ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Hands-On

The Radeon HD 2900 XT's $400 price places it in direct competition with the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB, not the GeForce 8800 GTX. However, Nvidia isn't going to let ATI beat up on its six-month old GTS without a response. Team Nvidia is releasing a new overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS GPU to greet ATI's new Radeon. The EVGA "Superclocked" GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB we tested yielded around five to ten percent more frames per second than our reference GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. Nvidia will slot the overclocked GTS in the $400 spot and the regular GTS will settle into the $350 area. Our performance testing confirms that the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT is comparable to the GeForce 8800 GTS. The cards traded wins across all of our tests. Frame rates were close in most games, except in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. where the GTS blew past the XT.

The Radeon HD 2600 XT with GDDR4 memory will likely sit somewhere between the $129 GeForce 8600 GT and the $175 GeForce 8600 GTS with its estimated $149 retail price. The Radeon HD 2600 XT CrossFire setup won all the midrange tests--as it should, since it'll cost around $300 to put together a matching pair of Radeon HD 2600 XTs. The single Radeon HD 2600 XT outperformed the GeForce 8600 GT and GTS cards in Company of Heroes, but fell behind in both cards in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and could only tie the less expensive GeForce 8600 GT in Oblivion.

The $99 Radeon HD 2600 Pro should be compared to the GeForce 8500 GT, which currently sells for $90-$110 online. Following the game preferences exhibited by the midrange cards, the Radeon HD 2400 XT has the advantage in Company of Heroes, the GeForce takes S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and both cards draw even in Oblivion.