ATI Midrange VGA Cards Tested - HD 2400/2600 Reviews Out
 

Have not seen a price/performance chart yet, only place where the HD 2400/2600 series might outdo NVIDIA. Pure performance they are behind though.

We've known about the basic architecture of AMD's lower end DX10 hardware ever since mid May, but retail product hasn't made its way out the door until now. Finally launching today, and available within the next two weeks (says AMD), the Radeon HD 2400 XT and Pro and the Radeon HD 2600 XT and Pro will serve to bring competition to the $50 - $150 DX10 graphics card market. These are the cards that most people will actually end up purchasing, so both AMD and NVIDIA would like to come out on top in this market.

But even before we begin, we have to go back to the 8800 GTS 320 and talk about what a terrific value it is for people who want great performance and don't need ultra high resolutions with AA cranked up. If $300 is in the budget for graphics, this is the way to spend it. We would really love to offer more flexibility in our recommendation, but both NVIDIA and AMD have seen fit to leave a huge gap in performance between their lower high end part and upper low end parts. We saw this with the 8600 GTS falling way short of the 8800 series, and we will see it again with the HD 2600 XT not even getting close to the 2900 XT.

AMD's price gap will be even larger than NVIDIA's, leaving a hole between $150 and $400 with nothing to fill it. This seems quite a bit excessive with no other real product lines hinted at until we see a product refresh down the line. When the 8600 series launched, we were quite disappointed with the performance of the part and hoped that AMD would step up to the plate and offer a real challenger that could fill the needs of midrange graphics hardware buyers everywhere. Now we are left with a sense of desolation and a feeling that neither AMD nor NVIDIA know how to properly target the $200 - $300 price range. We would go so far as to say that neither camp offers top-to-bottom DX10, but something more along the lines of top and bottom end solutions.

But regardless of what is lacking in their lineup, the new Radeon HD cards are aimed at filling a specific need. We will talk about what they bring to the table and how they manage to do the job AMD has designed them to perform. First up is a brief look back at what's actually inside these GPUs.

A Closer Look at RV610 and RV630

More reviews:
- Powercolor Radeon HD 2400 Pro
- Powercolor HD 2600XT
- PowerColor Radeon HD 2600 XT
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, 2600 Pro, and 2400 XT
- AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT and Radeon HD 2400 XT
- Radeon HD 2600 XT & 2600 PRO (FR)
- ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT (DE)
- PowerColor HD 2600 XT (DE)
- Radeon HD 2600 XT
- ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
- ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT (FR)