The chaps over at TweakTown have tested the MSI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB Graphics Card to see how performs with the newest ATI drivers. Here's an excerpt:

The new drivers have helped the card a lot - it really does go from a joke of a product to something that you could recommend. The biggest problem we see is that AMD may have already done the damage by not waiting another week or two for the new drivers to come out. The biggest problem with the card would have to be the amount of power it draws alongside the fact that this in turn makes it operate at higher temperatures. It is literally a mini heater in winter and we do not want to know what it is like in summer.

Onto the positive points, the package from MSI is great! VIVO, HDMI Convertor, HDCP along with all those other handy cables and of course Black Box Orange Box, it has a lot going for it. Throw in the fact that it is really about the same price as a standard GeForce 8800GTS 640MB and it is easy to see why you would pick this card up over the other.

You of course cannot forget the fact that AMD is really on the ball in the driver department. We should continue to see more and more performance out of the card as time goes on meaning that it could become quite the killer card. Yes, it is late to the market but as long as people realize it is a good card AMD should be alright and give them a chance for the next generation of cards due out later this year.

On a side note, we spent some extra time with the MSI Radeon HD 2900 XT to see what it was really capable of. Trying some max OC on the Intel Core 2 E6600 @ 3.7GHz we got within a 1000 marks (3DMark06) of the XFX 8800 Ultra XXX running at the same overclocked CPU speed. It is clear the card has potential but it is going to take another driver release or two until we see more serious power out of the product.