[Testing] Sapphire X2900XT

[trans am]

EXACTLY
try comparing a 8800gts that was reviewed at the time of its release.

I bet if you compared the card almost a year later on the same test configuration with the exception of o/c tools and latest drivers you will see a big difference.

[DilTech]

EXACTLY
try comparing a 8800gts that was reviewed at the time of its release.

I bet if you compared the card almost a year later on the same test configuration with the exception of o/c tools and latest drivers you will see a big difference.

The thing is, we're no longer in november 2006, we're in may(almost june) of 2007. You don't compare how a product performed in the past, you compare it's current performance with the performance of it's competitor.

In all honestly, this is the first time I've ever seen people use this excuse so extensively. No one ever said that when a new product was doing better than it's competition, like the x1800xt or the x1900xt/xtx. Never heard anyone say "you should see the difference if you revert the 7800gtx back to it's release drivers".

You see, the state of a product at the time you're looking to buy it is what matters to you. Promises can be broken, and mistakes can be fixed(as long as they're not hardware mistakes). All the "well, compare it to the release drivers of the G80" won't change that in the slightest. Honestly, does anyone believe that AMD/ATi haven't been working on drivers right along side this card? Does anyone remember ATi saying they could've launched in march? That gave them months to have drivers ready, and they've had test cards for almost 6 months, not including however long they've had them internally.

So yes, while the drivers are immature, you cannot consistently use it as an exclusive excuse. This is why people are advising people on the fence about this card to wait to see what new drivers bring.

Finally, I thought this was well known, but a majority of the driver updates on the 8 series have been for stability. NVidia out-right stated this. Sure, a few titles here or there got boosts, stalker being the stand-out there, but it's mainly been stability.