New details: Radeon HD 2900 XT with 320 SP

[slaWter]

Sounds like a killer:

At the top of the DirectX 10 chain, is the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT. The AMD ATI Radeon HD 2900-series features 320 stream processors, over twice as many as NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTX. AMD couples the 320 stream processors with a 512-bit memory interface with eight channels. CrossFire support is now natively supported by the AMD ATI Radeon HD 2900-series; the external CrossFire dongle is a thing of the past.

The R600-based ATI Radeon HD 2900-series products also support 128-bit HDR rendering. AMD has also upped the ante on anti-aliasing support. The ATI Radeon HD 2900-series supports up to 24x anti-aliasing. NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800-series only supports up to 16x anti-aliasing. AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 2900-series also possesses physics processing.

New to the ATI Radeon HD 2900-series are integrated HDMI output capabilities with 5.1 surround sound. However, early images of AMD’s OEM R600 reveal dual dual-link DVI outputs, rendering the audio functions useless.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6903

Performance should be superb with all this horsepower. Plus I like the new features like the AVIVO and HDMI stuff.

I so can't wait for the nV fall upgrade :D

[Redeemed]

Sounds like a killer:



http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6903

Performance should be superb with all this horsepower. Plus I like the new features like the AVIVO and HDMI stuff.

I so can't wait for the nV fall upgrade :D

:bugeyes:

That is fetchin' sweet! Maybe I will go with CrossFire for my next build. :p

I don't know ya'll, that is well over twice the stream processors that G80 has, it is on a smaller process, has a 512-bit bus, can process physics, and do 5.1 surround sound through HDMI- if all of this is true then I think nVidia has officially been served. :p

Of course, the key word there is if. ;)

[slaWter]

Yes the feature set looks impressive! Hopefully nV can catch up to that with G90.

[Amuro]

Well, they're 6 months late so they'd better come up with something impressive.

[Siskods9]

So as consumers are we now looking at a situation where one vendor will be putting out a new architecture to compete with its rival's 6 month refresh???

In the past we had to wait 12 months for a new architecture from either ATI or NVIDIA, now one of them will have a new architecture every 6 months ?

This should mean only good things plus I read recently that the new ATI (AMD) high end parts should be sold at a much more attractive price point effectively bringing high end cards back down to well below $500

Nice!

[AthlonXP1800]

AMD is drop 2900 XTX name in favour of Radeon HD 2900 XT:

http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=38911

It not surprised Gibbo from Overclockers UK received Radeon HD 2900 XT yesterday and said it on par with Geforce 8800GTX. Radeon HD 2900 XT is the flagship but I am not sure why the claim of 320 stream processors are as fast as Geforce 8800GTX's 128 shaders processors?

[Xion X2]

"HOOLLY SHNIIIIKEEEEEEEES!"
http://planete.qc.ca/quisuisje/images/Chris_Farley.jpg

[Toss3]

AMD is drop 2900 XTX name in favour of Radeon HD 2900 XT:

http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=38911

It not surprised Gibbo from Overclockers UK received Radeon HD 2900 XT yesterday and said it on par with Geforce 8800GTX. Radeon HD 2900 XT is the flagship but I am not sure why the claim of 320 stream processors are as fast as Geforce 8800GTX's 128 shaders processors?
No he said he had the xt model, no HD. :) It has half the memory of the top model and won't be clocked as high, and maybe even less stream processors.

And he might have been playing on a low resolution, and thus being bottlenecked by his cpu or somethin'? :)

[Mojoe]

Well to quote SIrPauly.

If it is 64 shaders - probably 4 vector ALU's + 1 scalar = 320 ALu's total.

And..........Fuad.:D

R600XT wins in NFS Carbon

The new Radeon HD 2900 XT driver saves the day. Only with the new driver the card is really faster than the six month old Geforce 8800 GTX.


We only know a few examples as in Need for Speed Carbon R600XT scores 10 to 17 percent better than Geforce 8800 GTX. The previous 8.35 was not that good and the R600XT was close to G80 GTX but not better. With new 8.361 which is suppose to be the launch driver the scores are even better on ATI hardware.


Looks like ATI still have an ace of spade in its sleeve.

[mullet]

Man I want this card, since I am not going to do SLI this needs to be a beast for my system to smile :D. I just really really hope its 65nm.

[kevJ420]

So none of you care about IQ?

I want to know, what is not fast enough about nvidia's best out now?

What do people want to be faster?

[slaWter]

No he said he had the xt model, no HD. :)

Well the XT model should be the top of the line card, the new name is HD 2900 XT. Maybe there will be a 512MB and a 1GB version.

kevpla1@cox.net, speed and IQ go together... you need a fast card to enable AA, AF and stuff like that, especially at high resolutions.

[J-Mag]

kevpla1@cox.net, speed and IQ go together... you need a fast card to enable AA, AF and stuff like that, especially at high resolutions.

Yes exactly, you can't use high end AA modes without more performance. The 2900's got 24x AA, although I doubt it will be playable on anything recent and at decent resolutions.

[fivefeet8]

The 2900's got 24x AA, although I doubt it will be playable on anything recent and at decent resolutions.

That's probably 24x Multisampling AA which would make it much more usable than the 32x AA Hybrid SS/MS mode for 8800 cards.


Performance should be superb with all this horsepower. Plus I like the new features like the AVIVO and HDMI stuff.


I'm sure the r600 will be a monster performer, but not based on these specs. ;) AVIVO is akin to Nvidia's PureVideo. The article talks about integrated HDMI video output features, but doesn't the 8800 cards already have integrated HDMI video output features as well? Maybe they mean native HDMI output ports.

[J-Mag]

That's probably 24x Multisampling AA which would make it much more usable than the 32x AA Hybrid SS/MS mode for 8800 cards.

Good point, I didn't really consider that.

[Mojoe]

Hmm, the XT looks great if all of this is true.

R600XT will be officially known as Radeon HD 2900 XT when it launches in May. It seems that R600XT will be available first followed the XTX. According to DailyTech, the Radeon HD 2900 series features 320 stream processors and supports 128-bit HDR rendering, 24xAA, physics processing. Other features include integrated HDMI output capabilities with 5.1 surround sound. Although the wait for R600 is unbearable but the consoling part is that R600XT stood up well against NVIDIA GeForce 8800 series. Using a Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor, R600XT scored 12K in 3DMark06, slightly better than a GeForce 8800 GTX. It is benched on the latest 8.361-RC4 drivers, quite an improvement over the older sets of drivers. The core clock of R600XT stood at 750MHz while the memory is at 820MHz. It looks all decent for a US$399 card.p>

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4898

[tacos4me]

I can guarantee you that ALL of the rumors will NOT be true.

He's hinted at having the official design specs on his desk. Just something to think about. He has no reason to lie about it.

[zer0]

does this mean my 8800GTS 320mb order is a bad decision? :(

[kevJ420]

Is the 32FP rendering targets going to be filtered?

Nvidia can do the same thing plus we already know nv filters their MRTS.

Anyways, keep in mind that, 24x multisampling really is a waste of 320 stream processors, and a 512 bit mem bus w/ 1 GB GDDR4.

Finally, one more thing, we don't yet know how high those 320 stream processors are clocked. Nvidia's are clocked pretty damn high, although it's less than 1/2 any possible way.

[slaWter]

He's hinted at having the official design specs on his desk. Just something to think about. He has no reason to lie about it.

Interesting thanks. Maybe it's even faster :D

[911medic]

He's hinted at having the official design specs on his desk. Just something to think about. He has no reason to lie about it.If we're going to quote Kyle from [H], here's another one:I think the R600 is going to be ATI’s very own 5800, but that is a story for another time. From this article (http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMyMiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==), published April 6.

[shabby]

does this mean my 8800GTS 320mb order is a bad decision? :(

Yes, cancel it and wait till ati releases their cards. By then the gts will definetly drop in price and maybe ati's card will be better.

[Sazar]

AMD is drop 2900 XTX name in favour of Radeon HD 2900 XT:

http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=38911

It not surprised Gibbo from Overclockers UK received Radeon HD 2900 XT yesterday and said it on par with Geforce 8800GTX. Radeon HD 2900 XT is the flagship but I am not sure why the claim of 320 stream processors are as fast as Geforce 8800GTX's 128 shaders processors?

I wonder if Gibbo never has to sign any nda's or anything of that nature.

Apparently he feeds you a lot of information and it is typically off the mark a fair bit, but the mere fact that he is giving out information on a yet to be launched product just seems a tad unethical.

[SH64]

WOW with those features i expect nothing less than double the performance of the G80!!

[Blacklash]

I am definitely interested in this as I prefer Intel chipsets. I could use dual graphics cards on an Intel chipset if I wished to do so. Two of these might be nice in a X38 board with a Penryn processor, or even with what I have now.

Maybe this card will function correctly when "restarting" my computer instead of leaving me with a black screen that requires me to toggle the monitor on and off every time.