Igre
As always, we tested all games at maximum detail settings.
F.E.A.R.
With antialiasing ATI looses to the 8600GT.
Company of Heroes
Again, we see a significant performance drop with AA and AF, but this time the IceQ holds its ground much better against the Geforce 8600GT.
Bio Shock
The newest game on our test loved the IceQ Turbo card. On 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF, we got 19 FPS. This won't be enough for gaming, but it still outperforms the Geforce 8600GT by a huge margin.
Conclusion
The IceQ Turbo brand is reserved for the best HIS has to offer. If you're looking for a special ATI graphics card and you want more than the plain reference design, HIS always has something to offer. The overclocked BIOS gives you much more power, out of the box, and the IceQ cooler assures that you will have stable performance even if you choose to overclock it further. In this case excellent cooling performance doesn't come with high pitched noise in the background. The cooler is exceptionally quiet.
This is a dual slot card, so you won't be able to install it on all motherboards, but the quiet and efficiency of the IceQ outweigh the cons, and the cooler gets a thumbs up.
HD 2600XT IceQ Turbo performs well against the Geforce 8600GT, and it also offers a full HDTV experience, thanks to the integrated UVD, VIVO and HDCP. All things considered, we can recommend the HIS HD 2600XT IceQ Turbo if you're looking for something different. It's fast out of the box, the memory is very overclockable and the card is quiet, thanks to the massive cooler.
You can get one for €112, here.