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Here's our benchmarking system:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe @ 3.0GHz (333 * 9) processor
• Asus P5B Deluxe / Wifi-Ap motherboard
• Corsair XMS2-5400UL DDR2 memory (2 * 1024MB @ 833MHz 5-5-5-15/2T)
• Noctua NH-U 12 CPU cooler.
• Corsair HX 620W modular power supply
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA hard drive
• Windows XP Professional SP2   /    Windows Vista Home Premium
• DirectX 9.0c / DirectX 10.0

Software-wise, we used the following programs for benchmarking purposes:

• 3DMark 2006
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
• F.E.A.R.
• Prey
• X3
• Company of Heroes DX9/DX10           

For the first time here at Neoseeker, we double benched Company of Heroes: in addition to our regular XP benchmark, we also added numbers from a Vista system running Company of Heroes, patched to DirectX 10.

When it came to the drivers used for the HD 2600 XT, we had some problems. Hopefully, by the time you read this review, the problems will be smoothed out -- but that wasn't the case for us.  In particular we had some trouble with DX10 benchmarking.  For starters, we could not successfully run the Lost Planet Demo. It hardly ran at all, and when it did run, it looked terrible. We also had problems with Company of Heroes when using the Catalyst 7.6 drivers -- strangely, the DX10 version worked fine, but the DX9 version would often crash, if AA was set to off. X3 also had troubles running.

For this review ATI provided XP 8.38.9.1 development drivers, which alleviated some of the problems. We were never able to get Lost Planet running properly, so that benchmark will have to wait for new drivers.  If you get this card right at launch just be aware that as with other launch cards, the current available public Catalyst 7.6 drivers and the drivers that ship with the card may not be stable with all your games.