Published in Graphics

HIS announces its HD2900GT card

by on06 November 2007

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Stillborn or not ?


More than a month after the first HD2900GT cards were announced they are still nowhere to be seen. Several cards have been listed on retail sites for weeks, but no ship dates have yet been set. Just as it was beginning to look as if the crippled R600 was launched as stillborn, HIS announced its own HD2900GT (although we've already seen it listed earlier).

A brief reminder: the HD2900GT has 256MB of GDDR3 memory, a 256 bit memory bus and 240 stream processors. The core is clocked at 600MHz, while the memory ticks at 1600MHz. The suggested retail price for the HIS card is an uncomfortable €178, and it is supposed to be "available in limited numbers" starting on November 1st. We wrote about HD2900GT prices here. The only trouble is that there are no HD2900GT cards on the market at all, and, what's worse, as soon as the HD3850 with 256MB of memory enters the fray you can pretty much forget about the HD2900GT.

Even if the HD2900GT appears in retail, it's too late for it. Prior to the 8800 GT and RV670 it would have made a lot of sense, since it offers performance on par with the venerable X1950 and outperforms Nvidia's 8600 GTS, as you can see here. At current prices of around €150 the GT, with its loud dual slot cooling and expensive 2900 PCB, doesn't stand a chance next to the HD3850 or Nvidia's 8800 GT with 256MB of memory.

However, there still might be hope, as the R600's EOL is coming near. We might just see some GT and PRO cards at bargain prices, as ATI obsoletes its R600 cards.

You can check out the HIS press release here, in German.
Last modified on 07 November 2007
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