ATI HD2600XT Performance Preview - Page 8

Michael "SKYMTL" Hoenig · | June 28, 2007

Conclusion

Like I said at the beginning of this article; I did not include many benchmarks as many didn’t play nice with the beta drivers and others just flatly refused to run. It should be mentioned that as drivers were released this situation improved which allowed us to include SOME initial benchmarks. Thus, while these benchmarks show some interesting performance figures, they are just the very tip of the iceberg and should improve. Working with an engineering sample is never easy and the HD2600 XT was no exception; it and its beta drivers do not make friendly bedfellows. Only in the last few beta driver revisions were the performance figures improved and even then they were still far below expectations. Hopefully, our engineering sample fell far from the tree and the actual retail cards will have a bit more performance in them. If these figures stick into production samples and their accompanying drivers, then AMD will have lost yet another round of the GPU Perforamnce Wars. Yet, with words of warning there is also some praise for AMD; both the inclusion of a HDMI dongle and the pricing of these cards could prove to be a huge boon for potential customers. Remember, to some people performance isn’t everything and the HD2600 XT engineering sample on beta drivers delivers better all-round performance than a similarly-priced 8600GT.

Considering the horsepower this card SHOULD put out according to the paper specifications, the initial test results are sobering to say the least. Yet, there are many questions that we should all hope the retail cards (and drivers) will answer. What is happening with those 120 stream processors? It seems like they are laying down on the job. Should the performance be blamed on beta drivers? Only time will tell. Will AMD’s AIB partners finally offer lifetime warranties? When hell freezes over, if then.

Then there is the matter of yet another mainstream card being crippled by a 128-bit memory interface. We can only imagine how this card could perform with a 256-bit bus but the possibilities are downright depressing. Come on AMD, give this card a 256-bit bus and price it a few buck cheaper than the 8600GTS…COME ON!! A 128-bit memory interface is so last generation.

All in all, we look forward to getting our hands on a retail sample so we can do a complete and thorough review of this graphics card. Stay tuned….and cross your fingers.

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SKYMTL

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