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Blog: Auto Radeon HD 2900 XTX Coming Back, Kinda
Sven Olsen (Blog) - June 11, 2007 1:12 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 10 comment(s) - last by Treckin.. on Jun 14 at 1:32 AM
Radeon HD 2900 XTX: It's alive, but barely

Believe it or not, the Radeon HD 2900 XTX has once again reared its head -- this time on a per-vendor basis.

AMD originally scrapped all 1GB variants of Radeon HD 2900, according to ATI partners familiar with the Radeon roadmap.  The verbal announcement that there would be no 1GB cards came the same week DailyTech declared the XTX variant "doomed."

However, at Computex 2007 at least one vendor demonstrated a 1GB GDDR3 Radeon HD 2900, with plans for a GDDR4 version on the way. 

The 1GB cards will be labeled as "professional" Radeon HDs, though not under the FireGL  moniker.  These new cards will not carry the XTX moniker, though everything else about them is identical to the original ATI XTX roadmaps.

1GB Radeon 2900s will carry a premium of at least $200 at launch for the GDDR3 versions. No price is set on the GDDR4 variants.  In addition to the extra memory, the professional cards will also receive a small core clock increase and what we're told as "an unlocked professional feature set."

It's been long confirmed that NVIDIA Quadro and ATI FireGL extensions are present in non-professional GPUs.  Expect a mid-June launch for these renegade card manufacturers.

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XTX
By gramboh on 6/11/2007 2:30:16 AM , Rating: 2
Too little, too late.




RE: XTX
By iFX on 6/11/2007 7:30:39 AM , Rating: 2
The more cards on the market the better it is for the consumer. I think it's a good thing.


RE: XTX
By raven3x7 on 6/11/2007 9:30:14 AM , Rating: 1
If you didn't pay attention these are not meant for gamers apparently. And btw for its price the HD2900 is a decently competitive card although the 640MB GTS is probably the better of the two.


RE: XTX
By Flunk on 6/11/2007 9:49:51 AM , Rating: 2
The problem with the 2900 XT is that it's about $100 more than the 8800 GTS 640MB (at least where I shop). If this card is not significantly better and commands a large price premium it will be a white elephant.


RE: XTX
By jazkat on 6/11/2007 11:42:01 AM , Rating: 2
just to let you know this card coming from ati is not an xtx its just a 2900xt with 1gb of gddr4 and it wont be called the xtx, so the heading needs to be re-typed.
im also hoping that they have fixed the design flaw's in this upgraded xt.


RE: XTX
By Treckin on 6/14/2007 1:32:51 AM , Rating: 2
just to let you know, there are no differences between the xt and the xtx besides memory and clocks, so essentially this is an xtx. They are going with the 'professional' i should think because they are going to release the xtx at some point, likely with the vid-decode hardware and on a smaller shrink.

I hope people understand that the technology in the 2000 series had NOTHING to do with AMD? that silicon revision was in the pipe WAY before the merger, and likely the next iteration has been tainted as well. I would expect to see a 65nm 2900 series soon, as the AMD changes take affect. Realize please that corporate restructures take at least a year to pass on affected products to the consumer.

If they could price the xtx head to head with the 640 MB 8800, I think it could smoke it. Pure speculation, but yeah


RE: XTX
By P4blo on 6/11/2007 12:11:34 PM , Rating: 2
They must have turned up the juice so high on the XT (to save face against GTS etc) that surely the XTX is going to be a non event? Original XTX benchmarks that came out were such a small improvement over the XT it was obvious they were blowing it out and flogging the 4$$ off the mainstream model.

And as you say, it's probably too late anyhow.


RE: XTX
By calguy on 6/11/2007 8:27:51 PM , Rating: 2
Well the clocks for the "Diamond Exclusive SI Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 1GB" is 825mhz core and 2200mhz memory which is 10% higher core clock and 9% higher memory, so a least one of the variants will be much more beefier than the ones XTX that dailytech had.

That is if the site is correct
http://www.memoryexpress.com/index.php?PageTag=&pa...


65nm?
By jay2o01 on 6/11/2007 9:54:25 PM , Rating: 2
Will this be a 65nm part similar to the paper launched 2400/2600 series, or just another firebreathing watt craving disaster that is the 2900xt....




RE: 65nm?
By murphyslabrat on 6/12/2007 12:44:49 PM , Rating: 2
LOL, dammit AMD, why so much suckage?

It will probably still be the 80nm part, as a new architecture is to risky in the world of "zero margin".
But honestly, as far as I can see, that $200 premium had better go to better cooling, a 9%/10% clock increase is not enough to account for that. Then again, we do have morons dumb enough to pay for the "professional connotations".

Still counting down till february, when I will get my realisticly priced Phenom x4 and HD 2950


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