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2900XT versus GTS-640mb

A

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
REVIEW

Not sure if this is a double post or not, but it is dated at May 14th, 2007. I did a search and didn't find a post, but who knows... This review is showing the 2900XT as coming out quite strong. Hence the reason for my skepticism over all these reviews. This is the second site showing the 2900XT in good standing. It doesn't match the power of the GTX, but it does seem to edge out the GTS-640 in most cases and sometimes even beats the GTX in certain resolutions.
 
The xbitlabs review of the 8800 Ultra Extreme, Link, also shows the HD2900XT doing very well.

It just goes to show you that with each new release of ATI drivers there comes more performance. From what i recall this is nothing new when they release the X1800, every driver fellowing that received good performance improvements. They should have called this series the HD2800 as it seems like they need a new revision to make it the card it should be just like the X1800->X1900.
 
Actually ExtremeTech has a Call of Juarez DX10 benchmark from June 18 that shows the HD2900XT ahead of all 8800... And then the interesting part in the conclusion

Since this benchmark was publicly released, Nvidia has sent mail to journalists in the PC enthusiast space calling into question some of its code. Their claim is that changes were made to some shaders and default "under the hood" settings that impact performance on Nvidia cards without making a substantial difference to the performance of ATI cards.
Click to expand...
 
I am surprised that they called this card the HD 2900XT; calling it the HD 2800XT would have given them at least some branding space to release an updated card if it were necessary. The GeForce 8 series is only on 88XX, anyway.
 
It still remains a power-hungry card, has a loud cooling solution and has inferior anisotropic-filtering (even if negligible in most cases, it's still a technical fact), and it only goes up to 512MB of memory, which is where the GTS 640MB has one of the best advantage (in my opinion), that extra amount of memory helps noticeably well under higher resolutions along with AA and/or AF.
 
It's the things drivers can't change that keep me from interest in the 2900XT, namely noise and power consumption.
 
Originally posted by: ShadowOfMyself
Actually ExtremeTech has a Call of Juarez DX10 benchmark from June 18 that shows the HD2900XT ahead of all 8800... And then the interesting part in the conclusion

Since this benchmark was publicly released, Nvidia has sent mail to journalists in the PC enthusiast space calling into question some of its code. Their claim is that changes were made to some shaders and default "under the hood" settings that impact performance on Nvidia cards without making a substantial difference to the performance of ATI cards.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't put it past ATI to do something like that, especially with their faltering position.
 
Originally posted by: yacoub
It's the things drivers can't change that keep me from interest in the 2900XT, namely noise and power consumption.
Click to expand...

You are worried about power consumption with a high end video card? If that worries you then get something less power demanding like a Geforce 6200 Turbo Cache 😉

Seriously though you are not going to get a high end video card which has low power consumption but I do agree with you about the noise of the 2900XT. Although it is not as bad as some people would have you believe it's not a quiet video card.

How I wish for a HIS 2900XT using ICEQ3 cooling! 🙂
 
Originally posted by: yacoub
It's the things drivers can't change that keep me from interest in the 2900XT, namely noise and power consumption.
Click to expand...

you're worried about power consumption in a high end card??? get a real power supply.. like a PCPC 750

you're worried about noise in a high end card??? do u have speakers or headphones? if not, i have some for sale...😉

 
Originally posted by: Zenoth
It still remains a power-hungry card, has a loud cooling solution and has inferior anisotropic-filtering (even if negligible in most cases, it's still a technical fact), and it only goes up to 512MB of memory, which is where the GTS 640MB has one of the best advantage (in my opinion), that extra amount of memory helps noticeably well under higher resolutions along with AA and/or AF.
Click to expand...

If i remember correctly, pretty much every site that did insanely high resolutions showed that the 2900 dropped the least amount of FPS compared to any other GPU out there.

Do remember its not all about how many digits the card has, the 2900 has an insane amount of bandwidth available for its Memory, while it also has a ringbus to filter that memory much better.

 
The thing is that the GTS is more consistent across the board seen by the xbitlabs review. Some of the games saw the R600XTs performance nosedive several times to "unacceptable" levels.

But, IMO i dont think the XT will ever trade blows with the GTX at a consistent level. Its not the res thats killing the cards performance, its the AA or AF or a combination of both.
 
Originally posted by: yacoub
It's the things drivers can't change that keep me from interest in the 2900XT, namely noise and power consumption.
Click to expand...

noise would have bothered me too ... IF my hd2900xt was actually loud, it would have been a deal-breaker, right off .. as it stands ... it is on a par or slightly quieter than my x1950p which is quieter than my x850xt [or even 7800GS OC at full-bore, for that matter]

but - otoh - power consumption is just not an issue for me ... i plan to x-fire if i like it - booster PSes are relatively cheap and will allow for a Xfire OC ... at least we CAN have crossfire in Vista ... right now
 
Supposedly the problem with it being more power hungry isnt a power factor but a heat problem from what I have read about it. It runs much hotter supposedly because it uses more power. According to what I have read anyway. If its as loud as some have claimed in reviews though I wouldnt touch it no matter how good of performance is. nVidia has better. Thats just my own personal opinion though.
 
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