Wait For My New HD2900XT Begins

[ashishmishra]

I caved in finally, ended up buying this one Newegg

For $389.99 + $7.14, Retail Version which includes 3DMark06, PowerDVD, PowerDirector, Black-Box and the free Call of Juarez game. I feel I got a reasonably good deal. I also did that rush processing thingy for $2.99, damn they must make good money because of impatient guys like me.

My 512MB X1800XT served me very well, when I had my 19" CRT. At 1680x1050 however it started struggling a in games like Test Drive Unlimited, Dirt, Oblivion, F.E.A.R partly because I like to play with at-least 4xAA 16xAF and HDR if available. I'm sure I could have gone without a new one, for a few more months until the release of Crysis and Bioshock, but oh well, I worked really hard this Summer and had the money so eh!

HD 2900XT owners, few questions for you. What are the utilities you are using to overclock and set game profiles.

For my X1800XT, I used to use a hacked BIOS to overclock using overdrive while still keeping 2D-3D clocks. As far as Game profiles go, I used ATI Tray Tools. if you are using ATI Tray Tools with the HD 2900XT does that let you set the new AA modes in the Game Profile.

 

[ashishmishra]

So the card came yesterday, installed cat 7.7

The difference in Rainbow Six Vegas was astounding 1680x1050 maxed, as was the difference in DiRT 1680x1050 4XAA Ultra Quality, Test Drive Unlimited at 1680x1050 2xAA HDR looked tremendous.

The free Call of Juarez took a lot of time to load levels so I still haven't found the optimal setting for that yet. Yet the difference in performance from DX9 to DX10 is too much.

Waiting now for Bioshock, Crysis, Gears of War to completely enjoy my purchase.

I experimented with a little overclocking with AMD GPU Tool, tried 825-900, which was completely stable with DX9 Games and 3DM06 but artifaced in Call of Juarez DX10, so I backed up to 800-900 which worked fine. I got around 9000 in 3DM06 (825/900), does it sound right for my system setup?

So HD 2900XT owners, which utility are you all using for game profiles?

 

[Bateluer]

I don't particularly use game profiles myself. I dabbled using them with my X1900XT with ATI Tray Tools (or maybe it was ATiTool?) and it never really became useful for me.

Having said that, I follow the major utilities with half an ear for my 2900XT. To my knowledge, Tray Tools and ATITool haven't officially added R600 support yet. Haven't checked in a few weeks though.

 

[Matt2]

I also do not use game profiles.

For my 2900XT, I am using CCC + RivaTiner. I have found RivaTuner v2.02 to work great for my card. It allows OC, fan control and hardware monitoring.

I am using the exact same setup as you (almost) and I really like the 2900XT, even at 1920x1200.

Unless you absolutely have to ahve the new edge AA filters, I suggest going back to Cat 7.6. I lost some performance switching to 7.7.

 

[ashishmishra]

Oh yaa forgot about RivaTuner, will try it as soon as I get back from work. It sounds like it will be perfect for my needs, thanks Matt2.

 

[n7]

I don't use game profiles sorry(though i do now on my 8800 GTX).

Anyway, for OCing, etc, i used Rivatuner, which worked well.

One thing you noticed & also i did was that Call of Juarez DX10 is extremely stressful on the card.
I could run core @ 825+ easily for every game out there (3DMark05/06 maxed also) just fine, but i had to back down to around 790 IIRC for CoJ to not artifact...

 

[ashishmishra]

Yeah n7, I tried 825-900 first which worked perfectly for every other game out there, even Rainbow Six Vegas for 3+ hours without any problems. Strangely Call of Juarez DX10 artifaced (not very heavy artifacing but noticable) as soon as it loaded, even at 1280x800 which is a low resolution, it was fine at 800-900.

I'll try and find max clock for DX9 apps and max clock for DX10 apps. I have Call of Juarez, I can download Lost Planet DX10 Demo, is there any other DX10 demo that I can use to test?