Did anyone else see the 2600 Benches

[Haltech123]

Extreme Tech got hold of the 2600's from ATI and I was personally shocked at both Nvidia and ATI for making horid midrange cards. I guess if anyone really needs DX10 on a budget get ATI but everything else was garbage.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2151670,00.asp

funny quote "but we've never stared at the monitor while playing a game and said "wow, look at that power efficiency!"

 

[shargrath]

Looks like Its a difficult decision between the 8600GT/S and the 2600XT if dx10 is a must. To bad the engineers at ATi came up with this idea "lets make our new cards crippled by having 4 ROP's and 8 texture units that will show those nVidia boyz up!"

 

[Mandrake_]

Both the 2600 and 8600 cards are really poor performers. What happened to the old way of having the new mid range part outperform the previous generations high end card? (eg 7600 GT vs 6800 Ultra).

For people that can spend a bit more the performance difference between the 8800 GTS 320 and these cards is huge. Worth every dollar IMO.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Extreme Tech got hold of the 2600's from ATI and I was personally shocked at both Nvidia and ATI for making horid midrange cards.

Yep, time to wait for the 256bit replacements in the fall.

I guess if anyone really needs DX10 on a budget get ATI

Why? Like the review showed we're talking about 12/9 vs 6/3 & 10/7 5/3fps, Oooh it does better, but still SUX !!

BTW, WTF, AA in COH DX10 improves the XT from 9 to 10fps?

but everything else was garbage.

Not really, they're OK for cheap enough, but they do suck compared to last generation (kinda like the X1600 did).

 

[Paul_gren]

so we should wait for a HD2650XT, like in the x1600 story?


I must admit that i had really high hopes for the 2600 series but they kinda suck.

 

[rammedstein]

the x1650XT was a great card, pity it was like a 2nd gen one and was the xt not the pro

 

[Slobogob]

I think i´m going to cry.

Maybe i´ve to get used to the fact that the low end card range moved up to the 150$ mark.

What i don´t get is why they cost so much. ATI offers a way better performing 1950 pro for about 120 € and the new 2600XT (the GDDR3 variant) costs about 100€ wich will put the GDDR4 variant in the same price category as the 1950 pro. Did i mention one is manufactured on 80nm and the other on 65 and that one has a 128bit bus and the other not? This lets me conclude that prices will drop significantly to about Geforce 7600GT levels which should be their performance counterpart. 80$ for a 2600XT GDDR4 sounds reasonable...

 

[tlmck]

funny quote "but we've never stared at the monitor while playing a game and said "wow, look at that power efficiency!"

another funny quote "but I've never stared at the monitor while playing a game and said "wow, look at those shadows and antialiasing!" "I'm to busy trying to keep from getting blown up!"

In other words, DX10 is a bunch of hooey!

 

[No1sFanboy]

For this generation of dx10 cards if gaming is a priority people should be aiming for the 8800gts320. It would be nice to see it drop down to a true midrange price or ATI slot something in below the 2900xt. The market really needs a card with gts320 performance at the $200us price point.

 

[hannibal]

Well, this is guite the same as with all new generation low range cards...
Look these DX10 test! http://www.clubic.com/article-75676-7-amd-ati-radeon-hd-2600-xt-hd-2400-xt.html

New low range cards can run DX10, but it's better to wait the second generation budget cards for rasonable 800*600 experience ;-)

 

[No1sFanboy]

another funny quote "but I've never stared at the monitor while playing a game and said "wow, look at those shadows and antialiasing!" "I'm to busy trying to keep from getting blown up!"

I may not find myself stopping to look at how will AA is working but I've stopped to notice when a straight line looks like it is made of lego. This is point where you hope to have the overhead to crank the settings. When it works well you forget about it.

 

[Ancalagon_uk]

with the way mid and low end cards are these days, you almost get the feeling that the high end cards are really the only graphics cards, and everything else is so stripped down they can barely run games.

of course, we all know that isnt true and that these cards can run older games very well, even with some AA, but future games? no way.

I think its really bad for computer gaming as hobby and a sport, especially compared to console gaming, if you can go and spend a comparatively large amount of money on a pc and get bad gaming performance that just doesnt last.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

The problem with that statement is that with a console youre stuck for years at the same eyecandy period. Sure its great when it comes out, but when the improvements are made for PCs, you have to live with your console. Latest greatest costs, thats all there is to it. And as far as DX10 goes, it hasnt, yet.