ATI 2600XT AGP card, is it a decent card?

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paratwa

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I am upgrading an older 939 board for someone. He wants to go with the ATI 2600XT video card since it has DX10 built in. But I know that the 1950gt is a faster card. He needs to stick with the AGP format for the next couple of years. He just wants to upgrade as far as he can with the existing board and still play the new games. But he does not insist on the highest graphics settings to play them.

Is the 2600XT a decent card? I have read some reviews about them and I get mixed results.

Also he does not plan on using Vista until the first service pack comes out. That was on my advice.

Anyone out there using the 2600XT agp card? And if so what do you think about it?

To tell the truth, I am thinking about using this card as well for my system, since I still have an AGP board. But otherwise I like my existing system, so there are no other current plans to upgrade for me
 
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Well, first off, the 2600 doesnt have DX10 built in. It is DX10 capable. If he wants to use DX10 he has to have Vista as well. Since he is waiting to upgrade, I would suggest the x1950.
 
I'm running both XP and Vista on the PCI-E version of the MSI Radeon HD 2600XT here. It's a good mid range card for the line of DX compatible cards. But you iwll want the Catalyst 7.9 update if you go with it. I had some fun with the new card on the XP side of things here.

A 1950 is a good gaming card for XP. I'll give it that credit. But the 2600XT would make things future proof. I don't know if there's an AGP version of the HD 2900 series for an added edge there. Personally the PCI-E is the best choice and should be considered if there's a lot of gaming involved. That's something your friend will have to look at for the next build there.
 
why would they bother making a AGP ATI 2600XT?

AGP is old so why use it again :confused:
 
I have a friend I know at this end that refuses to move out of AGP and expects when finally going to upgrade another AGP board? They still make some while you know as well as I do that they are not worth much at this point as far as performance is concerned. The 16x PCI-E bus is not only faster but sees other improvements.

The thing there is replacing a card on an older AGP type board. That's why AGP cards are still being made mainly for replacement purposes which results in an upgrade there. For a new build the PCI-E option is obviously the favored one.
 
Actually, AGP still has not reached its top end, Even with todays new cards they can still meet or beat the top end cards, IF some company would release a top end card with AGP capability's. At least ATI is keeping it alive for those of us still using it.

Take my system. I feel that it still performs very well and is not in need of a replacement at this time. I could run it for at least another year or so before it will be so out dated I will have to replace it. So updating to a DX10 card makes sense to me. Even If I will not be using vista any time soon, But I will be leaving myself an option for "upgrading" (hehe what a joke) to vista.

Now if someone were to make it so that DX10 can run on XP, then I would never see a need to convert to vista.
 
The last build here(939) still saw Vista dual actually multibooting with XP Pro and Home editions on the 4 hard drive setup there. The idea of moving up into a DX10 capable card is not just for Vista but what comes later like Vienna? that uses DX10. Vista also will see no problem if a game installer puts DX9 on it since Direct X is merely a set of 3D rendering drivers used by Windows.

An MSI Radeon X1950 would sound good for strictly XP build since Vista still saw good results with the X1300 Pro model still on the last build here. That was a budget model too! To go with pne of the faster AM2 model cpus for the new build plus a better case like the Antec 900 caught onsale and a heftier 700w supply for later expansion the mid range HD 2600XT model fell into the big picture here.

The one X1950XT model found at newegg is the GECUBE model seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241063 for $200 there. The better ATI and Asus X1950XTX models still command much higher prices as seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...641+106790809+1067923257&name=Radeon+X1950XTX

Tnen look at some prices seen on the new HD 2600s and HD 2900s. While the HD 2900s are seen in the $380-$550 price range as seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...41+106792278+1067928902&name=Radeon+HD+2900XT the HD 2600s are seen for far less being the mid range models for those on a tigher budget or don't want to spend their fortune for temporary use until? the next build for sure.

For a look at newegg and another vendor the only models in stock for the HD 2600 Pros are made by Vision Tek as seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000380048+50001180+1305520549+106792278+1067929476+1069609639&name=AGP+4X%2f8X
 
paratwa said:
Now if someone were to make it so that DX10 can run on XP, then I would never see a need to convert to vista.
Click to expand...

Project alky is doing just that. It's headed up with some very talented people, or so I hear, and it's had a usable, though only alpha, version available for quite some time.

On the subject of the video card I agree with Paratwa that the "viability" of AGP is still justifiable. However, as Bradan noted, benchmarks comparing two identical cards, one using the PCI-e interface, the other AGP, show that more oft than not the PCI-e card gets higher FPS, sometimes by a surpriseable magarin. Other than that, I can say that the HD 2600xt will perform comparably to a 7600gt when playing DX9 games; not a bad card, I have one and can max Bioshock, Oblivion, FEAR, etc. It's future potential is slightly shot, but it works for now.
 
I have Fear, Prey, Half Life 2, EPI and soon EP2 as well as some much older games where the only problems initially were using the drivers from the cd. The newer hardwares take awhile to tweak for the old stuff I guess. :confused: :P

regardless you are trying to compare 16x with AGP's 8x max there. There can a world of difference with the gaming aspect while not much for the basic desktop and IE browsing. Essentially any $50 card will go right in without worry for that.

The MSI version of the HD 2600XT was the best for the PCI-E models recently looked over. If you can located the AGP version compare that to the Vision Tek version.

Here's an article on it. http://www.pureoverclock.com/story.php?id=1404
 
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