So AGP is dead, oh really? Actually you would be surprised. Almost half of the gaming systems we have come into Tek Republik for upgrades are AGP. Gaming systems may be too kind as many of them are old hand me down Dell's that have a hard time playing Counter Strike. The reality is that there is no shortage of gamers still using AGP. They may not be the cutting edge guys, but not everyone can drop a cool grand on an upgrade every few months. With that in mind, and our first hand knowledge that so many gamers even in a gaming active town like Austin are still on AGP we approached Sapphire for a sample of their new Radeon HD 2600 AGP parts. - AMDZone

Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB Board Review

We are daring to upgrade an old Dell. Yes, Dell, the last company you think of when you think gaming and rightly so. They are clueless. It is amazing how clueless they are about gaming. It was like that when all of us worked there, and it was like that when we deal with them in our gaming center, and with our lan parties. They just don't get it. So we took what most would consider a piece of junk Dell Optiplex GX260, and we make it game. So we unboxed the Radeon HD 2600 PRO, and slid it into a computer that was never meant to game on. We hooked up to a monitor, plugged in the power, and expected the worst.

So now the owners of crappy old hand me down Dell can rejoice. There is hope for you. You can go from mine sweeper to Crysis by simply dropping in a Radeon 2600 PRO graphics card. Sure you won't have the fastest set up in the world, but you will not have to be silent any more. You can play World of Warcraft, Counter Strike, and hey, even Battlefield. You can join the legions of gamers around you, and it will not have to break the bank. For that be grateful. At a price of just over $100 it is not even going to hit you in the wallet too much, and for about $50 more dollars you can bump up to the Radeon HD 2600 XT.

We hope you have enjoyed our tests with the Sapphire Radeon 2600 PRO AGP edition, and that you keep this in mind. Not every gamer, or every gamer that would be can afford to have a sweet gaming rig. Many sadly are stuck with old Dell's. In the spirit of Christmas, and in the best PC gaming release season in many years, show them the light. Help them upgrade their old Dell, and have a happy gaming season like the rest of us. Give them hope, and something to play on that will not give them the red lights of death, and make sure they get a 512MB card, not a 256MB one!