ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB

Reviews: Hardware

Motherboards | Power Supplies | Memory | Systems | Video Cards

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Max Slowik
Kurtis
ATI
Jun. 28, 2007

Specifications

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The Card & Bundle

An HD 2600 XT looks the part of a higher-end, but still mainstream video card. A little on the long side, but with a single-slot cooler, and generally sleek profile. The heatsink has an ATI red transparent plastic shroud with a silver hot-rod flame coming out of the, er, fan intake. Unlike the flagship HD 2900 XT, the card sports a few capacitors and doesn't have all solid-state power regulation. The capacitors are a mix of all-aluminum caps and more common goo-on-the-inside caps. Part of the heatsink extends over the solid-state VRMs, adding passive cooling to them.

The card has two of the now-standard Crossfire connections along the top of the card, but not a single power connection; the card must have a power draw less than the 75 watts provided by the motherboard. On the component side of the board, there are solder points for four more memory chips; perhaps a 512MB version of the card is in the works? At the back of the card there are two DVI-D connections and a TV-out connection.

Editor's Note: This is a stock photo of the card provided by ATI... We were too busy benching the card to take photos of it so we'll update the review soon with photos taken by us. Thanks for your patience. =)

Like the HD 2900 XT, the HD 2600 XT comes with a Steam coupon for Day of Defeat: Source, and when released, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and the lustily-awaited Team Fortress 2. As far as accessories go, ATI will be including a Crossfire bridge and one of their very cool DVI-D-to-HDMI 1.2 with audio adapters.

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Page 2 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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4 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.

3 - Posted by bridge3 on October 25, 2008 - 2:36 pm

I have been recommended the 2600 pro as an upgrade for my Dell Dimension 9150 (3 yrs old, present card X600). The XT looks better. They were recommended because of low power demand and they are pci-e 1 compatible. Is this right and are there better options in the $100-$200 bracket. I'd rather stick with ATI I think.

4 - Posted by DELL 9150 Also on October 30, 2008 - 4:49 am

I have the same computer 3GB memory 250HD I upgraded to the ATI 2600XT and It works Awesome. I paid $40.00 thru Newegg.

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