From the sources I have read the upcoming ATI HD 2900 Pro is basically an underclocked XT, which means that it could be an excellent bang for buck card.

My questions
1) Are there any leaked benchmarks?
2) Does anyone know when these cards are due for release because I have noticed some sites taking pre-order?

Thanks

cards will probably launch monday or tuesday since his and gecube have them ready for shipping.

there's a lot of talk about 256-bit or 512-bit. seems that HIS and Gecube have 512-bit versions (r600) cards just slower clocked than XT. There also seem to be r670 cards (256-bit) with the same name : HD2900PRO

within a couple of days it will all be clear wheter or not there will be different versions.

if there is a 512-bit version for a price that is that low they can count me in!

if all it required was an OC I would be in as well, but we'll have to wait and see

if it will be something like the difference between X1900XT and X1900XTX , then many will buy it although u have too wait and be sure

only time will tell... hope they come out soon.

I dont think the overclocking option would be a gimmee even if they are basicaly underclocked XTs as my feeling is that these will surley be the chips that dont quite cut it as XTs same as we had with the X800 series ie failed chips flogged off as lower spec cards some did oc some didnt.
Mactronix

The 256bit versions have even lower clocks and 256mb and are called 2900GT's.

Even if you cant overclock em at all its still an awesome card! 512bit interface and 1gb of memory all for £180!!

1gb memory doesn't mean anything if its a slow card otherwise though, not that I think it is a slow card

There have not been any benchmarks yet. In fact, there has been very little information about this card. I'm still a little confused about which card is which between this and the 2950 pro (if they are both real).

actually, there is a benchmark, I found this:
http://pclab.pl/art28806-3.html
in polish, but the numbers are numbers.

The author claims he got an unit for tests

wait for more trusted sites like Tomshardware , xbitlabs ,anandtech ,...

as a polish speaking person...

tested card is HIS Radeon HD2900Pro

On the first page they state that HD2900Pro chips are R600s that could not work at XTs clocks and they would try to see if the card could be OCed to XT level
2nd and 3rd pages are fairly straightforward - hardware + benchmarks. additionally they mention the price - no more than 950 PLN which is less than 8800 GTS 320MB. regular XT is around 1300 PLN, thus Pro is around 25% cheaper than it's bigger brother
4th... overclocking... They state that they first tried 650 core (from 600 @ stock) - worked fine. than 675, 700... it OC'ed all the way to 750/900 which is above stock speeds of the XT !
5th page is conclusion. many pluses, only two minuses - it's loud and consumes a lot of power (surprised?)

oh, btw - pclab is one of the best polish sites in terms of hardware testing and benchmarking, I think it's a legit review

my conclusion - if I were not moving to Japan in a couple of days for the next year or so - this would be a perfect card for me. pity one cannot buy a laptop with some enthusiast card...

wow, so when it comes out, it could be awesome?

It will depend heavily on price. Here in the U.S, it needs to be priced below the 320MB 8800GTS. Which means less than $280. If it is, the HD2900Pro will be an excellent deal. The bad part for ATI (but good for us) is that nVidia is in a much stronger position and can afford to lower the prices on the 320MB 8800GTS. ATI cannot. This coupled with the possibility that nVidia may come out with a much more competitive mid-range card than their crap 8600GTS doesn't help ATI much.

It's also likely that these HD 2900Pro won't be around long due to limited stock.

well, thats good in the short term, but I don't want AMD dieing personally

First of all how would that be good for us, nVidia's profitability obviously isn't coming because of lower prices? As for ATi/AMD , if these are parts that would otherwise go unused, then selling them at $200 makes more sense than just stockpiling them. Their replacements will be cheaper so it doesn't make sense long term either.

I agree that ATi can't try to make sales by losing money in order to buy customers, but if there parts were going to go unsold anyways, then it's adding to their margins for the overall R600 line.

But we don't know what nV has to offer, alot will depend on whether it too beats the GTS, because unlike these crippled XT parts, the 8700 will need to finance itself.

I agree with that, I suspect they'll be replaced by a dedicated part eventually, in the same fashion the R9500 and plain GF6800 were in the past. Selling cripples only works until the demand for those cripples outweighs the number of natural cast-offs you have.