2900xt Reviews - compilation

[Sylvanas]

Interesting set of reviews, It looks like a promising card, however I am interested to see how far you can 'push' it overclocking wise on the 2x6pin pci-e connectors (apparently Overdrive is disabled using 2x6pin, but according to some reviews you can still overclock it using 3rd party utilities).

 

[MadBoris]

Well I'm hitting the sack, theirs a good bunch of reviews here in the original topic. The majority of available good ones atleast.

Crossfire and SLI comparisons in hothardware, driverheaven, techreport, extremetech
Vista and XP comparisons at driverheaven(includes 8800) and guru3d
Some good image comparison at Guru3d and hardocp.
Several overclocking stories, forget where.
Smatterings of DX10 can be found but nothing really telling.

There are some strange discrepencies in benchmarks at some sites, maybe people can figure out why.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Interesting set of reviews, It looks like a promising card, however I am interested to see how far you can 'push' it overclocking wise on the 2x6pin pci-e connectors (apparently Overdrive is disabled using 2x6pin, but according to some reviews you can still overclock it using 3rd party utilities).

Read the Driverheaven review.

They got 865/1026 and they gained 6 fps in FEAR and 1 fps in Prey.

No joke.

 

[40sTheme]

Look at some of the reviews when they bring in a highly pixel shaded game (FEAR, SC:CT). This card beats the 8800GTX! I think ATi is anticipating end-game DX9 games and DX10 games a little bit better. Also, the 3DMark scores reflect this shading power as well. I think this card just needs to get taken advantage of. Pretty dang good for its price point I'd say. Too bad this and the 8800GTS are both DUAL SLOT so I can't get either.
EDIT: Note that on some sites it just closes on the 8800GTX, and on some it beats it.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I personally declare R600 a failure, just like the FX5800.

Late. Hot. Noisy. Power Hungry. Weak performer. FAILURE!

 

[Dashel]

When will Anandtech be reviewing this?

 

[BFG10K]

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hard...arten/2007/test_ati_radeon_hd_2900_xt/

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I personally declare R600 a failure, just like the FX5800.

Late. Hot. Noisy. Power Hungry. Weak performer. FAILURE!

Good thing your opinion means nothing.

I didn't see FiringSquads review in the OP's listing, so here it is.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd...radeon_hd_2900_xt_performance_preview/

They were showing some decent OCing performance results, but still got the limit of 858/900 or so that a lot of other reviewers were getting.

Here's my 2 cents. I'll probably be picking up a 2900XT by June, giving ATI enough time to support it with Catalyst. The card is priced well and boasts an impressive feature set.

 

[fern420]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I personally declare R600 a failure, just like the FX5800.

Late. Hot. Noisy. Power Hungry. Weak performer. FAILURE!

Good thing your opinion means nothing.

I didn't see FiringSquads review in the OP's listing, so here it is.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd...radeon_hd_2900_xt_performance_preview/

They were showing some decent OCing performance results, but still got the limit of 858/900 or so that a lot of other reviewers were getting.

Here's my 2 cents. I'll probably be picking up a 2900XT by June, giving ATI enough time to support it with Catalyst. The card is priced well and boasts an impressive feature set.

and id bet you'll be able to find it for $330 bucks by then too, one strong point ati has embraced, lower prices, money talks and bs walks.

 

[nyker96]

I like the tech powerup video it's sweet. But the benchs pretty disappointing considering they had so long to perfect this thing and it turns out not able to beat even GTS 640 on benchs.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: fern420


Here's my 2 cents. I'll probably be picking up a 2900XT by June, giving ATI enough time to support it with Catalyst. The card is priced well and boasts an impressive feature set.

and id bet you'll be able to find it for $330 bucks by then too, one strong point ati has embraced, lower prices, money talks and bs walks.[/quote]

Would be nice if it drops into the 330 range.

 

[the Chase]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I personally declare R600 a failure, just like the FX5800.

Late. Hot. Noisy. Power Hungry. Weak performer. FAILURE!

Good thing your opinion means nothing.

I didn't see FiringSquads review in the OP's listing, so here it is.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd...radeon_hd_2900_xt_performance_preview/

They were showing some decent OCing performance results, but still got the limit of 858/900 or so that a lot of other reviewers were getting.

Here's my 2 cents. I'll probably be picking up a 2900XT by June, giving ATI enough time to support it with Catalyst. The card is priced well and boasts an impressive feature set.

Just came to post the Firing Squad review as they have always been my favorite Vid card review site.

After reading the review it becomes apparent to me that this card is a Turkey. Gets smashed in almost every game except COH.

 

[fierydemise]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: fern420


Here's my 2 cents. I'll probably be picking up a 2900XT by June, giving ATI enough time to support it with Catalyst. The card is priced well and boasts an impressive feature set.

and id bet you'll be able to find it for $330 bucks by then too, one strong point ati has embraced, lower prices, money talks and bs walks.

Would be nice if it drops into the 330 range. [/quote]
I think it will very quickly, I wouldn't be surprised to see it under $350 in a month and $330ish in a month and a half. I'm also buying sometime this summer and I'm definitely considering this or the 65nm refresh everyone knows is coming.

 

[littlezipp]

Toms Hardware now up

 

[fern420]

Originally posted by: littlezipp
Toms Hardware now up

now thats more like it, look at those 3dmark crossfire results in xp pro, how can they be so different from the other websites benchmarks? the 2900 crossfire setup is actually beating and neck to neck with the 8800 gtx sli setup for those 3dmark 05 results.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: fierydemise
The reviews seem very conflicted over the verdict, we have HardOCP saying the 2900 is DOA then we have Guru3D and Techpower up saying its great price to performance wise and feature rich. The only thing they seem to agree on is the noisy fan and higher power consumption, although how much higher is also disputed.

did the OP stay up all night? ... good job MadBoris

i gave up at 1.30 am ... i had the flu - all weekend [which kept me glued to the forums] ... and am OK for work today ...

but i DID read most of the reviews ... 7 i think

HardOCP is obviously biased ... he uses older drivers and has an "axe" to grind with the lateness of the product and the fact it is not the "flagship"

a couple of others ... seem over-enthusiastic about the HD-XT [as i am]

the others seems to say it is a *good value for $400*

the Cons are Obviously the Power draw .. but that is 'about it'

the Pros are that is a nicely 'featured' card that generally outperforms the GTS .. its "competition"


'mixed' but generally positive - EXCEPT for HardOCP

 

[Swampthing]

Originally posted by: 40sTheme
Look at some of the reviews when they bring in a highly pixel shaded game (FEAR, SC:CT). This card beats the 8800GTX! I think ATi is anticipating end-game DX9 games and DX10 games a little bit better. Also, the 3DMark scores reflect this shading power as well. I think this card just needs to get taken advantage of. Pretty dang good for its price point I'd say. Too bad this and the 8800GTS are both DUAL SLOT so I can't get either.
EDIT: Note that on some sites it just closes on the 8800GTX, and on some it beats it.

Your blind, the 2900 config that SOMETIMES beats the 8800gtx is the crossfire solution. So your getting worked up that a crossfire solution beats a single card config?

FEAR:

2900xt crossfire: 140
8800gtx: 126
single 2900xt: 84

Min FPS

8800gtx 44 Max 211
2900xt 22 max 139
2900 crossfire 25 max 315

How is that a good thing for the 2900, it's about 50% of the performance of the 8800gtx in fear.

next time read closer so you don't look so silly.

 

[Mem]

i gave up at 1.30 am ... i had the flu - all weekend [which kept me glued to the forums] ... and am OK for work today ...

but i DID read most of the reviews ... 7 i think

HardOCP is obviously biased ... he uses older drivers and has an "axe" to grind with the lateness of the product and the fact it is not the "flagship"

a couple of others ... seem over-enthusiastic about the HD-XT [as i am]

the others seems to say it is a *good value for $400*

the Cons are Obviously the Power draw .. but that is 'about it'

the Pros are that is a nicely 'featured' card that generally outperforms the GTS .. its "competition"


'mixed' but generally positive - EXCEPT for HardOCP

I'm still waiting for Anandtech's review,benchmarks from other sites are all over the place so I won't comment on that,however I can comment on pricing in the UK ,average prices for one of these is about £275 (dearest I have seen is £310,cheapest 260 quid),I have seen a Leatedk 640mb 8800GTS for £214(saving of 46 quid around $90) which is a big difference.

My conclusion it's more pricey then what I thought,will I be buying one?.... answer is not at that price.

 

[fern420]

id trust toms hardware on this one. the new review from them has thinking twice, atleast on the cost effectiveness of the card in crossfire vrs 8800 sli.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/14/..._from_ati/page20.html#3dmark05__xp_pro

 

[apoppin]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/14/...re_from_ati/page26.html#final_thoughts

if you were waiting for R600, it is a good thing you did. There are some really nice advances incorporated into the HD 2900XT and the Vista performance of the 1GB GDDR4 cards have made it the choice of boutique system builders (I just wish we had them in house). At $400 for the version we have in the lab, it is a good price as it has more to offer than the GeForce 8800GTS. The sweet spot is still the 320 MB version of the 8800 GTS but that could change as other versions of the R600 family emerge. Until then, if you were sitting on the fence, you can either keep riding or finally spend you money on something. Versions like the Sapphire HD2900XT Toxic will come factory overclocked with a stand-alone water cooling solution.

Overall, HD2900XT is more forward looking than GeForce 8800 and it should be; it took an extra six months getting it to market. If you are leaning towards longevity of a card, R600 looks more attractive with a dedicated tessellator, programmable filters, high-clock speeds and crazy amounts of bandwidth. It is a hot and a little loud.

Final Thoughts

We are going to look a little more into the power consumption of the cards as we found some interesting behaviors within GeForce 8800GTX and R600. To wet your appetite, here are a few of the findings. For starters, R600 drew less overall system power than GeForce 8800GTX in the game tests.

:Q

huh?

i think they like it

damn fanboys
:roll:



Mem ... look for the "market" to drop prices below the GTS pricing ... soon

it *looks* like AMD has a good supply

yeah .. 'wait' if you want to save money

 

[The-Noid]

3dmark is cpu limited on Nvidia/ATI.

Rumor had it a long time ago ATI X2900 would suck, rumor came true.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: apoppin
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/14/...re_from_ati/page26.html#final_thoughts

if you were waiting for R600, it is a good thing you did. There are some really nice advances incorporated into the HD 2900XT and the Vista performance of the 1GB GDDR4 cards have made it the choice of boutique system builders (I just wish we had them in house). At $400 for the version we have in the lab, it is a good price as it has more to offer than the GeForce 8800GTS. The sweet spot is still the 320 MB version of the 8800 GTS but that could change as other versions of the R600 family emerge. Until then, if you were sitting on the fence, you can either keep riding or finally spend you money on something. Versions like the Sapphire HD2900XT Toxic will come factory overclocked with a stand-alone water cooling solution.

Overall, HD2900XT is more forward looking than GeForce 8800 and it should be; it took an extra six months getting it to market. If you are leaning towards longevity of a card, R600 looks more attractive with a dedicated tessellator, programmable filters, high-clock speeds and crazy amounts of bandwidth. It is a hot and a little loud.

Final Thoughts

We are going to look a little more into the power consumption of the cards as we found some interesting behaviors within GeForce 8800GTX and R600. To wet your appetite, here are a few of the findings. For starters, R600 drew less overall system power than GeForce 8800GTX in the game tests.

:Q

huh?

i think they like it

damn fanboys
:roll:



Mem ... look for the "market" to drop prices below the GTS pricing ... soon

it *looks* like AMD has a good supply

yeah .. 'wait' if you want to save money

Yep think I'll wait,I do have the money infact enough for two X2900s,however common sense takes over my buying decisons when it comes to a good buy .

 

[apoppin]

me too

.. i think

but IF i see a good deal ...

you never know ... i have that damn preferred acct at newegg .. i could go for a Quad setup now
--or a new car
:Q

 

[KeithTalent]

I like the Guru3D and Driverheaven (nice to see the Xista vs. XP comparisons) reviews, but I am really waiting for X-Bit Labs as they are my favourite.

A lot of the Crossfire benchmarks have looked pretty good, which I was pleasantly surprised by. I just hope the price drops a little and new drivers increase the performance (looks as if they will).

KT

 

[DigitalFreak]

Originally posted by: fern420
id trust toms hardware on this one.

That's your first mistake...

3DMark scores mean jack ******. Look at the performance in real world games. It barely competes with the 8800GTS 640 AND it costs more, draws as much or more power than an 8800GTX and generates more heat.

I really wanted ATI to be a competitor this round, but it ain't gonna happen. Looks like some folks at ATI need to be getting pink slips today.