Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro $159.99 @ newegg

that's the 256 bit version, you'd be much better off getting the one without the rebate as it's a 512 bit version for 159.99 as well ;)
 
great deal considering that this card cost around $250 when it first came out...plus it's faster than the HD 3850 which costs around the same and if u OC it u can get it to run at 3870 speeds!

Also there's a $15 rebate to get it to down to $144.99, AND free 3-day shipping!

if anyone else thinks this is a good (or not so good) deal...please post


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102717&Tpk=14-102-717

Thing is though, this thing uses more than twice the energy of the 3800 series. I do like my 3850 better.
 
These are, and they are power hungry. But remember, they can oc well past stock 2900xt speeds. Mine's happily ran at 825/870 since I purchased it about 2 and a half months ago or so.
Granted mine cost $279 then =( The only reason I don't get another for xfire is power consumption (requirement obviously of 4 6pin connectors) and id need a new mobo
 
they are powerhungry, but also cant you flash the 2900 pro 512MB 512 bit version to be an XT?
 
"The HD 2900 Pro is too power hungry"


Translation: I already dropped 200-250 bucks on my HD 3850 / 3870 and i'm trying to save face.



I just picked up the 512 MB 512-bit version for 160, it's the best video card I ever bought for that little cash. I've NEVER been this pleased with a video card before.

I got the memory running at 2200 MHZ and the core at 850. Can't tell the difference btw this card and the 8800 GT or the HD 3870, both of which I've owned and tested.
 
Then give the averages for the Crysis benchmark on High and at 1024x768 for both the 3870 and the 2900pro.
 
Like my sig says... Im not very pc savvy so bare with me.

Question: When you say its 'power hungry' what do you mean exactly?

Do you mean my electric bill will suffer or what?
 
Then give the averages for the Crysis benchmark on High and at 1024x768 for both the 3870 and the 2900pro.

As per the thread below, I don't have an HD 3870 anymore.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1251758

I just did a quick benchmark with my system specs below and I get 40 FPS. avg on all HIGH at 1024 x 768. When I had an 8800 GT, I got about 40 FPS on all HIGH at 1440 x900.

In actual game play, those benchmarks mean very little. I couldn't play Crysis comfortably on all HIGH anyway with an 8800 GT...at least not what I consider to be comfortable. Many seem to be satisfied with a 20-30 FPS avg. during firefights.


Having used both, I can say that there is NO difference btw the two (with the exception of artifacts w/3870), and I would say the that HD 2900 Pro is a bit faster when OC'd beyond XT specs, which it does quite easily...


On a side note, I was so pleased to finally settle on a video card that I liked, I bought Portal off Steam.


Man....what a great game. :)

It was like icing on the " cake " .....
 
Like my sig says... Im not very pc savvy so bare with me.

Question: When you say its 'power hungry' what do you mean exactly?

Do you mean my electric bill will suffer or what?



I think the issue with power consumption is that everyone has multiple HDs and DVD-Rom and sound cards, etc. You might have stability issues if you have a weak power supply.

I just bought a highly-rated Corsair 550W and I only have one DVD drive, one HD & no PCI sound card, so an HD 2900 Pro does quite well in my system.


How much more electricity will you consume? I'd like to see someone put a dollar amount on the disparity...
 
If you talk about the 2900 overclocking then don't you have to talk about the 3870 overclocking as well? you can't just say one overclocks and not even mention the other. And what 8800 were you using? 256 or 512, it makes a difference.
 
If you talk about the 2900 overclocking then don't you have to talk about the 3870 overclocking as well? you can't just say one overclocks and not even mention the other. And what 8800 were you using? 256 or 512, it makes a difference.



I wouldn't buy an 8800 GT 256.... especially with this puppy on sale for 160 at New Egg. I had 5 8800 GTs 512 MB and I didn't like any of them. ( I sold them all on ebay.) Sure they were tad better than this HD 2900, but I really don't like nVidia's drivers.

I OC'd the HD 3870 and you don't get too much out of it. There's not a lot of headroom regardless of the BIOS lock.

I know people have voltmodded and unlocked the BIOS on the 3870 and gotten crazy 3dMark scores. But those guys never give their crysis benchmarks because they know they don't get much of an improvement over stock speeds.
 
I think the issue with power consumption is that everyone has multiple HDs and DVD-Rom and sound cards, etc. You might have stability issues if you have a weak power supply.

I just bought a highly-rated Corsair 550W and I only have one DVD drive, one HD & no PCI sound card, so an HD 2900 Pro does quite well in my system.


How much more electricity will you consume? I'd like to see someone put a dollar amount on the disparity...

I wanted to make sure they meant 'power consumption' and not some other computer lingo. I didnt think it really did use up a lot of electric.

I would probably have 2 HDs, a combo DVD, the integrated soundcard thats in the motherboard, MB sticks, and my CPU.... I heard I had to have a good powersupply so Id get one, plus fans I suppose.
 
Thinking about grabbing one... trying to find benchmarks that compare this to the 3850/80 or 8800GT, anyone have a link?
 
hmmm...thats weird...i thought all hd 2900 pro's were 512-bit...isnt the 2900 pro and xt 512 bit and the 2900 gt 256 bit?
 
Was reading the reviews on the 512bit version and came across this gem:

Pros: its red

Cons: first of all i cant even find holes to put this graphic card in and second when i finaly cut a peice of the thing off and fit it in,it blew up and cought of fine
 
Haha newegg needs a system to get rid of truly retarded comments and the users subsequent bad rating that pull the overall egg rating down.
 
get the omega drivers. I just got them and they are so much nicer.

http://www.omegadrivers.net/about.php

I tried the Omega Drivers right before I sold my last 8800 GT.

Didn't make a lick of difference in anything.


I think people assume they are better, so they obviously must be, right?

That guy built a reputation on circular logic alone. No omega driver I've ever tried in the last 4 years was any better than the regular driver....

In the search for that last pixel of power one can possibly squeeze out of one's system, people just think they're better.
 
over on EOC board people are in the middle of benching their systems w/ the omega's and with the regular, and so far there is a small difference ( I think 4%), but for free, 4% is nice!
Let me see if I can find them and link ya to it.
 
so far:
Razorback
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Omega Drivers Released - 169.21

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.omegadrivers.net/nvidia_winxp.php

His first NVidia release in quite some time. Already installed and was able to finally play through the ending of Crysis without a crash...
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Dual Channel - G.Skill 1GBx2 PC3200
Foxconn 8800 GTX/768MB
- Core: 575.00MHz
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just ran 06 with these. performance is on par with the nvidia drivers, but I did notice that the image quality was improved...which is pretty much omega's philosophy when tweaking drivers anyway. Crysis, COD4 and HL2:E2 tests coming up.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=4426078
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1080mhz 15/5/5/5 2.2v
Silverstone ST85ZF
Swiftech H20-220 Ulra Apex w/2x Scythe S-Flex 120's
 
I'm wondering at what advantages does the 512 bit one have over the 256 bit one, what are bits on a videocard?
 
I'm curious as to the performance difference as well, anyone have any numbers on this?
 
Sure glad I got my order in yesterday morning...;-} The 256-bit version is still available, with rebate, at least. My first time over to the ATI side of the fence in awhile. My main game doesn't like them as much, but it was too good a deal to pass up. The version of the 2900pro left is not bad either.
 
AAAAH I just bought one. Can anyone show their screen shot with stable settings when overlcoked ? Thanks
 
yeah, i use two 6pins, it's fine. I play call of duty 4 all the time.
 
I'm wondering at what advantages does the 512 bit one have over the 256 bit one, what are bits on a videocard?

the bits refer to how wide the path between the memory is to the core and therefore how much data can be simultaneously transferred. The 256 bit means that there are 4 x 64 bit paths, and the 512 bit has 8 x 64 bit paths. So having a 512 bit card will double the potential memory bandwidth of the video card and allow better performance on higher graphics settings, such as at high resolutions or with high amounts of AA. The HD 2900 Pro 256- bit has 1.6 GHz x 256 bit/8 = 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidh while the 512 bit has 1.6 GHz x 512 bit/8 = 102.4 GB/s. However, for high memory bandwidth to be really effective the core has to be equally fast, and unfortunately the core on the 2900 Pro (and XT) are too weak and bottleneck the memory transfer performance. This also explains why an 8800 GT with just 57.6 GB/s bandwidth runs faster than a HD 2900 XT 1 GB with 128 GB/sec memory bandwidh.
 
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