ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT – AMD's long awaited R600 DX10 GPU arrives

[sushrukh]

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9696/radeonhd2900xtreviewteswh0.jpg

------------------------------------------------
Radeon HD 2900XT and published test results,

- Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 at 3GHz (10 x 300MHz FSB)
- ASUS P5WDG2 WS PRO (Intel 975X)
- 4 x 512MB Samsung DDR2-800
- Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM SATA
- Seventeam 500-watt
- Dell 3007WFP 30” LCD
- Microsoft Windows XP Processional SP2
- Intel INF 8.3.0.1011, ATI Catalyst 7.4 (for X1950 XTX), ATI 8.361 (for HD 2900 XT), ForceWare 158.22 (for 8800 GTX) ve DX9c
------------------------------------------------
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/3648/radeonhd2900xtreviewtesee6.gif
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7950/radeonhd2900xtreviewtesbv0.gif
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1194/radeonhd2900xtreviewtespc8.gif
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6061/radeonhd2900xtreviewtesjv3.gif

------------------------------------------------

Link (http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1100/1/page_1_introduction/index.html)

[Miles]

I have a strong feeling that AMD may take a dim view of this information being released before tomorrow, unless it happens to be the 14th at whatever site these came from (and from the looks of the graphs I don't believe it is). It's not good business to violate an agreement just to be first.

[Kougar]

I know the feeling, it sucks that so many sites have ALREADY released 2900 articles! I'm running out of fingers to count them on. I have to wonder if there will be any reprisals for any of them though since so many are doing it. Hopefully AMD will at least not ignore it.

[Bio-Hazard]

Hell, they may not even have a NDA with AMD/ATi as I've seen more than on place offering the cards for sale already. If they happen to be located near one of these outlets, they could have very well just bought the card and they wouldn't be bound by any NDA.

[Kougar]

The articles I glanced at all appear to be from people that visited AMD's Tunisia event as they had some of that material, in which case they were under the NDA. I could understand if they were reviews from people they bought the cards, since so many sites have been selling them for days now.

I will add that I especially like how some of the articles are dated "Posted on May 14, 2007, 3:55 am", to give one example. I don't think they lived in a Russian time zone to make that timestamp remotely possible. ;)

[Bio-Hazard]

Simple excuse to AMD, "OOPS, POSTED EARLY BY MISTAKE" basicly the same that some E-tailers do to get word out that they already have a product in stock early.

Europian sites should be posting up their stuff shortly as it's past mid-nite there now.

[Bio-Hazard]

Here's one on the HD2900XT out of the far east.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2007/asus/EAH2900XT/g1.htm

[werty316]

Server is down??? More like breakin an NDA agreement.

Anyhow VR-Zone has some dish on the HD2900XT also here: http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4946

[westy87]

Well its been the 14th here for 11 hours now

[SwedBear]

The NDA is up 12.01 Am Eastern Standard Time. No NDA is set to expire at different times during the day. So these sites broke NDA plain and simple. We're going to have our own article released when the NDA is expired.

You guys got to understand it is frustrating for us that keep NDA's when other sites break it and can get a truckload of traffic.

Oh well. I'm heading for Chicago now so I hope you guys enjoy our article and review when it is released in .... 3 hours or so.

/B

[THRASHER2]

BAM!!!
http://www.case-mod.com/his-digital-ati-radeon-r600xt-hd-2900xt-2900-xt-512mb-gddr3-vivo-pcie-video-card-p-2534.html

BAM!! Ver#2
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005202

[Bio-Hazard]

I don't know exactly what time the [H]ard OCP posted their ATi review, but it's up for the looking...........;)

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM0MSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[liqnit]

I guess some think of NDA as recommendation only...

[Kougar]

Well, I guess it is good to post now, Bjorn3D has both a overview and review articles up for R600 cards. :)

Some people thought the 1GHz 8600GTS core overclock was cool... One review did only a small notch up to the Vcore and got their R600 sample up to a 1GHz core clock with a cascade, which means 320 1GHz shaders. The resulting 3dmark06 score was just over 16,000. :roll: I personally can't wait to see some of these cards put under a real waterblock and tested, I suspect the thermals are the main bottleneck for clockspeeds, and obviously the slow clocked shaders are the bottleneck as far as performance goes. Overclocking the core overclocks the shaders... Once 65nm revisions are made, ATI can ramp the core/shader clock speed up and bump the GTX off the top of the hill.

Surprised no one's commented on Valves included "The Black Box" bundle yet? That alone would get me to buy the darn thing, and I never go for bundles... ;)

[sushrukh]

Server is down??? More like breakin an NDA agreement.

Anyhow VR-Zone has some dish on the HD2900XT also here: http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4946


TweakTown Review is online now :- http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1100/1

More Ruby4 Pics here :- http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1100/5

Btw, if the 2900XT costs $400,then i wonder how much the XTX will cost ? From the looks of the Bjorn3d review charts , XTX should be much faster than the GTX.

[Kougar]

Which charts are those?? There is no XTX card, GDDR4 and faster clocked RAM only gave less than a handful of FPS improvements, so in order to cut down on costs only GDDR3 is used.

Due to the 512bit wide mem bus the card does not have much use for faster clocked RAM right now, it still offers more memory bandwidth than the GTX with 2ghz+ RAM.

[sushrukh]

Which charts are those?? There is no XTX card, GDDR4 and faster clocked RAM only gave less than a handful of FPS improvements, so in order to cut down on costs only GDDR3 is used.

Due to the 512bit wide mem bus the card does not have much use for faster clocked RAM right now, it still offers more memory bandwidth than the GTX with 2ghz+ RAM.

Yes, i know Kougs that there is no XTX but i'm assuming that if the XT can run neck to neck with the GTX in some of our tests,then the XTX will definitely run faster than the GTX.


Sorry,but i think the packaging should be displayed more clearly in our review of the Jetway HD2900XT coz it's not clear what's inside.

So, here is another picture of the packaging of the Jetway HD2900XT :- http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/355/x29xten512qaccll1.jpg

[PP Mguire]

Due to the 512bit wide mem bus the card does not have much use for faster clocked RAM right now, it still offers more memory bandwidth than the GTX with 2ghz+ RAM.The funny thing is though, that even with the 320 shaders and 512bit bus the 6month old GTX is still whooping it. Quite disappointing actualy.

[sushrukh]

I believe AMD has released the XT to encounter the GTS,not the GTX which i think they have succeeded to achieve.

[Bio-Hazard]

Well, I guess it is good to post now, Bjorn3D has both a overview and review articles up for R600 cards. :)

Some people thought the 1GHz 8600GTS core overclock was cool... One review did only a small notch up to the Vcore and got their R600 sample up to a 1GHz core clock with a cascade, which means 320 1GHz shaders. The resulting 3dmark06 score was just over 16,000. :roll: I personally can't wait to see some of these cards put under a real waterblock and tested, I suspect the thermals are the main bottleneck for clockspeeds, and obviously the slow clocked shaders are the bottleneck as far as performance goes. Overclocking the core overclocks the shaders... Once 65nm revisions are made, ATI can ramp the core/shader clock speed up and bump the GTX off the top of the hill.

Surprised no one's commented on Valves included "The Black Box" bundle yet? That alone would get me to buy the darn thing, and I never go for bundles... ;)
Someone give me one of these heat boxes and I'll put it on a independant loop by it's self and give it a run ............:icon_tiphat: I don't know of to many folks that will go so far as to volt mod a $400+ card though.
As for buying one, I don't really think they are worth the cash at the persent time.....................:jawdrop: Nvidia 8800GTS640 seems to be a much better deal.

[Bio-Hazard]

I believe AMD has released the XT to encounter the GTS,not the GTX which i think they have succeeded to achieve.
NOT, where do see the ATi card flat out beating the GTS, both cards are about evern on performance at the mment. The 8800 GTS 640 uses a ton less power, runs cooler and costs a he!! if a lot less.

[darkorb]

i just checked the review on other sites aswell. and the 8800gts 640mb is neck and neck with it, and beating it by 1-5 fps in certain well most games.

and the GTS also consumes alot less watts, making it the better of the two in my books.

[Kougar]

Someone give me one of these heat boxes and I'll put it on a independant loop by it's self and give it a run ............:icon_tiphat: I don't know of to many folks that will go so far as to volt mod a $400+ card though.
As for buying one, I don't really think they are worth the cash at the persent time.....................:jawdrop: Nvidia 8800GTS640 seems to be a much better deal.

Nordic Hardware did air, waterblock, cascade and LN2 overclocking... looks like 920-950mhz is possible for a good watercooling system without vmods. :grin: They later switched to LN2 and with 1.45v managed 1150MHz. After a 1.5vcore mod they got 1200MHz on the core, which means 1200MHz shaders... wish I could see those benchmark numbers as I bet the GTX would have been outgunned. VRzone did a 1GHz core overclock with a cascade and only a small notch to 1.35vcore.

I feel the GTS is a better deal, but only for the moment. And this is only looking at game performance... R600 has plenty of other reasons not directly releated to gaming that can can make it a more attractive option.

I've seen the card perform anywhere from below to just above a GTS, in one case it did tie the GTX. The drivers need to be tuned, but reports are with every incremental update performance is going up. Crossfire DOES work just fine, Anandtech included Crossfire tests. For the price of Crossfire a XFX 8800GTX Ultra XXX Edition would offer supreme performance above anything else out there right now, at much less power draw.

Due to how the architecture was designed, a 900-950MHz core/shader speed could either have a huge impact on performance, or have very little. Either way it will still depend on the game in question as well. I will reserve judgement until I see some full waterblock tests done on these cards and with some moderately tuned drivers used. :)

[Bio-Hazard]

Like I said above "at the persent time", and everyone should know by now that drivers improve performance with each new release, but just how long will it take them to get the drivers worked out, if they completely do before the next gen is released, that's the $64,000 question. I for one, at this time and space, would not be willing to jump on the bandwagon and risk well over $400 on the chance that the card will be worth a crap in the next 6 months, let along invest in another PSU just to OC the thing.

[darkorb]

Well with the power this thing demands, i dont wana get a new PSU, so 8800gts 640mb for me!

[Kougar]

And those are good points. But here are my own reasons why I am still interested in buying one. A) Because I'd be buying 2 of the three Valve games anyway, B) I am anxious to see how much better ATI's drivers can be as NVidia's left much to be desired, C) I can make good use of the full HDTV video decoding, D) I plan to run F@H on it, E) I can OC it to the moon, even if I do reach the point of spontaneous combustion in the process. I am willing to bank that with a ~200MHz core/shader overclock it will become a GTS killer, and a GTX contender. And F) Support for upcoming Valve / DX10 technologies, so it is easily more future proof than a G80 card.

Any PSU that can handle a 8800GTX can handle a HD 2900XT, the difference is 20watts under load. If it can be OCed to GTX performance then the extra watts it will require isn't a dealbreaker for me.

Edit: Heck, the 2900 uses the same power draw as a 8800 Ultra. If the performance difference can be shrunk, then this is being turned into a bigger deal than it should be. The 640MB GTS has an official $400 MSRP as well, so once MIR's start appearing the 2900 will fall to the same or cheaper prices.

[Bio-Hazard]

Of all the points you listed, only one applies to me really, and I'll let you guess which one that would be...........;) I've already got a second loop for my GPU and I've also got a extra MCR220 and 320 radiator standing by just in case I need it for a future card. I guess one of my biggest complaints with the card right now in the form that it's shipped is price vers performance. Actually a PSU plays no part in getting one or not as my OCZ 700 should push the card easy enough, and if not, I have a new Cooler Master 850w new sitting in the box waiting for a reason to be used.

[Kougar]

Oh, so you are buying Episode Two and the mod Portals as well? :mrgreen:

With any luck some companies will build some excellent GPU waterblocks for this card, if anything I'd be amazed if they don't as it should really show the benefits to using them even more than on G80 cards. I just hope they release them soon, I'm all ready to get a card, slap on a waterblock, and hole up in my "cave" for a week to have my way with one. :tongue: Right now my watercooling loop is making mincemeat of just a paltry E6300, the radiator just doesn't get warm no matter what I overclock to.

[Bio-Hazard]

The Swiftech GPU block MCW60 should fit the GPU only already, but you'll need sinks for the ram and other warmer chips. .........;) AlsoDanger Den has a block that should be ready shortly if it's not out already, I'm checking around now for more info, I'll keep you posted.

A Block for the HD 2900XT Block Written by Jeremy Monday, 14 May 2007 Some of you speculated the previous post was a block for the new Rage 3D or the new S3 card...but nope it is infact the block for the new ATI HD 2900 XT monster.

We will have more info on this product and availability soon.





http://www.dangerden.com/

[sushrukh]

B) I am anxious to see how much better ATI's drivers can be as NVidia's left much to be desired.


Kougs for your point number B , SwedBear has already said that the AMD drivers are much better than the Nvidia drivers :- http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13610


I would say, hats off to AMD that their first driver is quite stable & i think nobody has yet experienced a driver related issue while testing or benchmarking.I believe that it can be OC'ed to offer a performance at par with the GTX if you use the 8-pin connector.So,XT has much more improvement potential than the GTS.Images also look much better than the G80s.There are other facilities too like the HDMI Video output with Dolby sound & the full HD encoding like the Kougs has said.

Have a look at the following benchies:-
-------------------------------------

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2007/newsphotos/apr/2900XT_8800GTX_1.jpg

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2007/newsphotos/apr/2900XT_8800GTX_2.jpg

Note the performance diff.It can easily be said that the XT can outperform(or atleast equal) even the GTX if properly OC'ed or with any upcoming better driver.

To me, the Crysis benchmark is most important coz it's the only DX10 application we have now & you can see that the XT has yielded more performance than even the GTX.In Crysis,the XT has beaten the hell out of GTX in all the resolutions despite the fact that it has been tested with the first driver,at the stock settings & it has lower amount of memory.It should be clear that the XT has more potential than even the GTX atleast in DX10 based applications.

[werty316]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/431/13/
In Crysis,the XT has beaten the hell out of GTX in all the resolutions
Beaten the hell out it huh? Less than 10fps is far from beaten the hell out of it plus I wouldn't reply on a game that isn't even out let alone reply on one benchmark.

Since the G80 has been out since Nov. 2006, AMD/ATi had alot of time to develop the R600 and results speak words.

Read some other reviews and tell me the HD2900XT owns the 8800GTX: http://www.dailytech.com/5142007+Daily+Hardware+Reviews++ATI+Radeon+HD+2900 +XT+Edition/article7257.htm

[PP Mguire]

I agree with Werty. Im quite dissapointed in this card. For the time it took to come out, the specs are so much better, but yet where is the performance we where all expecting. Not only that, for Crysis that is only a demo. Wait till the real game comes out to really make a decision on DX10 apps. And for consuming so much power, i would expect higher clocks which i believe would wield a better card. (obviously, but im talking stock). For ppl who only want to run their cards stock, i say Nvidia FTW.

[Kougar]

Thanks for the info Bio! The block looks good, although I wouldn't mind a non-acrylic version since no one will be able to see it anyway and it'll transfer heat better.

I am becoming somewhat perplexed though, there is way to much discrepancy between all the reviews. Right now I don't trust Anandtech's numbers, forget out of the ballpark they are out of the state in some cases. According to my contact our numbers were similar to what they were getting, and both were with Vista. R600 might be out of place with XP, I'll have to find someone else besides Bjorn3D that tested with Vista. Under Vista R600 always either outperforms or in a couple cases ties with the GTS.

[werty316]

Unless it is a game rendered in DX10, why does it have to be Vista?

nVidia made a pretty big performance improvement with their 15x.xx drivers and lets hope AMD/ATi does the same.

[Bio-Hazard]

Thanks for the info Bio! The block looks good, although I wouldn't mind a non-acrylic version since no one will be able to see it anyway and it'll transfer heat better.

I am becoming somewhat perplexed though, there is way to much discrepancy between all the reviews. Right now I don't trust Anandtech's numbers, forget out of the ballpark they are out of the state in some cases. According to my contact our numbers were similar to what they were getting, and both were with Vista. R600 might be out of place with XP, I'll have to find someone else besides Bjorn3D that tested with Vista. Under Vista R600 always either outperforms or in a couple cases ties with the GTS.
You might wait a little to see if Swiftech comes up with something special for the ATi cards, but I wouldn't hold my breath as Swiftech normally goes with the high percentage market these days for a larger profit margin now that they are a public company.

I haven't been a fan of Anandtech for a while now, they seem to pay a one sided ball game and also like to leak a bit to much info for my liking.

[Kougar]

I will admit Anandtech has been pretty one-sided a few times... I don't hold them accountable for Dailytech though as much of that are just individual blogs anyway and slanted news reports.

I was hoping Swiftech would have something, it would be a bit sad if not. You are right in that is how a public company works though...

.Ars Technica had a small report on the HD 2900... it has some very interesting info in it regarding how the software/driver interact that might explain at least a few things. Leave it to them to find out details everyone else has missed. ;)

[Bio-Hazard]

You could always give Gabe (Swiftech) a call now that you're a staff member and ask if there's anything coming out in the near future for the 2900 series.........;) I'll PM you his number at Swiftech.

[sushrukh]

All the HD2900XT Reviews :-
-----------------------
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1099&pageID=3433

http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/radeon-hd-2900xt/index.x?pg=1

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2988

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/449

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1100/ati_radeon_hd_2900_xt_amd_s_long_awaited_r600_dx10 _gpu_arrives/index.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/HD_2900_XT

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chilehardware.com%2FR evisiones%2FTarjetas-de-Video%2FATI-Radeon-HD2900XT-200705131808.html&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/ATI_Radeon_HD_2900_XT__R600_Has_Arrived/

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM0MSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/407/


http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ati_2900xt/

[sushrukh]

A brief Performance comparison b2in the GTS & the XT :- http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/r600-part3.html


F.E.A.R :-
---------------------
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/r600/f-pr.png

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (HDR) :-
---------------------------------
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/r600/sc2-pr.png

Company Of Heroes :-
---------------------------------
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/r600/ch-pr.png


3DMark06: SHADER 3.0 MARKS :-
---------------------------------
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/r600/m62-pr.png

Testing under Windows Vista

FarCry, Research (No HDR) :-
------------------------------
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/r600/vista/fc1-pr.png

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (HDR) :-
---------------------------------
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/r600/vista/sc2-pr.png

Call Of Juarez DX10 Benchmark :-
----------------------------------
http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/r600/vista/cj-pr.png


" Conclusions

ATI RADEON HD 2900 XT (R600) 512MB PCI-E is generally very successful for its price. It obviously and definitely outperforms the competing GeForce 8800 GTS. But we still feel that drivers do not allow the novelty to spread wings, especially with AA. So, let's wait for updates.

Meanwhile, we can state the following:

Excellent performance for 1600x1200 even with AA+AF
Fully-fledged DX10 support;
HQ anisotropy by default
New AA modes
Speaking of contras, firstly, it's cooler noise. Of course, it's a matter of taste. Some do pay attention to that, while some try to build noiseless rigs.

Secondly, it's very high power consumption. The card requires 220W!

By the way, test results indicate that HD 2900 XT should not be more expensive than 8800 GTS - then it will be attractive. Otherwise, its disadvantages will overbalance. "

[werty316]

First DX10 benchmark?.., hell yeah and its Call Of Juarez.

Anyhow there are some numbers mentioned but more so there are three videos which are quite sweet.

Screenshots from the two dDX9/DX10 comparison videos:

http://img147.imagevenue.com/loc674/th_56770_snapshot20070515141623.bmp_122_674lo.jpg (http://img147.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=56770_snapshot20070515141623.bmp_122 _674lo.jpg) http://img139.imagevenue.com/loc389/th_56775_snapshot20070515141819_122_389lo.jpg (http://img139.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=56775_snapshot20070515141819_122_389 lo.jpg)
(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Hit up the link if you haven't read/seen this yet:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/431/17/

[tomato]

Wow.

[Chakka]

I am becoming somewhat perplexed though, there is way to much discrepancy between all the reviews.

Your right on Kougar - I posted a similar comment over on hardocp and got whacked for saying it....my post read that I thought the numbers from the hardocp seem inconsistent with other reviews and was told if I dont like the review, go elsewhere.

My point was that Ive never remember seeing so much inconsistency over reviews of the same product...just doesnt make any sense to me...what really going on?

[Bio-Hazard]

From what I remember you saying was a bit more pointed than that.......;) But everyone has their own opinion as they say..........:) You just have to take each review with a grain of salt and average the numbers as basicly no 2 sites review the same way nor do they use the same software versions or hardware. That all plays a role in the outcome of reviews. And lets not forget that there are a bunch of sites out there that tend to skew their results towards one company or another, but you should already know that.

[Kougar]

Bio, then what do you say regarding LegitReviews? I took a look at their results and they are even better then our own, the HD 2900 outperformed a stock and overclocked GTS card even in most results, and even beat the GTX twice.

Then there are sites like Anandtech that show HD 2900 losing to a x1950XTX. Averaging results between LegitReviews and Anandtech is like averaging "good" with "abysmal"... :lol: I strongly suspect the driver situation is behind much of the problem though, not only are there 3.6, 3.7, and now 3.8 drivers out there... but there are actually several versions of the "3.7" drivers.

I wish I could step back for a week, or even better a month, and see a clearer picture when the dust has time to settle, this is the best policy before judging new hardware. However now that I'm on the other side of the "fence" I don't have this option anymore... :roll:

[Bio-Hazard]

You hit the nail on the head, everyone is running different drivers along with different types of benchmarks, there's no real way to make a sound judgement on performance the way things stand right now. Abot the only thing all them agree on is the heat and power issues, which both of them along could make or break the card.

I don't know how many people really know this, but before I won my 7900GT, my last nviaia based card was way back when Creative made video cars, I was a stead fast ATi user for years and years and was really hoping that ATI would make it back in the game big time. All, or most of the performance issues will be fixed with drivers, and I'd bet on sooner rather than later, so that part of most of the reviews I really don't pay much attention to anyways, I'm more interested in the heat and power issues...............;) After all, I only play one game........UT, and I don't do video or any of the other silly stuff, just my one game and OC'ing the crap out of stuff, that's where I have my fun.

[sushrukh]

In my opinion, the Digit Life review is the most detailed than others.

Link :- http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/r600-part3.html

The only problem i can found & which is common on many websites is that AMD needs to tweak the drivers to fix the performance decrease when AA & AF are enabled.AMD is also thinking of a Die Shrinking to 65 to reduce the power draw which is another problem.

GTX/GTS also requires a high-powered PSU to run properly.XT only requires that you should have a 550W PSU. Any PSU which can drive one or two GTS/GTX is able to handle a single XT or Crossfire.

Other than these,when a game is heavily Shaded(Pixel/Vertex) i've seen that XT leaves others behind.We just can't ignore the 512 Bit bus & the 320 Stream Processors.

[PP Mguire]

I can say one thing though. Who cares? Either card will pwn your Aspen and give you great performance. Its a choice of preference and price now becasue both cards will obviously give you great performance. No real argument there.

[westy87]

After all, I only play one game........UT, and I don't do video or any of the other silly stuff, just my one game and OC'ing the crap out of stuff, that's where I have my fun.

UT2004? What server? I play UT2k4 a fair bit. I split my time bw that and FEAR at moment

[sushrukh]

ASUS HD 2900XT: Overclocking Review

Link :- http://www.nordichardware.com/Reviews/?page=1&skrivelse=510

The GTS 640MB simply doesn't stand a chance against the XT.



After half a day of sweating and tearing our hair we finally reached 30,000 points in 3D Marks 05. A new world record, with by about 400 points margin to Kingpin's previous world record.

[darkorb]

3dmark06 is a synthetic benchmark as many have said, and it isn't real world performance in a way.

It does beat the GTS, but in other benchmarks it loses to it in games.

[Chakka]

From what I remember you saying was a bit more pointed than that.......;) But everyone has their own opinion as they say..........:) You just have to take each review with a grain of salt and average the numbers as basicly no 2 sites review the same way nor do they use the same software versions or hardware. That all plays a role in the outcome of reviews. And lets not forget that there are a bunch of sites out there that tend to skew their results towards one company or another, but you should already know that.

LOL - yes I did add a little bit more to my comments but it was fun just "fueling the flames" a little bit.

I do think there are 2 themes from the reviews:

1. the 2900 is a power hog (may cause some of us to upgrade our psus)
2. the benchmarks are very inconsistent from review to review.

While the reviews dont need to be in exact unison, they shouldnt be this far off either.

[Bio-Hazard]

3dmark06 is a synthetic benchmark as many have said, and it isn't real world performance in a way.

It does beat the GTS, but in other benchmarks it loses to it in games.

Anybody that buys any card on the basis of 3D marks alone is a complete fool. It proves nothing to anybody except for the small group that competes in the Future mark charts. Real world game play is where its at for real world people..........;)

[sushrukh]

Anybody that buys any card on the basis of 3D marks alone is a complete fool. It proves nothing to anybody except for the small group that competes in the Future mark charts. Real world game play is where its at for real world people..........;)

There are games as well.Nobody is so stupid that he/she will buy anything without properly knowing what he/she is going to buy.We can just wait patiently so that the new driver comes out & the results on all the websites get identical.

[Bio-Hazard]

You think..........

[werty316]

New drivers or not I would not buy a HD2900XT because of the high temps and power requirements.

[sushrukh]

Ya, those are the main flaws that can go against it.AMD is thinking of a Die Shrink though.

[werty316]

Ya, those are the main flaws that can go against it.AMD is thinking of a Die Shrink though.
That is where the R650 AKA HD2900XTX comes into play later on this year using 65nm manufacturering process.

However if the HD2900XTX doesn't show some sort of improvement in those two areas, who knows what AMD/ATi will do.

[sushrukh]

Actually I've heard that AMD will be releasing another card which will boast of 1GB DDR4 memory but that will not be named as the XTX.It'll simply be called the HD2900XT 1GB DDR4 version.

An unofficial bench of this card is here:- http://www.fx57.net/?p=660

As, i'm also a member in the Xtremesystems forum, i know that the benchmark isn't fake.

Noticed the card info on the right ? It has been listed as the 2900XT with 1GB DDR4 memory.

[werty316]

Until I see it and its official, I'll take it with little optimism.

[sushrukh]

Ya, that's right.Anything that's not official can't be taken seriously.Time will tell us.

[Kougar]

I suggest you give this a read then. If you look at the numbers it is pretty clear why ATI did not release a 1GB GDDR4 XTX model. Link (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7052) R600 can't make use of the faster RAM because it already has a 512bit wide memory bus that gives it more memory bandwidth than it can use.

[sushrukh]

Yes, Kougs, i know this coz i've posted that Daily Tech link here much b4 :- http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13412

So, 1GB DDR4 version doesn't have any performance benefits over the XT.It's really sad.

[Kougar]

Ah, sorry. It sounded like ya hadn't see the article, as there is no point in launching a GDDR4, let alone a 1GB equipped card.

I think the lack of performance benefits is actually a great way to show the power of the 512bit wide memory bus. If they had gone with the 256 or 384bit wide bus then there would be much lower performance on the XT, and it would require the faster GDDR4 RAM just to get the performance back to there it is right now. :) Because higher clocked RAM on Nvidia cards has a appreciable affect on performance (Especially with the 8600 series, there is a reason they were the first to introduce 2300MHz GDDR3!) you can now reason that the 384/320/128bit wide memory buses NVIDIA cards use are bottlenecking their performance to some degree, including the GTX.

If the 65nm respin of R600 does not become the XTX version, then they will simply skip it and do a 2950XT instead and then likely create an 2950XTX once yields stabilize and quality improves to raise the clocks. If there is one certain thing, it is that ATI is doing everything they can right now to shrink their chip for both cost savings and higher clockspeeds at lower power requirments!

[sushrukh]

Right.I'm also thinking the same way as you Kougs.Let's see what happens.They also need to make a new driver which can fix the issue of performance decrease when both the AA & AF are turned on.

[werty316]

New drivers would be great but that wouldn't help the power and heat issues which will hopefully be fixed in the R650.

[Bio-Hazard]

Customer Reviews are starting to show up on the retail sites, seems heat problems are pretty bad when the card is installed in a closed case, and some even with water cooling.............can you say a phase cooling system to get the most out of the card.

Pros: A definate upgrade from the 1K series. Graphics look amazing.

Cons: This is the competion for Nvidia? You've got to be kidding me? The 8800GTX, (I own both) buries this thing.

Other Thoughts: TOO HOT! Driver issues..(that's to be expected) TOO MUCH POWER DRAW! Too loud...Blah blah blah. I should have bought a second GTX.

Pros: well its about the same as a 8800gts sometimes 2-10% better others 2-10 worse

Cons: however when its hits 100c its not worth it, i did a hell test on this (close case 1 120mm fan) it toped at 107c and the heat was about 62c inside the case and was riseing fast, burned right hand trying to remove it (5minutes after power was cut) and i would never use any ati card again back to 8800gts

Other Thoughts: if you buy this buy oven mitts

Pros: This card displays graphics for the oblivion really niced on maxed settings. but has downfalls

Cons: This card was probably the most overhyped card so far. My expectation were set to high and the card gets really really hot. my comp crashed because it got to hot and in comparison to 8800 gts they perform the same to me and 8800 is cheaper and more cooler in terms of temp and performance.

Other Thoughts: If i had the option now i would not buy the card and instead buy something better like a new monitor or a bunch of games.

Pros: The graphics are just ok compared to one 8800 eVga gts. The 8800 wins

Cons: Super hot. this thing ran at 94 c with 8 fans and water cooling. It ran slow and the drivers for it are very disappointing. I would not advise buying this. In fact i think they should take it off the market because it is so bad. 8800s for the win

Other Thoughts: DO NOT BUY THIS CARD UNLESS YOU HAVE LIQUID NITROGEN COOLING!!!

[PP Mguire]

This card was probably the most overhyped card so far. No the supre pwnage 5800ultra (sarcasm) was and it had the same problem. Under decent cooling and overclocked like mad the FX chips rocked.

[Kougar]

You know, I just realized not one review I've read to date mentioned GPU temps for R600... I will assume I just missed or skipped that info though. It underscores why the card is able to clock much higher under watercooling though...

212 degrees Fahrenheit is just way to much, I don't even want to guess how hot two aircooled Crossfire 2900 cards would get. My radiator is rated for 1kW of TDP, but I would not care to test two R600 cards and a Quadcore chip to find out just how good that claim is. :roll:

[Bio-Hazard]

That 1000 watts that your radiator is rated to is under oprimum conditions,,,,,,,,,,;) ie. super highspeed fans(Tornado) and a super pump (350 V8 pumping water through the core. .................:) Those heat ratings are very misleading, they never spell out all the other components that are need to get to those ratings................;)
I know that I wouldn't even want to mix my CPU and a 2900 in the same loop.

[Kougar]

Ach. Good points there! I would assume though that since it comes with the fans they are part of that 1kW rating, or would I be wrong? I did slow them down so the computer remains inaudible, which probably would not remain inaudible if an 2900 was added to the loop. I already have the Laing D5, how much super does it need to be?? :mrgreen:

[Bio-Hazard]

Actually the smaller DDC2 with a modded top will bring you more performance (IAW the makers tests), it has a lot more head pressure than the D5 does (modded and stock). I've got a Dell version of the pump and I'm going to get a modded top and give it a try myself to see just what happens. Thet say that through a typical loop a D5 will push somewhere around 1 GPM (True, I tested that much) but the DDC2 they say will do around 2 GPM with it's extra head pressure.

[sushrukh]

Another review of HD2900XT with the GTX & the GTS:-
-------------------------------------------------------
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd-2900-games.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/radeon-hd-2900-games/results_table.png

* - first place
** - second place
*** - third place
Equal amount of asterisk means draw.