MSI RX2600XT Diamond (Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB GDDR4)

Conclusion

Conclusion

For graphics vendors trying product differentiation as a marketing strategy, overclocking their graphics cards has become so popular that it's practically the norm. This popularity probably stems from the fact that users naturally perceive and appreciate the overclocking as leading to better overall performance. The ease of implementing an overclocked version is also relatively simple, essentially requiring nothing more than a tweaked graphics bios. Obviously, these vendors also add other touches to distinguish their overclocked editions, like a custom cooler and LED lights to name a few examples.

While overclocking is a valid approach, it does not always live up to expectations. Some graphics chipsets are inherently more difficult to overclock due to reasons like higher temperatures or the constraints of the architecture. Then there are those times when the magnitude of the overclock may not be reflected in the eventual performance gain. This seems to be the case with the MSI RX2600XT Diamond, which received a small 50MHz boost in core clock speeds and a very marginal 100MHz DDR gain in memory clocks. No doubt, the performance improved but as we found out in the benchmarking, the 1 to 2% gain is hardly noticeable outside of a benchmark.

For users who do not benchmark their products, getting the overclocked version may give a placebo effect, making them feel that they are getting better performance, when it may not be the case. For such cases, running a benchmark will quickly dispel such illusions. (Or better yet, read a review). As such, the MSI RX2600XT Diamond doesn't deliver adequately in terms of increasing the performance of the default Radeon HD 2600 XT.

Yet it is still a pretty decent Radeon HD 2600 XT with no major flaws that we can spot. Users will be glad that it has an extremely quiet cooler, which is better than the reference cooler. But the major attraction in our opinion has to be its very competitive price of US$134. Compared to its peers of the GDDR4 category, it is about 10 to 20 dollars more affordable and we are comparing the reference versions here. Hence, one could treat the slight overclocking as a bonus and consider this quiet Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR4 card well worth its cost. At the end of the day, value for money is probably what most users desire, especially for a mid-range card like this. In that view, the MSI RX2600XT Diamond offers a better proposition than the general competition.