I'm looking at some of the ATI DX10 cards that are on the market, and have some questions that I can't answer myself.1) What is the difference between a HD 2600 Pro and a HD 2600 XT Card? They both seem to come with either 256 or 512 MB.2) Is GDDR4 memory faster than GDDR3?3) Is there any difference using a card manufactured by Sapphire vs. ATI?4) Does anybody have this card (HD 2600) and can comment on it?Thanks!

Consider a eVga 8800GTS 320MB or 640MB instead, take a look at the VGA charts on Toms Hardware for FSX. http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_200...2=722&chart=293

1) What is the difference between a HD 2600 Pro and a HD 2600 XT Card? They both seem to come with either 256 or 512 MB.Generally the XT is clocked higher than the PROTypically 1920MHz vs 1000Mhz Memory clockand 830MHz vs 600MHz core clockAlso the XT will probably have a HDMI output as well as the 2xDVI2) Is GDDR4 memory faster than GDDR3? Quick answer: YesLong answer: GDDR4 SDRAM introduced DBI (Data Bus Inversion) and Multi-Preamble to reduce data transmission delay. Prefetch was increased from 4 to 8 bits. The maximum amount of memory banks for GDDR4 has been increased to 8. To achieve the same bandwidth as GDDR3 SDRAM, the GDDR4 core runs at half the speed of a GDDR3 core of the same raw bandwidth.3) Is there any difference using a card manufactured by Sapphire vs. ATI?ATI make the chips Sapphire (and many others) assemble them on to boards. As far as I know ATI don't release boards under their own name???.I may be wrong!!4) Does anybody have this card (HD 2600) and can comment on it?Sorry I'm all nVidia so have no idea. But being ATI they're bound to be............(flame war starts here!!)...good/bad/indifferentRegardsJim

Pricing is a bit of a factor and right now the 8800GTS 320MB seems to be twice as expensive as 2600XT.

I'm looking at buying a "good bang for the buck" video card as well, and I've also been trying to find out about the FSX performance of the Radeon 2600 series. Problem is, according to one Tomshardware link, the HD 2600 XT performs on a par with the GeForce 8600 GT: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/06/the...e7.html#summary (scroll down to the 8th line in the table) But according to the link that jackcnd posted above (I think it's even from the same article), the HD2600XT is one of the worst FSX performers at a meager 4.4 fps! Something really strange is going on. It's hard to imagine that a newer Radeon GPU could perform so much worse than my existing 9600XT. I'd be curious to hear from anyone who actually uses an HD2600XT and could report their actual results. At the moment, I'm inclined to purchase MSI's 8600GT card (256MB / GDDR3), which achieved 17.2 fps in the TomsHardware round-up and can be found for a bit over $100 US. But I'd still be curious to hear from any Radeon 2600-series users, because it should be a much more competitive card than the round-up shows it to be.

I'm willing to bet that card is better than your 9600XT, but it's only really a middle of the road card....And I also don't have a ton of experience with ATi....but if it's on par wit the 8600, I wouldn't get it, because I would look for something equal to a 8800 GTS 640mb

>>At the moment, I'm inclined to purchase MSI's 8600GT card>(256MB / GDDR3), which achieved 17.2 fps in the TomsHardware>round-up and can be found for a bit over $100 US. >I don't know how much you want to spend, and I don't know how long you want to use the proposed card in your FS computer, but I can say that I would seriously look at getting a card with more video memory than 256 mb.256 mb is the bare minimum IMO (actually in most people's opin) for getting a decent experience in the sim. Ideally you would want 512mb.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>Pricing is a bit of a factor and right now the 8800GTS 320MB>seems to be twice as expensive as 2600XT.IF FSX is key, you might want to wait a for the 8800's to drop or save some more on something else to put towards the 8800? 2600XT is rated by Tom Hardware at 4.4 fps for the sim, even at half the price, I dont think FSX would get much use?

I noticed that the 2600 XT made the best buy list but performs much worse than the 8600 GT. I would like to see how the 512 MB version runs FSX. When those cards first came, they didn't perform that well but updated drivers seem to have fixed most performance (according to THG).In Canada, the ATI 2600 XT 512MB sells at futureshop for $350 retail (on sale for $199), but I can find an HIS Turbo 2600XT 512MB for about $180 through an online realtor. No other website comes close to $350 for the 2600XT. Doesn't make sense to me.

At least if you get it a Futureshop if it does indeed get 4.4fps you have a return option...I'd look at Tom's FSX chart put prices beside each card then decide, he not making those numbers up.

In reply to Ryan and Rhett: My FSX screen resolution is 1680x1050, and at that resolution the 8600GT 256MB should be within 4 fps of the performance leaders. For me, that's an acceptable tradeoff for a $100 video card! I'm aware that the nVidia 8600 is considered a "middle of the road card," but I also see that it actually BEATS every 8800-series card at lower resolutions (256MB, 1024x768, with AA enabled). The 256MB model is a very good value at a little over $100. A 512MB model can also be had for around $125, but you have to sacrifice GDDR3 for slower GDDR2 video RAM at that price, which the tomshardware article says not to do. Unfortunately, a 512MB model with 512MB of GDDR3 costs nearly as much as the "high-end" cards and just isn't an attractive value. For me, buying an 8600GT 256MB card now is a "wait and see" strategy to get me to the crop of newer-technology cards that's due out in the next 5-6 months. By that time, I hope to know which cards are the performance leaders in SP2/DX10, and prices on the existing 8800 series should have dropped. I can then switch the 8600GT into a non-gaming machine I'm building, and spend my money on a high-performance card that's good for the remaining life span of FSX. (Dare I hope for good performance in FS11?) As long as performance isn't awful on an 8600GT, then I can live with the compromises. I realize this wouldn't be an "ideal" card, but according to the tomshardware ratings it should at least be an adequate one. And to give credit where credit is due, the "wait and see" strategy is an idea I got from Sam (D17S) via another poster (Seadog). - Lee P.S. I'm still puzzled at the incredibly poor FSX performance of the Radeon HD2600XT. I wonder if it's largely the result of the lousy AA performance of Radeons in general, because when tomshardware turns AA off, it suddenly becomes a middle-of-the-pack card. Still, it gives disapponting performance for a newer card with DX10 and 512MB of RAM -- worse even than my "ancient" 256MB 9600XT (overclocked)!