Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Ati 2900xt. Buy now, or wait for later??

Ati 2900xt. Buy now, or wait for later??

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Ati 2900xt. Buy now, or wait for later??

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Hi, well I post here because of my concern of the possibility of buying the new Ati HD2900XT card, Ive read the reviews at TH, and well I think is worth buying, before I go any further here are my system specs:

Intel E6600@2.4GHZ
2gb DDR2-800 Corsair
Ati Radeon X1900XT 256mb (Sapphire)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
X-FI Xtreme music sound card
1WD Raptor 74Gb 10000rpm
Plextor 760a DVD Burner

So I asked a friend for counsil, he told me that it was better to wait for a little more development of the DirectX10 Market, and waiting for the possibilities of better cards from both Nvidia and ATI in the short term. So my main concern is:

With my system specs it is worth buying a HD2900XT, or should I wait a little more before buying the card, and getting a much better GPU in the short term future?

PD: Because I live out of the US, If I pass the oppurtunity to buy this card right now, Ill have to wait until october or december to be able to buy it again.

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Hmmm, well IMO, you can afford to wait.. You will get a significant increase in performance but the 2900xt just isn't up to par on drivers.. some say it's really hot but compared to the 8800s it can't be that much more... So anyways... I would wait, by the time you can buy again there will probably be better cards for the same $$$ and maybe a 2950xt or something with less heat and voltage requirements.

Some here will probably suggest an 8800*** as well... But I'd still go for the 2900 over those, if I had to buy right now. So if you don't have to, wait for something better or more mature drivers, that x1900xt should hold you out for a good time yet

Reply to fender22

You have a solid setup right now, in my honest opinion, you should just wait.

The next generation of cards comes out in Q4 this year. You currently have a X1900. That's plenty to tide you over until then. Im currently using a X1900 XTX that I bought with the rest of my system last June, and I don't intend to upgrade until the Geforce 8900 comes out. Or the 2950.

You buy when you need the performance. Right now, can you say that you need more power? The lowest frame rates I get on games are 30-35 with everything maxxed at 1680x1050. I'd imagine you're getting similiar performance. I think by the Quarter 4 there may be some games out where I will have to start making compromises on image quality in order to maintain a solid 40+ fps.

But that's 5+ months away yet.

Your rig has plenty of life left.

Reply to DarkKnight21

Well if you're really not satisfied with your current gaming performance I'd suggest a GTS or GTX... but if it's just to keep up with the new technology, you should rather wait, we're not that far from an X1900XT yet.

Reply to Dr_asik

Wait - your PC will run any game on the market at the moment, wait for the next gen cards just before Christmas

Reply to jamesgoddard

Wait for the r650 (or actually r670 from what I'm hearing), that will be better optimised and will be 65nm too. That card will be the gtx killer everyone was waiting for imo

Reply to I_Love_Tacos

Thanx everyone for your advice, Ill be saving the money, or investing it in something else, like a bigger HD or something. Ill wait for the market to give some better options that are really worth buying, because right now I havent had a problem with my gaming performance.

Reply to paztelu

I hope so deeply and dearly that you are right taco's, it just feel so familier though *wishes upon a star*

Reply to eric54

The X1900 is still no slouch. With the Geforce 9 due before the end of the year you may as well wait for that if you're content with your current card.

Reply to Mandrake_

Quote :

The X1900 is still no slouch. With the Geforce 9 due before the end of the year you may as well wait for that if you're content with your current card.

Umm, we're talking about the hd 2900xt, not sure where you got x1900 from

and this is why I'm saying there will be a huge gain for the r670, for one, it runs cooler, second, it's clocked higher, third, it uses the gddr4 memory we've been waiting for, fourth, the r600 has a pathetic 16 tmus, that's the same amount as the x1950xtx, you wonder how ati could have made such a stupid mistake, it's fairly obvious that 16 shaders would bottleneck the remaining 304 8O . So if you add more shader power, the bottleneck goes down and the massive power of the 320 stream shaders will start to scream

Reply to I_Love_Tacos

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