ATI Radeon HD 2900XT

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

This is ATI's first high-end DX 10 enabled graphics card that has an improved architecture and better performance. It features 320 stream processors, which is more than what NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX has. Also, it comes with a 512-bit memory interface. Another noticeable change is native CrossFire support in this series. The card is integrated with HDMI output capabilities with 5.1 surround sound. It also has built-in support for HDCP, Blu-ray, HD DVD decoding, and ATI AVIVO HD Video.

We stressed the card on a test bed consisting of an Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, and a 120 GB (7200 rpm) HDD. In 3D Mark06, it scored 10974, which is very high but slightly less than that of 8800 GTX (11222 3D Marks). In all our gaming tests it proved to be worth its price. Particularly in FEAR, its score of 253 FPS at max setting (at 1280x1024 resolution) was at par with NVIDIA's top end cards. In Doom 3, Pray and Half life 2 Episode 1 it performed well, though NVIDIA's 8800 GTX gave slightly better performance. The only drawback is its excessive power consumption.

Bottomline: Considering its features and price it's a good buy for professional gamers.

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