First HD2900XT benchmarks are out

[StopSign]

These numbers are not very impressive at all considering how long it look AMD/ATI to finish the R600.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: StopSign
These numbers are not very impressive at all considering how long it look AMD/ATI to finish the R600.

According to AMD, the card has been ready for some time now. Just been waiting on lower models to launch with it. Looks like it ment to compete with it, not be a generation above it.

What it will do, is drive down NV's prices. Which is good for everyone who hasnt bought a DX10 card yet.

 

[R3MF]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
Looks like the XT will perform on par with the GTX, trading blows almost all across the board methinks. Its sad how they compared a 8800GTS which although has an MSRP of $499, its street price is MUCH lower than that. Around ~$399 area give or take ~$50 dollars. The funny this is that the 640mb looks like its being phased out for something else. (8800GT?)

what info is there that suggests an 8800GT?

i have heard of the rumoured 8800GS, but that is supposed to fill the gap between the two GTS cards.

an 8800GT with 128 SP's at 500MHz and 384bit memory at 1600MHz would totally rock!

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: R3MF

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
Looks like the XT will perform on par with the GTX, trading blows almost all across the board methinks. Its sad how they compared a 8800GTS which although has an MSRP of $499, its street price is MUCH lower than that. Around ~$399 area give or take ~$50 dollars. The funny this is that the 640mb looks like its being phased out for something else. (8800GT?)

what info is there that suggests an 8800GT?

i have heard of the rumoured 8800GS, but that is supposed to fill the gap between the two GTS cards.

an 8800GT with 128 SP's at 500MHz and 384bit memory at 1600MHz would totally rock!

i personally hope the 8800gts 640 drops MSRP to 299 so i can step up.

 

[Keysplayr]

Good indication of the potential power of these cards. Cant wait til full blown benches. Looks like although very late, they actually may have done well. Thank goodness.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

I love that cooler!

Damn these things are still a good way from launching

 

[StrangerGuy]

With Nvidia sort-of screwing up their new midrange with the lacklustre 8600 lineup, this time is the golden opportunity for AMD to rule the midrange which they have sucked for the past 2 generations; assuming AMD doesn't fall into the 128-bit bus trap.

 

[incompleteunit]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
Cool, but I'd like to know a little bit more specifically than "maximum detail settings"

Don't you think 1280x1024 is a little odd for testing such high-end cards?

Apparently they didn't have access to better monitors. From the comments on that article:

We had the misfortune of getting one-on-one time with the card but there were no displays capable of higher resolutions at the facility. We'll get more cards and benchmarks later this week.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: incompleteunit

Originally posted by: Nightmare225

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
Cool, but I'd like to know a little bit more specifically than "maximum detail settings"

Don't you think 1280x1024 is a little odd for testing such high-end cards?

Apparently they didn't have access to better monitors. From the comments on that article:

We had the misfortune of getting one-on-one time with the card but there were no displays capable of higher resolutions at the facility. We'll get more cards and benchmarks later this week.

What is up with that crud? They have access to a Quad Core QX6700, a Bad Axe mobo, 2GB system, an R600XT, a 8800GTS, but had no monitors that support above 1280x1024?????

That is a big load right there. I want to see HUGE resolutions. Why did they even bother?
Dissappointed.

 

[tuteja1986]

Quadro FX 5500 totally got beaten to death by a $400 card. Quadro should now get at least a 600% to 700% price drop

 

[PingSpike]

Thats a good point...assuming they only had access to it for a day or so, surely one of them or their friend had a bigger monitor at home to borrow.

Hell, they could have just bought one and then returned it...not exactly ethical, but its an option.

 

[yacoub]

Originally posted by: R3MF

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
Looks like the XT will perform on par with the GTX, trading blows almost all across the board methinks. Its sad how they compared a 8800GTS which although has an MSRP of $499, its street price is MUCH lower than that. Around ~$399 area give or take ~$50 dollars. The funny this is that the 640mb looks like its being phased out for something else. (8800GT?)

what info is there that suggests an 8800GT?

i have heard of the rumoured 8800GS, but that is supposed to fill the gap between the two GTS cards.

an 8800GT with 128 SP's at 500MHz and 384bit memory at 1600MHz would totally rock!

Only if it has 512MB or more of memory. Less than 512MB would be insufficient to compete with the XT's 512MB. As we know the 320MB GTS is outperformed by the 640MB model rather well when resolution and AA is increased.

Most likely my GPU upgrade money will go toward whatever card offers the best performance in a quiet and cool package at around $350, so long as it has at least 512MB of GDDR on it.

 

[n7]

Well at least we have something.

But i'm a kinda disappointed thus far.

Of course, i want to see it compared to an 8800 GTX, & @ far higher resolutions too, but it seems the card i want, the XTX, may not be out for a while longer.

And even this one isn't going to be on sale for another month...

 

[child of wonder]

Same here... I'm waiting to see how the R600 holds up at higher resolutions, like 1920x1080.

 

[sonoma1993]

Originally posted by: Ulfhednar
I love it, but two things bug me.

1.) Anyone notice how the cooler is almost identical to the 8800 cooler?
A good thing, I like the 8800 cooler very much.

2.) What happened to this HDMI connector with HDMI audio?
A bad thing, I was really looking forward to this.

the model they have is an reference design.

Although the R600 GPU supports HDMI audio and video output, the our reference design only features dual dual-link DVI.

 

[StopSign]

Originally posted by: gersson
I love that cooler!

Are you kidding me? The ATI reference cooler is a POS.

 

[gramboh]

Hmm the numbers are not really impressive given the delay and potential pricing.

One thing to remember is that we don't know how mature the R600 drivers are. One would hope they are relatively optimized given the long development time, but without cards out in the public who knows. Maybe they can still make gains through driver revisions?

It really comes down to pricing, power/heat and driver support. If it is as quiet and has similar power consumption to my 8800, I might consider getting it if Nvidia doesn't fix flat panel scaling on the G80 drivers as it is driving me nuts.

 

[nyker96]

this 2900xxx series looks quite impressive compare to 8800s, some benchs almost unbelievablly ahead. Looks like AMD/ATI hitting it right on this time! Can't wait to see the parts gets to retails.

 

[chizow]

After throwing out the wtfHL2 numbers the 2900XT looks to be a good, but not great part. A definite contender in the high-end market but I simply don't think its enough unless the higher resolution benchmarks create more distance.

A lot of 2900XT's success will depend on availability and actual pricing. It might MSRP for the same as the GTS, but the GTS quickly fell from $449 and has been selling for less than $400 before MIR for quite some time. I got mine for $429-30 MIR on January 2nd and prices have only dropped from there.

Overclockability will also be a major consideration for anyone looking to upgrade to an 8800 or 2900. The GTS overclocks very well, from 500 to 600+ with ease with the stock cooler. The 2900 may or may not OC that well so its definitely something to keep an eye on.

Also glad to see they went with the 2 slot blower cooler similar to the 8800s. Contrary to some comments made here, its easily the best stock cooler I've purchased on any part. Near silent at stock settings, still quieter than most of my previous fans at 100%. Sure you might be able to get better results with something like a Thermalright HR-03, but at that point I'd rather put that $50 towards a better card and get tangible rather than marginal performance gains.

 

[yacoub]

Originally posted by: StopSign

Originally posted by: gersson
I love that cooler!

Are you kidding me? The ATI reference cooler is a POS.

Hey maybe he loves a jet engine that doesn't even effectively cool GPU temps below artifacting levels (ala X1800/X1900 series).

 

[AquariusX]

Wow, just posted this and went to sleep. Hahaha, I wasnt waiting for the R600 news. I was working on my thesis and I saw before heading to bed. Frankly if that card is $499 I will happily frag on with my 8800GTS for 6 months. If others here are right in saying the XTX wont be out for a while, it might be worth the wait

 

[PingSpike]

We really need more benchmarks at different resolutions and AA/AF settings, as well as confirmed selling prices to make a fair comparison. However, this does seem to indicate they have something thats at least competitive.

It shouldn't be to hard for them to best nvidia in the $100-200 range parts, since nvidia's offerings there perform poorly.

AMD/ATI need to get product on the shelves!

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: yacoub

Originally posted by: StopSign

Originally posted by: gersson
I love that cooler!

Are you kidding me? The ATI reference cooler is a POS.

Hey maybe he loves a jet engine that doesn't even effectively cool GPU temps below artifacting levels (ala X1800/X1900 series).

I meant it looks cool -- doesn't it? Reminds me of these:
http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/1/0/2/258102.jpg
Im a drummer, btw -- going on 13 years

 

[fierydemise]

For those of you who missed the post about quality settings

Call of Duty 2 - Anisotropic filtering, 4xAA (in game), V-Sync off, Shadows enabled, a high number of dynamic lights, soften all smoke edges and an insane amount of corpses.

Company of Heroes - High shader quality, High model quality, Anti-aliasing enabled (in game), Ultra texture quality, high quality shadows, high quality reflections, Post processing On, High building detail, High physics, high tree quality, High terrain detail, Ultra effects fidelity, Ultra effects density, Object scarring enabled and the model detail slider all the way to the right.

F.E.A.R. - 4x FSAA (in game), maximum light details, shadows enabled, maximum shadow details, soft shadows enabled, 16x anisotropic filtering, maximum texture resolution, maximum videos, maximum shader quality.

Half Life 2: Episode 1 - High model detail, high texture detail, high shader detail, reflect all water details, high shadow detail, 4x multi-sample AA (in-game), 16x anisotropic filtering, v-sync disabled, full high-dynamic range.

 

[Lord Banshee]

those workstation scores get me more excited than the game scores

I wonder if AMD is killing the FireGL line and FINALLY ending this driver feature disability in gamer cards all together. If this is true AMD is becoming a loyal friend of mine

Or is it the new OpenGL driver model ATI has been talking about forever and the FireGL series will be even faster than this..

either way those workstation scores should scare the crap out of nvidia being that this 400 dollar card is mopping the floor of a 2,000+ dollar card for the great workstation champ for the past 4 generations.