Best Data Viper Radeon HD 2600XT Graphics Card - 2600XT256PE3SB
Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB GDDR3 128-bit 800 MHZ PCI-E x16 HDCP Supported Video Card

I bought this card for a computer I built. I didn't have any major issues at first (other than an occasional hang with the HP monitor control software after installing that). Maybe it's because I right away downloaded all driver updates, Windows Service Pack, or some other reason. Maybe it's because most problems below seem related to Vista and I'm running XP? Also, I saw a couple of comments about noise. I have some massive fans for the system, so I can't tell whether the video card fan is making much noise. ;) I'm rating a 5 on value because I got it with the rebate. Taking that into account, it was easily the best value of any component in my new system.
 
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I had high hopes for this card despite the tech center that I work at having major issues with ATI products. The card was easy enough to install but when I tried to play games on it the card would give out in the middle of them. I tried both Titan Quest as well as World in Conflict. In both games the video would go completely back losing signal but you could still hear the game running. Overall this card is not worth it. I had better luck with the integrated graphics I had. I'll be switching back to Nvidia
 
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I bought this from Buy.com because of the low price after rebate. The card does not work well, although you should not expect something of great quality at the price it is being sold. Whenever I try to start dream scene in vista, the compu crashes. Sometimes all of a sudden the screen goes blank and I can do nothing but reboot. It is frustrating. Didnt see much of an improvement either in overall performance of the compu or the video. More over i feel the compu is running slow. The fan was ok in my case, contrary to other reviews. The installation was easy. But when I tried to play youtube in fullscreen mode it failed. Reinstalled the drivers, now it does display youtube in full screen mode. Hopefully ATI sorts out the bugs and make this investment for all of us a better experience. This card is not good.
 
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Got this video card with the rebate and you can't beat that price. Very inexpensive and does the job with my computer. I got it to play age of conan and the video card shipped with my computer was pretty useless. I have windows vista and it rates your computers performance...with the old video card, i had like a 3.3, with this one it bumped me up to a 5.8. Easy to install, and the fan is a little noisy when it runs but it rarely comes on while playing the game, watching dvds.
 
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Pros: Great card, brand is ok. and is a perfect sub for my 1600XT. Price is unbelievable. Ppl say things about the noise from the fan. I really don't hear anything. Sure louder than mobile card but hey, it's a desktop video card, top heater in the computer. Cons: No sources in Linux so far. you can configure catalyst 8.6 yourself but a lot of work. Said to have trouble in vista. I am using XP and no crash at all so far.
 
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...plays well with vista (for me, at least!)
 
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I have had the card for a month or so and it has not crashed. Install was great. Graphics are phenomenal for the price. Totally satisfied with this purchase.
 
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Had to fight my way through their web site to download drivers for Vista -- they had a link or two that didn't work, turning it into a production.
 
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Two complaints; Doccummentation (instruction)sucks but I am up and running and it works great. Can't use Netflix's instant movie now. It seems DRM (digital rights media) will not work with HDMI type cards. No it is not the cards fault, but Netfilx, Microsoft (naturally) and Hollywood film studios for requiring DRM. I am using a 350W power supply and every thing works great. I bought it because my "on-board" graphics was too slow and this speeds everything I do graphically up tremendously. And did I say the price was GREAT. Thanks for that Buy.com.
 
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I bought this from Buy.com because of the low price after rebate, but it has only given me problems. The fan is definitely on the loud side and it has crashed on me when it came to playing videos, particularly DVDs and .mp4 and .mov. After going through tech support, it was determined that I had a faulty video card and the product was still under warranty. However, it cost me $10 to ship it from NY and Diamond Multimedia asked me to write a $9 check so they can ship it back to me from CA. I hope that $19 makes it work, although I don't think I should pay a single dime since it is purely a manufacturer problem. Next time, I'm going with XFX. They paid for everything under their warranty when my previous 6600GT had a fan problem. Other than HDCP and DirectX 10.0, my 3 year old XFX 6600GT is better than the Diamond HD 2600XT. That's pretty sad. Hopefully I can revise this when I get the card back from Diamond.
 
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My system crashes with the video card installed. Most likely it is my power supply being not adequate but who knows? I have a 250W power supply and it looks like the video card requires a minimum 400w. I plan to buy another power supply in an effort to cure the problem. Nonetheless, don't by the card unless your system meets all the specs. It'll be a waste of money and who knows -- it could be a waste even after I install a new power supply?
 
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I'm not sure about others but my card runs very hot and past 60C it becomes unstable. On a normal night it will run at about ~75C and approach 80C. This is not a case problem because my quad core cpu 5 inches away runs at 50C load. This problem is specific to the card itself. RMA wasn't an option because apparently this is how the card is built (and it's a general consensus over the internet that this card overheats and crashes a lot, but there are people that aren't affected so YMMV). The instability problem is solved by underclocking the card by a few MHz. I used ATITool (have to use version 0.27 or better or else it won't work) and underclocked the gpu and memory by 5MHz each and the card stopped crashing. Other than the heat and instability problems (which are probably caused by bad drivers) the card works very nicely, it's just a pain to set it up. It decodes video very nicely (leaving my cpu for other things) and I have a dual screen set up, usually with a movie playing on one screen and a game on the other screen and the card handles beautifully. I've had the card for less than a month so I don't know what to say about its ability to last long at ~80C. I'm hoping that I will get a good few years out of it (although probably not). It also hasn't failed me since I figured out how to make the card stable. Maybe in a year, the ATI drivers will be fixed so that the card will be usable without 3rd party fixes.
 
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The fan hasn't bothered me. Seems like a good card.
 
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Ok, its not a 8800GT, but its a good card for $30. I would NOT pay the full $82 or whatever they recommend, but when its on sale its definitely worth it. The fan isn't quiet/silent, you can definitely hear it. I wouldn't call it "loud" though. Its a good cheap alternative for a higher-end graphics card.
 
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The cooling fan on this Diamond video card is LOUD. I could not tolerate the noise to even get through the driver installation process. This card is definitely the noisiest card I have ever tried!
 
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Same here. Maybe the satisfied users don't write reviews, only the disgruntled ones. Still, the machine keeps crashing. Before it crashes, the games do look nicer. Maybe I'll be smart enough to take it out before it corrupts my hard drive. I hope the rebate comes.
 
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one word, it crash. Do you research before you buy it.
 
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