HD2900XT- Thoughts? Is it Worth it?

Alright, well I just bought all of the components for a new gaming PC that i'm building. All that's left for me to get is the GPU. Now, I want the best, but I don't want to spend 700 or 800 Canadian Dollars on an 8800GTX.

Now, the Diamond Factory Overclocked 1 GB Ram HD2900XT (See http://www.extreme-pc.ca/showproduct.asp?menu1id=12&menu2id=99&menu3id=39&productid=371414) is about $600.

Is it worth it? I've heard from some people that it only pulls a few more fps than the 512 version, and of course, I've heard about how power hungry it is, I have a 600 watt PSU, though....

Originally I was looking at getting an 8800 GTS. Would they be better for the money? What card would get my similar or better performance, for equal or less money?

I just wanted to ask some experts first before I go and spend 600 dollars on a graphics card that might not do my games justice.

I don't want to Crossfire it either, by the way, and I hear that the cards performance in Crossfire is absolutely terrible anyway.

Thanks in advance!

- Brad

 

Hello Brad,
Not many of us here are die-hard gamers. Although some of us might have come across the equipment you mention, I doubt there would be experience with many of them.

What I suggest you do is put the actual model number of the card into a websearch along with review. You should find hardware sites that have tested them and if you are lucky, they may come head-to-head.

Me, I go for a good value, medium positioned card because I don't run high-end games. Getting a graphics card that is worth more than the rest of the computer is something I would think hard about.

You need to have a balanced system. It is no use putting a high-end graphics card, along with a fast CPU and quality RAM onto an all-in-one motherboard.

Check the "recommended" system requirements for the games you want to play. Until recently, 128MB of graphics RAM was quite adequate, 1024MB...maybe several years from now! Oochee mumma! By the time the games are able to utilise that much graphics RAM, this computer will probably be long gone. Check the type of RAM, last I heard graphics were still using DDR3. Fast graphics RAM might be a lot more useful than large quantities.

What size monitor do you have and at what resolution do you plan to run. If you have a very big monitor you will need to run at high resolution, thus putting a burden on the graphics card. If you can run at a notch or two lower resolution you will ease that burden.

A "big" graphics card will generate a lot of heat. Be prepared for cooling issues.

Matt

 

Brad,

We're in a strange time regarding video cards, gaming and OSes. Vista gaming has not fully matured and the even bigger elephant in the room is DX10. I've heard that DX10 gaming won't be mainstream for at least another year and half.

But we just learned that the newest DX10 spec (10.1) is incompatible with all currently existing DX10 video cards!!!!! In other words, not only are DX10-card owners currently getting zero utility out of their card's DX10 abilities, they may never get any utility out of those abilities. By the time DX10 gaming is what we could consider mainstream, there will be a whole new generation of DX10 cards and I wouldn't be surprised at all if current DX10-card owners are left "holding the bag ".

Regarding the specific card you mentioned, as I'm sure you've heard, it turned out that the new ATI high-end cards were a significant disappointment. They are major, major power-pigs and do not give you superior performance to their Nvidia counterparts - and that's coming from a big ATI fan/user. And, since the ATI cards are "newer ", they are more expensive to boot!! If I had to get a DX10 card right now, it would definitely wear the Nvidia name.

What do I recommend in such an "up-in-the-air" situation, probably what I always recommend but with even greater emphasis. Get the most bang for you buck. And right now, that means either an 8800GTS 320MB or 640MB.

But to answer your question directly, IMHO, no, that 2900XT is definitely not worth the $600CN price tag. It's REALLY hard for me to recommend for someone to go "high-end" when there's no guarantee how the whole DX10 situation will shape up.

 

Alright then, I'll look into an 8800 GTS. The problem with getting a card now though is that no matter what I buy it's going to be obsolete soon...

Well I guess that's the risks you take when building a computer

 

IMHO, it's a crappy time to have to buy a video card. I am not convinced that DX10 cards purchased today will actually end up being good "DX10 investments ". A few months ago, I decided to snag a high-end DX9 (non-DX10) card before the supply started to dry up. I decided to go for the "biggest bang for the buck" and got an X1950XT for $160 after $20 MIR.

It's turned out to be a excellent investment for what I play.

 

I was looking into one of them too, but I figured I might as well get at least a little DX10 playability, for whatever it will last...