the HD2900XT
 

whos using one, your thoughts and pix and how SH4 runs on it. should have mine in about a week.5, or so

Some people ran "real world gaming" tests on it and were disappointed. Benchmark tests proved it a good card, but framerates with the eyecandy maxed out weren't good on most games. Could be ATI's usually suspect first release drivers or it could be a card that can't outpace the NVIDIA 8800. Hard to say.

by the way...
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/...final_thoughts

The 2900 is the top dog card right now, but it still needs some driver revs to really shine. Give it some time - its coming.

To me though - I find some things interesting:

1. is the Power Draw. The R600 is supposed to draw more power. It clearly doesn't. This is my biggest selling point. My sys is already running too hot and too loud for my liking. Adding more energy draw means more heat which makes more noticeable fans. Cooler running parts typically outweigh a minor perf gain in my opinion!

2. though it is top dog, it is not a real difference over the NVidia offering. We waiting how long for this? Must have been the ATI merger that held things up for so long.

I can't say it is all a loss on 6 months - the ATI card has better technology and will scale better and has room to improve over the 8800 GTX, but still! I'll wait to see what the future holds since the XTX always follows the XT revs, and the 2950 XT and XTX will be even better. the 2950 will probably be the 65 nm part which will give it the speed boost alone due to smaller size.

ATI has a part to work with at least to keep the pressure up between both companies. This is imperative since this kind of competition breeds better products for all of us! :D

-S

so, i guess no one here has one yet. i'm more interested in how SH4 looks/performs on it rather than other games/benchies

Not any different from a x1900. All the new features of the 2900 are DX10 features and not available in a DX9 game like SHIV. Does that answer the question? Hence the reason I am not jumping up and running out for an upgrade.

-S

Top dog in what, 3dmark? In real world tests HardOCP found it consistently outclassed by the 8800GTS and utterly dominated by the GTX. Given the insane power draw I think we won't see this architecture's true potential until they release a high-end card based on the 2600's 65nm process.