OCC Reviews the Sapphire HD 2600Pro AGP Options

[road-runner]

OCC Reviews the Sapphire HD 2600Pro AGP

Hmm, interesting a DX10 AGP card. Now all we need is Folding client for the 2x00 series cards.

[ClayMeow]

Would have liked to see benches on

1) a more powerful system (sorry, even most AGP'ers have better systems than that, especially if they game)
2) comparisons against its PCI-Express brethren (or at the very least a more powerful AGP card, like an nvidia 6 or 7 series)

Who does this review help exactly? Grandma who would never need DX10?

[cchalogamer]

1) a more powerful system (sorry, even most AGP'ers have better systems than that, especially if they game)

A 3100+ sempron is VERY similar in gaming performance to say a 3000+ Athlon 64, so in reality most of the users who would buy this card are skt 478, 754, or the early 939 users. It seems like a decent middle ground setup for what many AGP users have, heck better than what most AGP users had when they moved to PCI-E

2) comparisons against its PCI-Express brethren (or at the very least a more powerful AGP card, like an nvidia 6 or 7 series)

While it's hard to get the "prefered" comparisons I 100% agree, it would be great to see if there's any performance difference in AGP vs PCI-E cards and especially compared to the older options like the x800/6 series cards. Humm come to think of it, Clay, dont you have an "old" 7800GS? maybe you could loan it out for comparison

So let's see, take your video card, figure out who it was I sold my old GA-K8NS-939 motherboard to and steal it back, throw in an OCed X2/Opteron w/ 2GB of g.skill for some "top of the line" AGP action

[ClayMeow]

A 3100+ sempron is VERY similar in gaming performance to say a 3000+ Athlon 64, so in reality most of the users who would buy this card are skt 478, 754, or the early 939 users. It seems like a decent middle ground setup for what many AGP users have, heck better than what most AGP users had when they moved to PCI-E

My current system is 3 years old and has an A64 3500+...way better than a sempron. More importantly is probably the mere 1GB of memory.

While it's hard to get the "prefered" comparisons I 100% agree, it would be great to see if there's any performance difference in AGP vs PCI-E cards and especially compared to the older options like the x800/6 series cards. Humm come to think of it, Clay, dont you have an "old" 7800GS? maybe you could loan it out for comparison

I told Paul I'd review it if he wanted me to . But technically my 7800GS is brand new seeing as I got it as a replacement for my busted 6800GT a week ago But again, my 3 year old system was running a 6800GT. A 9600XT is 4 years old...plus it doesn't have SM3.0 support, which caused it to not even run some benches.

I'm all for testing against the older stuff, but I don't see how that helps anyone. If someone's thinking of upgrading, they need to know whether it's worth sinking money into a dying standard, or if they need to muster up a little more cash to move into the next one. IMO, without comparing to current cards, we don't get that answer.

[ih8having2create...]

first off, all things the same, an amd sempron 3100+ is comparable to an amd athlon 64 3000+ is comparable to an amd athlon xp 3200+ (the latter of which is the processor i use (look at the system specs in my sig, and pity me :P ).

now, there IS a radeon hd 2600 *xt* out in the wild (a couple, actually). i'd go with the visiontek one, because sapphire sucks, and they put NO form of cooling over the memory OR agp to pci-e bridge (the latter of which gets REALLY hot (take it from me, as my sapphire radeon x800 gto (agp) overheats due to what i can only assume is the agp to pci-e bridge's fault)! well, i really shouldn't say that they put *no* form of cooling over the agp to pci-e bridge... they DID put what looks like a freakin' BAND-AID over it!! O.o

also, the visiontek version comes with ***DUAL-DVI!!!*** why, OH WHY did sapphire choose NOT to include DUAL-dvi on their agp radeon hds, i will NEVER know! :@

now, what I'D like to know is if the agp radeon hds even IMPLEMENT hdmi, because they sure as heck don't come with the active (keyword: *ACTIVE*) dvi to hdmi converter. if they DO in fact implement hdmi, then does said hdmi implement audio; because THAT'S the selling point for ME. i mean, y'all call these VIDEO cards, but all y'all talk about are GRAPHICS! what i'd like from my radeon hd is the ability to play *FULL* hd video via hdmi (WITH AUDIO). playing half life 2 sort of takes a back seat to video. i mean it's not like i'm going to be playing bioshock or crysis anytime soon (even WITH the xt version). :P

so, can y'all help me out and tell me if the agp radeon hds even have that audio chipset that's on the pci-e versions? i mean, i can't find this info ANYWHERE, and my google "fu" is HIGH! :P

This post has been edited by ih8having2createaccts: Oct 31 2007, 01:05 AM

[doctorcilantro]

From the VisioTek website (for the AGP 2600xt):

"ATI Avivo™ HD Video & Media
The ATI Radeon™ HD 2600XT features advanced hardware HD video processing and HDMI with built-in 5.1 surround audio for stunning big-screen entertainment. Home theater aficionados will be mesmerized by ATI Avivo™ HD technology that delivers sharp images and vibrant color fidelity from 1080p playback of Blu-ray™ and HD DVDs movies. "
http://www.visiontek.com/products/cards/re...XT_AGP_512.html


Sapphire doesn't mention the built-in audio over HDMI on their AGP version.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/pr...d=179&grp=3

I feel like this feature can only help the issues that arise when a display "freaks out" with HDMI via DVI with no audio....

I'm going to check out the VisionTek HD 2600XT; I have a passive Gigabyte 7600GS now.

The HIS models look nice but NOWHERE to be found in AGP flavors anywhere....

DC

first off, all things the same, an amd sempron 3100+ is comparable to an amd athlon 64 3000+ is comparable to an amd athlon xp 3200+ (the latter of which is the processor i use (look at the system specs in my sig, and pity me ).

now, there IS a radeon hd 2600 *xt* out in the wild (a couple, actually). i'd go with the visiontek one, because sapphire sucks, and they put NO form of cooling over the memory OR agp to pci-e bridge (the latter of which gets REALLY hot (take it from me, as my sapphire radeon x800 gto (agp) overheats due to what i can only assume is the agp to pci-e bridge's fault)! well, i really shouldn't say that they put *no* form of cooling over the agp to pci-e bridge... they DID put what looks like a freakin' BAND-AID over it!! O.o

also, the visiontek version comes with ***DUAL-DVI!!!*** why, OH WHY did sapphire choose NOT to include DUAL-dvi on their agp radeon hds, i will NEVER know! :@

now, what I'D like to know is if the agp radeon hds even IMPLEMENT hdmi, because they sure as heck don't come with the active (keyword: *ACTIVE*) dvi to hdmi converter. if they DO in fact implement hdmi, then does said hdmi implement audio; because THAT'S the selling point for ME. i mean, y'all call these VIDEO cards, but all y'all talk about are GRAPHICS! what i'd like from my radeon hd is the ability to play *FULL* hd video via hdmi (WITH AUDIO). playing half life 2 sort of takes a back seat to video. i mean it's not like i'm going to be playing bioshock or crysis anytime soon (even WITH the xt version).

so, can y'all help me out and tell me if the agp radeon hds even have that audio chipset that's on the pci-e versions? i mean, i can't find this info ANYWHERE, and my google "fu" is HIGH!

[cygnus_x_1]

first off, all things the same, an amd sempron 3100+ is comparable to an amd athlon 64 3000+ is comparable to an amd athlon xp 3200+ (the latter of which is the processor i use (look at the system specs in my sig, and pity me ).

now, there IS a radeon hd 2600 *xt* out in the wild (a couple, actually). i'd go with the visiontek one, because sapphire sucks, and they put NO form of cooling over the memory OR agp to pci-e bridge (the latter of which gets REALLY hot (take it from me, as my sapphire radeon x800 gto (agp) overheats due to what i can only assume is the agp to pci-e bridge's fault)! well, i really shouldn't say that they put *no* form of cooling over the agp to pci-e bridge... they DID put what looks like a freakin' BAND-AID over it!! O.o

also, the visiontek version comes with ***DUAL-DVI!!!*** why, OH WHY did sapphire choose NOT to include DUAL-dvi on their agp radeon hds, i will NEVER know! :@

now, what I'D like to know is if the agp radeon hds even IMPLEMENT hdmi, because they sure as heck don't come with the active (keyword: *ACTIVE*) dvi to hdmi converter. if they DO in fact implement hdmi, then does said hdmi implement audio; because THAT'S the selling point for ME. i mean, y'all call these VIDEO cards, but all y'all talk about are GRAPHICS! what i'd like from my radeon hd is the ability to play *FULL* hd video via hdmi (WITH AUDIO). playing half life 2 sort of takes a back seat to video. i mean it's not like i'm going to be playing bioshock or crysis anytime soon (even WITH the xt version).

so, can y'all help me out and tell me if the agp radeon hds even have that audio chipset that's on the pci-e versions? i mean, i can't find this info ANYWHERE, and my google "fu" is HIGH!

sorry for the dealy in posting but the short answer is no, HDMI is not supported on AGP only component out.

[ih8having2create...]

sorry for the dealy in posting but the short answer is no, HDMI is not supported on AGP only component out.

that doesn't make sense... *NO* hdmi or no sound via hdmi, because, basically, ANY gfx card can "support" hdmi (via a dvi to hdmi converter (or vga to dvi to hdmi converterS :P )?

in case anybody (or everybody :P ) didn't understand my post, i was asking whether or not the agp versions of the radeon hds support hdmi + sound (cause the radeon hds have audio chipsets on board (although, nobody seems to know this :\ ).

[cygnus_x_1]

There is no HDMI (audio) over DVI support on the sapphire HD 2x00 AGP cards http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/productfiles/matrix-vga-1.xls as per the specs from sapphire.

HIS is offering HDMI audio and video over DVI on their HD 2600XT cards. http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov....51&view=yes

hope this helps.

[Benny]

Hi Guys,

I was thinking of upgrading my aging AGP system (see below) with this card. I wasnt looking to play anything in the league of crysis with this card in my system, i was just looking to play maybe COD4 and a few games i already own. (Css, Bf2)
Anyway, do i *need* to plug my power supply into this card, as i dont believe i have a 4 pin connector of that size on my psu ( I have others like the one which goes into my floppy drive but they look much too big to fit into that socket )
Thanks.

Asus K8V-SE Duluxe
AMD 3400+ @ 2200Mhz
1x256mb and 2x512mb Ram
Radeon 9600 AGP 256mb
400watt PSU
80gb Excelstor HD

This post has been edited by Benny: Dec 4 2007, 06:44 AM

[cygnus_x_1]

hi benny, thanks for joining. you do not *need* to plug the additional power, but the card will most likely be unstable. the card ships with a power cable that adapts to the floppy 4 pin if you do not have one on your psu. but if you do not have one on yoru psu, then you might want to think about upgrading your psu while your at it. (if you future proof your psu, you can bring it along on your next build)