Thoughts on ATI's latest cards?

[Krusty]

Idly browsing I see that ATI's come out with a few new cards since I last stopped checking. Last I heard was the 2600 and the 2900 over the horizon. Now they've got the 3000 series out (what is it, 3800? I don't recall).


The 2600 is a "pass" and the 2900 seems decent, but very hot and power hungry. What's the scoop on the 3000 series?

How do the 2900/3000 stack up to the GeForces?

I would be eyeballing the Ge7900s and whatnot, but newegg's totally stopped selling them the second the 8500 crap hit the shelves. Pity.

[Wingnutt]

I have a Ge7900GTO and I LOVE it to death..


but when its time is up I think im going to try on some ATI gear, just to mix it up a bit..  ive never been on one side of the other as far as the ATI/Nvidia debate.. some people are just bellybutton smash crazy for one other the other..  fools limiting themselves they are.

[BBStacker]

Krusty,

I just read a mini-review in the December issue of MaximumPC where they are talking about the RV670 coming out. I can't keep track of all the new "model numbers" coming out but I believe it's the latest of their 3800 series.
At any rate, the benchmarks were not as good compared to the NVidia 8800GTS model. That may change with better drivers and clocking.

I'm not recommending one over the other but the literature coming out between NVidia and ATI/AMD makes for great reading.

[alskahawk]

check out power requirements. Higher end ATI's are even more power hungry than Nvidia. Powercolor Radeon HD 2900XT requires both 6 and 8 pin connectors in addition to what it draws from the PCI E slot.
heres some specs from a Maxim pc review;
   175w at idle 318 under load in single card, 515w with dual cards

[715]

The ATI 3850 and 3870 are reasonably good cards (according to reviews) with significantly lower power requirements than the 2900.  The 3870 benchmarks a tad below the Nvidia 8800GT, which is the performance for price leader at the moment, being much cheaper than the 8800GTS yet essentially as fast.  

However, that is for reviewers.  Although all three have launched, only a few have hit the market and places like newegg.com don't have any of the three in stock.  Also, they benchmark so well, and have been described as such a good deal in the reviews, that the asking prices are above the announced "projected" street prices.