2900 Pro still worth it....if its cheap?

phatboy · 1 Apr 2008 at 12:53

As per the title

bearing in mind i am running 1400x900, would a Pro still cut it in most things at that res?

steve258 · 1 Apr 2008 at 12:55

how cheap?

It still has pretty decent performance if you clock it to XT speed or more, So yeah it's worth it if you don't mind the heat and noise and have a decent PSU.

phatboy · 1 Apr 2008 at 12:56

ive got a 500w zalman Heatpipe series (won the Custom PC mag comp. in Feb

)

i had seen a few for around the £50 mark

willhub · 1 Apr 2008 at 12:58

If you like the heat and electric bill yea its fine. Oh and noise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

phatboy · 1 Apr 2008 at 13:02

LOL....was gonna ask you later

Emlyn_Dewar · 1 Apr 2008 at 13:03

For £50? Definately worth it at that price!

-iceblade^ · 1 Apr 2008 at 13:26

yeah... Think of a 3850 at £50 - certainly worth it. Also good if you want to go for crossfire, and have the PSU to power it.

over on Tom's a case was made that it is actually better than the 3850 because of the 512bit bus... truly horrendous power requirements though, and let's not talk about noise. probably be verging on overkill at that res, though... OcUK had some B-grade ones not long ago, not sure if they will be still on sale now, though, as i can't find them

willhub · 1 Apr 2008 at 14:13

2900Pro, buy it for 50 quid, flog it for 90 quid. Then get a 3850Pro which is also better as they can be pencil modded and hit pretty high Vcore.

LoadsaMoney · 1 Apr 2008 at 17:33

He can clock the 2900pro up to 3870 XT speeds though, as thats all the 2900pro was, a 3870 XT just with lower clocks.

virdee2 · 1 Apr 2008 at 17:46

imo, for £50 the 2900 is definately worth the risk Phatboy.
Im not an expert but i had a 8500 GT a few months ago that cost that much and that was TERRIBLE!
Now i got a 3850, overclocked it and its amazing in comparison.
If the guys are saying its as good or better than the 3850 then i prob would have saved the money and bought a 2900 from wherever you saw it :-)

llwayneio · 1 Apr 2008 at 17:54

For £50 i say go for it.

decto · 1 Apr 2008 at 23:40

I have a 2900Pro @ XT

Works fine ... noise is less of an issue that all the hype would have you belive. Providing you have reasonable case cooling the fan doesn't spin up all that much except when gaming and you have the sound up then anyhow. Most people who post about noise and power read it somewhere and have never owned one.

Good card, bad rep = cheap.... If I had a xfire board then I'd buy a second one ...

AD

boulton · 1 Apr 2008 at 23:42

I got a 2900gt for ~£55 and overclocked it by 170 on the core straight out the box. Playing cod 4 at 1280x1024 with everything full except aa and its nearly always over about 50 fps, then again cod 4 looks a bit dodgy without aa on but I'm not gonna spend an extra 200 quid for that :I

steve258 · 1 Apr 2008 at 23:45

2900GT is a completely different thing though, 240 stream processors and 256bit.

I had a 2900XT briefly before the 8800GT and it ran HOT. The fan almost always spin up during games which was very noisy.

boulton · 1 Apr 2008 at 23:55

Yeah, I was just saying that it's pretty much a bit worse than a 3850 pro and still does very well. My system is circa july 2006 as well so it's possibly even being held back

bad_egg · 2 Apr 2008 at 08:35

Sorry to jump on this post... I've got a 2900pro, and was wanting to OC it, but apparently this can only be done with an 8pin power supply connected. My PSU just uses a 6pin and I can't locate a molex>8pin type cable.

Is my only answer to get a different PSU - which wouldn't be worth the hassle?

Thanks!

Talrinys · 2 Apr 2008 at 08:43

I believe the ATI overclocking restriction is only with their own applications, you can use other programs to OC it no matter what.

J0hnb0y · 2 Apr 2008 at 12:23

if anybody has ever owned an X1800XT then this thing is positively silent in comparison! noise is really not that much of an issue with this for me. It's not as quiet as i would like it (silent) but is perfectly acceptable. 2900 pro readily clock to XT speeds so yes, def worth £50

boulton · 2 Apr 2008 at 13:24

bad_egg said:
Sorry to jump on this post... I've got a 2900pro, and was wanting to OC it, but apparently this can only be done with an 8pin power supply connected. My PSU just uses a 6pin and I can't locate a molex>8pin type cable.

Is my only answer to get a different PSU - which wouldn't be worth the hassle?

Thanks!

I just popped on rivatuner and put the clocks up with a 6 pin connector, it works fine