The results from the reviews are as described in our earlier post here. The card is a disappointment to those hoping for a frame rate monster and does not compete in the high-end with Nvidia’s 8800GTX card based on pure gaming performance.
The summary from various reviews is that the card performs about the same as the Nvidia 8800GTS in most games. The 2900XT ,however, draws an alarming 200W of power under load and ATI/AMD recommends a 550W powersupply at minimum and a 750W power supply if you are thinking of a crossfire solution. The card is longer than the GTS and in addition to this immense power draw it requires a large cooler which one review site described as a mini A/C unit. The 2900XT has been reported to idle at around 70c and peak at 84c when under load during a 3DMark2006 benchmark.
Nvidia now owns the high-end, and we did not see an offering from ATI that matched the performance improvements of the old 9700 series of graphics cards which totally eclipsed Nvidia FX series for an entire generation all the way up to the X800 XT cards vs Nvidia’s 5900 Fxs.
The 2900XT does offer the usual great image quality from ATI, with some new modes such as HQ Anisotropic rendering and CSAA modes faring quite well in image quality testing. The card also delivers HD right out the box which allows you to view 1080P HD content with just a 10-15% impact on your CPU as the entire decoding process is managed on the graphics card itself. Potential buyers also need to take into account that these cards come standard with High Def HDMI connectors which provides HDCP immediately, with sound. ATI also arranged a bundle deal with Valve to give you some free Steam titles due to be released: HL2:Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress.
The 2900XT is priced at around US$399.00.
ATI is looking a bit better in the low to midrange market, with the 2600 and 2400 series of cards sipping power and providing some good performance, although we have yet to see these cards benchmarked and on the market. Consumers will actually have to wait till around July for the 2600 and 2400 to hit store shelves.
From a pure performance perspective, Enthusiast gamers will go for the 8800GTX when Frames per second is king. Those people looking to watch their pockets and who view HD content on their PCs may opt for the ATI solution as they weigh the noise factor and power supply issues.
Check the reviews for yourself here:
IslandGamers-Technology And Gaming Info 
[…] website has many links to 2900xt reviews on it. The first 4 also review power consumption. Note that the […]
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