ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB

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Max Slowik
Kurtis
ATI
Jun. 28, 2007

Specifications

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Conclusion

Our little chat that ATI and I had upset me. Last-minute drivers mean last-minute work, and that would upset anyone. But what got me was the price drop. Originally, the HD 2600 XT was to be listed at or around $200, sticking it in a coveted price/performance spot. If ATI was lowering their prices, what was that going to say about their performance? As it turns out, precisely the worst. ATI was matching their best mainstream card to NVIDIA's second-best. And the performance results reflect the pricing.

ATI and NVIDIA are in a tight spot, the both of them. They each have to deal with a new, unified-shader-based GPU architecture, new manufacturing processes, and a big, honkin' new operating system. NVIDIA got called out on their meager performance gains over the last generation (with respects to their mainstream cards) and so will ATI. At least we know both companies are having the same problems, because it's not likely that they're both trying to be mediocre.

But that's what this generation is: mediocre–except for ATI's ace-in-the-hole: video playback. The UVD hardware acceleration that the HD 2600 XT packs is flawless, or as close to flawless as it gets right now. It is simply unparalleled.

The newer drivers made a significant improvement, too. Since I had the fortune to have two sets of numbers, I can point out that ATI squeezed an extra 5-10% out of the HD 2600 XT with the new code, specifically regarding the anti-aliasing performance. So it's a fair assumption that there will be some improvements coming down the pipe, although nothing to write home about. (Unless you work for ATI and like to talk about what you did at work in letters home.)

In the end, ATI pulled an HD 2900 XT... what I mean is, like with the HD 2900 XT, the part performs equally to its direct competitor, and relies on its bundle and features rather than pure performance to compete. And just like its bulky sibling, there is a competing card in the same bracket that outperforms; NVIDIA has their 8600GTS, after all.

All other things being equal, the features, video acceleration, and bundle make the HD 2600 XT the best of the $150-ish DirectX 10 video cards.

Pros

Stellar video acceleration
Insignificant power requirements–31 watts!
Good features and bundle

Cons

Performance no better than 8600GT

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Page 11 of 11

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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

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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.

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