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ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - Radeon HD 2000 Series Introduced & Tested - TechAmok
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - Radeon HD 2000 Series Introduced & Tested - [hardware] 05:16 AM EDT - May,14 2007 - post a comment
After months of delays, AMD today
officially introduced the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, a top-to-bottom line of
ten discrete graphics processors (GPUs) for both desktop and mobile platforms.
However, only the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT will have immediate availability. The
accompanying ATI Radeon HD 2400 and HD 2600-based products are paper launches.
AMD's ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT packs 320 unified stream processors with an
estimated 47.5 Gigapixels/sec pixel processing rate. The 320 stream processors
are joined by 16 texture units and render backends. AMD claims the 740 MHz ATI
Radeon HD 2900 XT delivers 475 GigaFLOPS of processing power in multiply-add, or
MADD, calculations. AMD pairs the 700 million transistors GPU with 512MB of
GDDR3 video memory. The 1.65 GHz GDDR3 memory communicates with the GPU via a
512-bit memory interface, delivering 106 GB/sec of bandwidth. The new ATI Radeon
HD 2900 XT continues to make do with an 80nm fabrication process to consume
approximately 215 watts of power altogether.
The ATI Radeon HD 2600 series features 120 stream processors. The GPU is
clocked anywhere between 600 to 800 MHz depending on flavor. AMD backs the 120
stream processors with eight texture units and four render backends. AMD pairs
the ATI Radeon HD 2600 GPU with GDDR4, GDDR3 or DDR2 memory. Manufacturers can
equip cards with 256MB of video memory clocked anywhere between 800 MHz to 2.2
GHz, on a 128-bit memory interface. ATI Radeon HD 2600-based cards will also
support HDMI audio and video output via adapter. At the bottom of the new ATI
Radeon 2000-series lineup is the ATI Radeon HD 2400 series with PRO and XT
models. The new ATI Radeon HD 2400 features 40 stream processors with four
texture units and render backends. GPU clocks vary between 525 MHz to 700 MHz.
The first reviews can be found on
Chille Hardware,
EliteBastards,
DH,
Guru3D,
HardOCP,
Hardware
Secrets,
HotHardware,
TheInquirer, TechReport,
TweakTown:
- Throughout our entire battery of gaming related benchmarks, the new
Radeon HD 2900 XT performed at roughly the same level as a standard GeForce 8800
GTS. Depending on the test configuration, the Radeon HD 2900 XT and standard
GeForce 8800 GTS traded victories, but more often than not the GTS pulled ahead.
In comparison to a factory-overclocked GTS, the Radeon HD 2900 XT obviously
fares a bit worse and it simply cannot hold a candle to the more powerful, and
of course more expensive GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra. The performance landscape is
largely unchanged as it relates to Radeon HD 2900 XT CrossFire versus GeForce
8800 GTS SLI as well. Somewhat surprisingly, due to superior scaling in a few
games, HD 2900 XT CrossFire outperforms 8800 GTS SLI in quite a few tests,
especially at XHD resolutions.
- In regard to its acoustic signature, we found the Radeon HD 2900 XT to
be somewhat irritating, but not necessarily very loud. According to a
digital sound level meter placed about 1 foot away from our test system (which
had its side-panel removed) the Radeon HD 2900 XT generated about 55dB - 59dB of
sound pressure when its fans were spun up in a typical gaming scenario. At idle,
however, the cards were nice and quiet and weren't audible over the PSU and CPU
fans, and hard drive. Conversely, a GeForce 8800 GTS SLI rig generated a more
palatable 53dB under load.
- What also became apparent in the time we used the 2900 XT for video
playback is that it is completely unsuitable due to the noise the cooler makes.
If there is one thing a graphics card shouldn't do when watching a movie/video,
is to interfere with the user's enjoyment and that's precisely what the HD 2900
XT does! The fan is far too loud and the constant variation in speed makes it
even more noticeable, so despite the reasonably good acceleration we cannot
recommend any reference cooled models for video use.
- R600 is a power-hog and heats up alot, but during our testing in
single-GPU configuration, board did not exceed 90degC at any part of the
backside. Truth to be told, 2D clock (513/1016 MHz) keeps the board at
66degC, while 3D will push the card to high-70s. Not as bad as we previously
thought - I still remember my unpleasant feeling when I was seeing
temperature of 6800Ultra going to high-80 and even low-90s. Please bear in mind
that I do own an AC device, and temperature in my flat was kept at comfy 24deg
Celsius.
- AMD's Radeon HD 2900 XT is going to cost between US$350 - US$399,
closer to the latter in most places. That makes it at least US$150 cheaper than
most GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB cards. Sure, Nvidia's 8800 GTX green champ won most
of our tests in the 1280 x 1024 to 1920 x 1200 range but not by as bigger
margins as we expected. What is interesting are our results at the 2560 x 1600
resolution - both products have their share of driver issues (which need to be
sorted out quickly!) but from our testing at this point in time, the HD 2900 XT
makes a really good showing at the 2560 x 1600 resolution. In games like
Prey, Company of Heroes and Far Cry, the more expensive 8800 GTX really only has
a small lead over the XT. In real-world terms, both offer basically about
the same level of game play experience in terms of smoothness and we put that
down to the massive 106GB/s of memory bandwidth from the R600, which is able to
be properly utilized at this ultra-high resolution. With some overclocking of
the core and memory, the HD 2900 XT could probably match or better the more
expensive 8800 GTX and that is with 256MB less memory. This in turn tells us
that the engineers of the R600, while slow and indecisive, were smart and
produced a GPU which is very efficient - but at the right settings.
- At the price point that you can find this card (~350euros) it is priced
very well against its main competitor, the GeForce 8800GTS. It also comes
with lots of nice features, especially in the video area. It is great to have
support for Dual-Link DVI with HDCP as well as proper HDMI-support with both
video and audio. The Black Box promotion from Valve and AMD of course is the
icing of the cake. From what I have seen of Team Fortress 2 it looks like it
will be a really cool game. Add Half Life: Episode 2 and Portal and you get a
package that adds a lot of value to the package.
Well, performance wise it might be acceptable at $325-$350, but then you take into account the power consumption/cooling and you have to knock off another $50 to make up for your higher power bill. So this card needs to be priced at least $50 lower than it is now... |
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