Radeon hd 2600 pro?

[sem1966]

Is ati hd 2600 pro made by versiontek any good?. I never have hd video card before, please give some idea.

 

[tvdang7]

versiontek? or visiontek .should be good. no problems ive heard of yet. but is this for light gaming?

 

[qbfx]

depends on what you'll be using it for ... Visiontek is ok

 

[sem1966]

Thanks guys for input, i using just play movies go online and very light gaming.

 

[qbfx]

Originally posted by: sem1966
Thanks guys for input, i using just play movies go online and very light gaming.

Then you should be ok. Even low-end ATi's like the HD2600pro have UVD (universal video decoder) which utilizes the GPU to decode video (especially useful if you wanna play HD content on a slower CPU) ...

 

[johnsonbrewer]

I just installed one last night and its super for my needs. Light gaming and HD decoding, surfing. It is the AGP version but should be similar at PCI-E. On sale at BB for $99 last week. It took awhile for the drivers to get straightened out but they are now, just make sure you have the latest ones -- 8.45 for AGP and 8.1 ( I believe ) for PCI-E.

 

[Auric]

8.45 refers to the driver version while 8.1 is the package version (Catalyst) including control software and so on.

I have found driver 8.41 is sadly the only viable option -for AGP on XP, at least. The next release gibbled 3D and the next two including current 8.45 are incapable of DxVA on a secondary display. Full-screen mirroring by VMR7 Windowed still works but if the player must be on the secondary to show there (as with BD/HD DVD) then DxVA is inactive. Scuttlebutt is that Catalyst 8.2 (driver 8.46?) is due shortly (perhaps this week) so I hope this defect is corrected.

Otherwise, the 2600 Pro is ideal for motion video and not too shabby for light gaming although the XT would be a better choice in that regard. The fan runs too fast by default so needs third-party software or some DIY hardware fix, in my opine.

 

[sem1966]

Still on sale at best buy for $99.99.

 

[Foxery]

Originally posted by: qbfx

Then you should be ok. Even low-end ATi's like the HD2600pro have UVD (universal video decoder) which utilizes the GPU to decode video (especially useful if you wanna play HD content on a slower CPU) ...

Actually, no - the UVD feature was left out of the 2000 series. The 3000 series has it.

If you're running a somewhat recent Core2 or Athlon X2 system, you won't miss it, though.

 

[bearnet2001]

The 2600 pro has UVD feature, I just looked it up.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Foxery

Actually, no - the UVD feature was left out of the 2000 series. The 3000 series has it.

If you're running a somewhat recent Core2 or Athlon X2 system, you won't miss it, though.

Misinformed. Only the high-end 2900 did not have UVD because 1) it's development began first 2) the GPU was already costly enough due to complexity & size 3) its shader power plus presumed matching with a high-end CPU could manage decode (although of course at great cost in power consumption and all related issues).