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ATI HD 2600 Pro 256MB
Performance Summary
DirectX 10 is just a footnote. You'll barely enjoy DirectX 9 games with this card, assuming they were made a few years ago, the details are turned down, and the resolution is kept real low. That isn't to say that it completely rules out gaming, but the card only played Half-Life 2 and Prey alright, and that's about it. I'd say this is acceptable for a laptop, but it's just not good enough for a desktop. The video acceleration was spot-on, just as excellent as the HD 2900 XT's, which is to say, unmatched by any NVIDIA, or even other AMD cards. Besides, you know, the XT. Power and Noise For such a small card, the stock fan churns a huge amount of air. I'd easily say it was overkill, and that's just by the sound of it. With all the passive options out there, skip anything with this mean little turbine. Combined with staccato framerates, it's like paying money for headaches. The power consumption is improved over an XT, though: Idle (integrated graphics): 125W Idle (HD 2600 Pro): 139W CPU loaded, GPU idle: 236W CPU and GPU loaded: 250W Idle power consumption 14W + Load power consumption 14W = Total power consumption 28W
Power Usage
21
28
30
38
43
0
Watts (lower is better)
75
Overclocking I was able to squeeze an even 13% improvement over the stock speeds, from 600MHz core/ 800MHz memory to 678MHz core/ 904MHz memory. It was enough to improve the games the Pro can already play, but it didn't make the unplayable games suddenly playable.
Page 1: Introduction, The Card & Bundle
Page 2: Testing Methodology Page 3: Testing - HL2 Episode 1 Page 4: Testing - F.E.A.R. Page 5: Testing - Company of Heroes Page 6: Testing - Prey Page 7: Testing - Need for Speed Most Wanted Page 8: Testing - 3Dmark 06 & HQV Page 9: Performance Summary, Power & Noise, and Overclocking Page 10: Conclusion 
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