Radeon HD2600XT cards for AGP are on the way and, in case you're still sticking to your old AGP machine and want to turn it into a media center, upgrade it or just replace a dead AGP graphics card, this is good news.

Actually, if you want to turn it into an HTPC, an HD2400Pro will do just fine, but if you think your old PC still has enough muscle for some casual gaming, the HD2600XT looks like a very good choice. It might save you the trouble of a thorough upgrade to PCIe, and you'll get some decent gaming performance at just a fraction of the cost.



HIS has announced its reference clocked HD2600XT AGP with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, which is nothing spectacular, but it's probably the best DX10 AGP graphics card around. HIS went for a non-reference cooler, and that's about the only thing that sets it apart from a plain HD2600XT. Actually, there's also the fact that it's an AGP card with a Rialto bridge chip.

We still don't know the price for the HIS card, but Sapphire's HD2600XT AGP with 256MB of GDDR3 memory is already listed on a number of sites at €95, although it's worth mentioning that it's not currently in stock. An HD2600XT for PCIe goes for around €80 these days, but the extra cash you'll cough up for the AGP version is probably worth it if it can spice up your old PC.

MSI also has its AGP version, ready and selling.