This evaluation is the embodiment of what video card value is to the gamer. We have a video card, the 320 MB GeForce 8800 GTS at around $289 providing a noticeable gameplay experience advantage compared to the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT that costs $409. In some cases the performance gap is very wide (S.T.A.K.E.R. and BF 2142), in other games performance is closer (Oblivion, Lost Planet), but in most cases the 320 MB GeForce 8800 GTS is providing higher framerates than the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT sometimes equating to a better gaming experience.

The 8800 GTS 320MB video card is $120 less expensive and provides a gaming experience that is equal to or superior to the HD 2900 XT. Not only that, but as our original evaluation proved the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT uses much more power than a GeForce 8800 GTS! The 8800 GTS is simply more efficient both in terms of power and performance.

Hey everybody, and welcome to the Radeon HD 2000 Series article. Oh my gosh ... Have we all been waiting for this release a long time, or what? I mean initially we (the press) expected this release late last year already. And due to a complexity of issues (AMD and ATI merger), likely fabrication issues and a shift in fabrication process things got delayed; massively. So right now it's April 25th and today 175 press-members are returning from a long technical briefing in Tunisia and I can happily report to you that AMD has now released the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series of product... well, sort of.

What we'll be doing today is take a look at their new high-end product. As we speak, AMD is launching no less than five desktop graphics cards, but it is however not a hard launch. Worldwide you'll only see the one product released and available based on a 80nm fabrication process; the Radeon HD 2900 XT, a product that is going to be discussed and has been discussed a lot for sure.

So there are four other products as well. ATI is also launching an all new Radeon 2400 and 2600 series (low- and mid-range). These products will be based on the newer 65nm fabrication production process.

Let's have a brief overview of the five new graphics cards and on the next page we'll go a little deeper into the silicon that is Radeon HD 2000.

Radeon HD 2900 XT
Radeon HD 2600 XT
Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Radeon HD 2400 XT
Radeon HD 2400 Pro
Obviously for all products, we are talking about the next-gen product series here and that means 100% DirectX 10 compatible products, so you'll understand that we'll also talk a little about DX10, the Unified Shader Architecture with these lovely stream processors; a new function on the 2000 Series called Tessellation and last but not least; Avivo HD.

So we'll go rather in-depth today, yet bear in mind that we'll only test and thus benchmark the new Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics card. Now earlier on in the introduction I already told you guys that this is going to be a much discussed product. Why? As everybody expected it to be the new high-end product that would annihilate NVIDIA's excellent GeForce 8800 GTX series. That's not the case. You guys clearly have seen rumours, leaked benchmarks and what not. The HD 2900 XT as we'll show is a really fine piece of hardware but performance wise it sits among the GeForce 8800 GTS cards; if that gives you a better idea. The more interesting thing is it'll be a high-end product at a very interesting price-level. 399 USD. I've talked to a couple of board partners already, and here in Europe this red goblin is selling for 350 EUR !

That really doesn't sound bad, eh? AMD-ATI will take it a step further as all HD X2900 XT boards will be HDMI/HDCP ready, have Avivo HD and will be shipped with three full free games: Half-life2: Episode 2; Team Fortress 2 and Portal. These games are included as coupon (code) and you must download it yourself through Valve's steam. But yeah... great stuff.

Well; let's not get ahead of things ... We have a review to show you. Next page please !

It is clear that the Radeon HD 2900 XT with its current drivers cannot compete against Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra, which, by the way, cost substantially more, the latter costs ($829 and up) more than two Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics cards, in fact. But maybe ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is the best graphics card for $399?

Well, it is either as fast, or faster than GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB in most cases, but it has performance issues with such games as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl , Neverwinter Nights 2 , Gothic 3 and probably some other. At some point those problems are going to be solved, but when – we do not know. So, performance-wise, ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is a good solution.

In addition, AMD’s partners will include four free games with each Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics board: Half-Life 2: Episode 2 , Day of Defeat: Source , Team Fortress 2 and Portal . This increases overall value of the product to a gamer.

However, with sufficient performance and free games come power consumption of 161W as well as very noisy cooling system (at least, in case of our board) in addition to imperfect drivers, which, for example, do not allow to enable FSAA with edge-detect filter, something, which is projected to provide high image quality amid minimal performance drop. As a consequence of such driver limitation of the Radeon HD 2000, Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 can claim better image quality, as its CSAA works without an issue.

All-in-all, it is up to end-user to decide whether ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is the best graphics card for $399 or not. It has a lot of advantages and the main one is truly extreme shader processing capabilities, but it also has a number of drawbacks.

Correction these cards are here @ retail price of about R4000 odd...

Sonic Informed already have them, Slick can organise them

Even prophecy has it... much cheaper priced than the 8800gts 640mb

The 640 is proven to be faster in games, and not just synthetic benchmarks, it uses LESS power and has mature drivers compared to the ATI equivalent which uses, MORE power, a different power connector, and has immature drivers.
Not only is it more expensive (the ATI) but it doesn't have the edge in the display quality category anymore either (I used 8800 GTX on Vista Ultimate, and I can tell you, it looks AWESOME).