ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics Card

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics Card Review
Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Review Date: July 2007

The ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT is AMD's new midrange graphics card, competing with nVidia's GeForce 8600 GT for potential buyers who are looking for good 3D and video performance that won't cost upwards of $300. Priced at around $150, the HD 2600 XT is an attractive choice for gamers looking for a DirectX 10 (DX10) card to use with smaller monitors, as well as for home theater PC users.

Unlike its hot, dual-slot, wattage-hungry big brother, the Radeon HD 2900 XT, the Radeon HD 2600 XT is a single-slot solution that draws all of its power directly from the PCI Express (PCIe) slot, without requiring a cable from the power supply. The card has 256MB of GDDR4 memory and features a pair of dual-link DVI ports, along with a component-video connector. To upgrade your performance, or drive up to four monitors simultaneously, you can pair it with a second HD 2600 XT on CrossFire-compatible motherboards.

Under Windows Vista, the Radeon HD 2600 XT includes full support for DX10, the enhanced-graphics system that's finally starting to see support in games such as Company of Heroes and Call of Juarez. The card's 3D performance at 1,280x1,024 resolution was good, with F.E.A.R. scoring a playable 34 frames per second (fps) and Company of Heroes clocking in at a smooth 57.6fps. With a second card in CrossFire mode, our Company of Heroes score didn't improve until we tried higher resolutions. It was dramatically faster in our F.E.A.R. test, however, clocking in at 59fps at a resolution of 1,280x1,024. Higher resolutions definitely benefit from CrossFire: At a resolution of 1,920x1,280, Company of Heroes slowed to 16.7fps with one card, but ran at 22.4fps with two. Drivers are mature under both XP and Vista, providing nearly identical performance under both operating systems.

We should point out that we tested the Radeon HD 2600 XT in CrossFire mode on a P35 chipset motherboard (we used the Asus P5K3 Deluxe) with one PCIe x16 and one PCIe x4 slot. AMD says that motherboards with two PCIe x16 slots will see more-dramatic boosts in speed from CrossFire, with frame-rate increases of 60 percent or more.

The Radeon HD 2600 XT includes ATI's Unified Video Decoder (UVD), a portion of the chip dedicated specifically to decoding VC-1 and H.264/AVC video content, in addition to the MPEG and DivX encoding found on earlier cards. Other video enhancements include hardware up- and downscaling; support for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), even on dual-link displays and 30-inch monitors; and a DVI-to-High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) adapter. The Radeon HD 2600 XT has support for 5.1-channel audio over HDMI when playing Blu-ray or HD DVD discs. Both upscaled DVD and 1080p HD content looked sharp and clear on a 24-inch Gateway FPD2485W monitor. Video quality was on par with that of a dedicated HD DVD player.

Home theater PC owners should note that, while it's quieter than the Radeon HD 2900 XT's cooler fan, the Radeon HD 2600 XT's small fan is loud enough to be noticeable. Some third-party manufacturers such as Sapphire, however, are releasing silent, fanless versions of the card.

Providing very good performance in the latest games at low to medium resolutions, excellent video quality, and the option for a performance boost later via a second CrossFire card, the Radeon 2600 XT is a welcome entry in the midrange market. (Bargain hunters can find the slower GDDR3 version of the card for $129, and the DDR2 RAM-based Radeon HD 2600 Pro for just $99.)

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Mfr. Est. Price: $150

Advanced Micro Devices, 866-824-3215

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