HD2900XT must be getting close to release (for real this time)

[Creig]

The first (that I've seen) HD2900 XT preorder page is up. It's for a Sapphire card and is priced at 380 Euro ($518 US) or 319 Euro ($435 US excluding 19% BTW/VAT).

http://www.sallandautomatisering.nl/?redirect=/content/productinfo.php?pid=34021

 

[tuteja1986]

Well what i hear its starting to ship to wholesalers.

 

[coolpurplefan]

lol, this is so cool for people who want to trade stocks. Well, I guess you can't call it inside information if it's already made public right? hahahahah!

Chipset ATi Radeon HD2900 XT
Geheugen 512 MB
Type geheugen GDDR3
GPU snelheid 750 MHz
Geheugen snelheid 1660 MHz
Interface PCI-e 16x
RAMDAC 400 MHz
TV-out HDTV / HDCP / HDMI
Video-in Ja
DVI 2 x
D-sub Nee

 

[AnotherGuy]

Personally i dont think any of these high end cards is worth more than $300... Y? because in 3 months thats the price they r going to be.... so what the hell is the difference of buying it now or 3 months later? specially now that theres no need ( games) for these cards to be run at full throttle... my opinion

 

[swtethan]

then why not wait another 3-6 months for it to be $150? why not?

 

[bigsnyder]

Just wait about 3yrs and pick one up for about $30 buck at a swap meet.

 

[Munky]

There's definitely a need for these cards for people who run a hi res display. Even without DX10 games, there's enough DX9 games that would inflict major pain on a 7900gtx or a x1900xt at 1900 x 1200 resolution and higher.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: munky
There's definitely a need for these cards for people who run a hi res display. Even without DX10 games, there's enough DX9 games that would inflict major pain on a 7900gtx or a x1900xt at 1900 x 1200 resolution and higher.

Agreed. That's where I'm at right now.

I've been waiting for the HD2900XT for a long time now. Was going to pull the trigger on an 8800GTS 640mb, but the performance for $400 just isnt there IMO.

If the HD2900XT can get below $400 within a couple of weeks of launch and sits closer to the 8800GTX than the GTS in terms of performance, AMD will have sold one more GPU.

I've been playing my Xbox360 almost exclusively since getting my 24" LCD. STALKER crawls around 20-40fps at 1920x1200 with the settings knocked down below half way. This X1900XTX was a good card, but it's time to move on.

 

[yacoub]

Yeah definitely agree. Although the other thing will be if the XT drives the 640MB GTS down to $350 or less before they stop producing them.

 

[Pugnate]

Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
Personally i dont think any of these high end cards is worth more than $300... Y? because in 3 months thats the price they r going to be.... so what the hell is the difference of buying it now or 3 months later? specially now that theres no need ( games) for these cards to be run at full throttle... my opinion

Right, like the 8800GTX is $300 now eh?

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: yacoub
Yeah definitely agree. Although the other thing will be if the XT drives the 640MB GTS down to $350 or less before they stop producing them.

Supplies are already starting to dwindle on the 8800GTS 640mb.

Makes me think Nvidia is going to roll out a new product at that price point and discontinue the 8800GTS 640mb all together.

I dont have a clue what it'll be, but my guess is it'll be similarly performing part that is cheaper to manufacture.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
Right, like the 8800GTX is $300 now eh?

coz GTX had no competition... hence no need to make it cheaper... I agree with highres screens... but since i only have a 1680x1050 i dont need that kind of card... nor do i have more than 300 to spend for a vidcard... thats y i said 'My Opinion"... so instead of bying the latest newest for some1 in a budget its better to buy maybe last generation... or a card in the $300 price range... that is still my budget and my needs.... not everyones... guess i have to get the next speed under the 2900xt... which i have no clue how its goin to perform... all i know is that the 8600 cards r definitely far from even thinkin about... I want an ati card!

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
coz GTX had no competition... hence no need to make it cheaper... I agree with highres screens... but since i only have a 1680x1050 i dont need that kind of card... nor do i have more than 300 to spend for a vidcard... thats y i said 'My Opinion"... so instead of bying the latest newest for some1 in a budget its better to buy maybe last generation... or a card in the $300 price range... thats still my budget and my needs.... not everyones... guess i have to get the 1 speed under the 2900xt... which i have no clue how its goin to perform... all i know is that the 8600 cards from nVidia r definitely outa my thinkin... I want a ati card!

What's wrong with the 8800GTS 320mb? At $250 AR, sounds like that is the sweet spot for you.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Matt2 I been lookin at that card for a while... but somehow i like ati cards more... since i like dx games better than opengl... old fashioned thinking i know but I generally think Ati makes a better effort when releasing cards than nV does... or maybe just their architecture is better... how come for the last 2 generations ATI does better with higher resolutions or higher eye candy settings than nVidia ? thats what keeps bringing me back to ati.... and this generations seems to be the same for ati...
let the stabbing begin...

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
Matt2 I been lookin at that card for a while... but somehow i like ati cards more... since i like dx games better than opengl... old fashioned thinking i know but I generally think Ati makes a better effort when releasing cards than nV does... or maybe just their architecture is better... how come for the last 2 generations ATI does better with higher resolutions or higher eye candy settings than nVidia ? thats what keeps bringing me back to ati.... and this generations seems to be the same for ati...
let the stabbing begin...

Haha.

I agree with you for the most part. I think a lot of that has to do with the direction that each company takes.

Nvidia generally takes the more "efficient" route. Their GPUs typically require less power and run faster clock for clock.

ATI generally takes the smash mouth, all or nothing approach. Their GPUs typically require more power and high clock speeds in order to match or best Nvidia's solution.

Take the 8800GTX vs HD2900XT for example. 8800GTX uses a core clock of 575mhz, a memory bus of 384bits and the HD2900XT is using 745mhz core clock with a 512bit bus. Although the 8800GTX looks severely handicapped on paper, I think we'll find that the two are going to be very close.

 

[Matt2]

Has the price war already begun?

Leadtek 8800GTS 640mb $359.99 - $324.99 AR

Free shipping too. If I hadnt just bought Vista, I might have jumped on this.

 

[aka1nas]

Every other model is up around $400 now though. I think they are just blowing them out before they are discontinued as they seem to be dropping a model or two every few days.

 

[mooncancook]

Originally posted by: Matt2

Nvidia generally takes the more "efficient" route. Their GPUs typically require less power and run faster clock for clock.

ATI generally takes the smash mouth, all or nothing approach. Their GPUs typically require more power and high clock speeds in order to match or best Nvidia's solution.

Take the 8800GTX vs HD2900XT for example. 8800GTX uses a core clock of 575mhz, a memory bus of 384bits and the HD2900XT is using 745mhz core clock with a 512bit bus. Although the 8800GTX looks severely handicapped on paper, I think we'll find that the two are going to be very close.

I care less how they implement their GPU, performance and price is all that counts.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: mooncancook

Originally posted by: Matt2

Nvidia generally takes the more "efficient" route. Their GPUs typically require less power and run faster clock for clock.

ATI generally takes the smash mouth, all or nothing approach. Their GPUs typically require more power and high clock speeds in order to match or best Nvidia's solution.

Take the 8800GTX vs HD2900XT for example. 8800GTX uses a core clock of 575mhz, a memory bus of 384bits and the HD2900XT is using 745mhz core clock with a 512bit bus. Although the 8800GTX looks severely handicapped on paper, I think we'll find that the two are going to be very close.

I care less how they implement their GPU, performance and price is all that counts.

I understand that, trust me. I have a X1900XTX. There are a lot of people that agree with you and there are also a lot of people that really do care about heat and power issues.

There's nothing wrong with either approach, that's just historically how each company handles things.

 

[Munky]

At first, during the r300 and r420 generations, it was Nvidia who had hotter and more power hungry cards. Then the sides switched. I wonder what ever happened to the ArtX team who developed the r300, seems like Ati cards after that haven't been as good as the r300 in terms of groundbreaking performance, heat/power and even time to market.

 

[yacoub]

Originally posted by: Matt2

Originally posted by: yacoub
Yeah definitely agree. Although the other thing will be if the XT drives the 640MB GTS down to $350 or less before they stop producing them.

Supplies are already starting to dwindle on the 8800GTS 640mb.

Makes me think Nvidia is going to roll out a new product at that price point and discontinue the 8800GTS 640mb all together.

I dont have a clue what it'll be, but my guess is it'll be similarly performing part that is cheaper to manufacture.

Same performance range with same quiet (compared to ATi) cooling setup, but cheaper to produce for them and easier for them to allow to fall closer to $300? Fine by me.

And to the guy talking about $300 GTXs: Go look back at the 7900GTX and realize it never touched anywhere near $300 before it was completely gone from the market. You have to balance waiting for a good price against waiting too long.

 

[Munky]

While we're on the topic of future NV products, do you think Nv will release a 80nm refresh of the g80's this summer, or wait until they can move it to 65nm? If they wait for 65nm, then I'm speculating we'll see a repeat of the g71 refresh, where the 7800gt with 20pp was replaced with the 7900gt having the same amount of shaders as the top end 7900gtx. If that's so, then the refresh of the 8800gts will have the same 128 shader core as the 8800gtx, while the 8800gtx refresh will mainly differ in clock speeds.

 

[mooncancook]

Originally posted by: Matt2

I understand that, trust me. I have a X1900XTX. There are a lot of people that agree with you and there are also a lot of people that really do care about heat and power issues.

There's nothing wrong with either approach, that's just historically how each company handles things.

Power draw and heat are concerns to me also, that's why I always use after market coolers and never want to run dual cards. ATi cards have been drawing more power but it's not by far.

Historically I think both companies had some good designs and some bad designs, I wouldn't generalize anything. I see how you wanted to upgrade as you are gaming at 19x12. Even at 16x10, with all the graphic mod, my XT is strugglinig with Oblivion. I'm really looking forward to what R600 has to offer, and right now I prefer an ATi for the same performance and price over NVidia because I'd like to do something to help the balance of the market, just as I'd choose AMD over Intel, if possible.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: munky
While we're on the topic of future NV products, do you think Nv will release a 80nm refresh of the g80's this summer, or wait until they can move it to 65nm? If they wait for 65nm, then I'm speculating we'll see a repeat of the g71 refresh, where the 7800gt with 20pp was replaced with the 7900gt having the same amount of shaders as the top end 7900gtx. If that's so, then the refresh of the 8800gts will have the same 128 shader core as the 8800gtx, while the 8800gtx refresh will mainly differ in clock speeds.

Is the 8600 series on the 80nm node?

If it is then I suspect we'll see a G80 refresh on a mature 80nm and G90 on 65nm.