Testing

Testing GPUs involves our usual battery of synthetic and real world gaming benchmarks. Normally the settings that the benchmarks are run at are higher, but the 2600 was incapable of running high AA ratings to the settings are different from ones used in other reviews.The tests and the settings they were run at were as follows:

3Dmark0X

1. All 3Dmark tests were run at default settings.

Half Life 2

1. All settings at maximum with no AA or AF.
2. All settings at max with 6xAA and 16xAF. Both at 1280*1024.

X3 Reunion

1. Settings at "default".
2. Full detail with 4xAA and 16xAF at 1280*1024 (the card wouldn't allow our usual 6xAA).

FEAR

1. Both main settings at maximum.
2. Both settings at max with resolution at 1600*1200.

Lost Planet

1. All settings at full, no AA or AF, HDR at "low", 1280*720.
2. All settings at full, 8xAA, 16xAF, HDR at "high", 1280*720 (the card wouldn't allow our usual 16xAA).
3. Same as 2, 1600*1200.

The PC used for testing this GPU was our new x38 setup:

The drivers used were the latest at the time, Catalyst 7.10.

Overclocking

Using ATI tool I was able to take the 2600 Pro from it's stock of 594mhz on the core and 693mhz on the memory, to 695mhz and 792. This was a pretty impressive overclock from such a budget card. I felt like the card could do more, but it was beginning to artifact once I passed the 700/800 mark. Perhaps with some more efficient cooling it could do more.