Gore Windstopper- breathability

From what I have worn, none.

mediocre … its a laminate … some windstopper jackets are a tad more breathable than others, but in general i find them no better than event and thats a WPB fabric

Basically zilch.

Windstopper is actually OK just a bit outdated now (still, I think that "zilch" may be a bit harsh) – when Activent first came out it was a good product (I still love my now wrecked Patagonia Pneumatic), being more breathable than a lot of the windproofs then available, and waterproof enough that Areality used to talk about seam-sealing one to see if it would work better than Gore-Tex. But these days, for pure windproofness and breathability, it loses out to Pertex (but is maybe a bit more water resistant) and as someone said, eVent is in practice as breathable but fully waterpoof. I have a new Gore WS bike gilet which certainly cuts the wind, but the entire back is mesh, so I'd be surprised if I ever got any condensation.

I'm pretty sure 'Windstopper' is the original Goretex waterproof fabric. The original goretex eventually let in rain, so they added the pu smear.
They rebranded it as soft-shell Windstopper, when softshells became fashionable.
So it's as breathable as a waterproof shell. :)

A lot of the insulated jackets I'm looking at use this material so this is a real concern. Do pit-zips at all mitigate the low(er) breathability?

Do you need the rain protection of Windstopper?
If you are already carrying a waterproof shell, there are much lighter options.

I do need some level of waterproofness. I find layering uncomfortable and a hassle, so jackets that will work in more number of conditions will be ideal.

"I'm pretty sure 'Windstopper' is the original Goretex waterproof fabric. The original goretex eventually let in rain, so they added the pu smear.
They rebranded it as soft-shell Windstopper, when softshells became fashionable.
So it's as breathable as a waterproof shell. :)"

Gore were always pretty vague about how WS related to GTX: there was a story that an insider had said that the pores were simply bigger, so that it was more breathable than GTX but less waterproof.

is this the same stuff manzella makes gloves out of ? because they work fantastic. for however as thick as they are, and it's not much, they support an astonishingly high temperature differential. by that i mean, i can go out on my bike on a nippy night, and my hands are cool but not frozen like the rest of me. and they are thin enough too, that i can layer them under my normal fleece gloves and be fine all day long when it's well under freezing pulling a sled out on the ice (quite breezy)
on the other hand, i do own an entire top made of N2S and have never found the "right place" to wear it. but for gloves, it's excellent.

v.

i have a pair of mountain hardwear vertex pants made from stretchy windstopper. they've been worn a handful of times on winter day hikes. the breathability is okay, better than powershield imo. they can get pretty warm while on the move but these pants have a full length zipper which makes it easy to vent. i like them but the vents are key to staying cool. they totally block the wind and don't ever seem to get wet.