About the HD 2x00 cards...

zapoqx

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So, I was seeing that the HD2900XT OEM versions are on Newegg. And soon, I'll be buying 1 of those and seeing now as the Catalyst drivers are improving the performance on the cards, I was wondering something...
First, do you think it would be worth getting the OEM version?

I mean 1GB of video memory (Which in a way is overkill, but works to me for now) on a Dual-monitor setup
Max resolution would be 1280x1024 (upgrading monitors soon after video card upgrade)
My Dual-Core AMD system

2nd, Do you think anymore versions will be coming out within the next 2 months? I read somewhere about there not being an XTX version or something because the OEM version is pretty much the XTX version of the 2900.
 
Not sure what you're asking buddy :)

The card is not a bad card by any means. In terms of raw performance, nvidia's offerings are superior but for the price, it's not a bad option and for your resolution, it's an excellent option.

I have a 1950xt card and I am gaming on most games at 1920x1200, some at 1680x1050 and a couple at just below that to get acceptable frame-rates at high LOD.

The advantage of Retail over OEM is the package offereings but honestly, most of the retail packages are pretty sparse so it shouldn't affect you too much.
 
hmm ok. Thanks! Just needed reassurance about my option
 
also to add...some retail versions of the 2900 come with a free copy of the the Valve Half Life Orange Box...I think is what it's called.
 
black box.

Also the catalyst drivers are really making the 2900XT haul serious ass :)
 
Also the multimedia support in the AMD GPU's is supperior. Bottom line:

if you want max gaming perofrmance go Nvidia

if you want good gaming performance & multimedia support do AMD.

OEM is made by the same board foundry (sapphire on last check), with the same chips as the ATI box. Last I checked they had even extended the OEM warantees to match the ATI branded 3 year warantee.

Now the up side of OEM - ATI will not exchange or upgrade ANY video card for a different model if the one you bought has compatibility issues. ATI will give you $25 credit for your $500 board towards another model though, since they are such nice guys ... If you must buy ATI chipset, buy OEM!
 
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Im looking to upgrade myself from a 7900 gs. Hmm maybe I should just get another and run sli. What do say guys? SLI or one 2900xt?
 
Well, the Crossfire will be coming later on when I can afford it a 2nd one later on. I'm just getting the Power supply upgrade now and the video card in a few weeks.
But haven't I seen something about where nVidia and ATI have differences in quality of the games? Like some games it looks better in ATI despite them having or not having the nVidia "way its meant to be played" thing? Umm... I thought I heard of... I think Oblivion had that. Not sure.
 
Up till the 88XX series of Nvidia cards were using 16bit in different area causing quality to suffer, while increasing performance. ATIs hardware was using 32 bit, or 24 + 8.



Nvidia seems to still have some bugs to work out of their cards as well as ATI, but dollar for dollar the Nvidia counterpart seems to be the top performance hardware. Perhaps a few more driver releases and games down the line we will see a different victor. But that is all dependent on game makers and what they are willing to put into a game for either camp.


I am not promoting either, just posting the facts as of now. And I have ALWAYS used ATI products.
 
Yeah, I bought the ati knowing that the nvidia stuff is overall faster.

The advantage of the ATI is the higher minimum framerate and with new driver releases its coming along in leaps and bounds in raw performance.
 
*sigh* I dont understand why anyone would consider the current ATI lineup. Powerhungry hot little underperforming pigs.... You can pickup an 8800 GTS 640 for under $375. In some games the R600 beats the GTS slightly, but as soon as you enable AF/AA that slight lead quickly disappears. Not to mention Nvidias superior dual card support, drivers and power consumption/heat.

I dont mean any disrespect to those who have purchased the R600 series, but its not something I would spend my hard earned money on.
 
Cross-fire performance is actually excellent Aprox and Ati has superior Vista drivers and stability as well.

Power hungry, yes. Other than that, it is not a bad product at all for the price.

Further, even after this long, the 8xxx series from nvidia continues to be plagued by issues in games and in memory management so it's not exactly all peachy on that front.
 
There "seem" to be issues with the hardware on Nvidias newest lineup that they are trying to cover with drivers. Again, I am still not buying as I am disappointed with the HD2900XT DRM crap and high heat output. A 2600 crossfire setup seems to be the better way to go for the price. But I am still waiting as we have no real selection of DX10 games that utilize the new hardware anyway.


I believe my next system will contain Vista 64 bit and 4Gb of RAM.
 
Cross-fire performance is actually excellent Aprox and Ati has superior Vista drivers and stability as well.

Power hungry, yes. Other than that, it is not a bad product at all for the price.

Further, even after this long, the 8xxx series from nvidia continues to be plagued by issues in games and in memory management so it's not exactly all peachy on that front.

Power hungry and hot....

Superior Vista drivers all around? or just in OpenGL or Direct3D? Last I heard ATI's drivers were stable only in certain AAA games, but not in less "optimized" situations.


Umm, what issues are you referring to? All my games work great, and if its a new game then usually a driver release within a week or two of the game coming out fixes any problems. The only issue is the "fps drop" issue that some people have. I think that may have to do with poor cooling under load, and perhaps poorly optimized machines. (dirty driver updates)

Granted both sides have issues in different areas.... but when you look at the whole picture I would say Nvidia is by far the more polished and refined choice. I just hope that ATi can catch up, I would hate to see them get beat up next round. Thats not good for anyone, especially us the consumers. With the rumored 9800GTX specs leaked the last couple days ATI might be in a bit of hot water if they don't pull a rabbit out of their Heatsink.
 
9800GTX? Wowzers! TIme to head to google.
 
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Power hungry and hot....

The actual users are not complaining as much about heat as reviewers so I am going by their statements.

There are a few dedicated threads on Nvnews to r600 v/s g80 cards and their differences/features and what not.

Superior Vista drivers all around? or just in OpenGL or Direct3D? Last I heard ATI's drivers were stable only in certain AAA games, but not in less "optimized" situations.

As in Vista, all around. Using Vista in general and in games. AMD has had a lead in Vista drivers for a while. Not to say Nvidia has been doing nothing, on the contrary, they have improved in leaps and bounds since the initial offerings.

Again, simply read a lot of the issues reported by users on sites such as Nvnews. They are directly attributable to drivers. The hardware itself is fine.

Umm, what issues are you referring to? All my games work great, and if its a new game then usually a driver release within a week or two of the game coming out fixes any problems. The only issue is the "fps drop" issue that some people have. I think that may have to do with poor cooling under load, and perhaps poorly optimized machines. (dirty driver updates)

The issue with the fps drop was identified as an issue with the memory buffer not being cleared and nvidia has identified and is working on a solution. Once again, a lot of dedicated threads dealing with it on Nvnews and several other sites and Nvidia has acknowledged this as a known issue. Will be a non-issue soon but I am simply pointing out that there are issues on Nvidia cards too.

Regarding games, there are issues, just as with the 2900 cards, in various games depending on hardware. As I said, the G-80 has been out WAY longer than has the 2900 series and the issues are attributable to the drivers.

Granted both sides have issues in different areas.... but when you look at the whole picture I would say Nvidia is by far the more polished and refined choice. I just hope that ATi can catch up, I would hate to see them get beat up next round. Thats not good for anyone, especially us the consumers. With the rumored 9800GTX specs leaked the last couple days ATI might be in a bit of hot water if they don't pull a rabbit out of their Heatsink.

The r600 is slower, there is no doubt that it is. But, crossfire performance is surprisingly good (regardless of what Hardocp says, pretty much every other benchmark and user performance listed online says different) and the cards do have some interesting features.

Nvidia has had a product out longer and it is faster. I think if you are looking for the fastest product on the market, there is but one choice.

But I don't think anyone should be disuaded from purchasing an r600 card given it's pricepoint and feature-set. It is not the best deal on the market perhaps but it does give you good performance for the price.

AMD's marchitecture is superior but the performance is simply not there. Nvidia's approach is simpler and it just does the job and has stood the test of time. At a certain pricepoint, it's a tossup. It's not so cut and dried one way or the other :)
 
I'm not so sure the r600 is lacking in performance.

The last two driver builds have really accelerated the card in noticable bumps. The 2900XT is very fast now. Faster than it was at launch, especially when running in 4X, 8X AA with 16xAF. My average minimum framerate is higher than my LCD can draw without tearing.
 

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