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ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT comparison

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Product name	ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT	Nvidia GeForce GTX 295	ATI Radeon HD 3850	Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 (PCI-e 2.0, 2GB, GDDR3)	Diamond Viper Radeon HD 4850
Price	$119.99	Check Prices	Check Prices	$236.60 to $244.99	$210.99
CNET editors' rating	3.5 stars Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)	4.5 stars Overall score: 9.0 (4.5 stars)	4.0 stars Overall score: 8.0 (4.0 stars)	4.0 stars Overall score: 8.0 (4.0 stars)	3.5 stars Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)
Average user rating			3.0 stars		4.0 stars
Release date	June 28, 2007	January 09, 2009	November 15, 2007	November 08, 2008	June 25, 2008
The Bottom Line	If you're looking to build a home theater PC, we recommend ATI's Radeon HD 2600 XT as the midrange card to use, thanks to its nearly perfect HD video image and its no-fuss installation. But for 3D gaming, you'd be much better off looking for a good deal on a faster, older graphics card.	Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295 is the single fastest 3D card on the market, and for a relatively aggressive price. Added bonuses like power efficiency and PhysX support sweeten the deal, but even without those extra benefits, we'd still recommend this card for its processing power and comparative value.	Despite the usual caveats of an ever-fluctuating 3D market, for the moment, at least, ATI's new Radeon HD 3850 graphics card delivers the best bang-for-the buck in PC graphics hardware. Until now we haven't had an acceptable sub-$200 option for PC gaming this year. Thanks to AMD, now we do.	Even if it's a relative power hog, the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 brings so much speed and utility to the table it's hard for us to recommend another midrange 3D card. Only the particularly power conscious or those who play games with known multichip scaling issues should look elsewhere.	AMD's new ATI Radeon HD 4850 is a solid midrange 3D card that will run pretty much anything, and it boasts some forward-looking features to boot. It might be worth waiting for the price to drop just a bit, at which point this card will become much more attractive.
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Max resolution (external)	2560 x 1600	2560 x 1600	2560 x 1600	2560 x 1600	2560 x 1600
Video RAM installed	512 MB	1792 MB	256 MB	2 GB	512 MB
Interface type	PCI Express x16	PCI Express 2.0 x16	PCI Express 2.0 x16	PCI Express 2.0 x16	PCI Express 2.0 x16
API Supported	DirectX 10	DirectX 10 OpenGL 2.1	OpenGL 2.0 DirectX 10.1	OpenGL 2.0 DirectX 10.1	OpenGL 2.1 DirectX 10.1
Video interface(s) provided	DVI-I (dual link) VGA HDMI HDTV output	DVI-I (dual link) HDMI	DVI-I (dual link) HDMI S-video / composite / HDTV component video output	DVI-I HDMI HDTV output	DVI-I (dual link) VGA HDMI HDTV output
Graphics Processor	ATI Radeon HD 2600XT	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295	ATI Radeon HD 3850	ATI Radeon HD 4850	ATI Radeon HD 4850
Max monitors supported	2	Info unavailable	2	Info unavailable	2
Compatibility	PC	PC	PC	PC	PC
Full specifications	Full specifications	Full specifications	Full specifications	Full specifications	Full specifications
Buying choices	Prices from 0 CNET Certified stores	Reference product review See products in this family starting at: $475	Reference product review See products in this family starting at: $60	Newegg.com $239.99 In stock: Yes Amazon.com $244.99 In stock: See Site Amazon.com Marketplace $236.60 In stock: Yes Prices from 3 CNET Certified stores	eCOST.com $210.99 In stock: Price from 1 CNET Certified store
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