1GB GDDR4 Radeon HD 2900XT next month

[mascaras]

1GB GDDR4 Radeon HD 2900XT next month

Information has reached us that the 1GB GDDR4 version of the Radeon HD 2900XT is going to be available from next month. We don’t have a lot of details at this moment, but at least we can tell you that these cards aren’t vapour ware. The other good news is that the 1GB GDDR4 version will be a 9-inch card, not the 12.4-inch cards as earlier rumours speculated on. However, the 12.4-inch cards are still likely to end up in various systems from the large system integrators, such as Dell, HP and Fujitsu-Siemens. There is still no word if the XTX cards will appear or not, but maybe these new 1GB GDDR4 cards will be clocked higher than the current crop of HD 2900XT cards. We’ll bring you more info as we have it.

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/7593/1...nth/index.html

regards

[largon]

I don't really see a reason for them to change the PCB design.
This puppy just has denser (and diff. gen) chips.

btw,
Here's some benches with a modded card.

[Revv23]

after seeing denny's results with these, im not really excited at all. seems like the loose timings of gddr4 and the higher heat makes the cards perform about the same. and with the 2900xt not really even competing with the GTS at it's current price (2900xt at $415, GTS at $320) i don't see how a similar performing higher cost part is going to benifit ATI at all.

[DilTech]

after seeing denny's results with these, im not really excited at all. seems like the loose timings of gddr4 and the higher heat makes the cards perform about the same. and with the 2900xt not really even competing with the GTS at it's current price (2900xt at $415, GTS at $320) i don't see how a similar performing higher cost part is going to benifit ATI at all.

They're likely hoping for the "z0mgz0rz!111!!!!!one! 0n3 G1G 0f R@MZ! 1t'Z uB3R L33Tz0rZ!!!!" crowd. You know, the same guys who automatically assumed the Geforce 6200 512mb was better than other cards because it had 512mb of ram. People who thought the 9800pro 256mb was magically superior to the 128mb.

You know, the people who let numbers on a box make their purchasing decision.

You never know though, there really could be some titles that can put that 1 gb to use. Of course, by the time we see them, there'll likely be new cards out anyway.

[Starscream]

They're likely hoping for the "z0mgz0rz!111!!!!!one! 0n3 G1G 0f R@MZ! 1t'Z uB3R L33Tz0rZ!!!!" crowd. You know, the same guys who automatically assumed the Geforce 6200 512mb was better than other cards because it had 512mb of ram. People who thought the 9800pro 256mb was magically superior to the 128mb.

You know, the people who let numbers on a box make their purchasing decision.

You never know though, there really could be some titles that can put that 1 gb to use. Of course, by the time we see them, there'll likely be new cards out anyway.

so this is the e-penis edition.

id also not get it cause lik you said, around the time there are games that can make use of the 1GB of ram there will b faster cards like G90 and R700.
i guess they felt like they had ot make this card cause they had it on their list.

[Revv23]

They're likely hoping for the "z0mgz0rz!111!!!!!one! 0n3 G1G 0f R@MZ! 1t'Z uB3R L33Tz0rZ!!!!" crowd. You know, the same guys who automatically assumed the Geforce 6200 512mb was better than other cards because it had 512mb of ram. People who thought the 9800pro 256mb was magically superior to the 128mb.

You know, the people who let numbers on a box make their purchasing decision.

You never know though, there really could be some titles that can put that 1 gb to use. Of course, by the time we see them, there'll likely be new cards out anyway.

well the 9800xt and the 6800 512mb were actually better cards, so i undestood that, this just seems to be the same card with more ram. same performance. I see your point though. You may as well throw the 8800 ultra into that comparison too.

[bluep3ace]

the ram limitation of the 8800gts 320 is very apparent in comparisons with the 640 edition. ram does matter, unless you play at 1024x768, as long as the GPU itself is powerful.

[DilTech]

well the 9800xt and the 6800 512mb were actually better cards, so i undestood that, this just seems to be the same card with more ram. same performance. I see your point though. You may as well throw the 8800 ultra into that comparison too.

I didn't say 9800xt, the 9800xt was at higher clockspeeds than the 9800pro. If you took a 128mb 9800pro, flashed to 9800xt(assuming you had the right core) you'd match the 9800xt speeds and framerates... Generally speaking, in any situation where the memory mattered the card was too slow to be playable with either part. That's why I mentioned it.

the ram limitation of the 8800gts 320 is very apparent in comparisons with the 640 edition. ram does matter, unless you play at 1024x768, as long as the GPU itself is powerful.

Once you hit the vram needed for an application, the rest makes no difference what-so-ever. By the time 1gb of videoram is needed, we'll have moved on to better cards. Especially now that engines are starting to stream textures, which will further drop the amount of vram needed...

[onewingedangel]

The 9800xt was a good upgrade from the 9800 pro, the 9800 pro 256 (with gddr2 rather than gddr1) however wasn't too much of an upgrade The fact that they went back to gddr1 for the xt speaks volumes on gddr2's performance at the time.


Anyway....a 1GB card will probably offer few advantages now other than a few highly speciallised apps - although there could well be patches in more games for uncompressed textures that a 1gb framebuffer will help a good deal with

[nn_step]

well the GB of GDDR4 should help memory intensive processing greatly. Can't wait to see some WCG scores

[eXceeded]

doesn't more VRam help AA?

[Kaze06]

Yeah, but unless you're playing at 2560x1600 with maxed settings, 16xAA/16XAF, 1GB isn't really useful. I think nVidia hit the nail on the head with the GTS640 and GTX768. Just perfect VRAM amounts.

[v_rr]

after seeing denny's results with these, im not really excited at all. seems like the loose timings of gddr4 and the higher heat makes the cards perform about the same. and with the 2900xt not really even competing with the GTS at it's current price (2900xt at $415, GTS at $320) i don't see how a similar performing higher cost part is going to benifit ATI at all.

you fing HD 2900 XT at 270/260$ and even in some countries 340/333$.
Don´t pick up the high-price of ATI and the low-price of 8800. Don´t make sense because our objective is to have things as cheap as possible.

[EnJoY]

doesn't more VRam help AA?

Yes, as well as higher resolutions with AA and other effects.

[theteamaqua]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nd&Order=PRICE

cheapest HD2900XT is $409


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nd&Order=PRICE

cheapest 8800GTS 640MB is EVGA 8800GTS $349 and $319 after rebate

if they sell the 1GB version for around $450 that will be awesome ... but not likely though it will be around $500 im guessing

[nn_step]

doesn't more VRam help AA?

absolutely as you crank up Eye candy

[Revv23]

you fing HD 2900 XT at 270/260$ and even in some countries 340/333$.
Don´t pick up the high-price of ATI and the low-price of 8800. Don´t make sense because our objective is to have things as cheap as possible.

i checked newegg and found $415. find me one for $270 and ill buy it today.

edit - i wans't trying to be biased at all, if anything i am ATI baised, i haven;t owned an nvidia card since the ti4200, and i upgrade my card every gen.

[DilTech]

doesn't more VRam help AA?

absolutely as you crank up Eye candy

Only if what you're attempting to do won't fit in the smaller amount of ram will the card with the larger amount pull away. A shining example of this is the 320mb 8800GTS vs the 640mb 8800GTS at high rez with high amounts of AA.

If the card isn't out of ram though, throwing more ram onto it won't change AA scores either.

[Kunaak]

they should probably stop calling these cards HD... since they aren't capable of that advertised feature.

[nn_step]

Only if what you're attempting to do won't fit in the smaller amount of ram will the card with the larger amount pull away. A shining example of this is the 320mb 8800GTS vs the 640mb 8800GTS at high rez with high amounts of AA.

If the card isn't out of ram though, throwing more ram onto it won't change AA scores either.

given the current trend of reduced quality in programming it is only inevitable that in the next few months/year that 1GB of GDDR is not only standard but the minimal requirement for high end gaming

[EnJoY]

Only if what you're attempting to do won't fit in the smaller amount of ram will the card with the larger amount pull away. A shining example of this is the 320mb 8800GTS vs the 640mb 8800GTS at high rez with high amounts of AA.

If the card isn't out of ram though, throwing more ram onto it won't change AA scores either.

Yup.

[dinos22]

they should probably stop calling these cards HD... since they aren't capable of that advertised feature.

I agree
i still can't believe they didn't include that feature

[DilTech]

given the current trend of reduced quality in programming it is only inevitable that in the next few months/year that 1GB of GDDR is not only standard but the minimal requirement for high end gaming

Actually, given new techniques such as Texture Streaming(unreal engine 3) and procedural textures, memory amounts required should reduce instead of increase.

[xsbb]

given the current trend of reduced quality in programming it is only inevitable that in the next few months/year that 1GB of GDDR is not only standard but the minimal requirement for high end gaming

[Dainas]

Seems pointless as the HD2900XT was already saturated with bandwidth thanks to its 512mb bus. Better overclock that core good.