AMD have got their whole mid-range lineup well and truly going now and we had a look at Palit and their Radeon HD 2600 series cards the other week; now it's time to have a look at the Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 XT and HD 2600 XT graphics cards. The GeForce 8600 series from NVIDIA got off to a bit of a rough start, no thanks to the somewhat hefty price tags attached to them due to cards like the GeForce 7900 GS still being around. Now that the old supplies have dried up, the GeForce 8600 series seems to be the new cool card; though the Radeon HD 2600 series impressed us the other week too. The question is, is it enough for us to recommend them over the GeForce 8600 series? - TweakTown

Sapphire Radeon HD 2400 XT and HD 2600 XT Review

Well at the time we looked at the Palit Palit cards, almost. Since then a new driver set has come out in the form of the Catalyst 7.8 and some serious speed increases were seen for the mid-range cards. This could be enough for them to be the card of choice for users on a budget. Sapphire have opted for a smaller box with the Radeon HD 2400 XT which isn't too uncommon considering that this particular model sits at the lower end of the scale when it comes to the new Radeon HD 2000 range. All the information is very standard, the model is clearly displayed mentioning CrossFire and support for Windows Vista.

The Radeon HD 2600 XT on the other hand uses a larger box with a completely different design. We can see the model across the top along with some of the main features just underneath. The back of the box for both cards is fairly standard, we have product highlights along with what comes included in the box. We also have just a few of the numerous awards that Sapphire has won over the years. With the packages out the way it's time to check out the cards. The Radeon HD 2400 XT is a very basic looking card with a passive heatsink that covers the majority of the card.

If it wasn't for the little fueled by Sapphire plate up the top left corner we wouldn't know who made the card. The more powerful Radeon HD 2600 XT on the other hand uses an active cooling solution that still manages to take up quite a large area of the card. Apart from that it's all very standard looking. Moving around the two cards we have our CrossFire connectors across the top of both cards. Unfortunately only the Radeon HD 2600 XT came with a bridge connector, so if you want to go down the dual Radeon HD 2400 XT route for some unknown reason you will have to buy a connector separately.

When we last looked at the Radeon HD 2600 XT we were impressed but not over the moon about it, though with that said we expected it to get better and today with the newer Catalyst 7.8 drivers it's clear that performance was on the agenda for AMD's new mid-range cards. When it comes to performance on the two cards you really couldn't say anything wrong about the Radeon HD 2600 XT, the Radeon HD 2400 XT on the other hand doesn't look as good. We understand that it's a more budget conscious card but it really is only suited for the very light gamer with a small monitor.

Availability is very good with a number of shops listing the product, if it's not in stock at the store the chances are it's only a day away from the local distributor. With that said though, you really only want to be asking for the Radeon HD 2600 XT, the Radeon HD 2400 XT is an okay card, the Radeon HD 2600 XT doesn't come in that much more expensive and we would really recommend that people wait for their next pay cheque and go for the more expensive XT offering thanks to its ability to really wipe the floor of the competition.