ATI Radeon HD 2900GT Silently Launched

[zekrahminator]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[ccleorina]

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

Nice competitor for the 8600GTS

 

[Pinchy]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[SpookyWillow]

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]

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_Two]

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_Two]

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]

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

-Indybird

 

[Tatty_Two]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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_Two]

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.