Conclusion - MSI and Colorful offer integrated HDMI output

Thanks to continually improving drivers, ATI’s Radeon HD 2900 XT is finally closing the performance gap to the Geforce 8800 GTS 320 under Windows XP. The price gap is another matter, though, with the powerful ATI card still costing about €110 more. MSI compensates for the higher price by including a component output cable for HDTV, various adapters, ViVo functionality, and the game Half Life: Episode 2, which was only just released.

When running in a Crossfire configuration, the Radeon HD 2900 XT gains around 21.4 percent performance across our benchmark suite. A tandem of HD 2600 Pro cards can even achieve a 41.3 percent performance boost. With games that are specifically programmed to take advantage of multiple GPUs, a 40 to 85 percent performance increase should not be a problem, either. While the 2600 Pro Crossfire setup sells at a reasonable price of €164, the 2900 XT tandem is much too expensive for a gaming card at €690. For a little less money, you could just as well choose the quieter Geforce 8800 GTX, which is just as fast, or go for the faster 8800 Ultra.

The Radeon HD 2600 XT Zalman and the Radeon HD 2600 XT IceQ Turbo, both made by HIS, offer the same value for money. If you overclocked the Zalman version to the same speeds as the IceQ card, it would theoretically win the price/performance comparison – but you would be voiding your warranty. The IceQ version is factory overclocked, meaning the higher speeds are guaranteed by the manufacturer and covered in the warranty. Since the IceQ version only costs €6 more at present, we recommend choosing this card. However, if you only have room for a single-slot solution, you should consider the Zalman model. Both cards sport relatively quiet fans with noise levels of 38 to 39db (A).

MSI’s 8600 GTS comes with excellent equipment. The Diamond Plus version sports an integrated HDMI port and a large bundle. Its powerful fan is loud, the card’s 3D performance very good. Using MSI’s driver and the D.O.T. overclocking feature it contains, you can increase the clock speeds, and thus performance, by an additional 2 to 10 percent. The second card to sport a “real”, i.e. integrated HDMI port, is made by Colorful. This card also offers the best value for money in this roundup.

Recommendations

ATI

For its good performance and quiet cooling solution, we recommend the HIS Radeon HD 2600 XT IceQ Turbo.

Nvidia

If you can live with the higher noise level of this card’s fan, we recommend MSI’s Geforce 8600 GTS Diamond Plus. The card sports an integrated HDMI interface, offers outstanding performance, and comes with a generous bundle.

Budget Pick

Colorful’s Geforce 8600 GT HD receives our budget recommendation, as it offers good 3D performance and an on-board HDMI interfaces for little money.

Send link to this page by email :

Your email address *

Your name *

Recipient address *

Send

* The email addresses collected via this form are not recorded on our servers and are only used for the sending request