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| by Michael "SKYMTL" Hoenig | June 28, 2007 | ||
| Our ATI HD2600 XT - Overview Our ATI HD2600 XT - Overview  The ATI HD2600XT is based around the RV630 GPU which is fabricated using a 65nm fabrication process and is completely DX10 compatible. This smaller fabrication process is supposed to benefit this card by decreasing power consumption as well as the amount of heat generated. This is a huge departure from the R600 GPU nestled into the HD2600XT which is built using an 80nm process and consumes copious amount of power while expelling loads of heat. The core itself is clocked at 800Mhz which is quite a bit more than we are used to seeing from the present Nvidia cards and past cards from both manufacturers. With 120 Stream processors it seems to be well-equipped to deal with any shader-intensive games which are throw its way. In addition, we have been told that these stream processors will only begin shine in upcoming DX10 games. Our HD2600XT is coupled with 256MB of GDDR4 memory which is accessed through a 128-bit memory interface. The memory operates on our sample at a blistering 2200Mhz (DDR) but is severely hampered by the paltry 128-bit memory interface. It is downright depressing to see a card with such potential saddled with such a sad-sized bus width. Considering the HD2900XT has a 512-bit interface, why ATI decided to cripple this card in this manner is anyone’s guess. Not only does it have full HDCP compliance but it is also able to output 5.1 channels of sound via a HDMI dongle which can also be used for full HDTV compatibility. This should give them a serious leg-up on the Nvidia competition in the minds of HTPC users. | ||
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