X-bit labs

Silence of the Radeon HD 2600: Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H Graphics Card Review (page 15)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 11/19/2007 | 11:51 PM ]

Performance in Strategies

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

The game having a frame rate limiter, you should compare the minimum frame rates in the first place because it is the minimum speed that determines your playing comfort in Command & Conquer 3.

Unfortunately, none of the below-$150 cards can provide acceptable performance at the maximum graphics quality settings with 4x FSAA even if the resolution as low as 1280x1024. The Radeon X1950 Pro, a bestseller of the previous generation, is on top again, outperforming the newer solutions.

The Gigabyte Radeon HD 2600 XT Silent Pipe II is about as fast as the GeForce 8600 GT and even faster at 1920x1200. Alas, this victory doesn’t mean much as you can hardly play a real-time strategy at a speed of 10-14fps.

Supreme Commander

If you play this real-time strategy, you should consider more advanced products than those selling at less than $150 or reduce the quality of graphics. Modern mid-range graphics cards cannot ensure a comfortable speed at the maximum visual quality and with 4x FSAA.

We can note that the Gigabyte GV-RX26T256H is about as fast as the Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT. The ATI Radeon X1950 Pro delivers high performance, again.