HD2000 - The First GPU's Under the AMD Name

[Kougar]

Reviewer: Mr. Björn "SwedBear" Endre

Date Published: May 14, 2007

Excerpt: "The HD2000 series of GPU's is a first for AMD in many ways. It is their first GPU's they release after they bought ATI. It is their first GPU's with DX10 support and it is their first GPU's with an unified shader architecture. We have taken some time to examine all the new features and also benchmarks the new enthusiast card from AMD, the HD2900XT"


http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/video/hd2000/2900xt_shot1.jpg

Please feel free to post your comments and questions here!

Link To Review (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1099)

[liqnit]

Great Review!!
Thanks for a very detailed and deep into tech review.
I wasn't aware of the many new features AMD has implemented.

[Bio-Hazard]

To bad most of them still can't be used as of yet, nor in the near future, guess time will tell if and what they bring to the playing table...............;)

[Chakka]

Great review again and another reason I hang out on this forum!

All I have to say is that the reviews on this website are much more informative. Although its probably not a good idea to trash another review, the most negative one Ive seen on this 2900 card is from the big [H] - see I didnt name the website!

The biggest difference between the nvidia 8800 series and the ati 2900 series is the power requirements and heat problems. It looks like the 2900 is highly overclockable (to get much closer to the 8800gtx from what I can see others doing). But in order to do that, I would have to upgrade my psu and look for an aftermarket cooler....which significantly adds to the price/performance ratio.

I also wonder if the 2900 will perform better on a 965 intel chipset or a new 35 intel series chipset...dont know if that would make a difference in performance either. Finally, I am also starting to see reports that the 2900 in crossfire mode may be better than the 8800 series in sli....interesting.

[Bio-Hazard]

Every review I read said basicly the same thing, maybe some in a nicer less offending way, but the results were all basily the same. The HD2900 just isn'y cracked up to what it is supposed to be really, it's a good conender against the 8800GTS, but at a higher price point along with higher power draw and heat output (both bad in my book). As for OC, yes, if you volt mod the thing (even more heat) and throw a phase cooler on it (another grand) you can get some great performance out of the card, but the same exact thing cand be done with any other card out on the market these days (class for class).

[werty316]

On paper the specs are quite inpressive but pound for pound the HD2900XT ain't so great as it has sub par performance compared to the 8800GTS.

With all this time AMD/ATi had you would have figured they'd have something good; I am doubtful of the HD2900XTX now.

[Scott]

Yeah and NVIDIA was expecting a good GPU to fight the GTX, that is why the Ultra Exist.

[darkorb]

Nice review man. Although something caughtmy eye and i dont no if its me or what.

"It was therefore a bit odd to leave the Tunis event realizing that AMD this time has chosen to not compete with the GeForce 8800GTX or the GeForce 8800GTX Ultra."

Thats in the conclusion.

Isnt it just the GTX or the ULTRA?

[Faitfull]

Well, the idear of more power just to do the same like gf8800gts

I look forward to see what the amd2600XT can do, i do not think that 2900XT can leve up to what is expected of a gf card in the high end, and still even sligtly stronger than the gts, the gts is by far not so hot after all

[Kougar]

Things like hardware tessellation are being designed into the next update to DX10, and it's fairly evident Valve is already going to make use of this feature in their future games even before that happens. I am not sure if Episode Two, TF 2, or Portals make use of it or not, but Valve has certainly had the time and opportunity to do so as they were building these games ON R600 cards.

920-950MHz core (and therefore shader) overclocks are possible with a good watercooling system without any Vmods. I've not seen performance figures for those yet, but either way it would be enough to completely outgun the GTS in most games if nothing else, and it does have the potential for more but I'll have to wait and see some benches with these speeds using tuned drivers first to say if it makes the card GTX level.

Darkorb, since Bjorn mentioned the 8800GTX just before I think it is fairly safe to assume he meant 8800 Ultra there. ;) I fixed the typo anyway.

[Bio-Hazard]

The only problem with all these new features coming out on the new cards for the new games is, just how long and how many generations of video cards will come and go before we see the first game released that makes use of these new features. I'd be willing to be that the next gen Nvidia card will be on the streets before we see a retail version of any full DX10 enabled game. I truely hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so at the rate the game companies keep pushing the release dates back.

[darkorb]

8900 series is around August?