Official HD 2900 Discussion Thread

[vengance_01]

Well most ppl can get close to GTX Speeds with a GTS as long as you O/C the card. At near 200$, the 8800GTS 320MB card is really a difficult card to beat unless you are running super high resolution.

[7he ]-[0rr0r]

AA isn't properly enabled in COH on my X1950XTX either unless I rename the .exe to "Oblivion.exe". I believe this game uses HDR, and thus somehow you have to make the drivers think it's Oblivion (chuck patch, anyone?) to make it work. It's been like this since Cat 7.1 or so.

Do you have catalyst ai enabled? That *may* have sothing to do with it.

[ahmad]

Obviously question #1 is which drivers were used. Second thing is, they show both AM2 and Conroe hardware in the system specs, and a few motherboards. This is a huge flaw because if they ran the ATI tests on the AMD platform, we all know its gonna be worse than if it was run on the Intel setup.

And 3rd and most important thing is: show me stock 3dmark numbers. They don't mean much to me, but I use them as a reference when looking at results.

This review tells me nothing besides the fact that the author wasted his time and ours...

EDIT: I am referring to this: http://it-review.net/index.php?optio...=1314&Itemid=1

[jagt]

Do you have catalyst ai enabled? That *may* have sothing to do with it.

Ah yes, that's correct. I've always used Catalyst AI as it gives me slightly higher 3Dmark scores. I'll try disabling that tomorrow and test.

What is it, and why would it matter? I mean, the AA works if I rename the .exe to Oblivion.

[Xion X2]

Well most ppl can get close to GTX Speeds with a GTS as long as you O/C the card. At near 200$, the 8800GTS 320MB card is really a difficult card to beat unless you are running super high resolution.

Oh boy.. here we go with this stuff again.

Apples to oranges. Can you not also overclock a GTX to widen the performance gap once again?

I've never understood the mindset of guys who want to compare an overclocked card with a non-overclocked card. Makes no sense.

A better comparison to make in this case would be a GTX overclocked to its max on stock voltage and an XT overclocked to its max on stock voltage. That's the setup that will be most common.

[fornowagain]

Just revisiting the review posted earlier they've added this, which is strangely exactly how I imagined him to look.

[ownage]

LOL, ape with 6 R600 cards OMG!!

[XS2K]

5 R600 and one X2600

[Scimitar]

That "Review" is complete and utter B.S. They used an AM2 cpu on a NForce 590 motherboard for the HD 2900XT, and a Conroe chip for the 8800s. How is that an apples to apples comparison? Lets put the 8800s on a Pentium 3 and see how they do against a HD 2900XT on a Phenom.

[perkam]

Driver issues are the only concern I have there...

Otherwise, as i said...ppl should be ready for those being the correct stock numbers...

Again though, the power lies in the oc for this card (with confirmed no cold bug till -90C).

BIG EDIT: I also saw that they used two systems for the test but didn't say which card they used with with system...kind of pathetic.

Perkam

[ownage]

Driver issues are the only concern I have there...

Otherwise, as i said...ppl should be ready for those being the correct stock numbers...

Again though, the power lies in the oc for this card (with confirmed no cold bug till -90C).

Perkam

Yep, driver issues for sure, but lots of nVidiots only look at the first benchmarks. And after they have seen some benchmarks, they dont look again 3 months later. I know some diehard nVidiots, and i allready know they will say X2900 sucks for the rest of there lives
But luckely i know better

[Periander6]

Driver issues are the only concern I have there...

Otherwise, as i said...ppl should be ready for those being the correct stock numbers...

Again though, the power lies in the oc for this card (with confirmed no cold bug till -90C).

Perkam

The "power" is right. With these things sporting a TDP of 225 watts at stock just to deliver sub-GTS performance (?!?). What is the performance/watt here? Something like half that of G80 if there is any truth to that review?

Bah, this is stupid. I've long suspected the worst, but if true this isn't another NV30, it's actually worse than the NV30. How could they have possibly f'd up so badly? NV is going to laugh all the way to the bank with its rip-off pricing.

[Timmay]

That guy nees a shave

[ownage]

there are a few dutch guys who are under NDA, and have allways been reliable.
Hacku on tweakers.net forum posted this:, thnx Hacku

FarCry 1.4 SM3 HDR [1280x1024]
- 8800 GTX: 123.3 fps
- 2900 XT: 119.3 fps
- 8800 GTS: 106.2 fps
- X1950XT: 85.8 fps

FarCry 1.4 SM3 HDR [1920x1200 - 4x AA 8x AF]
- 8800 GTX: 76.7 fps
- 2900 XT: 70.2 fps
- 8800 GTS: 54 fps
- X1950XT: 50.1 fps

Prey [1280x1024]
- 8800 GTX: 184.3 fps
- 2900 XT: 131.2 fps
- 8800 GTS: 127.3 fps
- X1950XT: 117.6 fps

Prey [1920x1200 - 4x AA 8x AF]
- 8800 GTX: 89.9 fps
- 2900 XT: 70.5 fps
- 8800 GTS: 65.5 fps
- X1950XT: 55 fps

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory SM3 HDR [1280x1024]
- 2900 XT: 142.5 fps
- 8800 GTX: 131.7 fps
- X1950XT: 94.2 fps
- 8800 GTS: 94 fps

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory SM3 HDR [1600x1200 - 4x AA 8x AF]
- 8800 GTX: 85.6 fps
- 2900 XT: 86.5 fps
- 8800 GTS: 68.5 fps
- X1950XT: 64.7 fps

X3: The Reunion [1280x1024]
- 2900 XT: 118.5 fps
- 8800 GTX: 99.2 fps
- X1950XT: 97 fps
- 8800 GTS: 88.1 fps

X3: The Reunion [1920x1200 - 4x AA 8x AF]
- 8800 GTX: 74 fps
- X1950XT: 65.4 fps
- 8800 GTS: 58.8 fps
- 2900 XT: 56.5 fps

Recentere games:

Company of Heroes [1280x1024]
- 8800 GTX: 142.5 fps
- 2900 XT: 121.4 fps

Company of Heroes [1920x1200 - 4x AA 8x AF]
- 8800 GTX: 75.8 fps
- 2900 XT: 69.5 fps

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. [1280x1024]
- 8800 GTX: 107.8 fps
- 2900 XT: 96.2 fps

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. [1920x1200 - 4x AA 8x AF]
- 8800 GTX: 87 fps
- 2900 XT: 46.9 fps

[perkam]

there are a few dutch guys who are under NDA, and have allways been reliable.
Hacku on tweakers.net forum posted this:, thnx Hacku

Now those I like...but as they are pre-release...they are as credible as the no.s from IT Review.

Perkam

[eXceeded]

^^ doesn't make any sense, the memory on the 2900XT should make the performance drop much less than what it is... atm this is looking like pure cack!

[deathman20]

Those scores look more believable. But the high end with the AA doesn't make any sence where it drops really low. Must be a driver issue with AA or something still. As well depends what AA they use as well. And to top it off what clocks where they using on everything, system, GTS, GTX and the XT, oh ya system specs too.

[Mago_10]

R600 unified shaders are vec4 + scalar or vec5 superscalar ??


whats the difference ?

[cadaveca]

But the high end with the AA doesn't make any sence where it drops really low.

First sample cards have half of ringbus disabled.

[wickedld9]

I predict the 2900XT bests the 8800 Ultra in Rainbow Six: Vegas which uses base code from Unreal Engine 3! Any takers?

Highest in-game quality settings, no AA.

[GMX]

First sample cards have half of ringbus disabled.

First sample cards...

And if you are right, and these people have some of those cards, then AMD/ATI is the dumbest corporation I have ever seen. Throughout history they keep doing these kamikaze strikes LOL.

[Dimitriman]

There is no magic people should try to get over the fake benches, bad drivers, bad card arguments.
2900XT will (relatively) suck big time and its going to leave everyone who's been waiting for it disappointed because not only does it not come even close to 8800GTX but it loses to 8800GTS in about half of the benches I've seen so far.
For a product that is 6 months newer, every bench that leaked out so far showed R600 as being a flop and I'm really just accepting it now.
By flop I mean not beating 8800GTX in Most benchies which even the 2900XT should do after coming to the market so late.
Oh, and then there is that power consumption..
just...
sigh...

[Silvermirage]

I need to get away from my computer for a couple days until this card comes out. All the buzz is just killing me. I need to stop waiting for the next "thing" to be "leaked". Only a few days left...now to find something to take this stuff off my mind...

[flopper]

Vista is the gaming platform of choice using crysis and other titles that soon comes out.
there is the ati XT the card to have.

Crossfire solutions will also be one where 8 cards might run at the same time.
Where performance will scale well. Nvidia has nothing there as of now.

Dx9 isnt the design choice for 2900XT as I seen it, all stuff indicate and points to DX10 and up and Vista.
So not suprised if games show a lower number in the begining, drivers will enhance that pretty much even in dx9.
3Dmark indicate the cards works well, so its all drivers to get.

[DataNusse]

review

hm..ill wait when there are more reviews and with some fresh drivers. The card cant be that bad.

Crossfire solutions will also be one where 8 cards might run at the same time.
Where performance will scale well. Nvidia has nothing there as of now.

Thank god that nVidia arent that stupid do that kind a thing.
1500W powerconsumption, wohoo!

Vista is the gaming platform of choice using crysis and other titles that soon comes out.
there is the ati XT the card to have.

Are you by any chance working for ATI's PR team? Because you are very good att promotiong ATi's products.