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Hell has frozen over - ATI R600 is here! HD 2900 XT Reviews

@ 2007/05/14

After waiting far too long we are now greeted by the official launch of the ATI R600 video card, the HD 2900 XT seems to be available in stores everywhere at competitive prices, comparable with the Geforce 8800 GTS 640Mb.

HD 2900 XT reviews all over the web

There are more than a dozen websites covering the launch, including product details as well as in-depth performance tests; please read on to see how the new R600 fares against NVIDIA's DX10 cards.

These articles discuss the R600 product line-up and technology behind the copper cooling blocks:
- AMD ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series Architecture
- AMD Radeon HD 2000 series technology
- AMD launches the Radeon HD 2000 series of GPUs
- ATI Radeon HD 2000 Architecture

ATI HD 2900 XTX tested by Hardware Secrects

Performance numbers:
- TechReport tests with X6800/975x&680i - compares HD 2900 XT with high end cards, in SLI and Crossfire
- Anandtech - HD 2900 XT - X6800/680i&975x - 8800GTS/GTX/Ultra X1950 Pro Dual/XTX
- Bjorn3D tests with E6400/680i System, they compare the ATI HD 2900XT with: X1950XT , 8800GTS, 8800GTX
- Hardware Secrets tests a HD 2900 XTX with X6800/P965 and compares the XTX with X1950Pro,7950GT, 8800GTS 320Mb, 7950GX2 and others.
- Tweaktown has the HD 2900 XT and tests with QX6700 @ 3Ghz/975x, comparsion with X1950XTX and 8800GTX.
- techPowerUp - HD 2900 XT - AMD FX-60/RD580 - 8800 GTX, X1900XTX CrossFire and lots more
- ChileHardware - HD 2900 XT - X6800/680i - 8800 GTS 320/640Mb versions
- HotHardware - HD 2900 XT - X6800/680i - 8800 Ultra/GTX/GTS X1950XTX - Crossfire & SLI tested Also.
- HardOCP - HD 2900 XT - X6800/680i - 8800GTS 640/GTX
- Digit-Life - HD 2900 XT - X6800/680i - 8800GTS 320/640, X1950XTX
- TheTechLounge - HD 2900 XT - E6600/975X - 8800 GTS 640Mb
- MADBOXPC - HD 2900 XT - X6800/975X - 8800GTS 320/640/GTX
- Neoseeker - HD 2900 XT - E6600@3Ghz/P965 - 8800GTS/GTX , 1950XTX

Jetway HD 2900XT @ Bjorn3D

Product Reviews:
- Jetway HD 2900 XT by Bjorn3D
- Asus and Sapphire HD 2900 XT by Driverheaven
- Asus HD 2900 XT by NordicHardware
- Powercolor HD 2900 XT by Technic3D
- Sapphire HD 2900 XT by OverclocksClub
- HIS HD 2900 XT by Hexus+
- Sapphire HD 2900 XT by AltGamer
- JeyWay HD 2900 XT by PC Tuner
- JetWat HD 2900 XT by Tweakers.net
- HIS HD 2900 XT by 3DGameman

Extreme Overclocking at NordicHardware

Overclocking Results: Average OC on AIR: 848/960

- ChileHardware pushes their HD 2900 XT to 843/900
- TechPowerUp takes their HD 2900 XT to 850/970
- HotHardware takes their HD 2900 XT to 828/900
- Asus HD 2900 XT goes to 865/1026 by DriverHeaven
- Sapphire HD 2900 XT goes to 863/1029 by DriverHeaven
- Asus HD 2900 XT Nordichardware GPU AIR: 847, Water: 930, Cascade: 1144!
- HIS HD 2900 XT to 844/954 by Hexus
- Powercolor HD 2900 XT to 850/865 by Technic3D
- ATI HD 2900 XT to 850/1000 by Digit-Life
- Sapphire HD 2900 XT to 838/1000 by AltGamer
- JetWay HD 2900 XT to 980/105 @ -105°C by PC Tuner
- ATI HD 2900 XT to 838/888 by TheTechLounge
- ATI HD 2900 XT to 848/900 by MadBoxPC

Check back as we update with more reviews and info.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/15

will include it in the roundup

Comment from Kougar @ 2007/05/15

I am also looking forward to an R600 overclocking article! Good point about Nvidia's drivers under Vista, I didn't consider that.

Have you seen the .Ars Technica report on R600? Very interesting info I'd not seen elsewhere, as usual.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/15

Since NV is still not 100% ok with drivers in Vista, ATI has the lead there, about half of the reviews feature Vista, but imho, testing without XP SP2 is doing a disservice to your readers; people who actually have and use Vista is quite small

We might see a faster HD 2900 XT in the future? Looking at the average OC results, 800Mhz on the core (up from 750) is not impossible, on the mem, 1000Mhz with maybe a bit of extra voltage? Should bump up performance past the GTS 640Mb?

Looking forward to R600 overclocking article which looks at the performance scaling

Comment from Kougar @ 2007/05/15

Who did reviews of R600 under Vista?

The numbers and info I am getting from people show that R600 consistently outperforms the 8800GTS under Vista by a small margin, worst case tieing it. Similar results under XP are much worse and favor Nvidia. Anandtech's numbers are completely all over the place, they have the x1950 card outperforming R600 with just 4xAA enabled... definitely not the typical results I've seen elsewhere like Bjorn3d.com. Crysis Demo results show the R600 trumping a GTX... what a mess.

Looks like DangerDen has a waterblock about to launch as well.

Comment from Kougar @ 2007/05/15

I did read it, that is where I got my info from and said as much? I don't plan to vmod though, so I will stick with the 900-90MHz ballpark until some R600 designed blocks come out.

Quote:

We reached the conclusion that about 1150MHz on the core was the best we could do with this cascade, which is on the verge of compressing its last gas. We reached this frequency using 1.45V.

Quote:

We were able to reach 1200MHz at 1.5V in one test, so there is definitely more to get.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/14

read Nordic's OC adventure again

Asus HD 2900 XT Nordichardware GPU AIR: 847, Water: 930, Cascade: 1144!

Comment from Kougar @ 2007/05/14

VRZone also used a "failing" cascade and got a 1GHz core, 1GHz RAM overclock on their card. They only tweaked the voltage to 1.35v though, while Nordic used 1.5v and a cascade to hit 1200MHz.

I was hoping someone would watercool one of these puppies so I can get a ballpark overclock figure... it looks like 900-950MHz core/shader clocks will be possible with a solid waterblock system. I would like to see what a 950MHz core -> 950MHz shaders will look like as far as performance goes... think it might be enough to best a GTX?

Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/14

added more reviews, products reviews and OC results; PC Tuner goes for -105°C on the GPU with 970 GPU as result.

Comment from Rutar @ 2007/05/14

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

midrange which should deliver (I hope) X1950XTX performance levels, doesn't need extra power connectors.

Look at that MAD OC by NordicHardware, they used LN2 to cool the GPU, overclocked from 750Mhz to 1144!

http://www.nordichardware.com/Reviews/?skrivelse=510

Well, it better does or AMDATI is in troubles.

Comment from easypanic @ 2007/05/14

Not worth an upgrade for me..

Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/14

http://www.nordichardware.com/Reviews/?skrivelse=510

Comment from RichBa5tard @ 2007/05/14

Wow, insane power consumption!

Luckily their entry level HD 2xxx videocards consume a very low amount of power (< 45W for midrange and < 25W for low end if I'm not mistaken). Saddly, they suck.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/14

Quote:

Also, we found that our 700W power supply wasn't up to the task of powering a Radeon HD 2900 XT CrossFire rig. In order to achieve stability, we had to switch to a new Thermaltake 1kW PSU with a pair of eight-pin connectors that AMD supplied.

Comment from Rutar @ 2007/05/14

Supreme Commander is CPU limited that it isn't funny

Comment from jmke @ 2007/05/14

Some cards come with it, check the retail version reviews

btw

Quote:

Demers described the R600 command processor as "somewhat self-aware," snooping to determine and manage state itself. The result? A claimed reduction in CPU overhead of up to 30% in DirectX 9 applications, with even less overhead in DX10.

that's the MAIN difference between DX9 <> DX10, CPU overhead, not fancier graphics; but are games CPU limited? not really last time I checked; so DX10 would allow SLOWER systems to run DX10 as fast as faster systems run DX9. too bad you need Vista to get DX10, which needs a CPU twice as fast; so that 30% less CPU overhead thanks to DX10 is gobbled up by Vista... nice.

Comment from blind_ripper @ 2007/05/14

no 8pin addaptor ! hhhmmm they should add it really bad that thy dont

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