2900XT Review

the_champ_101 · 31 May 2007 at 16:38

After all this debate about the 2900 and its issue, I received my HIS one yesterday from overclockers and I have to say all the critics were right! The graphic card's performance is not great and runs quite hot even when the fan is spinning at 100%!

First the performance: it's ok on games with mainly polygon processing rather than
processor calculations, e.g. good = War Of Warcraft or if you want more demanding: Test Drive, bad = C&C3 or Rollercoaster Tycoon when you fill the game with units and the cpu is heavily loaded this card is really poor which might suggest why most of the benchmarks favour the G80 series with max AA and high resolution. The overall picture quality is sublime as you'd expect and the fogging issue is non existent on source engine games e.g. HL2 Episode 1 or Loast Coast, didn't know what the fuss was all about, hey maybe some of you need a new monitor which can display the games properly lol.

Overclocking is not an issue and the 8-pin connector worry is also no problems, but I must say at these temperatures I wouldn't stretch the card too far in the coming summer months. The fan isn't as loud as I feared running at its maximum but not as quiet as my old 1900 and also not as quiet as most G80 I've heard, although if both fan was at 100% I say this makes slightly less noise, ATI needs to fix the issue.

Overall I think the card failed in the attempt to beat the 640MB 8800 GTS at a lower price, If you are a ATI/AMD loyalist then this is an option but in real life gaming then I suggest people with their G80 series to be settled and wait for new candidates such as the 65nm R650 or even the G90.

I for 1 will send this thing back and follow in Esi's step and get a 320MB GTS to tie me over until a G90, wise move my friend.

Darg · 31 May 2007 at 16:43

What's the rest of your rig like? What cards have you used that you can compare the 2900XT against?

You have to keep in mind that the 8800 series has 6 months of mature drivers to aid it. The 2900XT doesn't even have a single driver release for it yet.

I would be curious to see benchmarks of the 8800GTS with the nVidia drivers that were out on it's day of release and compare them to the current 8800GTS scores and the 2900XT.

SS-89 · 31 May 2007 at 17:16

My friend has a 2900xt on an [email protected] and C&C3 runs flawlessly on max settings at 1600*1200

Cyber-Mav · 31 May 2007 at 17:29

SS-89 said:
My friend has a 2900xt on an [email protected] and C&C3 runs flawlessly on max settings at 1600*1200

my x1900xt manages that game at that rez even with AA on. so no miracles performed by the 2900 in that department.

the_champ_101 · 31 May 2007 at 17:38

My rig seen as it don't want to show up at the bottom:

E6600 @ 3.4Ghz
Gigabyte DQ6
ATI Radeon 2900XT
4GB Corsair Dominator 6400 C4 @ 1000Mhz 4-4-4-12
2 x WD Raptor X 150GB 10K RPM
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1

Monitor = Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24", all games tested @ 1900 x 1200

Tom|Nbk · 31 May 2007 at 17:44

Afraid the source fogging issue exists wheather you can see it or not its there.

Rroff · 31 May 2007 at 17:45

Darg said:
I would be curious to see benchmarks of the 8800GTS with the nVidia drivers that were out on it's day of release and compare them to the current 8800GTS scores and the 2900XT.

Performance wise the 8800 series did very well on the first set of drivers of released for them... there were just quite a few little bugs, specially visual ones like fog incorrectly rendered and missing control panel features.

Tom|Nbk · 31 May 2007 at 17:48

The fan on the 2900 is the only thing that bothers me atm, its very very annoying, it dosnt need to run that fast. ATi better fix it sharp

the_champ_101 · 31 May 2007 at 17:49

Afraid the source fogging issue exists wheather you can see it or not its there.

if I can't see it, I am a hardcore gamer that plays on this engine more than any other over a number of years then I can safely say that the fogging issue is nothing but a farce, the card is not perfect and I'm not happy with it but this fogging issue is not a problem as I predicted.

Tom|Nbk · 31 May 2007 at 17:52

the_champ_101 said:
if I can't see it, I am a hardcore gamer that plays on this engine more than any other over a number of years then I can safely say that the fogging issue is nothing but a farce, the card is not perfect and I'm not happy with it but this fogging issue is not a problem as I predicted.

Wheather your a hardcore gamer or not is irrelevant, it dosn't matter. I speak to AMD personally almost daily and I can tell you the problem is in the drivers every single set of them out atm, there is no other fix until a future set (it is being worked on) unless you have found some way to get rid of it, if so please tell me your method so I can pass it onto AMD.

the_champ_101 · 31 May 2007 at 17:52

The fan on the 2900 is the only thing that bothers me atm, its very very annoying, it dosnt need to run that fast. ATi better fix it sharp

Well if you think 'it doesn't need to run that fast' then you must not mind the thing running at boiling temperatures, this card runs st least 20c hotter than my X1900XT under full load.

Squakingcow · 31 May 2007 at 17:54

the_champ_101 said:
if I can't see it, I am a hardcore gamer that plays on this engine more than any other over a number of years then I can safely say that the fogging issue is nothing but a farce, the card is not perfect and I'm not happy with it but this fogging issue is not a problem as I predicted.

Lmao, on some maps on DOD, you literally can't see 3ft infront of you in the game (I had to quit out:/)......

Tom|Nbk · 31 May 2007 at 17:55

the_champ_101 said:
Well if you think 'it doesn't need to run that fast' then you must not mind the thing running at boiling temperatures, this card runs st least 20c hotter than my X1900XT under full load.

No the card runs at the same temperature as the GTS. Or at least mine does, (I've had both cards), and the fact is the card can do silent short bursts of say 60% fan speed it does NOT need to run @ 100% all the way throughout a game to keep the temperature down.

the_champ_101 · 31 May 2007 at 17:56

Wheather your a hardcore gamer or not is irrelevant, it dosn't matter. I speak to AMD personally almost daily and I can tell you the problem is in the drivers every single set of them out atm, there is no other fix until a future set (it is being worked on) unless you have found some way to get rid of it, if so please tell me your method so I can pass it onto AMD.

I am a source engine game expert and I need this engine to run properly for the visuals and physics in order to play cs:s at my required standard, I can tell you if I feel the game hasn't changed from the X1900XT then its not a problem like you are suggesting, if theres no problem in the first place then I can't get rid of something thats not there, use your brain for god sake.

the_champ_101 · 31 May 2007 at 17:58

No the card runs at the same temperature as the GTS. Or at least mine does, (I've had both cards), and the fact is the card can do silent short bursts of say 60% fan speed it does NOT need to run @ 100% all the way throughout a game to keep the temperature down.

Ok, if you think this card runs at the same temp as the GTS then we all know how honest you are, again please use your brain!

Tom|Nbk · 31 May 2007 at 17:58

the_champ_101 said:
I am a source engine game expert and I need this engine to run properly for the visuals and physics in order to play cs:s at my required standard,

Sorry but, roffle.

the_champ_101 said:
I can tell you if I feel the game hasn't changed from the X1900XT then its not a problem like you are suggesting, if theres no problem in the first place then I can't get rid of something thats not there, use your brain for god sake.

I think you should use your brain and look around, the issue exists, it did with the NV cards before drivers sorted it out, its not a bug with the Source engine it self but Drivers. If it isnt a problem for you then great, but you can't downright disagree that the issue exists.

the_champ_101 said:
Ok, if you think this card runs at the same temp as the GTS then we all know how honest you are, again please use your brain!

I've had both cards did you even bother to read the original post. I can tell you now that my XT id idleing @ 59c and loads @ under 70c, perhaps you should sort your case cooling out.

Squakingcow · 31 May 2007 at 18:01

the_champ_101 said:
Well if you think 'it doesn't need to run that fast' then you must not mind the thing running at boiling temperatures, this card runs st least 20c hotter than my X1900XT under full load.

The most mine EVER reaches is 78*c (overclocked to 850/950) under full load,and idles around 48-50*c. That's mighty impressive when you consider what a large nuimber of GeForce 8-series cards run at 75*c idle and god-knows what under load (proberbly 85-90*c?). So, with reduced fan speeds it could proberbly run at the same temps as the 8-series, and be just as quiet

Tom|Nbk · 31 May 2007 at 18:02

Squakingcow said:
The most mine EVER reaches is 78*c (overclocked to 850/950) under full load,and idles around 48-50*c. That's mighty impressive when you consider what a large nuimber of GeForce 8-series cards run at 75*c idle and god-knows what under load (proberbly 85-90*c?). So, with reduced fan speeds it could proberbly run at the same temps as the 8-series, and be just as quiet

Hopefully ATi tool will work soon then we can sort out our own fan profiles

.

the_champ_101 · 31 May 2007 at 18:04

The most mine EVER reaches is 78*c (overclocked to 850/950) under full load,and idles around 48-50*c. That's mighty impressive when you consider what a large nuimber of GeForce 8-series cards run at 75*c idle and god-knows what under load (proberbly 85-90*c?). So, with reduced fan speeds it could proberbly run at the same temps as the 8-series, and be just as quiet

Which Geforce 8-series card runs 75c at idle? It just shows how much rubbish a lot of people talk on this forum!

Squakingcow · 31 May 2007 at 18:04

Tom|Nbk said:
Hopefully ATi tool will work soon then we can sort out our own fan profiles .

Yup

Either that or when the next ATi tool comes out (apparantly it's being worked on, and you can OC both cards in a Xfire config

).

the_champ_101 said:
Which Geforce 8-series card runs 75c at idle? It just shows how much rubbish a lot of people talk on this forum!

I've seen numerous threads of 8-series owners asking if their card is running too hot at those temps. I think it may be down to bad seating of cooler/ bad placement of IHS (like some ADM64's).