ATI's Radeon HD 2000 range of cards has received mixed press throughout sites since their release. Today I get my first play with with one of them, the Radeon HD 2600 XT from Sapphire. Pioneers in a new era of how data is displayed and games are played, Sapphire shepherds the performance oriented with ground breaking solutions to an environment that remains in a constant state of flux and ultimate evolution. In fact Sapphire released more than one Radeon HD 2600 series card, but we would believe that the version iwth 256MB GDDR3 memory is most in favor. These cards come a very nice prec tage, so let's see if it lives up to its budget card ideals. - XSReviews

Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics Card Review

The Radeon HD 2600's box art is a little different from their usual fair. Instead of the old Radeon X1900 series white box complete with naked cyborg, we now have a black box with some pulsing blue lines around the base. Also, instead of the borg like female, we have a Lara Croft lookalike, and she also got red hair, and that's just hot. The cooler on the Radeon HD 2600 XT is very similar to the ones that were fitted to their Radeon X1950 range. It is made up of a front mounted fan which pulls air in, and because of the shroud around the fan the air is forced backwards across the card before being expelled at the rear.

Noise wise the Radeon HD 2600 XT is relatively quiet throughout most of its operation. However under heavy load when it tends to heat up a bit, it can become a little noisy. Also, the shroud around the fan is very close to it and any pressure on it forces it to touch the fan causing a horrible rubbing noise. This can be easily rectified with a bit of pressure in the right places, but it is annoying. Temperature wise, the Radeon HD 2600 XT stayed pretty much constant even when going full tilt. This card comes in at about the $140 mark which is at least a good $30-40 cheaper than its NVIDIA rival the GeForce 8600 GT.

AMD have adopted an interesting strategy with their Radeon HD 2000 series of cards, not the best performance, but the best bang for buck. Their top end Radeon HD 2900's rarely come close to trashing the GTX, but they are also a lot cheaper. It's a similar situation with the Radeon HD 2600 range of cards. They are only a bit behind the GeForce 8600 in some tests but they are cheaper, which does make a difference. So no, for mid range performance the Radeon HD 2600 is not a great choice as it's a little lack luster. However, as a true budget solution it fills the niche just below the GeForce 8600 GT series.