2900XT on the rise?

[Panda Man]

Tom has a very good point there. Also just to throw in my 2 cents, 1680x1050 gaming on my GTS 320 looks slick, so I'd go with the 320 for the best Bang:Buck.

Originally Posted by Quakindude

1200x1600

Don't think I would want to game at that resolution :P

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

This is NUTS! The 2900 does not out run a GTX true. However does does run right with and passes a GTS 640 and in DX10 benchmakrs to date it actually comes very close to the GTX.

The point I was making, Ed, was that the 2900XT cannot surpass the GTX. Simple as that. I don't care if the 2900XT beats the GTS because that was not the point I was making. The original author of this thread stated that he thought that the 2900XT was on par with the GTX. I was merely correcting him.

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

...and ATI still has a much better driver team than nVidia.

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

They praised the 2900XT and only ditz it on being out of whack with power requirements... and a driver issue.

Gee, first you commend ATi on their driver team, then in the same thread, loosely quote MPC saying that the card had driver issues when it was tested. Make up your mind, Ed. You are contradicting yourself. I don't know where you have been, but ATi has always been notorious for their shoddy videocard drivers.

Originally Posted by Computer-Ed

I am curious where they say this is a bad choice.

Re-read my post, Ed, seriously. I didn't state that MPC said that they feel that this is a bad videocard. I said that it is a bad videocard compared to nVidia's current offerings.

[Panda Man]

Originally Posted by garetjax

Gee, first you commend ATi on their driver team, then in the same thread, loosely quote MPC saying that the card had driver issues when it was tested. Make up your mind, Ed. You are contradicting yourself. I don't know where you have been, but ATi has always been notorious for their shoddy videocard drivers.

He said ATi had better driver support than nVidia, which is true, then he said that when the 2900XT was launched, the driver support was pretty crappy, which is also true. ATi's drivers can suck and still be better than nVidia's. Heck, the ATi drivers are probably fixed and running well by now. I for one have never had issues with ATi's drivers, but then again the last ATi card I had was a 9600XT, and I worked on a comp with a X800XT.

[Dread]

IMNSHO all of the cards will perform admirably with almost any
of todays games, but you have to ask yourself specifically, what game
are you targeting? If the game you prefer is graphically tile heavy, then
go with a larger memory buffer card rather than just pure speed.
If the game relies more heavily on fast action and smaller tiles, go with
a smaller, faster memory based card. Games like BF2 and WoW would
benefit from a 640 MB RAM card, while CS:S would see a performance
increase with a faster clock.

Also consider the power requirements of the card you choose, can your current setup handle it?

[Quakindude]

This thread isn't about whose drivers are better. Over the last 15 years, I've seen ATI have the most horrible drivers in the world only to be followed and surpassed by Nvidia. Then the roles would swap again.

Come on guys. If your comments aren't helping the OP and his/her problem, then take it to PM's to disagree with your finer points.

[Computer-Ed]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

This thread isn't about whose drivers are better. Over the last 15 years, I've seen ATI have the most horrible drivers in the world only to be followed and surpassed by Nvidia. Then the roles would swap again.

Come on guys. If your comments aren't helping the OP and his/her problem, then take it to PM's to disagree with your finer points.

Actually the OP even mentions drivers:

The thing that sticks out though, is I'm seeing a lot of "reviews" floating around of the R600 becoming more competent with driver revisions,

However you are correct we digress..

Okay based on the money you are planning to spend:

I would get either the 2900 or the GTS with 640. You already have the money allocated for the buy and either card will run games extremely well.

I would personally lean toward the 2900. There are some DX10 comparisions on the net that show it is running as fast as the GTX in pure DX10 and newer drivers gave the card a nice speed bump.

[Jokerswild]

The DX10 reviews around the web right now are not basing their tests on an actual game but rather on a patched version of Call of Juarez promoted by none other than ATI and Nvidia is promoting Lost Planet as a DX10 benchmark so I would be wary as to any DX10 benchmark at this point since both ATi and Nvidia have a history of optimizing their drivers for specific benchmarks.

[onebxr]

Newegg.com - EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - GECUBE HD2900XT-VIE3 Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 VIVO HDCP Video Card - Retail

I think that the choice is yours. There isnt much difference in the price. Go with what you like, if you like NVIDIA, go with them, if you like ATI, go with that. Its your money. DRIVERS be damned.
-1

[Stormcrow]

There still seems to be heavy debate with the 2900, guess we'll have to wait for Crysis and Bioshock to finally see. Sapphire is going with DDR3 for the 1GB model instead of DDR4? Unless thats just a a specialty their offering until the DDR4 models roll out.

Well, I think I'm going to go with the 8800, for two simple reasons. Power consumption and future SLi ability. I was just thinking of getting a GTX, but if the past has taught us anything, its dont plunk down a huge chunk of change for DirectX support which hasn't even been fully released yet (thank you FX 5800). Thanks for the input guys, and I'm still curious to see how the R600 turns out with all the debating going on.

Seems the GDDR4 models are out, atleast by Sapphire: Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100211 Radeon HD 2900XT 1GB 512-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16 VIVO Video Card - OEM

[Dr. V]

Originally Posted by onebxr

Newegg.com - EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - GECUBE HD2900XT-VIE3 Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 VIVO HDCP Video Card - Retail

I think that the choice is yours. There isnt much difference in the price. Go with what you like, if you like NVIDIA, go with them, if you like ATI, go with that. Its your money. DRIVERS be damned.
-1

Thank you. Very well said.