2900 is getting better by the day

I know its been posted, but quite a few people are still on the fence-looking for a new gpu, heres what 1 driver update did http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/hwdb.php?tid=790821&tp=AMD-R600-HIS&rid=790821 This is usually a good site. Will it beat out the GTX? No. Will it win some benches in some games? Yes. If the XTX hadnt gone down in flames (or almost) being sooo hot, I think it would have won against the GTX. The 2950 will be coming out, at 65nm as reported, itll clock high. If they get their leaking gpu problems behind them, were going to see a nice card. Flames or comments are welcome
 

Farhang

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I don't know witch benchmark to trust anymore...One site says that it is about 8800GTS & the other says that it's faster than 8800GTX... :?
I think we need some one here to go out and buy a HD2900XT! :twisted:
Oh man! This is going to take the whole day to post this reply! :(
 

GSTe

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Shame it looks so ugly, but I suppose when it's hidden in your machine..... :) Just hate red cards, even though I've owned one or two.... what's wrong with black?
 

Stealth_JAG

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Great Find Jaydeejohn! A lot of us were thinking driver improvements would make a big difference with the 2900 XT and these tests seem to confirm it. Real interesting how it just about creamed the 8800 GTS 640 and came real close to the GTX (and even beat it a couple of times). With the 8.38 drivers, it looks like the 2900XT has the sweet spot for price/performance. Now... if somebody will only make it a little quieter and cooler, I may have found my next video card.

Rob (obviously not of SLI fame)
 

Stealth_JAG

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Oops - one additional thought (which also gets my post count up a little bit). I'm finally glad to see a site start using something other than an NVIDIA motherboard to test an ATI videocard. Although I can't read Chineese, it looks like they used a MOBO with the Intel 965 chipset. I got so sick of seeing every review of the 2900XT being conducted on 680i chipset motherboards. I know - a lot smarter people than me say that an ATI videocard should perform fine on an NVIDIA chipset, but I'm still suspicious. I think the 965 chipset is a great performer and at least has apparent neutrality when comparing the videocards.

Rob
 

ATIWOLF

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Shame it looks so ugly, but I suppose when it's hidden in your machine..... :) Just hate red cards, even though I've owned one or two.... what's wrong with black?

Black absorbs heat and other energies alot moe that other colors.And heat is something the 2900xt doesn't need
 

samael

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Great find ... :D

I'm so sick of all the prophets on these forum these days, who suddenly became GPU experts and all they say is how much the R600 sucks and that it will be the end of ATI etc …

The truth is that the initial drivers were pretty lousy … but this was the case in previous launches from ATI … they got better and better with each new driver release (remember OpenGL performance!!!)

This is certainly no excuse for them but common people … just wait at least for the drivers to stabilize before start prophesizing the doom of R600 and ATI (AMD present)
 

jamiepotter

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Yeah, if you've got a light source beaming on it... which would be very unlikely. I'm pretty sure colour doesn't make any difference. It might have something to do with the ridiculous amount of electrical energy it converts to heat...
 

samael

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From what I'm seeing in the posted article it looks like the performance with AA and in higher resolutions has improved allot... I was definitely expecting that...
 

M_with_one_M

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If 2900xt really got this much better from a driver update only a few days after release, it was pretty stupid of AMD not to wait for the new driver.

Now many people has already made up their opinions about the card and not everyone will have the interest to read new reviews.
 

The_Abyss

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If 2900xt really got this much better from a driver update only a few days after release, it was pretty stupid of AMD not to wait for the new driver.

They'd already delayed a long while, and had to deliver according to the schedule they'd already finalyl commited to.

Now many people has already made up their opinions about the card and not everyone will have the interest to read new reviews.

Rubbish. The people that don't read don't know, and the people that do read keep reading.
 

firemist

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Black absorbs heat and other energies alot moe that other colors.And heat is something the 2900xt doesn't need

Maybe for absorbing radiant heat. But ....

the card is generating heat and the goal is to cool than the card - so the card will not be absorbing heat, it will be emitting heat.

Most heat from the card is transferred to the surrounding air by convection rather than by radiation. Radiant cooling at these temperatures is negligible.

There is a belief that high performance car engines cool better if they are black. Do not know if this is fact or marketing but ...
 

GSTe

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Shame it looks so ugly, but I suppose when it's hidden in your machine..... :) Just hate red cards, even though I've owned one or two.... what's wrong with black?

Black absorbs heat and other energies alot moe that other colors.And heat is something the 2900xt doesn't need

Don't think that would be a consideration. Think about it.....
 

ARM

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Shame it looks so ugly, but I suppose when it's hidden in your machine..... :) Just hate red cards, even though I've owned one or two.... what's wrong with black?

Black absorbs heat and other energies alot moe that other colors.And heat is something the 2900xt doesn't need


Ugh.

No, just no.

Black also radiates heat faster than red, and since the card is hotter than the surroudings, a black one will lose heat faster.

This is, however, rather irrelevant, as the casing is made of plastic and is therefore an insulator, meaning it's colour will have very little effect on the heat absorption.


To Borat guy: infra-red is a type of light (electomagnetic wave), and objects give off infra-red, even when they aren't hot. When infra-red is absorbed, it turns into heat.
 

Farhang

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Black absorbs heat and other energies alot moe that other colors.And heat is something the 2900xt doesn't need
My XFX 8800 GTS is BLACK! & it is Much cooler than my previews RED X1900XTX (at least 20~30c).
:roll:
 
I just got my 2900 XT, and it is pretty nice. I haven't got to do any real tests yet, but it plays great at 1280x1024 in Oblivion and M2TW (big suprise :lol: ).

It also doesn't seem very loud or hot to me.

The drivers are a pain though. They are bulky and difficult to install properly. I will probably try to reinstall them soon. Also, I had a weird 3D mark glitch. 3D mark gets stuck in an infinite scanning loop. It never ends the initial scan (it doesn't freeze, it just never ends). Other than that, the card runs beautifully in the real world. I am very impressed with it.
 

ARM

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Black absorbs heat and other energies alot moe that other colors.And heat is something the 2900xt doesn't need
My XFX 8800 GTS is BLACK! & it is Much cooler than my previews RED X1900XTX (at least 20~30c).
:roll:

:lol: :lol:

The internet just brings out the stupid side of people (or just the stupid people :?: ) Probably the way in which computer screens refresh which attracts dumassedness.


Actually, this is a right downer for me; posts like this just illustrate the lack of education which is rampant in the world today.
 

MonocleCat

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@ the red vs black 2900 debate:

even if they make a black version, it will still end up being red, because it will be glowing from all the heat it puts off :p