X-bit labs

Asus EAH2600PRO/HDTI/256M Graphics Card Review (page 9)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

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

F.E.A.R. Extraction Point

The EAH2600PRO is good in the sequel of the popular shooter. It is ahead of the GeForce 8600 GT and only 10% slower than the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR4. That’s an excellent result for a graphics card with such a low price and modest specs. It’s also clear that the more mathematical computations a game has, the better AMD/ATI’s approach to developing GPUs works in it. And F.E.A.R. is an example of such a mathematics-heavy application.

In resolutions higher than 1280x1024 the RV630-based solutions are limited by their raster processors and memory bus, and the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro with its 12 ROPs and a 256-bit memory bus comes out the winner. This graphics card is the only one in this review to ensure an average speed of 30fps at a resolution of 1600x1200 and with the highest graphics quality settings.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Having the most modest specs among all the cards included into this review, the ASUS EAH2600PRO is the slowest of them all, too. However, it can keep the frame rate at about 30fps in 1280x1024. This solution provides a means to improve the speed further by disabling 4x FSAA.