ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT snapped in the wild

Shortly after going from codenames to a more retail-friendly tiltling scheme, ATI's midrange RV630, er, HD 2600 XT has already been acquired, photographed, and slapped into one lucky PC overseas. According to the author, the card sports 256MB of GDDR4 RAM, and even more impressive, doesn't require any sort of external power connector to suck down the respectable 80-watts of power required for usage. It also appears to have a single-slot cooler and a hefty heatsink, not to mention a snazzy flame job that any true geek should adore. Let's face it, you're after the pics, so feel free to click on through for a few more shots and screengrabs from the installation. [Warning: Read link requires registration]

[Via Inquirer]

[MR @ Apr 22nd 2007 10:33AM]

I miss the good old days when we didn't need a fan for every single chip inside the computer.

[schlomo @ Apr 22nd 2007 10:53AM]

*cue water-cooling fanboys*

[Andrew @ Apr 22nd 2007 10:48AM]

That card is huge.

http://www.freevectors.com

[Paris K @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:02AM]

I miss the good old silent day too

[MikeyPez @ May 2nd 2007 4:45PM]

Those aren't flames, its actually tribal art.

[CRASHLOCK @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:06AM]

Flames!! Wow original....... Another gay paint job to appeal to the bad taste of people who cobble together "gaming rigs".

[Andrew H. @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:09AM]

everyone knows painting flames on your graphics card adds 10 fps to the performance.

[Jared @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:18AM]

I had no idea graphics cards could have a sexual orientation these days...
guess I'm out of the loop.

[steve @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:18AM]

...and a +2 to my flame resistance!

[CRASHLOCK @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:21AM]

Nuclear waste warning symbols add 15fps and biological waste warning symbols add 8fps. So the flames are obviously the mid-range paintperformance addition. HAHA.

[Zadillo @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:23AM]

How many extra FPS would you get by adding a racing stripe?

[chris @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:16AM]

give me a break, this card isnt big dude you should see someof the "big ones" they barely fit in tower cases

chris
http://www.nextechnews.com

[Passarinhuu @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:18AM]

Does anyone remember the fact that pci-express can only provide the card with 75W? where are the other 5W coming from? If there is no power conector, the overclockability is greatly compromised...

[CRASHLOCK @ Apr 22nd 2007 11:32AM]

FPS can be gained by making your "rig" as garish as possible. The random LED lights and cheap perspex covers all add extra FPS to your PC games. LOL

[cuby @ Apr 22nd 2007 12:06PM]

tiltling scheme?

[Homer S., no, H. Simpson @ Apr 22nd 2007 12:35PM]

My tricked out gaming rig has speed holes to spare, and just like my car they totally make it go faster. Screw Flanders!

[Mel @ Apr 23rd 2007 11:12AM]

BEST.COMMENT.EVER.

[Jesse S @ Apr 22nd 2007 12:36PM]

Hey, people who use watercooling use it to overclock their computers...And they can save a nice chunk of money by doing that. (Remember when AMD was on top? If you got a cheap Opteron, you could overclock it past a thousand-dollar processor...)

And if you have a 30" monitor (or two), you need a gaming "rig."

[HellSlayer @ Apr 22nd 2007 3:17PM]

ya, I remember that!I also remember it costing them close to a grand for cooling! lol

[teel @ Apr 22nd 2007 12:51PM]

Woohoo! Cool paintjob is of course the first thing I look in anything I put inside the case and there's nothing COOLER than flames!

not...

[Jesse S @ Apr 22nd 2007 3:42PM]

Good watercooling costs only like $300-$500...

[Michal G @ Apr 22nd 2007 2:37PM]

Why is everyone attacking the flames? All the latest cards have some design so wtf are you people complaining about? Besides the HSF is UNDER the card so you wouldn't even see the design.

Sad to see only 256MB of ram. With DX10 it just doesn't seem to be enough. Especially if you have a large monitor and play at large res.

[luke @ Apr 22nd 2007 3:20PM]

256 MB is undoubtably plenty if it's threaded for DX10 correctly. The Nvidia 8 series aren't "true" DX10 cards, although they are DX10 compatible. People just think that memory is soooo much more important than it actually is on a video card.

[idk @ Apr 22nd 2007 6:11PM]

Yes, the amount of memory it has doesn't say much. as long as it's 256mb. what really matters is that it's GDDR4, and will be able to use all that 256mb to it's full potential.

the silver flames don't look too bad, but if you can't tell, it wont look like that at retail. It'll have whatever sapphire, asus etc.. put on it.

That is a MASSIVE cooler on a midrange card though!

[yoshi @ Apr 23rd 2007 1:03AM]

The Nvidia 8 series aren't "true" DX10 cards

[yoshi @ Apr 23rd 2007 1:04AM]

^-----How so?

[Jody @ May 8th 2007 5:54PM]

I think you guys are being too hard on the flame job on the card. Maybe you would like some flowers or lucky shamrocks on the card instead? How about some of those cool aluminum dragons from the 9800Pro box? Oh but wait...you could always put on some lens flares.

Enough with the flames already.

[unkn @ May 28th 2007 11:03AM]

Yea, it is tribal now that I look at it more, not flames. Oh, and the flames are an OEM job, I highly doubt that Sapphire Tech, ASUS, or Foxconn etc. are going to keep the flames there. They will probebly do what every other manufacturor does,..... PUT A STICKER ON IT!

With the specs it has though, it seems as though it has the ability to be more that 4x faster than the 8600GT in upcoming shader heavy titles, if software goes right!

[Pygorath @ Jun 14th 2007 1:53PM]

Yeah my Gecube x1600XT had a sticker on it, it was in a Biostar Ideq which means the card stands vertically. the sticker got warm peeled off and went into and jammed the fan during a session of battlefield 2. so my x1600 now has a broken fan i need to replace. So in light of these events i'd rather have the tribal design, Cheers.

Also im buyin' this card lol just for HDMI to my lcd tv.