*Censored*.
P4 3.2E/Asus P4P800 SE/2 GB 3-3-3-8 DDR RAM/Sapphire Radeon HD2600 Pro AGP/Catalyst 12.4 Agp Fix/WinXpSP3.
3DMark 2001 score (default settings) - 16301 15796.
*Censored again*...

I recommend to try using older drivers, something like 6.12 or earlier. I've had some issues with the latest driver too.

And replace the stock cooler.

It looks like the reason is GPU memory. This card use 512 MB DDR2 (1000 MHz). Bus width is 128-bit.
So - FPS drop in UFO and robot shootings (game 1).

The HD 2600 Pro, even being the dog it is, should at least be able to match (or come close to) an underclocked 9800 Pro. As it has been said, try old drivers...

If you want something cooled right, ghetto-mod it yourself 😁 .

HD 2600 should blow past 9800 when it comes to D3D9 shaders but for old games it probably is not much different. Lower bandwidth and similar fillrate.

Nice homebrew cooling.

As I had said all that it takes is improved cooling and this card is easy to work with. The GDDR2 that is used on this card is not to be confused with the DDR2 that is used on later cards.

Welp, how about comparing theoretical specs of the cards...

9800 Pro@300 MHz: 2.4 GPixel/s, 2.4 GTexel/s, 22.4 GB/s
HD 2600 Pro: 2.4 GPixel/s, 4.8 GTexel/s, 16 GB/s

So yeah maybe the scores are actually quite accurate if 3DMark01 is bandwith limited. 2600 has about 70% of bandwith but scores 90% of what the 9800 Pro does. This card was and is a piece of garbage... a midrange card that can't even match a 4 year older high-end product. But then again the whole HD 2000 series was a disaster 😀

9800 Pro@300 MHz: 2.4 GPixel/s, 2.4 GTexel/s, 22.4 GB/s.
HD 2600 Pro: 2.4 GPixel/s, 4.8 GTexel/s, 16 GB/s, no fixed pipeline.

By the way, Catalyst 8.1 (the first Catalyst with a HD2800 support) have the same 3dmark01 scores: 16200-16300. And again two "hiccups" in the game1.
Another strange glitch is - memory reported as 400 MHz by the CCC Graphics hardware screen (and CPU-Z). And 500 MHz by the ATI Overdrive screen (and GPU Caps Viewer). I don't understand this...
Unfortunatedly, Sapphire don't have this card in current Radeon specs...

9800 / R350 also lack D3D7 fixed pipeline. Shader programs emulate it AFAIK.

Your performance issues are probably that RIALTO chip being troublesome.

Weird memory clocks on Radeon cards can certainly happen. My Powercolor X1950 Pro has a slight factory overclock on the core but the memory is mysteriously underclocked by almost 100 MHz or so compared to the reference design.

swaaye wrote:

... Nice homebrew cooling.

The 9800 Pro seems to lack temp sensor, but now I can keep a finger on any place of the card while running 3DMark. As the pain threshold is about ~45C I think we're OK now.

d1stortion wrote:

Weird memory clocks on Radeon cards can certainly happen. My Powercolor X1950 Pro has a slight factory overclock on the core but the memory is mysteriously underclocked by almost 100 MHz or so compared to the reference design.

Some manufacturers would put slower memory chips on their cards to keep the price down or because faster chips weren't available in the quantities they needed. Even some cards that come with a factory overclock on the core can have slow memory.

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/261/6i17.jpg
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/6815/jq4t.jpg
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8697/2z11.jpg
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/6135/4225.jpg
Why? 😀
As I said, unfortunatedly Sapphire has removed HD2600 Pro Agp from the current specifications...