MadShrimps take an in-depth look at how the new ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB stacks up to the lower price NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB, comparing
overclocked performance and scaling as well as Crossfire tested with multiple games. Can the new HD 2900 XT outrun the current mid/high range GTS performance champ?

In all but one game the HD 2900 XT came out in front (we excluded the Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition as this game engine was unable to stress either card with average frame rates well over 100FPS at 1600x1200-4xAA settings) of the GTS 320Mb, the lead in Oblivion is due to the lack of memory space with on the GTS card. The other games hold a small lead, with only Colin McRae running ~15% faster on the Geforce card.

Looking at prices from different web shops we found that Jetway HD 2900 XT can be yours for €339 while the HIS HD 2900 XT is a little bit more expensive at €357. Compared to the average selling price of €257 for the Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB we hoped to see larger performance gap between both cards. Luckily ATI's driver updates for the HD 2900 XT have proven effective at extracting more performance; each month a few FPS more would mean a large gap near the end of the year! As with previous ATI high end VGA card launch they have made a deal with Valve, and the HD 2900 XT comes with a Voucher for not one, but three free games: Half Life Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. This does add quite a bit of value to the package.

The R600 core doesn't consume 300W as was first feared, but it's still one hot and power sucking card, the stock ATI heatsink does a good job of keeping the GPU below critical temperatures when under full load, but its fan is too noisy to be comfortable for the silent computing fans out there. If you're into overclocking and want to extract the most out of the HD 2900 XT you'll be happy to learn that the GPU has a noticeable impact when you start upping the clock speed, but do keep in mind that you have a powerful enough power supply as power usage will rise quickly once you overclocking (and overvolt).