ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB

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Max Slowik
Kurtis
ATI
Jun. 28, 2007

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Introduction

ATI is changing pace from their flagship by releasing their DirectX 10 mainstream cards within recent memory of NVIDIA's mainstream release. NVIDIA's mainstream release was memorable if bitter; the advantages of the unified shader architecture that made the 8800-series of video cards so powerful didn't have the same puissance once it was cut down for the masses. Made people sad.

So a lot of people are excited about these mainstream cards. Not everyone wants a video card that costs $400 or more, and for a while there, the options were: buy a crappy mainstream current-generation card, or buy an aging card from way back when, that yeah, plays games as good (if not better) but doesn't have the features and consumes a lot of power, puts out a lot of heat, and makes all the noise associated with high-end parts.

Gaming performance wasn't the only thing that didn't live up to its promise. Marketed as the perfect hardware video acceleration for standard-definition, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD formats, NVIDIA's second act was a likewise let-down.

So the bar's pretty low, to be honest. NVIDIA is low-hanging fruit. ATI has a chance to beat NVIDIA at their own game. And other metaphors.

What this really means is that even if ATI's cards suck, they only have to suck a little less than their direct competitors. There are three different ways ATI's mainstream DirectX 10 cards can not suck in and still be favored to NVIDIA's: gaming performance, video acceleration, and of course, price. Power consumption and noise will act as tie-breakers. But if all they acheive is "a little better than NVIDIA," ATI will be letting down a lot of people. This is their chance to take over the biggest market segment.

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Page 1 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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