There've been lots of rumors recently about the R600, and derivatives, being the last product to be sold under the ATI name. Those rumors would place the R700 directly under AMD's umbrella. If they turn out to be true, ATI would leave the scene with a GPU that'll surely lose against nVidia's 8800.

It's too early in the game to crown a performance king: drivers are immature, DX10 games must be released and die shrinks could help. In particular, the little brothers (2600 and 2400) will do much better, thanks to they being fabricated on 65nm. But the performance per watt gap is so big that bridging it would be nothing short of a miracle. Not because nVidia's doing great, we said recently that they should put their act together in the energy bill department, but because we have here a 80nm chip that consumes far more power than a 90nm one.

Right now, you can find dozens of articles around the web about the 2900, but if you want reliable power consumption figures, xbitlabs is a must. There, you'll see the 681 million transistor monster eating 131W, while the 700 million behemoth gets "merely" 161W. Some sources place that number between 200 and 250! The graphics card industry still has a lot to learn about the evolution that has taken place in the CPU arena in recent years. AMD is in a better position to exploit those lessons, not so soon though.

ATI Direct x10 has arrived!

ASUS has released the new EAH 2900XT/G/HTVDI/512M – a cutting-edge graphics card that features the latest generation AMD HD2900XT GPU. The new ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 GPU is designed to unleash the gaming power of DirectX® 10; with an excellent audio/video experience through HDMI and Avivo™ HD technology – providing gamers with an unparalleled gaming experience. The release of the ASUS EAH2900XT will come bundled with 4 explosive game titles which include the highly anticipated first person shooter game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl, and Valve’s “The Black Box” game bundle suite – consisting of 3 first rate games: Half Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

Exclusive Only to ASUS EAH2900XT: Special 4 Game Bundle

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl from THQ

The ASUS EAH2900XT will be exclusively bundled with THQ and GSC Game World’s critically-acclaimed survival horror First-Person Shooter (FPS) game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl. “S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl is a very visually engaging open-ended FPS, so the graphical portions of the game are very detailed and requires a graphics card with powerful performance and high quality to bring out the best portions of the game,” said Ian Curran, Senior Vice President of international publishing, THQ.  “ASUS’s EAH2900XT is certainly up to the task, and THQ is pleased to bundle S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl with ASUS’s high-end performance graphics card.” 

“The Black Box” from Valve

Additionally, Valve offers a voucher coupon that allows users free copies of 3 upcoming titles from Valve’s “The Black Box” game bundle. This offer includes Half Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, and the games will be available via downloads through Steam – Valve’s online platform for PC games, when they become available later in 2007. In the meantime, users will be able to enjoy a free copy of Valve’s Day of Defeat.

Full DirectX 10 and Windows Vista Compatibility

Of course the ASUS EAH2900XT comes equipped with AMD’s latest ATI Radeon™ HD 2900XT GPU – which delivers powerful graphics performance, improved stability and an immersive HD gaming experience for Windows Vista™. The latest ATI Catalyst™ software is designed for quick setup of graphics, video and multiple displays; and automatically configures optimal system settings for lifelike DirectX® 10 gaming and visually stunning Windows Aero™ user interfaces.

 
Tired of reading specs? TweakTown has those framerates you want.

The verdict is clear, nVidia still rules. But that's not the whole story. It's important that you take into consideration what games you play and at which settings and screen resolution, because leadership shifts depending on what you test. Minimum framerates also paint a different picture, so everybody has a point for an argument if they want one.

We'll see more articles in the coming weeks. This one's just a glimpse.

The folks at Fudzilla have specs on the forthcoming Radeon 2900XT, 2600XT and 2400XT:

- Radeon HD 2900XT: 742MHz core, 1650MHz memory, 700 million transistors, 512-bit memory bus, 512MB. 399EUR/$399.

- Raedon HD 2600XT: 800MHz core, 2300MHz memory, 390 million transistors, 128-bit memory bus, 256MB. 199EUR/$199.

- Radeon HD 2400XT: 700MHz core, 1600MHz memory, 180 million transistors, 64-bit memory bus, 256MB. 99EUR/$99.

There're a couple of things to comment on the last two. For starters, they'll only be paper-launchend on monday (with availability this summer). At the same time, they'll be 65nm parts, which could explain the delay. Upon it's acquisition of ATI, AMD assured they wouldn't be flexing their fab muscle to produce GPUs. Later, it was said that they would, but that 65nm was meant to be a refresh of the R600 (R650). Now it turns out that they're basically skipping the R600 and that real production will start some months from now with the R650. Maybe rumors about the performance of the now disappeared 2900XTX were true and they've been forced to change plans again? Or do they want to make sure their product is superior? Being a late arrival to the DX10 fight, it'd better be that.

And if they aren't, it surely looks like it. The advertising above is around the web these days, maybe you've already seen it. Or perhaps you're not a frequent surfer and you see it here for the first time. It doesn't matter. The thing is, did you pay attention to it?

As soon as you begin reading (something not done usually when you encounter an ad) you must admit it doesn't even look real. Wasn't ATI the graphics card company AMD spent so much money on? Is this somebody's idea of a joke? Is it high finances at work? I can't answer any of these questions. Well, the first one.

This is the most juicy piece of marketing I can remember; and considering that being noticed is the greatest concern for any publicist... maybe it makes some sense after all.

Next time you overlook an ad, ask yourself what you could be missing.

XFX are one of NVIDIA's preferred partners and it comes as no suprise they are quick off the mark to offer the cut down 8800GTS 320MB XXX graphic cards for those on a budget. Here's a nice review to tempt your wallet.

Affordable Eye Candy

The EN8600GTS/HTDP/256M is also fully HDCP compliant making it the perfect partner for playing Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or other protected content at Full-HD resolutions.

What is BIG, WIDE and BEAUTIFUL and gives you more bang for the buck then just about any other computer gadget?

Matrox Triple Head 2 Go!     

An amazing product that can provide you with an incredible 45" of total diagonal (or more) and up to 3840 x 1024 resolution stretched across three displays (1280 x 1024 per display). This much real estate has to be experienced to really be appreciated, but once you do you'll never go back to a single screen for your computer, no matter how big it is.

Productivity and Surround Gaming at it's very best! Awarded "BEST OF SHOW" at the Intel Developer Forum, March 2006.

And now you can get a TripleHead2Go for even less than the regular price by heading over to The FlightSim Pilot Shop at www.flightsim.com. Upon checkout, just type matrox25 into the promotional code field with the Matrox - TripleHead2Go in your shopping cart. You'll then receive $25.00 USD off!

You can learn more about the incredible TripleHead2Go at http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/home.php Just watching the java heading at top of the information screen will get you drooling.

The Best Card For Nerds

Tweaktown have the GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty from XFX  on the bench (the version clocked at 650MHz core as opposed to the cheaper 560MHz) which is a bit fancier when compared to the standard run of the mill 7600GT. They have a look at exactly what the cards are capable of when running in SLI. Being a special hyped up version bearing the Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel branding, they are quite a lot more expensive than regular reference style 7600GT’s. It’s interesting to see what type of extra performance and features you get by spending a lot more cash on a Jonathon edition GeForce.

Anybody bought one of these and would like to admit to it, please leave your name in the comments box and we can all have a good laugh.

It was known, long before G80 became available, that it wouldn't precisely be an "earth friend". We just weren't  aware how much "friendly" it really was.

Load consumption was, according to nVidia, below 150W. This level of power draw is nothing extraordinary, considering Radeon's X1950 XTX 125W. But it only tells one part of the story. The other part is rather awful. As Alexey Sepin shows in his article "Fast and Faster: MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB vs. GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB", the entire line of nVidia's GPUs range between 55 and 70W while doing... nothing!

Now that AMD has taken care of half of the GPU market, there's reason to think somebody can put a stop to this kind of waste. Only the other half remains untamed (Intel, please, buy nVidia).

What is it good for? Not for enough, it seems