A few weeks ago, a Digitimes report suggested that AMD had accidentally released a large quantity of broken HD 2400 and HD 2600 cards into the market. This created mass hysteria in the hardware world, and even sparked a mass recall from one manufacturer. However, after the dust settled, AMD and their partners did some investigating. What they found shows that the entire situation was overblown. ASUS representatives say that ASUS has not received a single broken HD 2400/ HD 2600 card. Gigabyte and MSI also have not received broken cards. Most engineers suspect that the idea of a defect/recall came from Acer, who ordered a large quantity of HD 2400 and HD 2600 graphics cards with UVD (Universal Video Decoder) disabled. When news of the UVD "problem" reached the market, the hardware world went hysterical, while Gigabyte, MSI, and ASUS all did internal testing to confirm no problems with the HD 2400 or HD 2600 series.

AMD engineers have a statement to cover the entire HD 2400/HD 2600 fiasco: "Any report claiming that defective HD 2600 and 2400 [cards] are recalled in the channel is completely untrue".

AMD/ATI is preparing to launch ATI Radeon HD 2000-series graphics cards for accelerated graphics port (AGP). As a matter of fact two of the main ATI partners, Sapphire Technologies and GeCube have already started to sell them. GeCube GC-RX24PGA2-D3 graphics card based on ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro graphics processing unit (GPU) and with 256MB of GDDR2 memory onboard is currently available in some Tokyo, Japan stores, according to Akiba PC Hotline website. The novelty costs ¥11480 (about $95) and provides a very cost-efficient upgrade path for personal computers built three or more years ago. The Radeon HD 2400 Pro is fully compatible with DirectX 10 application programming interface, can drive large high-resolution displays and also features an advanced video engine. Apart from GeCube and Sapphire, Tul Corp. is also preparing ATI Radeon HD 2400- and 2600-series graphics cards for AGP systems under the PowerColor brand.

AMD today announced the arrival of the ATI Radeon HD 2600 and ATI Radeon HD 2400 series, the mid-range and entry-level graphics processors in the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series. These next-generation graphics processing units (GPU) bring premium support for Windows Vista with feature-rich DirectX 10 graphics, and built-in multimedia functions for an immersive HD video experience on the PC.

Now that the HD 2900 is available we're all waiting for the mid- and low end parts. It seems Guru3D has found some pricing on dollarshops.eu. It seems prices are quite low.

Radeon HD 2600 series:

• Jetway Radeon HD 2600XT 512 MB DDR4 PCI-e DVI TVout €179,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600XT 512 MB DDR3 PCI-e DVI TV out €149,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600XT 256 MB DDR3 PCI-e DVI TVout €99,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600PRO 512 MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €89,00
• Jetway Radeon HD 2600PRO 256 MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €69,00

Radeon HD 2400 series:

• Jetway Radeon HD 2400XT 256MB DDR3 PCI-e DVI TVout €59,95
• Jetway Radeon HD 2400PRO 512MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €54,95
• Jetway Radeon HD 2400PRO 256MB DDR2 PCI-e DVI TVout €44,95

They should be available July 1st.

We already have some technical information about the R600 mid and low range up a bit down in our news-section. Today we are bringing you the first pictures. The mysterious German guy 'w0mbat' recently posted them at the VR-Zone forums. He is the same guy who pictured the first Opteron 1220 Engineering Sample a while ago and is responsible for the latest information chart regarding the K10.

Update: I found the real source (wasn't too hard) of these pictures. There are 15 of them alltogether over here: PC Games Hardware.

More R610 and R630 Details

techPowerUp! has already reported on some of the basic details of the R610 and R630, ATI/AMD's mainstream and value cards, but now there is a bit more information. The most important things to note are that cards will obviously be DirectX 10 compatible, and both support shader model 4.0. Rather than going into detail about the other specs, I'll let you read the information found in the attached image. Unfortunately there are still only bits and pieces of data, but it gives you a rough idea of what's on offer:

Considering that ATI hasn't released anything official on the specs of the R6x0 series yet, what The Inquirer calls "the rumor mill" seems to be changing R6x0 details with the wind. The latest details rumors on the specs of the midrange and entry-level DX10 offerings from ATI:

The Radeon X2600 series will come in two variants- X2600XT and X2600Pro.

• The XT will come with 64 shaders enabled, clocked at 650MHz, along with 256MB of 128-bit GDDR3 memory clocked at 1600MHz. It should cost $200 USD.
• The Pro will come with the same amount of shaders/RAM, but clocked at 550MHz/1400MHz core/memory, respectfully. It should cost $150 USD.

The Radeon X2300 series will come in three variants- X2300XT, X2300Pro, and X2300LE.

• The X2300XT will come with 32 shaders clocked at 550MHz, along with 256MB of 128bit GDDR3 clocked at 1400MHz. Expect to see it for $100 USD.
• The X2300Pro has 32 shaders clocked at 500MHz. It will come with 128 or 256MB of RAM clocked at 1400MHz. The 256MB version should cost $80 USD, and the 128MB version should cost $70 USD.
• The X2300LE has 32 shaders clocked at 500MHz, 128MB of 128bit GDDR2 clocked at 800MHz, and should cost roughly $60 USD.

All parts are 65nm, and should become available in May.