ATI starts shipping the HD 2400 and 2600

[Jimmy 2004]

AMD has now started shipping the HD 2400 and 2600 GPUs to its add-in board customers, which should mean the final cards will be available from online retailers within a few weeks. The companies which AMD has started shipping to include AsusTek, Club 3D, Diamond Multimedia, GECUBE, Gigabyte, HIS, MSI, Palit, PowerColor, Sapphire and VisionTek. No final pricing has been given, but the HD 2400 series of cards will be aimed at entry-level consumers, whilst the HD 2600 cards will be ATI’s mid range offerings. Below is a comparison of the HD 2000 series cards (including the mobility HD 2300).


Source: DigiTimes

[DanTheBanjoman]

Looking at the specs there seems to be a huge hole between the 2900 and 2600. 120 vs 320 stream processors, 128 vs 512 bit memory bus. Quite a bad move if you ask me.

[Wile E]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

Looking at the specs there seems to be a huge hole between the 2900 and 2600. 120 vs 320 stream processors, 128 vs 512 bit memory bus. Quite a bad move if you ask me.

Yeah, I saw that too. nVidia did the same thing with their 8600 series. Both companies need to release something in between.

[jocksteeluk]

by Christmas id expect all of these current DX10 cards will no doubt be expired with Dx10 revisions being made.

[WarEagleAU]

I noticed that as well. Im thinking they are saving that "in-between" area for pro or GT series or something like that. Probably how they done with the GT, pro, etc for the 19XX line.

[JrRacinFan]

Is it just me or does the integrated 2300 offering look better than the 2400? I am really not interested in these offering but the 2600 does sound like it would be somethin for me to get my hands on.

I wonder how well it would perform over my current 7600GS....

[Casheti]

Poopy.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by Casheti

Poopy.

We have "general nonsense" for such comments.

[jurrasstoil]

Well, there will be something in between the 2600 and 2900xt. XL, PRO and GT were on ATi/AMDs release lists and I still hope for these to come.

[Jimmy 2004]

I'm not sure - ATI may release one of the current cards with different clocks, but that gap will probably always be there in terms of stream processors and memory bus width.

[Kasparz]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

Looking at the specs there seems to be a huge hole between the 2900 and 2600. 120 vs 320 stream processors, 128 vs 512 bit memory bus. Quite a bad move if you ask me.

2600XT GDDR4 have higher GPU and memory clockspeed than 2900XT. HD2600 GDDR4 with 512Mb would be really fast, cheap and only 45w power consumption.

[DanTheBanjoman]

Originally Posted by Kasparz

2600XT GDDR4 have higher GPU and memory clockspeed than 2900XT. HD2600 GDDR4 with 512Mb would be really fast, cheap and only 45w power consumption.

45W? Got a source for that? Since if they make a model with double the shaders and perhaps a wider bus scoring around double at <100W it could still be interesting. I guess it's wishful thinking though.

[Kasparz]

It doesn't have PCI-E power connector, so it theoretically can't suck more than 75w out of slot. HD2600XT GDDR4 have 45w TDP. There are passive versions of HD2600XT GDDR3 by sapphire, so it explains low power consumption.

[mdm-adph]

Originally Posted by Kasparz

2600XT GDDR4 have higher GPU and memory clockspeed than 2900XT. HD2600 GDDR4 with 512Mb would be really fast, cheap and only 45w power consumption.

that's why I'm waiting to get a 2600 -- i'd love to have a powerful 65nm card that runs on that low of power.

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman

Looking at the specs there seems to be a huge hole between the 2900 and 2600. 120 vs 320 stream processors, 128 vs 512 bit memory bus. Quite a bad move if you ask me.

Agreed, lots more stream processors then the 8600GTS but if I remember rightly its as much speed of those processors as it is quantity, will be interesting to see what clocks these cards run at.

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Kasparz

2600XT GDDR4 have higher GPU and memory clockspeed than 2900XT. HD2600 GDDR4 with 512Mb would be really fast, cheap and only 45w power consumption.

Cheap? with 512MB of GDDR 4......I doubt it! And all that speed aint gonna be fully utilised I would bet with 128bit bandwidth.

[Jimmy 2004]

Does anyone else think it's stupid that the mobility model, where heat is very important, is 90nm whilst the 2400 and 2600 are both 65nm?

[RickyG512]

wtf 2300 is DX9

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by Tatty_One

Cheap? with 512MB of GDDR 4......I doubt it! And all that speed aint gonna be fully utilised I would bet with 128bit bandwidth.

I guess high speed memory should make up the bandwidth for the 128-bit bus.

[Kasparz]

Originally Posted by Tatty_One

Cheap? with 512MB of GDDR 4......I doubt it! And all that speed aint gonna be fully utilised I would bet with 128bit bandwidth.

Recommended price for HD2600XT GDDR4 512Mb is 200$. So it should be in 150-200$ range.

[devguy]

Originally Posted by RickyG512

wtf 2300 is DX9

Hasn't the Mobility 2300 been out for a while and when it came out it was just said to be an extension for the x1k series?

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Zubasa

I guess high speed memory should make up the bandwidth for the 128-bit bus.

But surely due to the limitations of the bandwidth there will be queing and queing equals delay? Just a personal point but at this stage I cannot see any advantage of putting GDDR4 on a 128 bus.....I am not pretending that in practical terms I know all the answers here and would genuinly be interested to see that if there are both GDDR3 and 4 versions what the performance to price ratio/differences would be with the limited bandwidth.

I have also just read an article that says there will be an AGP version of the 2600.... Dont know how accurate the article is but it also stated that the PCI-E 2600XT does not have native crossfire hardware support only the lesser performing software crossfire as to keep prices down they have gone for a reduced 4 layer PCB design rather than the normal 8 layer?

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7556

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by Kasparz

Recommended price for HD2600XT GDDR4 512Mb is 200$. So it should be in 150-200$ range.

Well TBH, not disagreeing with you as you have obviously read that somewhere but I will beleive that when I see it, I only say that because when you look at the 2600 and the likely range, their lowest end 2600 would probably in that case only be a little over $100, I say that because you will have, certainly at some stage probably:

512Mb GDDR4 version
256MB GDDR4 version
256MB GDDR3 version
512MB AGP version
256MB AGP version

Those are the ones I have read about as possibilities, not sure if and when they may all be available but there could even be a 512MB GDDR3 version to throw in there, my point is if the top of the 2600 range is $200 dollars.....how much would that make the lowest of the lot? with possibly at least 5 cards eventually in the 2600 range, then you have to think how much the 2400 range would then cost.

I appreciate that all this is speculation but as I said, $200 only for a 512MB GDDR4 2600XT seems a little specultive for me! Don't get me wrong, if thats the case then it's good for everyone and I will be getting one!

[tkpenalty]

Originally Posted by Zubasa

I guess high speed memory should make up the bandwidth for the 128-bit bus.

Yes it would... 8600GTS's performance comes from memory clocks, this new architecture responds better to memory clock increases.

[Tatty_One]

Originally Posted by tkpenalty

Yes it would... 8600GTS's performance comes from memory clocks, this new architecture responds better to memory clock increases.

I am not disagreeing with you there because you are right, but only to a certain degree because the core even at stock is pretty highly clocked and we all know that the core makes up by far the largest part of a cards performance, somewhere in the region of 5Mhz core = 20mhz memory clock but I too have read that the bandwidth architecture is better however I still think that in it's simplest terms you have a hole and the smaller the hole is coupled with the bigger the thing is trying to get through it will cause bottlenecking if that makes any kind of sense but as I said, the proof of the pudding will be in a comparison between a GDDR3 and GDDR4 versions performance to price, I am still sceptical tho that the top 2600 with 512MB of GDDR4 on board will only cost $200!

Also when you mention this improved architecture (you referred to the 8600GTS), are you forgetting that a lot of reviews were very disappointed in it's performance?