One notable area of difference between the HD 2600 XT and 8600 GT is heat production. The PowerColor uses a simple heatsink that leaves the memory uncovered with a 65mm fan that turns relatively slowly and which makes very little noise. We've seen a similar cooler on an Asus GeForce 8600 GTS that worked very well. However, the Nvidia chip is quite toasty while the heatsink on the HD 2600 XT remained cool to the touch. Bet your bottom dollar there will be passively cooled variants of this chip that shed a minimal amount of heat inside your PC case. This also bodes very well for the mobile version where low power usage is so important.

Incidentally, PowerColor will be bringing out a GDDR 4 version of the HD 2600 XT that runs the memory at 2200MHz, which is significantly faster than the GDDR3 in front of us here. However, the core will still run at 800MHz so we doubt that this revision will close the gap on the GeForce 8600 GTS.

3DMark06 test

Longer bars are better

The HD 2600 XT is something of a disappointment when it comes to performance, but we haven't looked at the price, and, my oh my, it's a huge step down from the cheapest HD 2900 XT: £74 to the HD 2900 XT's £199. AMD estimates the other members of the family will be priced thus:

• HD 2600 Pro - £55-60
• HD 2400 XT...£45-50
• HD 2400 Pro...£30-35

We have it on good authority that graphics card manufacturers are having a tough time weaning the punters off lowly hardware such as the Radeon X300 SE, which is a truly horrible piece of hardware but it's very cheap to buy: just £25.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion test

Longer bars are better

Related reviews

• Nvidia G92-based GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
• AMD ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics chip
• Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics chip
• Asus Maximus Formula Intel X38-based mobo
• Gigabyte Odin GT 800W power supply unit
• Intel power PC platforms: Core 2 Extreme QX6800 and V8
• Asus EN8800 Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra-based graphics card
• PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics card
• MSI NX8600GTS graphics card
• Sapphire Radeon X1950 GT-based graphics card
• Sapphire Radeon X1550 graphics card

Let's hope the HD 2400 Pro takes over from the X300 and X1300, and soon. Getting back to the HD 2600 XT, we can't see it makes significant odds whether you go for the new AMD chip or a GeForce 8600 GT. Both the performance and the list of features are near-identical so very likely it comes down to your personal choice of ATI drivers over Nvidia. Or vice versa.

Verdict

The fastest AMD ATI Radeon HD 2600 delivers the same performance as the slowest Nvidia GeForce 8600. However, AMD has redressed the balance with some clever pricing. Our grim experiences with Half Life 2 make it clear that AMD has to do some work on its drivers, but we were pleasantly surprised by the combination of gaming performance and lower heat production.