X-bit labs

Asus EAH2600PRO/HDTI/256M Graphics Card Review (page 11)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 10/03/2007 | 02:26 PM ]

Performance in Third-Person 3D Shooters

Tomb Raider: Legend

The EAH2600PRO is not successful in this test. Even though third-person shooters do not need such a high average frame rate as first-person shooters do, 13fps at 1280x1024 is just not enough. Disabling FSAA may increase the performance of the ATI Radeaon HD 2600 Pro somewhat, but we don’t think that would make the game playable.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent

We try to get the highest possible image quality from each game, but Splinter Cell: Double Agent cannot use FSAA and FP HDR simultaneously. That’s why the game was tested with anisotropic filtering only.

Without FSAA, the ASUS card makes up for the lack of memory bandwidth and low performance of its raster processors with its high computing capacity – it equals the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro as a result. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean an acceptable speed: the average speed of both cards is below comfortable level.

The ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR4 is not so limited by its memory subsystem and outperforms the GeForce 8600 GTS. This graphics card easily ensures comfortable gaming conditions at a resolution of 1280x1024.