EP's HD2900XT vs Upcoming 2900XTX vs 8800 Ultra

[Daveal3d]

Extreme Pc is only a week away from releasing they're pimped HD2900XT

http://www.extreme-pc.ca/showproduct.asp?menu1id=12&menu2id=99&menu3id=39&productid=371414

According to this it has 1GB DDR4 at 2100Mhz and 825Mhz core. They're 3Dmark scores shows that it rivals the 8800 Ultra. And for the cost of 649$.
(lowest 8800 Ultra cost right now is 699$)

Now there's an upcoming XTX release from ATI in late July.

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/7469/radeon_hd_2900xtx_to_appear_in_late_july/index.html

That card has same 1Gb DDR 4 only at 2020Mhz and core 750.
And i bet this card will only rival the GTX , just like the XT only holds a candle to the GTS.

So what's the point of releasing this card when a more powerful exists already that battles the 8800 Ultra ?

 

[laytons]

i think I'll get 2.

 

[vpsaline]

Shouldnt they be spanking the GTS/GTX/Ultra with specs like that? The ATI cards are superior in every spec (?) but only manage to "keep up".

 

[goldragon_70]

because of the just keeping up, really it's a question of price and power requirements right now.

 

[mpjesse]

There's no point in releasing any of these cards if they can't beat nVidia cards that have been out for 8 months now (with exception to the 8800 Ultra)

 

[goldragon_70]

It still gives you a choice.

 

[sailer]

It still gives you a choice.

And I do like having a choice. Especially after the last week of trying to get a 8800 GTS to work and finding that I'm having to alter BIOS settings, write changes into the registry and suffering repeated crashes and total lockups. I can't say the 2900 XT would be any better, only that after all these months I'd think that the problems with the 8800 would have been worked out.

I want the competition between the companies so that they both are working to provide the best, rather than having only one company offering a card and saying "Here's what we're willing to give you, take it or leave it."

 

[bullaRh]

so true

 

[MrMr]

There's no point in releasing any of these cards if they can't beat nVidia cards that have been out for 8 months now (with exception to the 8800 Ultra)

So what you're saying is that Nvidia should have rolled over and died when the 9700Pro was first released?

 

[james_8970]

Extreme Pc is only a week away from releasing they're pimped HD2900XT

http://www.extreme-pc.ca/showproduct.asp?menu1id=12&menu2id=99&menu3id=39&productid=371414

According to this it has 1GB DDR4 at 2100Mhz and 825Mhz core. They're 3Dmark scores shows that it rivals the 8800 Ultra. And for the cost of 649$.
(lowest 8800 Ultra cost right now is 699$)

Now there's an upcoming XTX release from ATI in late July.

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/7469/radeon_hd_2900xtx_to_appear_in_late_july/index.html

That card has same 1Gb DDR 4 only at 2020Mhz and core 750.
And i bet this card will only rival the GTX , just like the XT only holds a candle to the GTS.

So what's the point of releasing this card when a more powerful exists already that battles the 8800 Ultra ?

Just a note thats canadian prices, so it'll be lower in the US.
James

 

[Daveal3d]

Yeah , i think everyone would like to have a choice, but the point is why release a card that's suppose to be a superior model, when a previous model card just from another manufacturer is taking the spotlight . Would you rather buy the XTX (thats still 1-2 months away) or this card (thats releasing in a week) that has more power ?

 

[sailer]

Just a note thats canadian prices, so it'll be lower in the US.
James

Good point. I just ran the calculation and $650 Canadian works out to about $610 American dollars. Its still a chunk of change.

 

[sailer]

Yeah , i think everyone would like to have a choice, but the point is why release a card that's suppose to be a superior model, when a previous model card just from another manufacturer is taking the spotlight . Would you rather buy the XTX (thats still 1-2 months away) or this card (thats releasing in a week) that has more power ?

This assumes that a XTX will be released in 1-2 months and that AMD does not invoke another delay. Also, the original specs for the XTX included 1 gig of DDR4 memory, which this card from Diamond has. Makes me wonder if this card is the original XTX, but only rebranded as a XT. Or maybe its only sharing the same memory as the original XTX. Don't know the answer there.

 

[james_8970]

Just a note thats canadian prices, so it'll be lower in the US.
James

Good point. I just ran the calculation and $650 Canadian works out to about $610 American dollars. Its still a chunk of change.
It'll probably be less then that, we usually pay anywhere from 12-20% more then you guys, no reason for it really. Hope they reprice all the electronics soon, as our dollar is reaching closer and closer to parity to the US dollar.
James

 

[james_8970]

Yeah , i think everyone would like to have a choice, but the point is why release a card that's suppose to be a superior model, when a previous model card just from another manufacturer is taking the spotlight . Would you rather buy the XTX (thats still 1-2 months away) or this card (thats releasing in a week) that has more power ?

This assumes that a XTX will be released in 1-2 months and that AMD does not invoke another delay. Also, the original specs for the XTX included 1 gig of DDR4 memory, which this card from Diamond has. Makes me wonder if this card is the original XTX, but only rebranded as a XT. Or maybe its only sharing the same memory as the original XTX. Don't know the answer there.

With AMD a delay is almost guaranteed. I kinda thinking the same about this as well, I saw this site a day or two ago. If this is the original XTX or if its going to be the XTX, who knows. All I want to know is if this isn't the XTX what the hell is?!
James

 

[morerevs]

How do you know it beats the ultra from just looking at 3dmark scores? The problem with these benchmarks is that the ati cards excell at one part of the benchmark, namely the shader part. Plus most of these guys use quadcore CPU's oc-ed to about 4 Ghz which accounts for a large chunk of the score.
The crossfire test sems to indicate the radeons scale better then the ultras in SLI, but the single radeon scores lower then my stock GTX after correcting the CPU factor. It scores 12944 with a CPU score of 5998. After deduction that leaves 6946 for combined GPU tests. Add to that my 2980 CPU score = 9926 for the radeon on my system (in theory) . With the GTX I scored 11538 in 3dmark06, so WOOT, stock GTX beats 1GB DDR4 radeon. Using these figures it would even beat the oc-ed version by ~190 points, but these are just benchmarks. The real numbers will be in the game tests, but seeing as they didn't change the back-end it will most likely still fail at AA, only slightly less so because of the increased speed.
I don't think this thing will beat the GTX's and Ultra's of the world, but at least it's something new to speculate about, which is always fun.

 

[james_8970]

lol your right
http://www.iamxtreme.net/video/hd2900xt/hd2900xt1gb_09.PNG

Look at the temps of these cards, 8O What the hell?! Is it me or are they much lower.
The highest temperature, is 57C
http://www.iamxtreme.net/video/hd2900xt/hd2900xt1gb_13.PNG
http://www.iamxtreme.net/video/hd2900xt/hd2900xt1gb_14.PNG
Anyone notice the temperature. It seems really reasonable, I wonder if this is before or after the test. Regardless it's alot lower then what we are seeing the the 512mb version, isn't it?

James

 

[sailer]

Those temps (57c high) aren't bad at all. Wonder if the fan and/or heatsink is better or if the memory somehow lets it run cooler? I'd like to see a few more tests before making an final judgments about this. On the surface, at least, the card does look fairly good.

 

[james_8970]

Thats what I'm thinking or else it might not be a stock cooler. Unless the DDR4 runs significantly cooler then DDR3, but it didn't affect temperatures on the 1900 series so I don't see this being the case.
James

 

[fatcat]

I want the competition between the companies so that they both are working to provide the best, rather than having only one company offering a card and saying "Here's what we're willing to give you, take it or leave it."

Couldn't agree more