[Testing] Sapphire X2900XT

[trans am]

if I remember correctly ATI crossfire specifically felt smoother than SLI did for me.

I think those with HD2900xt just bought them too fast. I bet next month they will be closer to $300.00 once more 3rd parties get them in retail channels. there is a thread in the deal section for a 8800gts 640mb for $309 MIR which is pretty sweet. I would've bought a 2nd one for sli but I gotta say I can't really say much for nvidia chipsets on intel. NF4 ultra was a different story but one things for sure, you can't beat the versatility of ATI Crossfire since it started using the bridge connectors.

[LowRun]

Reviews tell me otherwise?

Not all of them. See: http://www.hardware.fr/articles/671-...d-2900-xt.html for example

[Losphoron]

2900xt looks pretty bad on paper vs 8800 series especially in fillrate.It can give up with 8800gts and even beat GTX and ultra in some benchmarks with less things..In zixel/s rop's the results with AA are killing the card big time.This is a big bottleneck of the card ..I see at GTX that 24 rop's give BIG boost..Without AA ultra have 50.000 and 2900xt have only 20.000..This is a big difference.

[DilTech]

Not all of them. See: http://www.hardware.fr/articles/671-...d-2900-xt.html for example

Once again, I find it odd that it's always the sites I've never heard of that show these numbers. The ones that everyone knows, like anandtech, hardocp, or even driver heaven(who's notoriously ati friendly might I add) tell a completely different tale. Driver heaven even went as far as to say they cannot recommend the card to anyone.

This falls into the reason I say wait for the big sites to cover the new driver release.

[LowRun]

Once again, I find it odd that it's always the sites I've never heard of that show these numbers. The ones that everyone knows, like anandtech, hardocp, or even driver heaven(who's notoriously ati friendly might I add) tell a completely different tale. Driver heaven even went as far as to say they cannot recommend the card to anyone.

This falls into the reason I say wait for the big sites to cover the new driver release.

Hardware.fr is a big site and their reviews have always been very professional, they went as far as to test things i've not seen tested anywhere else in this review, like Dynamic branching with a test they made that allow them to modify Dynamic branching's granularity. On the other hand i bought a Asus A8R-MVP after reading one of the most misleading mobo review ever and it was from Anandtech, two days with the mobo were more than enough to let the XS crew know that this board was far from what Anandtech said, so your big sites don't have much credibility in my eyes. What would the world look like if it was only made of things you've heard of.

[Periander6]

Hardware.fr is a big site and their reviews have always been very professional.

And they end up concluding that the XT is "légèrement" (slightly) ahead of the GTS/640, just as the bulk of the other reviews out there did.

[DilTech]

And they end up concluding that the XT is "légèrement" (slightly) ahead of the GTS/640, just as the bulk of the other reviews out there did.

The bulk of the other reviews showed it being beat by the 640 gts.

[LowRun]

The bulk of the other reviews showed it being being the 640 gts.

Seems like some people disagree with that too

[DilTech]

Seems like some people disagree with that too

People will always disagree with things, it's human nature.

[deathman20]

The bulk of the other reviews showed it being beat the 640 gts.

So otherwise if you take the ones that beat it and the ones that loose to it, its even then. As well thats release drivers. Things will improve and don't give me ATI's had time to make the drivers better. nVidia has had hundreds of thousands of people using there cards to help them better improve there drivers over the past few months.

[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.

[trans am]

When exactly was r600 *supposed* to be released? It almost seems like its been that long.

[DilTech]

When exactly was r600 *supposed* to be released? It almost seems like its been that long.

It was suppose to be released in 1st quarter. Initial reports said january, then february, then march... Then it jumped to quarter 2 with claims that they could launch it then and there, but wanted to do a full lineup launch.

[eXceeded]

around december with teh launch of vista

[DilTech]

around december with teh launch of vista

Ah, forgot about the initial Q4 2006 reports. So extend how long they've had to work on drivers.

[trans am]

Man see here we go again. Its june and there is already talk about G92 releasing before Christmas. 1 terraflop? oh dude.

http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39829

[DilTech]

Man see here we go again. Its june and there is already talk about G92 releasing before Christmas. 1 terraflop? oh dude.

http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39829

That's why I told you to just sit tight with what you have. Beyond3d has verified the inquirers claims, this isn't inq bs.

[gunit]

regardless of when it supposed to be released, it was released a week ago. everybody seems to expect ATI in this case to be the first company in history to release hardware with mature drivers. this is why we have something called driver updates, heard of it? No company can possibly foresee every single problem across every possible hardware/software combination BEFORE launch, again, this is what driver updates are for. of course you already know this, but it seems like common sense took a back seat in this case.

[Periander6]

regardless of when it supposed to be released, it was released a week ago. everybody seems to expect ATI in this case to be the first company in history to release hardware with mature drivers. this is why we have something called driver updates, heard of it? No company can possibly foresee every single problem across every possible hardware/software combination BEFORE launch, again, this is what driver updates are for. of course you already know this, but it seems like common sense took a back seat in this case.

The reason "everybody" expected mature drivers was that that was one of the reasons AMD gave for the delays.


http://hardwarezone.com/articles/vie...0&id=2229&pg=2

HWZ: With the merger, it is understandable that certain products have been realigned, but could we have an update on the R600 delays?

Henri Richard: The R600 will be out in the second quarter. The reason we decided to delay the launch was that we wanted to have a complete DX10-enabled solution top to bottom. A lot of people wrote that the reason it is delayed is because of a problem with the silicon, but there is no problem with the silicon. We are demonstrating it. We can ship it today. But if you think about it, looking at where the market is at, the volumes are going to be in the R610 and R630, so it makes sense for us to do a one time launch of the entire family of DX10 enabled products. That meant delaying the R600 for a few weeks, but frankly it doesn't make a difference in the life cycle of the product and talking with our customers and partners, they felt that it would make a bigger impact with one full launch. So we decided to do that.

Also increasingly in particular with Vista, as we've seen with the competition. It doesn't matter if you're shipping the silicon if the drivers are not stable. There is nothing more frustrating than having bought a new graphics card and having your system crash repeatedly because the drivers are not ready. Although we today, even by Microsoft standards, have the best and most stable drivers in the entire industry. The few weeks will give us even more time to continue improving the drivers. Again, the decision lies in the fact that we will have a top to bottom DX10 offering with drivers that will have a very very high level of stability and the only difference is a few weeks. So it seems to make a lot of sense to do it that way.

[Agent11]

Thar be thread pirates in these waters... Yar.



There are already a million threads on the internet argueing ATI-Nvidia .. Drivers at release date for the 8800 series etc.

Why clutter up the OP's thread?

[gunit]

The reason "everybody" expected mature drivers was that that was one of the reasons AMD gave for the delays.


http://hardwarezone.com/articles/vie...0&id=2229&pg=2

You completely missed my point. I can't say it anymore clearly. also, ATI driver stability, which is was the article above talks about, with the 2900 is nowhere near as bad as was the case when the G80 launched.

[nicepun]

O.K., can we get back on topic?

[Deathscyth]

hi guys,

Have you problems to run Aquamark?

At the end of the bench, I have a black screen without score. I need to kill them to return on the desktop.
Can you hepl me; please.

Bon dia Mascaras, so português também
bonita revista

[Lane-k]

Go on the folder of Aquamark and delete the files Direcp.dll

Then it will work.


Edit just run it for verify i not give you a bad info::: it's work and fine... scored 207'889 ( 4.18ghz - 850/1000)