Radeon HD 2900 Pro / HD 2900 GT

[JPB]

Originally posted by: Matt2
Where can I upload a FRAPs video to?

I'm tired of talking about my 2900XT's struggles in MoH:A and want to actually show you guys.

Fraps video, I don't know where to upload those to. For the screen's though I use photobucket. I'm not saying I don't believe you and im sure no one else is either. It's just odd that your experiencing the slowdowns like that.

I'm sure you seen my screen's, it just dont make any sense getting as low as 4fps. Just hard to believe the XT on it's own would tank that much without another problem somewhere.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: JPB

Originally posted by: Matt2
Where can I upload a FRAPs video to?

I'm tired of talking about my 2900XT's struggles in MoH:A and want to actually show you guys.

Fraps video, I don't know where to upload those to. For the screen's though I use photobucket. I'm not saying I don't believe you and im sure no one else is either. It's just odd that your experiencing the slowdowns like that.

I'm sure you seen my screen's, it just dont make any sense getting as low as 4fps. Just hard to believe the XT on it's own would tank that much without another problem somewhere.

I'm not saying you guys dont believe me, I just dont think you guys are fully understanding the severity of what is going on with my system and this stupid game.

I'm not talking about the occasional dip below 30 fps. I am talking about a sustained 9-15 fps during firefights. It's just absolutely pathetic trying to play this game on my PC.

I've tried three different drivers, uninstalling the game, running virus and spyware scans, closing all non-essential programs and background processes. The only thing I havent tried is formatting and re-installing Vista. I really dont want to do this because it's midterm week here at school and I neither have the time nor the patience to format and re-install.

I dont think formatting will even help thought because my performance in older games such as CoH, FEAR and Far Cry all match up perfectly to your table above.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: JPB

Originally posted by: SniperDaws
if its slower than the 2900XT then whats the point? the 2900 series is a white elephant, you'd have to be a serious ATI fanboy to buy an XT over a 8800
GTS.

I was curious as to which was better also a few weeks ago. So I went to 9 different site's that reviewed the HD 2900 XT , 8800 GTS , 8800 GTX cards. Did a little comparison for average fps in all games tested. I picked the most popular games. Here is what I came up with...

1920x1200 resolution

snipped

One thing that does matter though is that the 2900 XT uses a lot more power than the 8800 GTX.

That may not be a huge deal to some, but to OEM's like Dell, it does make a difference. Dell has always offered top-end cards from ATI, the 9800 Pro and XT, the X850 XT PE, and even the X1950 XTX.

However, they cannot offer the X2900 XT cards with their XPS 410 / Dimension 9200 because the damn thing uses too much power. Meanwhile, Nvidia has been soaking up the sales because their 8800 GTX card performs well with Dell's dual 12V rail 375W PSU that they have been using for the past 2-3 generations of that series system.

 

[aiya24]

tanishalfelven, bryanW1995 you guys are funny :laugh:

wish i could but once you go 24", theres no going back to anything smaller! not just for game but for everyday task too.

my X1900XT256 is holding its own for now since i mainly play CS:S so i'm not in that much of a rush to upgrade but it would be nice.

 

[bryanW1995]

10 more days...

 

[speckedhoncho]

Thank you for posting that. Seems like people's impressions of the 2900XT include decreasing performance over time, rather than its actual increase in performance from drivers.

I have a 2900XT, the only complaint I have against it is that it runs a little warm. In most computers, this wouldn't be a problem, but I live in Phoenix AZ. I keep my AC at about 80 during the summer, this makes the ambient temperature for my 2900XT quite warm.

Have you thought about a aftermarket heatsink and fan? I plan on getting a 8800GTX and a Thermalright HR-03 Plus. It kill the stock cooler temperature score on 20min Far Cry tear.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: Beowulf
Matt2 actually owns a 2900XT and doesn't get 60fps with 1920x1200 in high quality. Just check his posts in the MoH:A thread. Also legion hardware originally claimed they benchmarked it in DX10 and got bashed for MoH:A not even running on DX10. I see they changed it from DX10 to DX9.

matt2 has been having problem with his 2900XT since he ever got one. I think major reason matt2 has frame rate issue is the lack of fine tunning for low end CPU now days. Dev think everyone should have Intel Dual core.

 

[JPB]

HR-03/R600

Here is a small review of the HR-03 for the R600. I think it's in German though. But looks to help cool the card pretty well.

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: JPB
HR-03/R600

Here is a small review of the HR-03 for the R600. I think it's in German though. But looks to help cool the card pretty well.

Translated

Guy with HR-03 installed....awesome temps

:Q 890 / 1175 without it breaking 60C :Q

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I doubt that. What do you consider "Unplayable levels"?

As I said earlier, the framerate drops well below 15 fps and it's impossible to aim because there are 0.25-0.50 sec. pauses where *nothing* is drawn on the screen. Everyone can agree that's unplayable for a FPS game.

 

[AzN]

Are you using Vista? Dual core?

I think that's where the problem lies.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: Azn
Are you using Vista? Dual core?

I think that's where the problem lies.

The slowdowns I encountered are a result of a game or driver bug because the problem only occurs in certain areas of the map--normal gameplay is fine for me. Then again, I've only played the demo; the problem may be much more common in the full version's maps.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986

Originally posted by: Beowulf
Matt2 actually owns a 2900XT and doesn't get 60fps with 1920x1200 in high quality. Just check his posts in the MoH:A thread. Also legion hardware originally claimed they benchmarked it in DX10 and got bashed for MoH:A not even running on DX10. I see they changed it from DX10 to DX9.

matt2 has been having problem with his 2900XT since he ever got one. I think major reason matt2 has frame rate issue is the lack of fine tunning for low end CPU now days. Dev think everyone should have Intel Dual core.

I doubt that's the issue. A 2.6ghz X2 is roughly similar to a 2.2ghz C2D, something around an E6400, which is pretty decent. Remember, the vast majority of gamers don't overclock these things.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: CP5670

Originally posted by: tuteja1986

Originally posted by: Beowulf
Matt2 actually owns a 2900XT and doesn't get 60fps with 1920x1200 in high quality. Just check his posts in the MoH:A thread. Also legion hardware originally claimed they benchmarked it in DX10 and got bashed for MoH:A not even running on DX10. I see they changed it from DX10 to DX9.

matt2 has been having problem with his 2900XT since he ever got one. I think major reason matt2 has frame rate issue is the lack of fine tunning for low end CPU now days. Dev think everyone should have Intel Dual core.

I doubt that's the issue. A 2.6ghz X2 is roughly similar to a 2.2ghz C2D, something around an E6400, which is pretty decent. Remember, the vast majority of gamers don't overclock these things.

Want to check all the RTS performance :! i do deep analysis of game engine tweaking trend :!

http://au.gamespot.com/features/6179006/p-7.html
World in conflict :
Intel Core2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40GHz
36
Intel Core2 Duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz
24
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 @ 2.6GHz
23
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 @ 2.0 GHz
18
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ @ 2.4 GHz
10


http://au.gamespot.com/features/6166198/p-6.html
1600x1200, High Quality
Supreme Commander
Core2 Quad QX6700 @ 2.66GHz
43
Core2 Extreme X6800 @ 2.93GHz
38
Core2 Duo 6300 @ 1.86GHz
27
Athlon FX-60 @ 2.60GHz
20
Athlon FX-57 @ 2.80GHz
17

http://au.gamespot.com/features/6163248/p-7.html
Never Winter Nights 2 :
1600x1200, Medium Settings
Core2 Extreme @ 2.93GHz
44
Core2 Extreme @ 2.40GHz
37
Core2 Extreme @ 1.87GHz
29
Athlon 64 FX-60 @ 2.8GHz
30
Athlon 64 FX-60 2.4GHz
27
Athlon 64 FX-60 @ 2.0GHz
23

 

[waffleironhead]

Back to the original topic

So is what they are saying is that ATI is no longer producing the 2900xt chip?
I find that hard to believe. Or are they saying that from now on ALL chips produced will be at or above expected quality and thus will not need to sell them as lower products?

 

[Aznguy1872]

Just found this, from looking at the specs, this card looks like an excellent deal!



HereI

 

[golem]

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Just found this, from looking at the specs, this card looks like an excellent deal!



HereI

That does look like a good deal. Slightly more than a 320mb GTS, but on average it should be faster and the 512mb should help with the newer games at higher rez.

 

[AVP]

Link does not seem to work, can you guys elaborate?

Edit seems that all of tweaktown is down. Someone digg this? geez...

 

[cputeq]

Yeah I don't see why people bust on 2900XT so much. I think perhaps 1/2 the problem is they're reading reviews from waaaaaay back in the day, when the reviewers used old Catalyst drivers.

It was very difficult deciding between my 8800GTS-640 and the 2900XT...I mean, really difficult.

Notice, the 8800GTS never matches GTX performance, ever (assuming game is not CPU-limited).
The 2900XT, though, almost (or does) match the GTX in many instances, for $100 less.

The only thing that stopped me from the 2900XT...It would have required a PSU upgrade, so tack on another $100 or so. Plus, I got the GTS-640 for $350 after $20 MIR, and I couldn't find that deal for a 2900XT anywhere.
In all, it would have cost me $500 (effective) instead of $350.

 

[JPB]

First post updated.

 

[Aznguy1872]

I just hope this 2900 pro doesn't consume too much watts. Also, so when is the exact release day? This coming Monday?

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: waffleironhead
Back to the original topic

:Q

What was it again?

So is what they are saying is that ATI is no longer producing the 2900xt chip?
I find that hard to believe. Or are they saying that from now on ALL chips produced will be at or above expected quality and thus will not need to sell them as lower products?

Hmm...now that's an interesting way to look at it.

Obviously, ATI has a significant number of HD2900XT chips that did not make the officially selected clock speed. These are being rebranded as Pro/GT chips at a lower speed to make a little money or at least cut losses; otherwise, these chips would be useless.

But why the limited number of Pro/GT chips?

I'm thinking that either:

1. ATI has fixed a manufacturing problem that increased yields to the point that the supply of almost-working XT chips would quickly dry up, or...

2. The Pro is the limited edition whereas the GT will be the "official" part that picks up the chips that would previously have been Pro chips AFTER the Pro series has run its course.

Regardless, the Pro boards are the ones to get considering the GT boards are essentially the same except for a 256-bit memory interface.

And I wonder how much the 256-bit memory interface will affect the HD2900GT's fps. I mean, we heard so much about the XT's monster bandwidth. People thought it would be a 8800GTX-killer, but that sort of fizzled on launch. Will the HD2900GT actually be significantly slower than the Pro. I'm guessing *not*, given how huge the XT's bandwidth was to begin with.

 

[spittledip]

Ah,so the difference between Pro and GT is memory bandwidth? Where did you read the specs for the GT (i.e. how do you know the bandwidth is 256?). I wonder what the USD price will be? I might be eyeing one of those GTs... The 8800s are too pricey and hot for me. I am hoping the GTs run a little cooler..

edit: Just read the links more carefully. It seems that both pro and gt have 256 bit mem bandwidth. So what is the difference between the cards? Or is that info not available yet?

 

[spittledip]

oh here are some answers I was looking for. The difference seems to be in the shaders: http://my.ocworkbench.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=67390

The Pro has 320 and the GT 240. Clock speeds uncertain for GT.

edit: damn this Gecube site has the pro with 512 bit interface: http://my.ocworkbench.com/bbs/...hp?p=421089#post421089

stupid rumors...

 

[Murasame]

Originally posted by: spittledip
Ah,so the difference between Pro and GT is memory bandwidth? Where did you read the specs for the GT (i.e. how do you know the bandwidth is 256?). I wonder what the USD price will be? I might be eyeing one of those GTs... The 8800s are too pricey and hot for me. I am hoping the GTs run a little cooler..

edit: Just read the links more carefully. It seems that both pro and gt have 256 bit mem bandwidth. So what is the difference between the cards? Or is that info not available yet?

The Pros is not 256 bit. Its 512 bit. Here is a link to Gecubes officially announced HD2900pro.

http://www.gecube.com/products...t_id=195&prod_id=68118

According to Gecube its already shipping, but I have yet to see any us retailers listing it or a price. Also HIS' HD2900pro on there site is 512 bit also. The current speculated differences are 256 bit vs 512 bit, 256MB vs 512MB and 240 Stream procs vs 320 stream procs. Plus there might be a 1gig HD2900pro.