VGA NEWS: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT - Radeon HD 2000 Series Introduced & Tested

[TechZ]

After months of delays, AMD today officially introduced the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, a top-to-bottom line of ten discrete graphics processors (GPUs) for both desktop and mobile platforms. However, only the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT will have immediate availability. The accompanying ATI Radeon HD 2400 and HD 2600-based products are paper launches.

AMD's ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT packs 320 unified stream processors with an estimated 47.5 Gigapixels/sec pixel processing rate. The 320 stream processors are joined by 16 texture units and render backends. AMD claims the 740 MHz ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT delivers 475 GigaFLOPS of processing power in multiply-add, or MADD, calculations. AMD pairs the 700 million transistors GPU with 512MB of GDDR3 video memory. The 1.65 GHz GDDR3 memory communicates with the GPU via a 512-bit memory interface, delivering 106 GB/sec of bandwidth. The new ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT continues to make do with an 80nm fabrication process to consume approximately 215 watts of power altogether.

The ATI Radeon HD 2600 series features 120 stream processors. The GPU is clocked anywhere between 600 to 800 MHz depending on flavor. AMD backs the 120 stream processors with eight texture units and four render backends. AMD pairs the ATI Radeon HD 2600 GPU with GDDR4, GDDR3 or DDR2 memory. Manufacturers can equip cards with 256MB of video memory clocked anywhere between 800 MHz to 2.2 GHz, on a 128-bit memory interface. ATI Radeon HD 2600-based cards will also support HDMI audio and video output via adapter. At the bottom of the new ATI Radeon 2000-series lineup is the ATI Radeon HD 2400 series with PRO and XT models. The new ATI Radeon HD 2400 features 40 stream processors with four texture units and render backends. GPU clocks vary between 525 MHz to 700 MHz.

The first reviews can be found on Chille Hardware, EliteBastards, DH, Guru3D, HardOCP, Hardware Secrets, HotHardware, TheInquirer, TechReport, TweakTown:

- Throughout our entire battery of gaming related benchmarks, the new Radeon HD 2900 XT performed at roughly the same level as a standard GeForce 8800 GTS. Depending on the test configuration, the Radeon HD 2900 XT and standard GeForce 8800 GTS traded victories, but more often than not the GTS pulled ahead. In comparison to a factory-overclocked GTS, the Radeon HD 2900 XT obviously fares a bit worse and it simply cannot hold a candle to the more powerful, and of course more expensive GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra. The performance landscape is largely unchanged as it relates to Radeon HD 2900 XT CrossFire versus GeForce 8800 GTS SLI as well. Somewhat surprisingly, due to superior scaling in a few games, HD 2900 XT CrossFire outperforms 8800 GTS SLI in quite a few tests, especially at XHD resolutions.

- In regard to its acoustic signature, we found the Radeon HD 2900 XT to be somewhat irritating, but not necessarily very loud. According to a digital sound level meter placed about 1 foot away from our test system (which had its side-panel removed) the Radeon HD 2900 XT generated about 55dB - 59dB of sound pressure when its fans were spun up in a typical gaming scenario. At idle, however, the cards were nice and quiet and weren't audible over the PSU and CPU fans, and hard drive. Conversely, a GeForce 8800 GTS SLI rig generated a more palatable 53dB under load.

- What also became apparent in the time we used the 2900 XT for video playback is that it is completely unsuitable due to the noise the cooler makes. If there is one thing a graphics card shouldn't do when watching a movie/video, is to interfere with the user's enjoyment and that's precisely what the HD 2900 XT does! The fan is far too loud and the constant variation in speed makes it even more noticeable, so despite the reasonably good acceleration we cannot recommend any reference cooled models for video use.

- R600 is a power-hog and heats up alot, but during our testing in single-GPU configuration, board did not exceed 90degC at any part of the backside. Truth to be told, 2D clock (513/1016 MHz) keeps the board at 66degC, while 3D will push the card to high-70s. Not as bad as we previously thought - I still remember my unpleasant feeling when I was seeing temperature of 6800Ultra going to high-80 and even low-90s. Please bear in mind that I do own an AC device, and temperature in my flat was kept at comfy 24deg Celsius.

- AMD's Radeon HD 2900 XT is going to cost between US$350 - US$399, closer to the latter in most places. That makes it at least US$150 cheaper than most GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB cards. Sure, Nvidia's 8800 GTX green champ won most of our tests in the 1280 x 1024 to 1920 x 1200 range but not by as bigger margins as we expected. What is interesting are our results at the 2560 x 1600 resolution - both products have their share of driver issues (which need to be sorted out quickly!) but from our testing at this point in time, the HD 2900 XT makes a really good showing at the 2560 x 1600 resolution. In games like Prey, Company of Heroes and Far Cry, the more expensive 8800 GTX really only has a small lead over the XT. In real-world terms, both offer basically about the same level of game play experience in terms of smoothness and we put that down to the massive 106GB/s of memory bandwidth from the R600, which is able to be properly utilized at this ultra-high resolution. With some overclocking of the core and memory, the HD 2900 XT could probably match or better the more expensive 8800 GTX and that is with 256MB less memory. This in turn tells us that the engineers of the R600, while slow and indecisive, were smart and produced a GPU which is very efficient - but at the right settings.

- At the price point that you can find this card (~350euros) it is priced very well against its main competitor, the GeForce 8800GTS. It also comes with lots of nice features, especially in the video area. It is great to have support for Dual-Link DVI with HDCP as well as proper HDMI-support with both video and audio. The Black Box promotion from Valve and AMD of course is the icing of the cake. From what I have seen of Team Fortress 2 it looks like it will be a really cool game. Add Half Life: Episode 2 and Portal and you get a package that adds a lot of value to the package.

[Matridom]

hardware wise, these cards are very competitive it will be interesting to see who can deliver stable drivers sooner.

[Ferrit]

I think the driver issue is basically moot
ATI had stable vista drivers long before nvidia who have yet to actually get stable ones, last i heard.
Their 64 bit drivers rock completely in vista so i cant see how drivers will even be a question.
I definetly agree with the stock ATI coolers being way way too noisy.
I change every one i get to something better or I use HIS or Sapphire cards