8800GTS 640 vs 2900XT - The vote

[OpTioN]

I didn't see a GTS vs 2900 thread only the GTX.


So what do you think the better card is?


I think the XT will be better once the drivers mature.

[dinos22]

it depends what you use it for i guess but for me a big surprise is to find out that the 2900 card doesn't have hardware decoding capabilities for HD videos....that's no good for multimedia + gaming people

[Dr.D]

How is it bad for gaming people?

[dinos22]

How is it bad for gaming people?

i meant if you do multimedia+gaming

well gaming is good but HD playback well then it's a different story

i was hoping ATI would differentiate from Nvidia once and for all and finally introduce a hardware encoder/decoder for HD videos

they can all do it but Nvidia is tightlipped about it last time i asked them and ATI ....well no idea

[DataNusse]

Today if I would buy one of those card i would go for GTS 640mb. It feels like a more solid card.

[adamsleath]

some games really favour the x2900xt (eg. X3-reunion, company of heroes)

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4946&s=14 - 3dmark06

In many non Anti-Aliasing, High Definition game settings, you have seen the X2900XT push ahead of the performance of it's closest competitor, the GeForce 8800GTS 640MB, sometimes by quite a large margin, sometimes falling behind or ahead by a small percentage. In a select few games, the GTS is slightly faster, and vice versa. When Anti-Aliasing is turned on, the X2900XT showed that it carries it off with great efficiency in games that the drivers are optimized for, performing significantly better than the GTS; while the AA efficiency is piss-poor in some games due to the raw driver which has not fully blossomed to take advantage of ATi's new GPU technology. Just take a look at how performance has boosted from Drivers 8.36 to 8.37, that shows the potential in performance growth... a whole lot of it to reap.

wow; 2900xt is sh1thouse currently with 4xAA in HL2&BF2142...might be the current ati drivers.

...so until the drivers are sorted x2900xt

but when the drivers are sorted x2900xt probably.

[troisanh]

gts 640.

[jinsean]

I mostly play Vanguard right now and AFAIK Vanguard uses the Unreal 2.5 engine. When the expansion hits, they're supposedly moving to the Unreal 3.0 engine. Rainbow Six: Las Vegas (or whatever the newest Rainbow Six game) also uses Unreal Engine 2.0 or 3.0 and the x2900 is pretty much on par with the 8800gtx (according to anandtech). So basically, I'm going to wait until I see some more benchmarks with the x2900 on some dx10 games or games utilizing the unreal engine...

[adamsleath]

ati 7.5 drivers may have fixed some of the 2900xt's probs with aa and af.

[lowfat]

GTS 640mb. Here its a good $100 cheaper...

[malik22]

What would you guys choose if they where the same price as the GTS 640MB?

[dinos22]

What would you guys choose if they where the same price as the GTS 640MB?

what would you choose if Ultra and 2900XT were the same price

[Okda]

my vote goes to teh HD2900XT

nvidia drivers are mature enough so this is the maximum performance u can get from the 8800 while the AMD drivers are still far away from being mature and with every release performance increase

check even the anandtech's latest review showing how much increase HD2900xt got form the last driver release

[Soulburner]

Right now 8800 due to price.

[dnottis]

Well there is heat and power consumption too... and the 8pin PCI-e connector that you may not have on your PSU.

[Okda]

X2900XT works fine with 2 x 6pin connectors

[RangerXLT8]

HD2900XT. I'm digging mine. Other then being a thermal nightmare, it's a good card.

[purecain]

i'd go for the new hd2900xt. with their immature drivers its performance may increase over and over...

[road-runner]

I would and did buy the 2900xt because the drivers have to get better. Mine is currently RMA'd

[.devastatioN]

How about x2900XT crossfire vs 8800GTS 640MB SLi?

[The Runner]

X2900XT works fine with 2 x 6pin connectors

is that true? Does having the 8pin make it clock any better?

[DilTech]

my vote goes to teh HD2900XT

nvidia drivers are mature enough so this is the maximum performance u can get from the 8800 while the AMD drivers are still far away from being mature and with every release performance increase

check even the anandtech's latest review showing how much increase HD2900xt got form the last driver release

Cat 7.5 did next to nothing for the HD 2900XT.

Did any of you guys learn anything from the GeForce FX? NEVER IN YOUR LIFETIME BUY A PART BASED UPON THE "PROMISE" OF INCREASED PERFORMANCE IN THE FUTURE.

Also, you're only fooling yourself if you believe the 8 series is anywhere near it's peak performance. You realize a majority of the driver releases have been to fix the bugs it had with games, or did you just not read that interview with NVidia? You should see how much of a boost stalker got just going from the 158.22 to 158.27.

I mostly play Vanguard right now and AFAIK Vanguard uses the Unreal 2.5 engine. When the expansion hits, they're supposedly moving to the Unreal 3.0 engine. Rainbow Six: Las Vegas (or whatever the newest Rainbow Six game) also uses Unreal Engine 2.0 or 3.0 and the x2900 is pretty much on par with the 8800gtx (according to anandtech). So basically, I'm going to wait until I see some more benchmarks with the x2900 on some dx10 games or games utilizing the unreal engine...

Don't base UE3.0 performance on Rainbow Six:Vegas, considering it was a piss poor port. Currently, you can try your rig with roboblitz, which is also a UE3 game... The G80 has no problems at all running it, regardless of resolution.

i'd go for the new hd2900xt. with their immature drivers its performance may increase over and over...

Or, you could end up spending $400+ and never get any added performance out of the card, and watch a cheaper card continually beat it, all the while waiting for the next supposed "miracle driver".

This is why people say don't buy a card based upon claims of future performance.

As for the original poster, get a 8800GTS.

[malik22]

How about x2900XT crossfire vs 8800GTS 640MB SLi?

I would like to know this too but gaming performance not 3dmark.

[Okda]

for gaming u better get a single card and update ti frequently better than paying around 1000$ for vga cards that after several months will be useless and a single new card will beat them

[Soulburner]

for gaming u better get a single card and update ti frequently better than paying around 1000$ for vga cards that after several months will be useless and a single new card will beat them

My thoughts exactly...not to mention 2900XT Crossfire power draw