After waiting an eternity and then some for the AMD (ATI) response to Nvidia's mighty G80 core, various flavours of the new R600 have been quick to hit the shelves to try to claw back some of the advantage Nvidia gained during the delay.

The most hard fought-over sector is not, as you may think, the high-end, but the mainstream and value markets: high-end cards may carry the performance and prestige but the mainstream and value cards are where the money is.

AMD has the HD 2600 to tackle Nvidia in the mainstream but down in the value end it has the HD 2400 XT. This card is the successor to the X1300 series, offering improvements in image quality, 3D performance and HD media support, and a low cost DirectX 10 solution.

Built on a 65nm process, the HD 2400 (coded RV610) is, as would be expected at this end of the market, a very cut-down version of the R600, with a mere 180 million transistors. The Stream Processing Units are cut back to just 40 while the 256MB of memory runs through a 64-bit interface. The core engine itself runs at 700MHz.

The HD 2400 XT comes with UVD (Universal Video Decoder), ATI's latest video processing technology, which accelerates the decoding of HD video as well as applying filters and post-processing to improve video quality. Added to this are full HDCP compliance and an integrated audio controller. The latter takes the audio from the PCI-E bus (working in conjunction with the sound card) and outputs it along with the video signal, all of which makes playing HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movies as straightforward as possible.

Sapphire's take on the HD 2400 XT is built on a non-reference blue PCB dominated by a large, aluminium, passive heat-sink, so making it an ideal solution for a home theatre or PVR system. Although the GDDR3 chips that make up the 256MB of memory installed on the card are rated to 900MHz (1,800MHz effective), Sapphire has them running at 400MHz (1,600MHz effective) which, together with a core that doesn't get too hot, allows the use of the passive cooling solution instead of the active fan of the reference design. The expansion plate holds a single dual-link DVI port, a VGA port and an analogue HD-TV out port.

Performance-wise the HD 2400 XT is certainly an improvement on the old X1300, scoring 4,035 in 3DMark05 (at 1,024 x 768) whereas the X1300 could only manage 1,930. In real world terms it has better frame rates in F.E.A.R than the X1300 - 30fps as opposed to 13fps - but it's not exactly what you would call smooth.

So, not really a high-end gaming card, and frankly at this price point you wouldn't expect it to be, but what it does bring to the table at very low cost is a card with low power consumption and support for a number of HD outputs, making it ideal for those building home theatre PCs. Even better, though, would be a half-height version for those slimline HTPC cases.

Verdict
The Radeon HD 2400 XT brings DirectX 10 to the masses but perhaps more important is its HD support, which is extensive when you take into account the low price of the card. Sapphire's card, with its passive cooling, is ideal for those thinking about making their own home theatre PC, but only for people who are using a fairly large case, as the HD 2400 XT is a full-height card.

Company: Sapphire

Contact: 01793 423 830

Tags: nvidia advanced micro devices digital visual interface high-definition video directx amd graphics processing unit hardware