ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Graphics Card

ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Graphics Card Review
Reviewed by: Denny Atkin
Review Date: May 2007

ATI may be late to the DirectX 10 (DX10) party, but it turns out that the party hasn't really gotten going yet, anyway. After months of allowing nVidia to own the DX10 market with its GeForce 8000-series cards, ATI has launched its own DX10 card, the Radeon HD 2900 XT. With the first DX10 games close to shipping as of this writing, ATI is still ahead of the game.

The 512MB HD 2900 XT is priced at $399, the same as the 640MB version of the GeForce 8800 GTS. The HD 2900 XT's performance is noticeably better than that of the 8800 GTS in some games, however. While its score of 62 frames per second (fps) in our F.E.A.R. test (at 1,600x1,200 resolution) was almost identical to the 8800 GTS's 60fps, in Company of Heroes the ATI entry scored 92fps to the nVidia offering's 81fps. In Futuremark's 3DMark06 benchmark test, the HD 2900 XT beat the 8800 GTS's 8,892 with a score of 10,992. (Because of the lack of appropriate games or benchmark tests, it's still up in the air as to which card will be faster in DX10, however.) Just as important, 3D-rendering quality is excellent, with performance headroom to turn up filtering and anti-aliasing in today's most-demanding games. Plus, ATI's Avivo HD technology makes for smooth, detailed video playback without the need to buy an additional decoder.

At 9.5 inches in length, the HD 2900 XT is a tight fit in some smaller cases (though we had no trouble fitting it in a somewhat cramped Antec Sonata 2). You can install a pair of HD 2900 XT cards in CrossFire mode for an extra speed boost in most games. Gone is the need for a clumsy external cable and a special master card—CrossFire now works just like nVidia's Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology, allowing you to connect two standard HD 2900 XT cards using an included ribbon cable between the cards.

You'll need a monster power supply, though. A 750-watt power supply is necessary to run two cards; even a single card needs 550 watts. In comparison, the GeForce 8800 GTS requires just a 400-watt supply. The card requires two leads from your power supply. It will work with two standard six-pin cables, but you'll need to connect it to a new power supply with both an eight-pin connector and a six-pin one to enable the card's overclocking features. In addition to the higher electric bill versus the GeForce card, you'll also have to put up with a little more noise: The internal fan goes from a noticeable whir to, when running 3D applications, a sound similar in tone and volume to a fast-spinning CD-ROM drive.

The card has outputs galore, with a pair of dual-link DVI connectors, cables for component-video and S-Video, and an adapter that adds a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port supporting High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). The card even has built-in six-channel surround audio when used with the HDMI connector.

Faster than nVidia's card of the same price, the Radeon HD 2900 XT is an attractive choice for serious gaming. But while its HDMI output may be attractive to home theater users, its loud fan will keep it out of most media rooms.

Advanced Micro Devices, 866-824-3215

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