ATI Radeon HD 2900GT Silently Launched

zekrahminator · Nov 9, 2007, 02:26 AM

While NVIDIA launched the 8800GT to much fanfare, hype, and success, AMD is attempting a different approach to get HD 2900GTs out into the public. AMD created the chips, released the specs, made sure that retailers had a ample stock at a fair price ($170USD on Newegg for the Sapphire version). The Sapphire 2900GT has 700 million transistors, is built around an 80nm micro-architecture, has 256-bit 4-channel GDDR3 memory, unified superscalar shader architecture, 240 stream processing units, and full DirectX10.0 support. The Sapphire card is clocked at 600/1600, core/RAM, respectively.

Source: DailyTech

ccleorina · Nov 9, 2007, 03:09 AM

Nice to know that ATI/AMD also make their version of GT card.....

Nice competitor for the 8600GTS

Pinchy · Nov 9, 2007, 03:10 AM

I was gonna say....I was just browsing through which 2600XT I am gonna get, and I noticed this baby

(Already out in Australia

). I came to the forums and this was the first post I saw

.

AddSub · Nov 9, 2007, 04:21 AM

Some decent benchmarks would be nice from the "professional" reviewer community, but, unless it involves licking nVidia’s ass, you can forget about it. Hell, GeForce 8400GS received more press attention and it can barely run DirectX8 era games. Did I type DirectX8? Make that DirectX7 era games.

zultekmilennia · Nov 9, 2007, 04:54 AM

I've got a 8400GS and it works fine for me. Not the fastest out there (its a budget card, so deal with it) but I've played Oblivion on 1024x768 resolution with Medium quality and suffered no lag.

I haven't really fully tested the card's DirectX10 capability (still using XP) but I ran the Crysis demo and the game was quite playable.

DaJMasta · Nov 9, 2007, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccleorina

Nice to know that ATI/AMD also make their version of GT card.....

Nice competitor for the 8600GTS

ORLY? I surely hope it would beat the pants off of it..... hope.....

Anyone have any reviews? It seems like it would be fairly fast, but is definitely pruned down from it's hd2900 brethren....

My guess is even at this price there's no competition with the 8800gt.... and by the looks of the cooler it still sucks down the juice.

tvdang7 · Nov 9, 2007, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaJMasta

ORLY? I surely hope it would beat the pants off of it..... hope.....

Anyone have any reviews? It seems like it would be fairly fast, but is definitely pruned down from it's hd2900 brethren....

My guess is even at this price there's no competition with the 8800gt.... and by the looks of the cooler it still sucks down the juice.

well duh 2900xt isnt even competition for the 8800gt and its the same cooler since they are just trying to sell the remainding cards to make way for the 3 series. im not doubting that it still sucks power however.

DaJMasta · Nov 9, 2007, 05:12 AM

Well from a price/performance standpoint I mean.... I know that a cut down version of the 2900 can't compete with the 8800GT.

Atnevon · Nov 9, 2007, 07:37 AM

JUst want to know this. For 2 years of games, will the 29 do decent? And would it be worth the extra 100-125 more for the 88GT? This is really gaming, no benching, and no video rendering/encoding.

Wile E · Nov 9, 2007, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atnevon

JUst want to know this. For 2 years of games, will the 29 do decent? And would it be worth the extra 100-125 more for the 88GT? This is really gaming, no benching, and no video rendering/encoding.

Considering ALL current cards are struggling to run Crysis at the highest settings, the extra money may be worth it.

Xaser04 · Nov 9, 2007, 08:14 AM

For a review of this card take a look at firingsquads 8800GT review. It uncludes in the list a 2900GT.

A generalisation can be made that its performance is roughly similar to a X1950pro however in UT3 it does quite well.

In the UK it isn't exactly that well priced either.

Xaser04 · Nov 9, 2007, 08:15 AM

I can't edit my above post ?! but it should say includes not uncludes.

SpookyWillow · Nov 9, 2007, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaser04

For a review of this card take a look at firingsquads 8800GT review. It uncludes in the list a 2900GT.

A generalisation can be made that its performance is roughly similar to a X1950pro however in UT3 it does quite well.

In the UK it isn't exactly that well priced either.

yeah i know, 2 2900gt = 1 8800gt roughly so its £250 for 2 2900gt's or £180 for 1 8800gt.

price of these cards really needs to be around £80 for it to be any good imo

Xaser04 · Nov 9, 2007, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpookyWillow

yeah i know, 2 2900gt = 1 8800gt roughly so its £250 for 2 2900gt's or £180 for 1 8800gt.

price of these cards really needs to be around £80 for it to be any good imo

Definately agree on the price.

For reference the price of the GT on OCUK is £129 including VAT but not including shipping.

On the same shop you can pick up a 256mb version of the 8800GT (the 2900GT is also 256mb) for £145ish.

According to the Firingsquad review the 2900GT performs roughly equivilant to the £75 X1950pro it isn't good value at all.

(please note this conclusion is based on UK prices only)

Tatty_One · Nov 9, 2007, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wile E

Considering ALL current cards are struggling to run Crysis at the highest settings, the extra money may be worth it.

Mine isn't......truly, I play the demo at 16xx x 10xx at max (incl 16x QAA)and it runs fine, no chopiness but the 640MB may help and I have the GPU overclocked 24/7 at 700+, thats of course DX9 in XP home as opposed to DX10 in Vista.

Tatty_One · Nov 9, 2007, 12:09 PM

So the 2900GT is identical to the 2900pro in clocks, just has a few SP's disabled/laser cut? If thats the case thinking it's matched similarily to the 8600GTS in price terms I would think it would be more than a match for it performance wise although supposidly the 8600 series will be "end of line" by the end of January.

indybird · Nov 9, 2007, 09:33 PM

whadya think would happen If you flashed a 2900Pro/XT Bios onto one of these?

-Indybird

Tatty_One · Nov 9, 2007, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by indybird

whadya think would happen If you flashed a 2900Pro/XT Bios onto one of these?

-Indybird

BSOD and no post probably, it would be looking for SP's that it hasent got.

indybird · Nov 9, 2007, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tatty_One

BSOD and no post probably, it would be looking for SP's that it hasent got.

you sure those SP's aren't just disabled?

-Indybird

niko084 · Nov 10, 2007, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaser04

According to the Firingsquad review the 2900GT performs roughly equivilant to the £75 X1950pro it isn't good value at all.

That review is trash....

On top of that the 2900GT is DX10 the 1950pro is not..

Bottom line-
2600xt gddr4 holds hand and hand with a 1950pro without AA/AF
2900GT will stomp a 1950pro without a doubt, plus dx10

Sounds like I will be ordering one shortly for a customer, I will post some numbers if some more reputable reviews are not made by then.

I expect this card to perform more closely to a 1950xt and have dx10.

niko084 · Nov 10, 2007, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccleorina

Nice to know that ATI/AMD also make their version of GT card.....

Nice competitor for the 8600GTS

As for the 8600gts...

LOL

My friend has an 8600gts, he beats me dx9 in most games 5-15%.

In dx10 my 2600xt leaves him in the dust 15-25%.

Wile E · Nov 10, 2007, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tatty_One

Mine isn't......truly, I play the demo at 16xx x 10xx at max (incl 16x QAA)and it runs fine, no chopiness but the 640MB may help and I have the GPU overclocked 24/7 at 700+, thats of course DX9 in XP home as opposed to DX10 in Vista.

Well, most people aren't going to voltmod their card and OC as much as you have. lol

That being said, I think the 8800GT would still be a better investment, if it's in his price range.

Tatty_One · Nov 10, 2007, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by indybird

you sure those SP's aren't just disabled?

-Indybird

They dont tend to disable anymore I think they have learnt that noone buys their higher end products if they just disable, tendancy is to laser cut now.

Nov 9, 2007, 02:26 AM	#1
zekrahminator McLovin Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: My house. Posts: 6,280 (2.33/day) Thanks: 105 Thanked 340 Times in 246 Posts System Specs	ATI Radeon HD 2900GT Silently Launched While NVIDIA launched the 8800GT to much fanfare, hype, and success, AMD is attempting a different approach to get HD 2900GTs out into the public. AMD created the chips, released the specs, made sure that retailers had a ample stock at a fair price ($170USD on Newegg for the Sapphire version). The Sapphire 2900GT has 700 million transistors, is built around an 80nm micro-architecture, has 256-bit 4-channel GDDR3 memory, unified superscalar shader architecture, 240 stream processing units, and full DirectX10.0 support. The Sapphire card is clocked at 600/1600, core/RAM, respectively. Source: DailyTech

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Nov 9, 2007, 03:09 AM	#2
ccleorina Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Overclocking Hell Posts: 178 (0.08/day) Thanks: 11 Thanked 10 Times in 10 Posts System Specs	Nice to know that ATI/AMD also make their version of GT card..... Nice competitor for the 8600GTS

Nov 9, 2007, 03:10 AM	#3
Pinchy Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 4,650 (1.78/day) Thanks: 302 Thanked 360 Times in 344 Posts System Specs	I was gonna say....I was just browsing through which 2600XT I am gonna get, and I noticed this baby (Already out in Australia ). I came to the forums and this was the first post I saw .

Nov 9, 2007, 04:21 AM	#4
AddSub Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 990 (0.39/day) Thanks: 7 Thanked 144 Times in 109 Posts System Specs	Some decent benchmarks would be nice from the "professional" reviewer community, but, unless it involves licking nVidia’s ass, you can forget about it. Hell, GeForce 8400GS received more press attention and it can barely run DirectX8 era games. Did I type DirectX8? Make that DirectX7 era games.

Nov 9, 2007, 04:54 AM	#5
zultekmilennia Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 2 (0.00/day) Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts System Specs	I've got a 8400GS and it works fine for me. Not the fastest out there (its a budget card, so deal with it) but I've played Oblivion on 1024x768 resolution with Medium quality and suffered no lag. I haven't really fully tested the card's DirectX10 capability (still using XP) but I ran the Crysis demo and the game was quite playable.

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Nov 9, 2007, 05:12 AM	#8
DaJMasta Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 475 (0.17/day) Thanks: 0 Thanked 37 Times in 21 Posts System Specs	Well from a price/performance standpoint I mean.... I know that a cut down version of the 2900 can't compete with the 8800GT.

Nov 9, 2007, 07:37 AM	#9
Atnevon Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 430 (0.20/day) Thanks: 81 Thanked 29 Times in 25 Posts System Specs	JUst want to know this. For 2 years of games, will the 29 do decent? And would it be worth the extra 100-125 more for the 88GT? This is really gaming, no benching, and no video rendering/encoding. __________________ \|\| \|\| “I'm not angry. Just tired of the yuppie schmucks blogging every time they take a dump on their mackbooks. And acting like they are 1337 cause they have a Mac.” -Steevo "Design is the only field where Science and Art merge" - Lucille Tenazas

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Nov 9, 2007, 08:14 AM	#11
Xaser04 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Zummerzet UK Posts: 681 (0.31/day) Thanks: 20 Thanked 90 Times in 58 Posts System Specs	For a review of this card take a look at firingsquads 8800GT review. It uncludes in the list a 2900GT. A generalisation can be made that its performance is roughly similar to a X1950pro however in UT3 it does quite well. In the UK it isn't exactly that well priced either. __________________ Now in Surround BF3 (Origin) - Xaser04

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Nov 9, 2007, 08:15 AM	#12
Xaser04 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Zummerzet UK Posts: 681 (0.31/day) Thanks: 20 Thanked 90 Times in 58 Posts System Specs	I can't edit my above post ?! but it should say includes not uncludes. __________________ Now in Surround BF3 (Origin) - Xaser04

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Nov 9, 2007, 12:09 PM	#16
Tatty_One Senior Mod3rator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Worcestershire, UK Posts: 12,907 (4.76/day) Thanks: 1,109 Thanked 1,967 Times in 1,458 Posts System Specs	So the 2900GT is identical to the 2900pro in clocks, just has a few SP's disabled/laser cut? If thats the case thinking it's matched similarily to the 8600GTS in price terms I would think it would be more than a match for it performance wise although supposidly the 8600 series will be "end of line" by the end of January. __________________ Last edited by Tatty_One; Nov 9, 2007 at 12:18 PM.

Nov 9, 2007, 09:33 PM	#17
indybird Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 177 (0.08/day) Thanks: 16 Thanked 9 Times in 8 Posts System Specs	whadya think would happen If you flashed a 2900Pro/XT Bios onto one of these? -Indybird

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