my cards have the pcb 2842. Looks like an earlier version as far as I c […]
Show full quote
MattRocks wrote on Yesterday, 14:07:

If sticking with the LeadTek hunch, you realise these would be "low volume" "non-WinFast" "not-for-USA" variants with their own silkscreen - does that sound economically plausible?

I believe its a Leadtek as it has a pcb 2840 and both of my cards have the pcb 2842. Looks like an earlier version as far as I can tell the pcb 2842 they mostly just added the hardware monitoring leds although I havent looked at the differences to hard.

Look at https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/lead … st-geforce2-pro and the stock photo from Anandtech is a pre production sample and its fuzzy but you can read pcb 2840. I know I have read that Anandtech article it came from but since their site flush all articles down the toilet I would have to look up on wayback machine to find it.

Edit: I went back and and found that article on anandtech that the pic on RTW is from and its an article on the Geforce 2 GTS. https://web.archive.org/web/20240909085025/ht … com/show/579/19

I see the resemblance, but mine are consistently unbranded, consistently odd for LeadTek by not exactly matching known retail specifications, and consistently have a different silkscreen - even Chinese characters in the silkscreen.

They also look untouched/unmodified: The nylon plugs are not stretched, the fans are seized with age, no signs of disturbed solder. Yet, no WinFast heatsink, no LeadTek branding, no LeadTek sticker! It feels like “yes but no, maybe!”

I considered the possibility that LeadTek may have operated an OEM line, but it costs money to ship a variant so that needs to be high-volume to make sense (e.g. DELL partner or similar). That hypothesis runs into problems because there is no evidence of high-volume.

One off-spec card is an anomaly, but three is a pattern. And I would not normally look at an M64 so I don’t know much about them - but when I look into that card, if it is a LeadTek, it’s an undocumented variant.

Have I stumbled on pre-production samples?

They are not pre-production but cards released for central and east europe. All leadtek cards from that genearation came unbranded. In case of higher-end products you got a light-gold sticker on the PCB with "Leadtek" or "Winfast" and a model, say "Winfast Geforce 2 GTS". Revision A cards usually got a "winfast" fan. Revision B cards got the green fan like your cards an mine. There are C and D revisions as well. Rev D has a Green PCB like the Geforce 2 Ti.

The TNT is unusual - this one should be branded but it lacks the silkscreening for the model number - it seems "painted on". The card is a Winfast 3D S325, it should look like this: https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/lead … winfast-3d-s325

Reply 59159 of 59160, by MattRocks

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Looks slightly more like the S320V, but different. The S320V has:

  • More solder blanks
  • WinFast branding
  • English silkscreen

This card has TV-out added, more chips, and Chinese silkscreen "added". That matters because having a separate batch-run of a local variants only makes economic sense in specific contexts. The highest cost is always salaries. There are design engineers, quality assurance, testing, audit trails, support, management sign-off, sales and support staff, etc. Paying any of those salaries makes no sense for a single ~£10 office graphics card, and paying all the salaries only makes sense for big bulk volume shipments - that is where the Central/Eastern Europe small shop integrator hypothesis fits, but drawing a bespoke Chinese silkscreen for Europe does not fit!

To every rule there is an exception: I've worked on the procurement side of commissioning low production runs of boards. In my case the manufacturer categorises all low-volume orders (e.g. ~five samples) as "prototypes," but for the buyer that might be the full commercial production (e.g. £20k bespoke order for a museum aircraft). So short production PCBs exist, and can make complete sense in some contexts.. but ~£10 office grade graphics cards is not one of those contexts.. unless it were an actual prototype or engineering sample "not for resale".

In both hypotheses: No branding, no English silkscreen, no FCC audit trail means if someone phones up with a support question they hit the salaried first line support filter question: "model and serial number?" At that point WinFast consumer facing teams bin it as"not our problem," which is a real financial saving with water-tight NDA compliance. I'm leaning towards them being manufactured by Leadtek, and intended as deniable - no branding, no warranty, no support headaches. The only thing the telephone operator might want to track is, "where did you get it?"

So my current catalogue has Leadtek WinFast for branded retail cards with known SKU, and Leadtek Research Inc. (LRI) for these other cards.

https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/lead … k-winfast-s320v

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