ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT how does it performs in the real world?

J

JVC

[H]ard|Gawd
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does it matter that it is not as fast as everything else, how does it perform in the real world? what about graphics any better? what about cf?
 
It's a very good card. It performs very well in the games I usually play, mostly first person shooters from the last year or two. I'm enjoying mine immensely.
 
from what i know, it is still a good card, performance are about 8800GTS 640MB, so that real world performance should not disappoint you, that is if you know what you're buying.
yes you can cf if that's what you ask, though it consume more power than GTS.
good news is, 2900xt becomes better and better with every new driver release.
 
This will go back & forth with many people. When it comes to performance, it is a decent card but as long as we had to wait for it, it is simply not good enough. The price is right but I would still go with either an 8800GTS/8800GTX. Atleast you are guaranteed great performance out of the box & the drivers are maturing pretty well now. Most people are OC'ing there 2900XT to get GTX like performance out of it disregarding how much power it's drawing & how hot itis at the same time. I don't hate the 2900XT. I just don't think it lived up to the hype.
 
Hi,

I have the sapphire X2900XT, I am very pleased with it and have no intentions to overclock it, I might buy a 2nd card down the line and use crossfire as benchmarks have shown this outperforms the 8800ultra by 30-40% in most real world tests.

Unfortunately there isnt much to look at DX10 wise so really its worth waiting until some proper DX10 games come out, at the moment there is just Lost Planet which is nvidia endorsed game that doesnt work very well on ATI cards as the driver team didnt see it before it was released - there is also company of heroes but this is a dx9 game with a dx10 patch.

There is also an Nvidia tech demo but this runs very poorly on most 8800 systems which is quite amusing.

My only gripe with the x2900xt is how much power it uses but once you have purchased a decent power supply (a must) then its really not an issue, its only two to three lighbulbs worth in games and you can use your new HDR lighting to illuminate the room instead :D

On my current system (specs below) I am enjoying Halflife 2 at absolute maximum detail in 1280x1024 at a constant 75 frames/second. I couldnt ask for more.

Regards,

Jamie
 
i agree to better go with gts, but i really don't think the price is right, its price is one of the factor that make 2900xt less attractive. should it be less expensive, it'll have better value then.
 
Gilj said:
Hi,

I have the sapphire X2900XT, I am very pleased with it and have no intentions to overclock it, I might buy a 2nd card down the line and use crossfire as benchmarks have shown this outperforms the 8800ultra by 30-40% in most real world tests.

Unfortunately there isnt much to look at DX10 wise so really its worth waiting until some proper DX10 games come out, at the moment there is just Lost Planet which is nvidia endorsed game that doesnt work very well on ATI cards as the driver team didnt see it before it was released - there is also company of heroes but this is a dx9 game with a dx10 patch.

There is also an Nvidia tech demo but this runs very poorly on most 8800 systems which is quite amusing.

My only gripe with the x2900xt is how much power it uses but once you have purchased a decent power supply (a must) then its really not an issue, its only two to three lighbulbs worth in games and you can use your new HDR lighting to illuminate the room instead :D

On my current system (specs below) I am enjoying Halflife 2 at absolute maximum detail in 1280x1024 at a constant 75 frames/second. I couldnt ask for more.

Regards,

Jamie
Click to expand...

that's exactly my point, high end is a high end, it'll do some hard gaming.
btw. it is HD 2900XT my friend, with no "X" prefix i guess.;)
 
Once the price comes down, it will be competitive. People just had high expectations, and it didnt meet them. That doesnt mean it isnt a solid performer
 
Gilj said:
Hi,

I have the sapphire X2900XT, I am very pleased with it and have no intentions to overclock it, I might buy a 2nd card down the line and use crossfire as benchmarks have shown this outperforms the 8800ultra by 30-40% in most real world tests.

Unfortunately there isnt much to look at DX10 wise so really its worth waiting until some proper DX10 games come out, at the moment there is just Lost Planet which is nvidia endorsed game that doesnt work very well on ATI cards as the driver team didnt see it before it was released - there is also company of heroes but this is a dx9 game with a dx10 patch.

There is also an Nvidia tech demo but this runs very poorly on most 8800 systems which is quite amusing.

My only gripe with the x2900xt is how much power it uses but once you have purchased a decent power supply (a must) then its really not an issue, its only two to three lighbulbs worth in games and you can use your new HDR lighting to illuminate the room instead :D

On my current system (specs below) I am enjoying Halflife 2 at absolute maximum detail in 1280x1024 at a constant 75 frames/second. I couldnt ask for more.

Regards,

Jamie
Click to expand...

At 1280x1024 you should be getting FPS well into the 100's with a 2900xt. Have you checked chip-set and video drivers?
 
the 2900 might be fine.. but try bumping up the AA and then you start to see its true colors... some pretty drab ones mind you
 
Gilj said:
Hi,

I have the sapphire X2900XT, I am very pleased with it and have no intentions to overclock it, I might buy a 2nd card down the line and use crossfire as benchmarks have shown this outperforms the 8800ultra by 30-40% in most real world tests.

Unfortunately there isnt much to look at DX10 wise so really its worth waiting until some proper DX10 games come out, at the moment there is just Lost Planet which is nvidia endorsed game that doesnt work very well on ATI cards as the driver team didnt see it before it was released - there is also company of heroes but this is a dx9 game with a dx10 patch.

There is also an Nvidia tech demo but this runs very poorly on most 8800 systems which is quite amusing.

My only gripe with the x2900xt is how much power it uses but once you have purchased a decent power supply (a must) then its really not an issue, its only two to three lighbulbs worth in games and you can use your new HDR lighting to illuminate the room instead :D

On my current system (specs below) I am enjoying Halflife 2 at absolute maximum detail in 1280x1024 at a constant 75 frames/second. I couldnt ask for more.

Regards,

Jamie
Click to expand...


What tech demo are you talking about?

I've run all of the nvidia tech demos on my rig and even the human head demo gives me solid FPS with my 8800 GTS 640. Thats with AA enabled.

So in my opinion go with the 8800 GTS 640, it performs about the same and sometimes better but is under $300.
 
Long time ATI fan, but I gotta agree with Kano until the price takes a serious dip on the 2900XT.

That Techspot article made the 2900 look pretty sweet, but still not quite meeting it's price point I think it needs to drop a bit. Least until I would buy one.

Personally I'm hoping for a 65nm refresh that runs cooler, uses less power and costs a little less. I'd sign on for that.
 
I had a 2900XT and RMA'd it because the performance was so poor when AA is turned on. If you use antialiasing this is not the card for you. You will note that the people who like this card usually play at low resolutions without little or no AA and simply have low image quality standards.
 
Yeah, in the real world I just play the games instead of do a pixel by pixel evaluation. ;)

Running 1680x1050. I seem to run lower AA than I've seen mentioned by many because more seems overkill (I'm talking about video cards in general). Especially for FPS where having a bit "too sharp" an image where a few pixel object sticks out better is often a good thing. I do find the textures come out a bit lighter on the 2900XT. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. Depends on the initial authoring and viewer's tastes. *shrug* So I haven't tried any tweaking yet to see what is up with that.

Of course the 2900XT comes out-of-the-box with a lot of extra AA options to allow you to go completely stupid with the AA. The Tent Filters are, especially the Wide, good examples of that. 8xWTF? WTF indeed! That's the kind of AA you'll normally find on a game console. Of course if you wanted it you can use it but I don't really see why for gaming given what current game output looks like. Maybe with other uses? There are also a lot of other finicky settings with the AA. Maybe too much flexibility for end users. Certainly enough to get something you don't like. ;) Will have to see how game developers use it, if it is something that'll result in a more tuned picture to their vision of what they want to show.

I did find on close inspection of the two you'll find the 2900XT AA is a lot better with fine straight items. Like wires, lightning rods, etc. The 8800 tends to truncate pointy objects and to staircase wires.

P.S. Blackstone did you return before the Catalyst 7.5 drivers came out? Because that's all I've ever used. Mind you I don't play Oblivion so I can't comment on how much that improvement there is.
 
I got these 2 cards in a crossfire setup, I am pleased with the performance.
 
I have both a 2900xt and a 8800GTS OC they both perform great its a tough decision
 
It's not bad, don't have a db meter to give how loud, but its bearable for a few more days until liquid cooling is installed and setup.
 
JackAshley said:
I'm curious, with two of these cards running, does turning AA on still destroy these cards?
Click to expand...

Not as much, but it still puts a hurting on them, atleast when I maxed every setting out in COH DX10 patch. Min frames was down to 9, average was around 29 with it maxing in the 70s on the built in bench. I'm running at 1920x1200. I'll rerun them with the 7.6 cats sometime tonight.
 
runs alright until AA comes into play.already a post on dx10 coj not much improvement
 
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