ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB

Reviews: Hardware

Motherboards | Power Supplies | Memory | Systems | Video Cards

Author:
Editor:
Sponsor:
Published:

Max Slowik
Kurtis
ATI
Jun. 28, 2007

Specifications

<< Previous

Next >>

Performance Summary

It's obvious, and dissapointing, that ATI's HD 2600 XT is on par with, and in a few ways above, an NVIDIA 8600 GT. They're almost interchangeable. ATI does a little better when it comes to straight, non-anti-aliased frame rates, but the opposite is true once the special effects are turned up. This was true for the HD 2900 XT when compared to an 8800GTS 640MB as well.

The one place where NVIDIA drags its heels and ATI plants a near-perfect landing is video playback. While we don't have any HD numbers to show off, the standard-definition video playback of this card is flawless. Well, slightly flawed: there was some visible, but nicely blended moire visible in HQV's moire test. But there was nothing else really even vaguely flawed. I had no idea noise could be reduced so precisely. There wasn't a single torn frame, and I think, but I'm not sure, the card actually made people in the videos prettier. Like, it nuked the mole off that chick in Northern Exposure.

Even without HD content to back it up, I feel confident in saying this is the card for video playback.

Power and Noise

The fan isn't overpowering, but it is audible in an open environment. It never once spun up during the testing process, only maintaining its high-pitched woosh. In a case, you could probably pick out the sound, so people who want pure silence will not be completely satisfied. This is the same for the 8600GT, so I'm not going to call it a critical fault.

Power consumption was rock-bottom. These numbers are from the wall, and the power supply's efficiency hasn't been factored in yet.

Idle (integrated graphics): 119
Idle (HD 2600 XT): 137
CPU loaded, GPU idle: 230
CPU and GPU loaded: 248

So, with a little extrapolation, it appears that the GPU consumes 18 watts over the integrated graphics at idle, let's call it 20 watts altogether (since there's no real way to guess what the integrated graphics consumes over the chipset, I'll take ATI's word that it's two watts). At full load, the GPU needs another 18 watts, for a whopping 38 watts of power. I was floored.

When you consider that the PSU is running around 81% efficiency at that load (according to Jonny Guru) the card only needs 31 watts of power. As they say in my country, Holy Christ. I mean, even if my instruments were off by ten percent, the card might need 35 watts of juice.

Overclocking

I couldn't get the Catalyst Control Center to run, let alone tweak this card. But with a power requirement that slim, the headroom could be astonishing. Time will tell.

<< Previous

Page 10 of 11

Next >>

Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Card & Bundle
Page 3: Test Setup
Page 4: Testing - HL2 Episode 1
Page 5: Testing - F.E.A.R.
Page 6: Testing - Company of Heroes
Page 7: Testing - Prey
Page 8: Testing - Need for Speed Most Wanted
Page 9: Testing - 3DMark 06 & HQV
Page 10: Performance Summary, Power & Noise, and Overclocking
Page 11: Conclusion

Subscribe to Video Cards [more info]

Add Comment

2 User Comments

1 - Posted by titan on July 1, 2007 - 1:19 am

For Company of Heroes use the -novsync command line parameter. Somebody from Relic has more benchmarking info at http://www.relicrank.com/bloggo/2007/ 06/01/company-of-heroes-dx10-d 3d10-faq-and-benchmarking-guid e/

2 - Posted by Max Slowik on July 1, 2007 - 5:35 pm

Yeah, I found that a little too late; I will be updating the video card benchmarks fairly soon, since I'm planning on a nice DX10 round-up. It should be fun (by fun I mean mind-numbing horrible terrible very bad work) but also helpful and enlightening.

The mid-range gap is just appalling, though. It's almost as if major companies can't make stream processing cards that cost right to fill in the space. NVIDIA comes close with their 8800GTS 320MB, but it still runs about $275. . .

Thanks for the heads up. I'm still getting the hang of video card benches, and I'm always willing to accept pointers.

Add Comment

To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields.