ATI HD2900XT 1GB Graphics Card or the NVIDIA 8800 Ultra Graphics Card?
Filed under: Computer Hardware, Computers | By: Joe
Posted on: August 20, 2007 | 17 Comments
One thing I have noticed from the hardware battle of nvidia and ATI is that greater clock speeds do not mean greater boot times or higher benchmark results. For example, nvidias new 8800 ultra has around twice the clock speed of ATI’s hd2900xt 1gb, but it does no better in benchmarks, or overclocking.
There is a $230 price difference, with the hd2900xt 1gb as the cheaper at $500 from newegg, where as the ultra costs $730, what does the extra $230 buy? And so we look to see which does better in benchmarks and game performance.
The the processing power of the ATI hd2900xt 1gb is 512-bit, and the 8800 ultra only does 384-bit. Then the stream processing units, the hd2900xt 1gb has 320, more than double the 8800 ultra which has a measly 128. It also wins out on clock speeds, the 2900xt has a 743mhz clock, and the 8800 ultra has 655mhz, which just give the 2900xt one more reason to be on the shopping list. That’s still better than most of the graphics cards on the planet, but it is not as good as the hd2900xt.
Then there is video memory, the 8800 ultra has a good 768mb of GDDR3, but come on, that’s not much to be proud of we have had that for at least 2 years now, the hd2900xt has a gigabyte of GDDR4 memory, now that’s more like it. This is probably the only feature that gives the 8800 ultra a slight edge, its memory clock speed is 2.25ghz, compared with 2ghz for the 2900xt. Not enough to make anyone pay the extra $230.
What do you think?
Do you prefer the ATI HD2900XT 1GB Graphics Card or the NVIDIA 8800 Ultra Graphics Card?
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To: Chronofox
Please review what kind of site this is. This is a commercial site that earns money via ads and “subscriptions”, the author “Joe” is a “stakeholder” on this site, as he is one of the primary contributers to it. Unless there is vested interest in “false” dissemination of information, which I highly doubt fan-boy-ism would do:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fanboyism
“The collective outlook and behavior of a group of people concerning a subject (movies, games, hardware, comic book characters, etc.) which when challenged results in an antagonistic, passionate, and unreasoned response.”
Rather according to the definition what I am doing can be considered fan-boy-ism towards NVIDIA (even though I own AMD comp and X800XL video card and have been using them for the past 3 computers I’ve had) [my main change of view is because they have been providing lies to cover their own asses recently] and what you are doing is pro-AMD.
AMD isn’t new to its had in deceptive tactics (which they have been using ever since they’re drop in shame due to the Core 2 Duo and Nvidia’s 8800 series)
AMD posts blatantly deceptive benchmarks on Barcelona
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=567
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=570
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/wp-mobile.php?p=567
Back to the article at hand. Your suggestion that AMD “doesn’t run” a propaganda campaign is a false assumption (if you read the last article from George Ou, the incident with the “Barcelona” is one definite instance of this occurring. There are various other “sites” that I can claim “fanboyism” but this is “supposedly” a site that has a far larger reach than just a mere segment of predominantly AMD/ATI fans (*as this is a general reviews site), and hence leading to my earlier hypothesis.
I can understand the ramifications of what an AMD/ATI market drop out can have on the overall scheme of the technology and I am in full agreement that a monopolistic nature of both Intel and Nvidia would undoubtedly be bad for the market. But that is not what we are discussing here is it? I am just stating a blatant lie has been issued on this website, which could very well be tied to the AMD propangada machine, which you can take with a grain of salt (if you will, as it is a personal opinion).
Now with that said, I highly recommend you reword your “accusation” and “personal attack” you did on me as that is totally out of place and down right derogatory of you.
BTW I have contacted Google to remove this particular page (not site) from their RSS feed on their finance.google.com domain (which is how I got to read this particular article), as it is a deceptive piece of article. I was drawn to this particular article while I was contemplating whether or not to buy some AMD stocks, as they are preparing to launch their Barcelona processor. It would appear however that I should definitely double check the previews and the other sources, as the articles on AMD can be undoubtedly propped up by hardcore fans.
Dear Icarusmk2,
They will not pull down this website from their domain because this is an article about opinion, not fact. If the author of this article was mis-stating facts then Google would have already pulled this down. You fan-boys are all retarded.
Back to the cards, I’d just like to say that tom’s hardware benched the 2900 when it’s drivers were junk. since then the driver updates moved the card from competetion with the 320 gts, to the 640, to the gtx, and now, when benchmarking a DX10 game, Bioshock, the 2900 beats the gtx. check it out at gamespot. all for about 100 dollars less than the gtx. Oh, and all that done by the 512 version.
Icarusmk2,
That one website that use got all your sources for this “deliberate” AMD deception was clearly taking sides. To post their speculations as fact when it comes to how much AMD’s native quad core design will do clock for clock, when they haven’t gotten a hold of the actual benchmarks is deception in itself. Plus, Tom’s Hardware DID bench the R600 when it’s drivers were crap. I’d would like to another set of benches now that the drivers are somewhat decent.
You might want to take another look at that “fan-boy” definition too.
I can not believe for one second someone try to say the ATi card is better now because of new updated drivers “ROFL”
He should of added… AMD sent me new shoe laces that are whiter than the ones I had before, so now I can run faster and jump higher weeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Mentos errr AMD the fresh maker! Doo doo doo doo, doo-doo, do-Wah!
Mr. Buildit, maybe you should get one. My cousin has an 2900 and I told him he was a fool for getting it, twice the power and it didn’t perform as well as the 640MB GTS. Now, for some reason, he can get higher frame rates on all his games and I have a GTX. We both have similar systems, he’s an AMD/ATI guy I’m an Intel/Nvidia guy so we’re always talking about who’s got better hardware. Now, I know hardware other than the VGA card isn’t to attribute for his performance spike, we both have 4GB ram, he has a 6000+ I have an E6700 and we’re both running XP Professional 64bit.