HIS Radeon HD 2900 PRO 512MB Early Test

Introduction
We wanted it and now we've got it. The HD 2900 PRO has been one of the most talked about products since the release of the HD 2900 series from AMD. Sure the HD 2900 XT offers great value for money these days due to some excellent driver updates from AMD, but the bottom line is that the card still comes in at around $500 AUD or $400 USD meaning that it's simply out of reach for a lot of people.
When the X1950PRO launched it wasn't greeted with the warmest welcome, much like the HD 2900 XT. While on paper it looked like it was going to be the next best thing, poor drivers at launch and a high price tag saw the card not really wowing a lot of people. The 7900GS from NVIDIA thanks to its extremely high overclocking ability was simply the low high-end card or high mid-range card to have.
Hopefully AMD have learnt from their mistakes and the HD 2900 PRO is simply going to blow us away as the next best thing. Its main competition is the 8800GTS 320MB from NVIDIA.
Initial pricing from HIS shows the card's MSRP at $250USD, for comparison the 8800GTS 320MB starts at about $290 USD. As we see more brands come on though and the initial price premium drop there isn't any reason why we won't see the HD 2900 PRO closer to the $200 USD mark.
All it really has to do is perform better than the 8800GTS 320MB and the card is an absolute shoe-in but that might be easier said than done.
The particular HD 2900 PRO we have in hand today is the 512MB model from HIS. Before we get stuck into the benchmarks we will have a look at the card and what HIS have managed to do with the package.
PRICING: You can find products similar to this one for sale below.
United States: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon's website.
United Kingdom: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon UK's website.
Canada: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon Canada's website.
- Page 1 [Introduction]
- Page 2 [The Package]
- Page 3 [The Card]
- Page 4 [Test System Setup and 3DMark05]
- Page 5 [Benchmarks - 3DMark06]
- Page 6 [Benchmarks - Half Life 2 (Episode One HDR)]
- Page 7 [Benchmarks - Prey]
- Page 8 [Benchmarks - F.E.A.R.]
- Page 9 [Benchmarks - Company of Heroes]
- Page 10 [Benchmarks World in Conflict]
- Page 11 [High Quality AA and AF]
- Page 12 [Temperature and Sound Tests]
- Page 13 [Power Consumption Tests]
- Page 14 [Benchmarks - 3DMark 06 - Vista]
- Page 15 [Benchmarks - Call of Juarez (DX10) - Vista]
- Page 16 [Benchmarks - Lost Planet (DX10) - Vista]
- Page 17 [Benchmarks - Company of Heroes (DX10) - Vista]
- Page 18 [Final Thoughts]
Recommended for You
- We at TweakTown openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion of our content. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here.
Latest News Posts
- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will 'soon' get map selection
- Australian High Court REJECTS Valves appeal to $3M fine
- Skyrim Special Edition - 4K and 8K textures mods available
- God of War director reads reviews on video, shows true heart
- Witcher 3 mod allows Geralt to go full Benjamin Button
Forum Activity
- FS 40 Pieces Samsung Galaxy S9+ (www.BizFests.com) 128GB $8,520
- Legacy Mode
- Possible Router Issues
- ADATA Premier Memory Cards
- Can't complete BIOS recovery
Press Releases
- Micron Launches Industry's First Enterprise SATA Solid State Drives Built on Leading 64-layer 3D NAND Technology
- Micron, Rambus, Northwest Logic and Avery Design to Deliver a Comprehensive GDDR6 Solution for Next-Generation Applications
- Toshiba Memory America Unveils UFS Devices Utilizing 64-Layer, 3D Flash Memory
- ASUS Announces GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Series Gaming Graphics Cards
- ASUS Announces ASUS Hangouts Meet Hardware Kit