Zardon

Read The Review Here
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With AMD's acquisition of ATI for vast amounts of money, it would be fair to say there have been high hopes for the long awaited and by now almost mythical R600. If hype and rumour could sell product, then the cards we have in front of us today would guarantee AMD several hundred million in the first week of launch. However, in the internet age we are all way too savvy to part with money before reading reviews and opinions, this is a luxury in 2007 we should never take for granted. Educated decisions mean we end up buying the product we need, not what companies say we should buy.

It has been a quiet six months for ATI, not only have Nvidia been ruling the roost with their excellent 8800 series, but with AMD getting trounced by Intel in the processor sector, every sane enthusiast is praying that their graphics division can finally deliver a competitive product which gives us all good value for money as well as a stellar gaming experience.

So, the question is, can the R600 take on the huge success story that is the Nvidia 8800? Today our UK Editor and graphics card specialist Stuart "Veridian3" Davidson is going to answer all your questions with real world gaming performance on multiple operating systems against 8800 counterparts, as well as delving into Image Quality concerns and Video Acceleration. We are sure by the end of this review you will know if it is money worth spending...

Necrosis

Good review, and ouch!

brutusmaximus

So, the card is slower than a 8800 GTS, has less memory, a higher power consumption (215w!) and costs £30-£40 more while needing awkward power connectors?

Ouch indeed.

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ChaosMinionX

Excellent review, X2900 ......


ATI needs to pull something outta their hat real quick.

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Dark Lord

pretty much said it all.

maybe ati will pull another x1800 stunt with their refresh, or maybe the card really shines in DX10. as it stands though, ati screwed up big time on this one it looks like.

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OmegaRED

Stalker and Supreme Commander took a dump all over this card...I was hoping the XT would smoke those two games but it can't even keep up with a GTS

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bug77

Good review, but lousy card. What really dissapoints me is that I was hoping ATI will have a strong mid-range offer this time around

And the nit-pick of the day: HL2 does not have HDR (as stated in the Dark Messiah section); only Lost Coast and Episode 1 do.

Zardon

yes, we know that (as you remember we covered the whole thing from Valves HQ when it was announced a long time ago), we were referring to the latest version of the engine in Ep1. Ill reword it so its clearer, however I thought it was pretty obvious.

ChaosMinionX

To continue the topic from the "Excited about R600" thread.....Who here thinks the X2900 is being held back by drivers, and has potential to pull some nice DX10 numbers?

Im still pretty fed up with ATI for no XTX.

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Da_Jewish_Fonzy

That could very well be the case. I remember when the x1800xt launched (I bought one) and at launch it got smoked by the 7800GTX, then when ATI released the 5.12 cats it was the opposite, the performance increase was immense and the x1800xt out performed the 7800 pretty well across the board, even the 7900gt in a lot of cases.

So I hope its just immature drivers or I might just be switching camps back to Nvidia again. My last Nvidia card was an FX and thats when I decided to change to ATI.

edit: cheers on the review, it was excellent

bug77

Actually, from what Inquirer posted (yes, I know), it may be FX case all over again: inefficient architecture (meaning that even if the 2900XT has more theoretical processing power, it is impossible to keep it working 100% most of the time).

@Z: I knew you knew that, but you left with almost nothing to pick on this time.

Edit: That same article says CFAA is actually Quincunx AA reloaded (which is software only, it does not need hardware support) which actually slightly blurs the image. But from what I have seen, it looks better than Nvidia's AA.

temeteus82

Well done review. I was waiting for this. But must agree with you in the conclusion of the card. It has prize tag that is too high for it's performance and that cooling ....

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CDsDontBurn

so the xtx is best in Oblivion and Rainbow Six. everything else is either negligable or best on an NVIDIA card.

my favorite line of the whole review is at the end,

.

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Dyre Straits

Oh, my.......

Will this die-hard ATI card user finally have to go with an nVidia now? I think Hell just froze over.

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ChaosMinionX

You and Me both, unless ATI pulls somethin outta their ass Q3.....

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CDsDontBurn

what if mid-way through q3, AMD-ATI were to push it back to q4. would you still wait?

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Dyre Straits

Everything considered, I'm much happier with AMD/ATI driver support vs. nVidia. BUT, if nVidia can continue to surpass AMD/ATI performance-wise, I think the decision becomes less difficult to make.

For the moment, I'm still quite happy with my X1950 Pro, though. (Notice, I said, 'moment'. )

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ChaosMinionX

I dont know

I just hope ATI pulls one out so I can get my cards haha.....If not Nvidia is lookin better and better despite their driver support.

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BiGBrOwNPimpsta

wow....

good thing i'm getting the 8800gts 640mb today! i wasn't anticpating much from this card either...

ahh i miss the good old days with my 9700 pro

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Erroneus

It's disappointing right now, but I really think that there is room for A LOT improvement in the drivers and also we are still missing the DX10 numbers.

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GutterPunk

I wonder what is going to happen when pci-express 2.0 comes out. Nice review, I really enjoyed it. Makes me sad as an ATI fan but makes me feel better on my decision to just get an 8800gtx.

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JohnDoe47

nvidia = 5 months worth of optimised drivers
ati = 0 months worth of revisions...

CASE CLOSED.

caqde

Noting other reviews that show the X1900XT being equivalent in speed to the HD2900XT in certain benchmarks I am going to reserve judgment until later more mature drivers come out. Even if the architecture has problems I somehow doubt that it is bad enough to allow the X1900XT to be faster than it in any program...

Just a wonder how much faster is the 8800GTX using todays drivers vs it's release drivers?

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bug77

I see people hope drivers will turn this into a great card. I remember they did this too when X1800 was out. Back then it was said that optimizing the ring bus controller access was the key...

brutusmaximus

So what are you saying? none of the reviews matter and that no site should have reviewed the card for five months, hoping ATI deliver performance drivers? Will those same drivers lower power consumption, miraculously give High definition acceleration and make the fan run quieter?

This is all about "now", after all people can buy the cards now, and if you spent £250-£300 on this card you would be sorely disappointed.

I am glad DH's review is up today, I was over at hexus today, and their review is terrible, rys is sorely missed.

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kris23

it is a disgrace..........i thought the cad would be able to OC....it cant.... i thought it would be better than the GTS and slightly worse than the GTX but no

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caqde

Lower power consumption ... At idle maybe depends on if the architecture allows it. HD acceleration of course. Fan well not likely but only if it can lower power at idle.

If ATI's drivers don't support all the features of the new R600 core then yes such things are possible. It could lower power consumption if it has features that aren't being used to do so. Although it is unlikely it is possible.

As for HD acceleration remember ATI released drivers that introduced video acceleration for their cards.

On another note I would like to see a review using Nvidia's Oldest and Most current 8800GTX driver to show how it has matured over the course of the last 5-6 months..

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Vikingod

Sad news indeed. The Rainbow 6 numbers put a little light on the situation. It uses the Unreal 3 engine, correct, which is possibly the most popular "next-gen" engine. Maybe the cards just need the next gen games to really shine. Games like UT3 and Crysis maybe... I hope...

brutusmaximus

The card technology obviously is right at the limit and I dont think a driver will sort out the noise issues, unless they revamped the cooler with a larger more substantial lower spinning fan. Of course we could all make the cards quieter by sticking a fork in the fan, but the card would more than likely fry.

Yes a slight improvement is possible but when you compare the sub 160w of the GTS to the theorectical 215w of the R600, it won't even come close regardless of "driver" tweaks.

Yes Avivo, however it is hardly as elegant as an onchip hardware solution, which ATI have only built into their lower end X2x series. What a bizarre marketing decision.

Why? When I see these comments, its like something you would see in a film such as "back to the future". This industry is based on what the consumer can buy right now, thats why the internet has up to the minute content on exactly what is happening. Not what happened 5 months ago, or what could possibly happen in 5 months time.

ATI seriously dropped the ball on this, and right now, if you walk into a shop or order online, this is what you get, it is also right now, all that matters, unless of course ATi are happy selling no product for 5 months. I certainly know I wont be spending money on a product that might get a bit better in 6 months time. There will be new hardware by then anyway.

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GutterPunk

That made me giggle. Because when speculation came out ATI was > Nvidia because what? They have WHQl and pimp already great drivers before it was released. But now it is this... I knew it would come forth. Hah... ha? and huh hah. Before it was used to attack nvidia and now it is an excuse. Wow, kinda sick of that crap. People really know how to crap on new hardware whether it is is good or great.

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