Prices keep rising for the 2900xt !

Well put.

Also, enthusiasts want a card they can overclock without causing a blackout in the neighborhood.
 
Pred said:
True its not the product we expected (and hoped) it to be. But still.. I think its a better buy then a GTS640. I dont think drivers for the nvidia card will change much more in the performance but if you look at the last few drivers for the 2900XT you see big performance improvements. I think the 2900XT will be ok. As for GTS320 for 215 dollar.. damn I wish i lived in USA :( Goes for about 300 dollar here. If i coud get it that cheap i'd buy it and replace it with a R650 card in Q3.
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If the 2900 are already making big jumps in performance, well, how long is that going to continue? You’re not going to see month after month of big performance increases for long.

Both nVidia and AMD/ATI have a ways to go with drivers in Vista, though admittedly nVidia is closer I think.

I've been doing a lot of torture testing with my new 8800 Ultra, and the 158.43 are solid so far (had to back off a 9MHz on my FSB overclock on the sig rig to keep it stable, not a huge deal), and performance in games relative to XP in most situations is starting to draw even relative to XP. The drivers, at least for single card 8800 series configurations I think are just about there.
 
heatlesssun said:
If the 2900 are already making big jumps in performance, well, how long is that going to continue? You’re not going to see month after month of big performance increases for long.
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Well I personally don't expect the 2900XT to become the GTX's full performance equal. Without AA pretty much, but with AA no. Which is actually a good thing to have that flexibility because of what is IMO the main weakness of LCD monitors. Eventually, with any card, you'll meet up with a game that is just too much. It's nice to be able to crank up the resolution to your LCD's native as that is likely to give you a better shot at IQ than running non-native.

But so far the drivers have already pushed the 2900XT to clearly ahead of a stock GTS640 in performance. Amazingly inspite of all the s[H]rieking to the contrary from the parroting sycophants around here. :rolleyes:

Of course there are going to be the odd compatibility issue to start with. Such as the infamous grass in some areas of Oblivion. Hopefully for Oblivion players that like the grass turned on that is an actual driver issue that's easily addressed, an actual Oblivion issue that the drivers can be made to compensate for, or a problem that Bethesda releases a patch for.

P.S. Curious about your statement about 2900XT Vista drivers, what problems are being reported with the 2900XT? Link please! I hadn't noticed anything yet and that's really important info to me.
 
The level of disappointment with regards to this card is impressive (speaking for myself).

I, like others, waited quite patiently for this product to be released back in December, and watched with baited breath while it was pushed back, and pushed back again. We were told that they (Ati) would be releasing "mature drivers" with frequent use of the word "competitive" among others vs. the 8800 series.

We waited for nothing. I know this sounds a bit harsh but my fustration at this product is making this more biased that what it probably should be. It's slower than the 640MB nVidia varient, consumes far more power, has been shown to run quite a bit hotter, and is a bit more expensive. Yes, there are areas that this will undoubtly improve as the drivers mature... BUT they had an additional 6.. SIX months to improve with this, with Vista already released to the public, and looking at the issues that nVidia had to work though as a basis for improving their driver series (performance wise).

No, I was not expecting a pot of gold at the end of the video card rainbow, but we were led to expect more. I fell for it.....

Now.. lets move on to the XTX... Lets see, lets release our mid-range product, knowing full well what has occured, and then make the enthousist community wait an additional 2 - 3 months for the higher-end card to be released. Why? The GTX has been released, with mature drivers at this point, and I'm willing to bet the nVidia has an update of sorts to counter their new product.

Yes, the 29XX has alot of potiential, and those will hopefully come to full maturity with the release R700, but I feel that this round has been won by nVidia. It happens. I'm just disappointed with myself for not jumping on a GTX months ago.
 
Did anyone actually click that G3D link previously posted? Holy f*ck the 2900 in CF is loud! Almost sounds as bad as my old S462 system with the 92mm Tornado cranked all the way up. Open case or not, it's still VERY loud, and closing up the case side won't help all that much.

On a related note though..I wonder how much a water block for these cards will help?..Ie: the demonstrated increase in power consumption the [H] review showed... Slap a nice water block on these puppies and maybe you'll see some decent reduction in consumption (?), or a nice increase in o/c headroom at least..Of course with the power being sucked down, you'll probably need a separate loop just for the gfx, esp in Crossfire. Hey here's another thought...Dedicated solar panels for the Radeon 2900 (Crossfire) powered PC! :D...I could see some people doing it.
 
kush said:
Did anyone actually click that G3D link previously posted? Holy f*ck the 2900 in CF is loud! Almost sounds as bad as my old S462 system with the 92mm Tornado cranked all the way up. Open case or not, it's still VERY loud, and closing up the case side won't help all that much.

On a related note though..I wonder how much a water block for these cards will help?..Ie: the demonstrated increase in power consumption the [H] review showed... Slap a nice water block on these puppies and maybe you'll see some decent reduction in consumption (?), or a nice increase in o/c headroom at least..Of course with the power being sucked down, you'll probably need a separate loop just for the gfx, esp in Crossfire. Hey here's another thought...Dedicated solar panels for the Radeon 2900 (Crossfire) powered PC! :D...I could see some people doing it.
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The 2900XT in CF was 60 Decibels, i'm sorry that is too much for me. :(
 
antiv6 said:
The 2900XT in CF was 60 Decibels, i'm sorry that is too much for me. :(
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Its about as loud as my main system but and I have a GTS but I think most of my prob is my cheap best buy case fans and my stock AMD heatsink.
 
Droc said:
Im sure Im not the only who thinks that by the time crysis ships, that none of the current hardware is going to suffice.
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Exactly, this is the problem. Everyone is worrying about 2900XT vs. the GTS but what they should be asking is whether either card will be sufficient to run Crysis, Bioshock, and UT3 at the resolutions and settings they want.
 
Blackstone said:
Exactly, this is the problem. Everyone is worrying about 2900XT vs. the GTS but what they should be asking is whether either card will be sufficient to run Crysis, Bioshock, and UT3 at the resolutions and settings they want.
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why? Crysis is 6 months away; there will be faster cards by then. the G80 will be a year old. i'm sure it will suffice and be quite playable on the G80; albeit not at the highest resolution/settings, but if you HAVE to have that, there will be other options available.
 
People seem to classify video card releases as "rounds". I don't think that is a valid method. Compare the best from each side at a time slice (ie. Dec. 2006, March 2007, etc.). Why do I suggest this? Video card releases from two separate companies, are, what you might call asynchronous. As such, it's not a matter of nVidia or ATi winning "this round". It's a matter of nVidia having won every round from November up until now, and now, possibly having ATi win some rounds in return. Don't generalize a round as an all-inclusive time that contains both the launches of the video cards from all sides.
 
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