X-bit labs

PowerColor HD 2600 Pro 512MB DDR2 Graphics Card Review (page 2)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 10/09/2007 | 08:48 AM ]

Package and Accessories

PowerColor changed the packaging design dramatically for its HD 2x00 series. The company used to ship its products in medium-size flat boxes, but the new graphics card comes in an upright box that resembles the packaging of graphics cards from Gigabyte Technology:

The appearance isn’t original, though. Graphics card makers favor characters like the girl wielding a sword depicted here and often put them on boxes with their products. The packaging looks good but there is no trace left of the austerity that was typical of previous products from PowerColor.

Inside the wrapper there is a main box made from thick cardboard. Beside the graphics card proper, it contains the following:

• DVI-I → D-Sub adapter;
• S-Video → Composite adapter;
• Brief installation guide;
• CD disk with drivers;
• Steam coupon.

There is neither an YPbPr splitter nor a HDMI adapter in the box, which is rather strange. Despite the proud slogan “Mesmerizing 3D graphics for true gamers” you can read on the box, the graphics card is more likely to be used in a multimedia PC than in a gaming station. As we already know, the ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro isn’t brilliant in today’s games and can hardly satisfy a demanding gamer.

The Steam coupon gives you the ATI Steam Offer that provides free access to the Steam service to download and install free copies of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.

The user manual has long been changed by the company from a traditional detailed brochure into a huge folding poster that contains the basics of installing the card into the system. This should be enough in 99% of cases, but we’d like to see a full version of the manual even in electronic format.

Thus, the accessories to the PowerColor HD 2600 Pro 512MB are scanty, but that’s all right considering the price of the device. This card belongs to the below-$100 segment and good accessories would have affected its pricing negatively. Low price is in fact the factor that draws customers’ attention to PowerColor’s products.