Hey, I've been out of this scene for a while now so I need some advice from those more knowledgeable. I'm thinking of going from my X1900XT to a HD2900Pro this Xmas, but want to know if it's worth it. Questions: 1) What level of performance increase will I be getting in say NWN2, Fear Combat, or C&C3? My res is 1680x1080 (or whatever it is) with 2GB RAM and E6400 (not overclocked at the moment). I will be using XP for the foreseeable future. 2) How loud is the HD cooler? Are there any aftermarket coolers available like Zalman vf900? 3) How are the drivers looking for the HD? My X1900 is super stable and I get good frames from it (considering I got it for £120 a year ago). Are the drivers good or will it take some time for them to catch up? 4) Is it worth buying one now or is there any potential better cards/price drops expected around Xmas/January time? 5) Stupid question, but does anyone have ANY information that going quad-core would be better than upgrading the card? I think that an o/clock would be the better option, but im interesting in your opinions. Cheers and thanks for the help! Ad
wait 1 month. ATI are bringing out the 3900 and nVidia are bringing out the 8800GT for arround christmas... they look to be very good cards. Quad and dual's are about the same for gaming so I wouldn't bother about changing it just yet. When Intel bring out penry (excuse spelling) maybe think about upgrading then. Maybe try and squeeze a bit more out of your 6400 if you can.
Right, the HD2900PRO was a limited card for a reason, it was more of a "pilot" card, as far as bringing out a lighter product of their flagship card, just to tease us into their next line.
this is what most online site reviewers seem to either be clueless about themselves, or just dont admit... the warmer your lower case and the area around the card, the louder the 2900 fan gets. if you can cool the card enough so that if you put your hand on the back of the card where the air shooting out feels midly warm to mildy cool instead of hot and blistering hot under load, then youll find the 2900 to be not nearly as bad as gossip queens would like to make it out to be. they just dont know any better apperently. also you may want to grab another power supply, because amps will play a vital role in how well your 2900 performs.so if you can shoot for a large single +12v. cuz its pretty easy to make a 2900 run like a$$, trust me. and if im not mistaken the 8800gt will be hard launched next week to beat to the punch amd's whole new,.. well,. everything,.. from phenoms, to new motherboards to new gpu's. thats gotta be weird to compete with.
wait until mid november. the 8800 GT will be at 250 bucks, and the RV670 core will be out (3870 will be 250 bucks and may be the 2900 with lower temps, power, and all around better, except smaller memory bit (256 vs 512 bit).)
Good stuff. Thanks for the tips. The 8800GT seems to be benching better than the 2900Pro and also looks cheaper. How do they manage that?
8800 has had top spot for more than a year. Its dx10 card hasn't been challenged by ATI yet so the amount of cash nVidia has made would help them lower the card even more to be even more competetive to ATI's prices. ATI hasn't got much choice in lowering prices as they just need to sell as much as they can to get some cash in.
Actually card being top of the top doesn't mean its huge sell. Main cash nVidia and Ati gets are from intgrated chipsets they sell for intgrated system manufacturers, like motherboard makers and laptop makers. In discreet section sub 100$ to 250$ dollar cards are more than half of the revenues Ati or nVidia gets. So frankly, it really doesn't mean anything in economical sense that nVidia is king of the king in ePenis race by having fastest consumer VGA card on market, which costs more than average joe spends to entire computer. Ati has done very smart moves by by hitting nVidia weak spot, that is consumer midrange spot. HD 2600 XT doesn't beat 8600 GTS in games but offers better High Definition support and is cheaper. HD 2900 GT and HD 2900 Pro are aimed same price range than 8600 GTS are completely annhilates 8600 series. Few months ago Ati flooded old chipsets very cheaply by bringing new X1950 GT cards, in prie range 100 to 130$ which still race head to head with twice more expensive 8600 GTS in DX 9 performance. It was rather shock to see my friends 115 € X1950 GT almost defeating my 210 € overclocked GF 7900 GS ( prior getting HD 2900 Pro ). Ati floods old chipsets (and empties at the same time supply for new chipset) in dirt cheap and manufacturers bring out budget models of very capable chipsets in dirt cheap. Currently nVidias midrange offering is 8500gt, 8600 Gt and 8600 GTS. In same price group there is , HD 2600 pro, Hd 2600 XT, HD 2900 Pro, X1950 GT and soon there will be HD 2900 GT. Luckily nVidia is releasing next monday 8800 GT which is Sub 300 $ card to help competing against Ati midrange invasion. HD 2900 Pro was slight hit below nVidia's belt. But its special card that will soon phase out without giving nVidia too much troubles. But pain is the small pain. HD 2900 GT is not either terrible threat to nVidia. Although it very likely be cheaper than 8600 GTS and perform equally or slightly better ( except in Open GL 2.0 section and similar thing )
While all of that is true, ATI has always played third place when it came to integrated graphics solutions, behind Intel and Nvidia. And, if I'm recalling correctly, part of Nvidias excitement this year was that they took a bit of ground from Intel in that area. Don't get me wrong, ATI has made awesome cards (everyone remembers the 9800 Pro), but they have hit some rather hard times since they were bought out. They've also felt hard times due to AMD's rather tough year. So, while they certainly have had some good things (like the clearing of old stock selling rather well) they've also had some hard times (losing ground with Intel for one and losing some share in integrated graphics for another).
