radeon hd 2900

Capt. Insane · 05-15-2007, 06:48 PM

Are these the new (former) R600 series cards from ATI? I didn't realize they were coming out so soon.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...HD+2000+series

ChemicalWarrior · 05-15-2007, 07:16 PM

New cards. They are a major flop. For the value 8800GTS is better, heck even without the value aspect the 8800GTS is better. The 8800GTS can be had for $330 now, 640MB version, where as this card is about $100. The HD 2900XT however is generally slower than the 8800GTS. ATi will not be releasing a card to compete with the 8800GTX till R650, which could be awhile aways.

AMD/ATi only hope is that their mid range cards are very good in comparison to Nvidia's. If not, then they'll be hurting very badly.

This is not soon, btw. This card is six months late actually. The other cards in the series almost hitting seven or eight by the time they release in late June or July.

Soul · 05-16-2007, 09:47 AM

Doesn't seem that anyone has has anything good to say about these cards yet. I read the power consumption is pretty high as well.

Hey Chem - your package went out yesterday via snail mail.

ChemicalWarrior · 05-16-2007, 03:13 PM

The card has some weird issues. I have not took the time to read the Beyond3D article fully or its thread, but anyone truly curious about the architecture and its design should look there. Otherwise I have no "real" clue as to why R600 is under performing at this point.

The power consumption on the HD 2900XT is very high, 225W is the "max" on it. In order to overclock you need a special 8-pin connector from the PSU, very few have these. Once that is plugged in the card has access to 300W of power. Doubt it uses all of that though.

It can overclock very well however. 1121Mhz from stock 740Mhz is what is the max so far, that is using liquid nitrogen, but even with stock cooling 900Mhz is not unheard of. Which IMO does say that R650, the refresh to R600, could possibly me a much more mature product.