VR-Zone x2900xt review

[CrystalBay]

CoJ DX10

 

[Regs]

Apop, you're poking me with a stick of something I wish not to rant about at this time.

Though the XT is not the offical flagship in a marketing sense. Yeap, I agree.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: apoppin

and i'm sorry , Regs but this HD-XT is NOT "ATi's flagship"

Nope their flagship would be Barcelona. The XT is just a side product from a division of AMD.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Regs
Apop, you're poking me with a stick of something I wish not to rant about at this time.

Though the XT is not the offical flagship in a marketing sense. Yeap, I agree.

not intentionally ... i'm sorry

the XT is aimed at the GTS

in *that* sense it succeeded ...

and i can "rant" about a LOT of "things AMD"

they didn't get off to such a good start with ATi ...

they are 9 months late ... their product is power hungry

...

agreed ... i hate it too

but it IS a "competitive" product to the GTS ...

AMD's *flagship* for their r600 line is MiA ...
the 'Competitor' for the GTX ultra has not yet arrived

i guess they didn't want it to be a *joke* ... like the DustBuster was

i expect something at least as 'quality' as the XT and just as competitive with the Ultra ...
... soon enough ...

but this *round* is between HD-XT vs. GTS

 

[MadBoris]

Originally posted by: CrystalBay
CoJ DX10

Well it's a shame ATI didn't improve AF over R580. G80 has superior AF.

Interesting that the DX10 Call of Juarez benchmark runs a bit better that the GTS but not as fast as the GTX.
But seriously, we need more DX10 data, one game that runs at 20fps doesn't make me all excited for DX10 or for the reliability of this game to paint a clear DX10 performance picture.

 

[CrystalBay]

I may buy it once the price dips abit with a free game....

 

[CrystalBay]

I agree Boris , I played CoJ DEMO on my 6800U and it was a very good and interesting game. but could not handle SM3 very well..

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: CrystalBay
I may buy it once the price dips abit with a free game....

i guess it isn't released yet ... officially

aren't some cards to be bundled with HL Ch2 and TF3 coupons ?


i guess on Monday we will see IF the market has enough cards ... or it will be like the PS3 launch

.... snooze ...
:clock: :moon:

but at least with the HD-XT if it is NOT successful, AMD will price cut

but IF it is successful, expect nvidia to drop prices on the GTS

that sound sgood to me too

 

[MadBoris]

Dunno if this was is floating around here yet.
The most favorable 2900xt marks yet.

http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?cat=grfx&id=511&pagenumber=1


EDIT:

I call shenanigans on this too.
They are using GTS and GTX scores from the original launch nvidia drivers from their 7 month old benchmarks
Compare old 8800 release scores: http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?cat=grfx&id=474&pagenumber=5
Compare nvidia scores on 2900xt review: http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?cat=grfx&id=511&pagenumber=2

More bad review methodology, no wonder drivers weren't mentioned.

 

[apoppin]

no kidding it IS favorable:

CoD2The Radeon HD 2900 XT performs exactly where AMD has positioned it- better than the 640MB 8800GTS but not as good as the 8800GTX. It performs considerably better than the 640MB GTS in most of the tests above posting scores that are 4-17% higher. Compared to their previous flagship product, the HD 2900 XT certainly shows a very impressive gain across all resolutions and details.

This is a bit of a surprise- I wasn't expecting the HD to perform as well in Quake 4 as its OpenGL engine has always preferred the nVidia GPU, however, it seems that AMD have done a pretty impressive job with the HD and it falls exactly under the same ladder as the previous two games. Compared to the X1950XTX, the HD performs incredibly well- upto 47% faster.

serious sam perf is blamed on immature drivers

and

Again, we see similar performance in F.E.A.R. where the HD 2900 XT performs 7-23% better than the 8800GTS-640MB. Compared to the X1950 XTX, the HD shows pretty reasonable improvements of 5-34%.

looks pretty *good* to me - for a $400 MSRP Video card with maybe a couple of game coupons included
:Q

their conclusion

While I've only looked at some of the gaming aspects of the HD 2900 XT- there is a lot more to it that just that. Its GPGPU capabilities have advanced a lot more than ATI's X1800/X1900 series while watching HD videos is also native to the GPU- taking a much needed load off the CPU. AMD calls this technology UVD or Universal Video Decoder that basically handles the entire deode process, offloading from both the CPU and the GPU and handles full 40Mbps bit-rates. On a mobile platform, this would translate to watching an entire HD movie on one battery charge. One thing I forgot to mention was the bundled DVI to HDMI converter that not only carries video, but audio signals as well. The HD 2900 XT has an audio processor inside it, however, you will still need a codec on your motherboard.

AMD has also done a pretty good job with the pricing of the HD 2900 XT suggested at $399. I'm sure that within a couple of months, you should be able to get it at $349 which is less than half of what nVidia has their 8800GTX Ultra priced at. I personally feel that $799 for a graphics card is insane.

for *my $800* ... i'd much rather buy 2 HD2900xts

the GTX ultra wouldn't stand a performance chance in hell

 

[CrystalBay]

I expect to see it @ 349 with free black box games by 6/15 at least

 

[MadBoris]

See my edit above... They compared the 2900xt to 7 month old 8800gts/GTX benchmarks.
I guess it's a good GPU release comparison, but not a good today comparison.

This review chose games that do well on the 2900xt as well, so it is a bit lopsided. Comparing price of XT to 7800 ultra. LOL

Still waiting for the real review sites, enough of this nonsense.

 

[apoppin]

before that

with similarly priced GTses

betcha

nvidia has to respond

i kinda like the idea of spending $700 to completely kick the crap outta an $800 card


actually i *hate* the idea of spending money

:Q

but ... to compare

Ross ... i mean ... HD2900XT ... there's no comparison
:roll:



and MadBoris ... i agree ... there IS a lot of MisInfo

but enough i think to see that AMD has found a decent competitor to the GTS

and that - for me - is 'exciting'

i believed AMD was *lost* ... just a couple of months [or less] ago

this is a "turning point" ... for AMD ...
they surmounted another huge hurdle

 

[CrystalBay]

They might as well throw in CoJ with the blackbox game to make it real FUN... While your waiting for the free black box game

 

[Zenoth]

I wonder if Zalman's VF900 series of GPU coolers are compatible with the HD 2900XT's board layout ...

I'm quite interested by the card, but only if I know I'll be able to buy a third-party cooling solution, I learned the hard way I had to do just that with my X1800XL, and ever since I did that I will always do it again. It's like selling a car with 4-season tires in a country where winter is the longest-lasting season, the driver, if right in his/her mind will go and buy season-specific tires instead ASAP. In other words as much as I like ATi I always had a profound and passionate hatred for their first-party cooling solutions.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I wonder if Zalman's VF900 series of GPU coolers are compatible with the HD 2900XT's board layout ...

I'm quite interested by the card, but only if I know I'll be able to buy a third-party cooling solution, I learned the hard way I had to do just that with my X1800XL, and ever since I did that I will always do it again. It's like selling a car with 4-season tires in a country where winter is the longest-lasting season, the driver, if right in his/her mind will go and buy season-specific tires instead ASAP. In other words as much as I like ATi I always had a profound and passionate hatred for their first-party cooling solutions.

I dont think the VF900 will be enough to cool this beast.

It wasnt even as good as the stock X1900 cooler was it?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Matt2

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I wonder if Zalman's VF900 series of GPU coolers are compatible with the HD 2900XT's board layout ...

I'm quite interested by the card, but only if I know I'll be able to buy a third-party cooling solution, I learned the hard way I had to do just that with my X1800XL, and ever since I did that I will always do it again. It's like selling a car with 4-season tires in a country where winter is the longest-lasting season, the driver, if right in his/her mind will go and buy season-specific tires instead ASAP. In other words as much as I like ATi I always had a profound and passionate hatred for their first-party cooling solutions.

I dont think the VF900 will be enough to cool this beast.

It wasnt even as good as the stock X1900 cooler was it?

however ... you can be *certain* that AMD's partners will be able to implement their OWN cooling solutions
- i think we will see some real "variety" in these cards

i guess the reference HSFan one is OK ... doesn't it exhaust hot air outside the case ... like the 8800s?

makes sense

they run pretty HOT

i think even my old aspire is OK with the air going out ... i liked the design on my ATi x850xt than my x1950p - even though the x850xt was loud

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: Matt2

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I wonder if Zalman's VF900 series of GPU coolers are compatible with the HD 2900XT's board layout ...

I'm quite interested by the card, but only if I know I'll be able to buy a third-party cooling solution, I learned the hard way I had to do just that with my X1800XL, and ever since I did that I will always do it again. It's like selling a car with 4-season tires in a country where winter is the longest-lasting season, the driver, if right in his/her mind will go and buy season-specific tires instead ASAP. In other words as much as I like ATi I always had a profound and passionate hatred for their first-party cooling solutions.

I dont think the VF900 will be enough to cool this beast.

It wasnt even as good as the stock X1900 cooler was it?

I don't know, that's why I was wondering about that myself ...

What I do know is that the X1800's default coolers, especially that of the X1800XL was less-than-abysmal, and that my Zalman VF700 saved the day for my RMA'd one.

However if I look at the list of supported cards, on the VF900 series, for ATi, it clearly mentions X*** series, without specifying if that means X1K or X2K, so it's either ambiguous or just as precise as it could be, which would mean that it in fact supports the HD 2900XT, because that's basically the X2K series named differently.

 

[CrystalBay]

I'm not badmouthin I just want more value from my AMD pucrchase ( nevermind socket 939rs)

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: CrystalBay
I'm not badmouthin I just want more value from my AMD pucrchase ( nevermind socket 939rs)

seriously ... i *want* it to beat the GTX ultra for $400

that'd shut *everyone* up
... we'd be in AWE ... well, except for Gstanfor ... who want his SLI'd Ultras ... no matter WHAT !

--but is that reasonable to expect?

IF it is "faster" than the GTS, has reasonably similar IQ -- AND is priced less WITH some 'extra' features AND a game bundle ...

... well then ... WtF?
?


what MORE do you want for your dollar?

i'm impressed

. . . NOT "in awe"

lets see what the rest of the reviews have to say!

 

[Gstanfor]

Hey, if you want crossfired R600 thats great.

I'll still be getting SLi'd 675/2300 G80 Ultras though, and the nice part is its only barely more expensive than purchasing GTX's would have been a month or two ago.

Oh, and what happened to the Dx10 performance (COJ)? I note that g80 (GTX) is still faster - if there were some architectural advantage, clock speed shouldn't really matter all that much.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor
Hey, if you want crossfired R600 thats great.

I'll still be getting SLi'd 675/2300 G80 Ultras though, and the nice part is its only barely more expensive than purchasing GTX's would have been a month or two ago.

*barely*

"only"

$1300 for a pair
:Q

you prove my point

*mine* - IF i cared to run them - would be over $500 less ... maybe way less in a week or so ... and there aren't many displays that you can run where there would be ANY practical difference between playing on our respective setups

you're just a *big spender*

that'll really impresses the girls


... more likely, the 'boys'
:roll:

and i *dont* want x-fire ... now with a 14x9 display ... that would be STUPID

otoh, a HD-XT would almost double my Frame rates ... i wouldn't mind going from 30s in STALKER ... to 50s

 

[lopri]

It's silly to compare the prices between 8800 Ultra and HD 2900 XT. 8800 Ultra is NV's experiment to break into new market - they want to know whether a $800, or even a $1,000 video card would sell in the market. I say, other than professional benchers, we should boycott it unless you want to pay $1,000 for a next flagship card where competition isn't fierce. This is especially significant because with the upcoming PCI-E 2, we'll probably starting to see external video cards with internal PCI-E connector cards.

Just like I didn't know about shimmering for a long time, the IQ difference between R600 and G80 is hard to notice for me unless being pointed out specifically. Obviously it's my personal problem (bad vision) but I don't think the IQ is a deal breaker between R600 and G80. What's worrying is the state of drivers. While AMD could fix and improve the performance and stability with future drive updates, currently what I'm hearing is the drivers are seemingly updated on a daily basis with drastic performance difference between each revision. Whether improvement is there or not, this doesn't look good to me at all.. (if anything it only tells me that they find issues on a daily basis)

 

[Gstanfor]

I've never had a problem with purchasing the performance I desire apoppin. Unlike you I'm not a total scrooge - I make good money. I realise that eventually my purchase will be worthless, but that's fine - it the nature of computer parts and anyone who can't accept that is in the wrong hobby.

We aren't even close to seeing prices double for Ultra down here. Reputable brand GTX's fetch $1079, most "regular" Ultras are $1299, the ones I'm interested in are $1399.

If they were priced like they are in the USA, we'd be paying $2158

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: apoppin
yeah ... on the XT

i *never* said "teh 7 series had suprerior IQ"[sic.]

--where do you get that?


and i said it looked "fine" ... i generally DON'T run with 'max' AF ... NEVER on the GS ... --except to test it
--neither on my x1950p ... i don't like the blurr

AF (anistropic filtering), not AA.

AF not only helps to reduce aliasing effects on distant textures, but introduces far less blur at extreme angles and preserves much more detail. in essence, it increases texture mapping quality - substantially.