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After a long period of time since nVidia first presented the G80 chip, ATi strikes back with an answer. Yes, it's about the graphics card with the already-infamous chip codenamed R600. There were incredibly many predictions about it, but the greatest part of it turned out to be pure speculation. Read on to find out the truth about R600, its architecture, new technologies and real-world performance.

<br /><br />Review link: http://www.insidehw.com/content/view/85/9/<br /><br />What are your thoughts on R600, its performance and late arrival? Are you considering to buy it or you&#039;re waiting on possible price drop in Nvidia&#039;s offer?

I think I will wait to see some Directx 10 perfomance, and then I will decide. For now, everything looks good except power consumption, it is too high for my taste.

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The primary reason is the lack of available DirectX 10 games to rely and test on.

<br /><br />Well, imo the best DirectX 9 cards appeared after the MS software appeared. Giving a perfect 10 for DX10 performance ? Otherwise look out for AMD Radeon HD 3000XT or 3100+ or .... <br /><br />Plus &quot;unified arhitecture&quot; &quot;ring bus on steroids&quot;, how many individuals really read, comprehend and actually look at that when buying a graphics card ?

Power consumption and heat is something I can&#039;t&nbsp; ignore. Price is kind of interesting but still...

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The primary reason is the lack of available DirectX 10 games to rely and test on.

<br /><br />Well, imo the best DirectX 9 cards appeared after the MS software appeared. Giving a perfect 10 for DX10 performance ? Otherwise look out for AMD Radeon HD 3000XT or 3100+ or .... <br /><br />Plus &quot;unified arhitecture&quot; &quot;ring bus on steroids&quot;, how many individuals really read, comprehend and actually look at that when buying a graphics card ?<br />

<br /><br />Both Nvidia and ATI / AMD dediced to rely on DirectX 10 features trough technology and advertising even we still have to see first DX10 game in action like 7 months after first DX10 cards appeared. I can agree that most people out there aren&#039;t looking much into details regarding difference in technology, but things like unified architecture are very important for developers. We try not to go into too deeply into technical details but we also want our readers to understand the basics of how things actually work and what are they (manufacturers) actually advertising. Sometimes it is difficult to escape the marketing hype, but we&#039;re trying our best to explain how it works and what it does.<br /><br />Also, I&#039;d agree that it is somewhat unfair to advertise &quot;DirectX 10 power” when there are no games yet to play with it. At the end of day, it is all about performance and price, and I think that with better drivers, AMD has nice product to offer. We&#039;ll see how mainstream cards work after NDA expires..

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<br />Power consumption and heat is something I can&#039;t&nbsp; ignore. Price is kind of interesting but still...<br />

<br /><br />Well, most of newer high-end cards are power monsters and I think that most of people who&#039;d buy such product already own a decent PSU. As for heat, as long as it is quiet (as much as it can be) and doesn&#039;t get overheated..

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<br />Power consumption and heat is something I can&#039;t&nbsp; ignore. Price is kind of interesting but still...<br />

<br /><br />That&#039;s true, but the heat probleblem with 2900XT was becouse it was a sample. I supose that the manufacturers like Sapphire, GeCube etc. won&#039;t use that cooling solution if it doesn&#039;t appear as good enugh.<br />And the price will probably drop also, and the card will be good competition for 8800GTS.

With all the investments that AMD and Nvidia are making to support dev teams in order to get &quot;better games&quot; (*cough*), it is too bad for AMD that they didn&#039;t use the extra time and bundled some DX10 game with HD 2900XT. Now that would be something.

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<br /><br />Plus &quot;unified arhitecture&quot; &quot;ring bus on steroids&quot;, how many individuals really read, comprehend and actually look at that when buying a graphics card ?<br />

<br /><br />Easier read might be our editorial from Tunisia: http://www.insidehw.com/content/view/76/31/

Kelt Reeves, CEO of Falcon Northwest, has some interesting thoughts on Radeon HD 2900XT performance and naming policy. Check it out!