Leadtek's $900 Performance Leviathan

[bydesign]

@zanzabar: I don't think you can call it 'extreme bias' but yeah I also would like to see the 2900 xt benched by Toms. We all know DX10 is the future whether it be on XP or not so why not test stuff with Vista to highlight were Nvidia are lacking and should pull their socks up (drivers). A comparison in DX9 is still justified though for those that have not/will not make the upgrade.

I believe that is an overstatement on your part. The 8800 is still king in DX10 and the new drivers are almost on par in DX9 in XP vs Vista. While there are a few areas where AMD/ATI shines they aren't winning by any means. Nv also plans on having their second gen cards later this year. With AMD/ATI's recent track record you could be waiting a year or more for their second gen card.

No bias here if AMD/ATI made a better card I would buy it.

 

[NewbieTechGodII]

I would get this because if you figure in the cost of the water-block, pump, radiator, hoses, fan, and coolant, not to mention the time to set everything up, then you'll probably come out ahead with this one.

Right now, my 8800 GTS-640 is the hottest thing in my system (idles at 60c). My CPU is already cooled with the 120 Extreme, so no need to water-cool it, but I do want to do something with my GPU and this is one way to do it. It also makes sense because I am not into SLI at all.

I think people had too-high an expectation here with the card, as it wasn't proclaiming itself to be the be-all, end-all of GPU's. I look at it as an efficient way to get a high-end, factory OC'd, water-cooled GPU easily into my system, a la the Aquagate Mini's.

Some one on here also mentioned the Black Pearl setup from EVGA. Well, they've been advertising it for months now, and while the GPU is available, the MB ain't. Plus, if you were to look, the price of admission is $899.99 (GPU/water-block only), and that's WITHOUT the hoses, radiators, fans, and coolant!

 

[zanzabar]

I was impressed with some of the rankings of the 2900. And these benchies really prove the strenghts and weaknesses of the card. AA & AF really change its performance, but without them the 2900 was almost on top. Even beat the Ultra on 3DMark, but was all over the place on the rest, was sad in Doom3 at the bottom.

doom 3 has been an invalid bench for a long it limits all unknown cards to 30 fps, and used to limit all non nvidia cards to high (u couldent use super high) for non nvidia cards, and to put this into perspective the game came out at the time were the top nvidia card was teh 5900 ultra, and that card lost to the ati 9500,9600,9700, and 980 in all revisions and the 5900 couldent even run the game well if at all with high / supper high settings

and at people who doubt the power of ati go and look at future mark and search the orb by grafix scores teh 2900xt 1gb in cross fire is on top, its 2nd only to a set of fully moded 8800 ultras with replaced memory dims with volt mods and fully customized mb and grafix bios and customized drivers just for that benchmark with liquid nitrogen cooling of course, not to say that the ati cards dont have the same but its documented on the xtreme system forums 9this setup won overall by like 30 points)

 

[Luscious]

There are plenty of high-end enthusiast water-cooling devices out there that can do a better job of cooling this card, assuming that your aim is to OC the 8800 ultra and get top frame rates.

LN and phase change is another matter, but if you already have a professional water-cooling setup (radiator, pump, etc..) on your cpu and want to OC your GPU, you could spend a few cents more on some hose and slap on an aftermarket GPU block like the Swiftech Stealth, which will only set you back $100, and still lets you go SLI with a second block in the cooling loop.

As for cases with dual 120mm fan mounts, there's plenty of them out there. It doesn't hurt to mod your case either!

But to compete with the $300 premium of the Leadtek, you could put together a complete stand-alone peltier GPU cooling assembly for about $300 as well, get cooler temps and possibly better overclocking.

Nope. This card is not worth $900, and two of them for $1800 is utter stupidity.

 

[NewbieTechGodII]

Peltiers are shite, and I haven't seen one that's worth the power or money needed to get one. Additionally, while they can get something below ambient, you then will have to deal with condensation; if the peltier goes out, you'll probably have 5 seconds before the chips burn-out.

Just for reference, Anandtech did a review of two or three CPU coolers that used peltiers and guess what? The Ultra 120 eXtreme still whooped their asses! Hell, the performance of the coolers using peltiers was practically no better than that of the stock HSF. Those coolers, however, were designed to operate at ambient or higher to avoid condesation. Regardless, they still failed.

If your rig is already water-cooled, then the odds are in favor that you have already water-cooled the GPU as well, so, yes of course, this card doesn't make much sense. But, for those of us who don't want or need to water-cool our whole system, just the GPU, then this makes more sense. It's still expensive as hell, but isn't it always?

Funny thing, what you said about other setups that were better at cooling when the article never even posted temps! I would also have liked to have seen some pictures of this card setup in a couple of popular cases.

 

[warezme]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/30/leadteks_performance_leviathan/index.html

Leadtek's GeForce 8800 Ultra offers overclocking, self-contained water cooling and unparalleled graphics power. But for $900 retail, you expect a lot.

Not significantly OC'ed over Ultra specs and you can't SLI!!???? Whatever....

 

[darklife41]

When you consider the price for 2 x 2900XTs 1000MB, a PSU to run them (at 230-250w apiece under load you'll need about 1Kw), and your electric bill, I think they're the biggest waste of money on the planet. I see both 8800 Ultras and GTXs ahead on 3dmark05, and it's pretty much a toss up between the 3 on 3Dmark06. While the Nvidia cards may be highly modded, who's to say the ATIs aren't as well? Considering the cost to power these cards, the 8800Ultra/GTX is a much better deal in the long run.

This Leadtek is obviously aimed at a specific market, those not interested in SLI and those who also want an easy to setup water cooled card. I think Leadtek has once again accomplished what they set out to do, and is one of the best manufacturers on the planet.

I can get this card from our suppliers for almost the same price as an Ultra, so not bad at all. But then having used Leadteks ever since BFG voided my (lifetime?) warranty on 2 x 6800U OCs, I'm a little biased toward Leadtek.

 

[NewbieTechGodII]

This Leadtek is obviously aimed at a specific market, those not interested in SLI and those who also want an easy to setup water cooled card. I think Leadtek has once again accomplished what they set out to do, and is one of the best manufacturers on the planet.

I can get this card from our suppliers for almost the same price as an Ultra, so not bad at all. But then having used Leadteks ever since BFG voided my (lifetime?) warranty on 2 x 6800U OCs, I'm a little biased toward Leadtek.

I agree with what you wrote about this card being for a specific set of people; mainly because I said it too!

EDIT: On a side note, what the hell is the purpose of going "green" on CPU's and other PC components, and then blow it all on a freakin' power-hungry GPU?

 

[darklife41]

Anyone running a 2900XT or 2 obviously isn't interested in going green. 😉