Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 512 MB GDDR3 Graphics Card

by Diamond Multimedia

Product Details

• Item Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000PWITW4
• Item model number: 2900XT512PE
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #157,806 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 14, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer Diamond's Viper HD2900 is a magnificent beast. A 700 million-transistor processing powerhouse, a technology statement, and dream come true for enthusiast gamers hungry for the fastest GPU ever made. Featuring a 2nd generation unified shader architecture, massive processing power and an unprecedented 512-bit GDDR3 memory interface, HD2900 will deliver astonishing performance and the richest feature-set yet for a big ultra-high definition gaming experience with all of the bells and whistles turned up to the max. HD2900 is quite simply a ticket to the future of PC gaming.

Unleash the Gaming Power of DirectX 10
The HD 2900 unleashes the power of DirectX 10 with awesome performance, stunning visual effects, and more dynamic interactivity than ever before. Surpass reality with easy CrossFire scalability, built-in HDMI, and 5.1 surround audio for an immersive HD Gaming experience.

Ultimate High Definition Gaming Technology
Establish a new level of performance with our next-generation unified shader engine with 320 unified stream processors, a 512-bit memory interface, CrossFire, game physics, and built-in HDMI with multi-channel 5.1 surround audio — technology designed for discerning gamers.

Screenshots from Half-Life® 2: Episode 2 by Valve Software © 2007

Leadership for Windows Vista
Enjoy powerful graphics performance, improved stability, and an immersive HD gaming experience for Windows Vista. 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 the visually stunning Windows Aero user interface.

Call of Juarez using DirectX® 9	Call of Juarez using DirectX® 10

Screenshots from Call of Juarez by Techland © 2007

Features

• Plug-and-play CrossFire support
• Dynamic Game Computing Technology
• 320 Unified Stream processors
• 512-bit memory interface
• High-speed 128-bit HDR (High Dynamic Range) rendering
• Physics processing support
• Up to 24X Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing
• Native PCI Express x16 bus interface
• 512-bit GDDR3 memory interface
• High Dinamic Range (HDR) rendering
• Optimized for Windows Vista with comprehensive DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 support
• ATI Avivo HD Video and Display Technology
• Built-in HDMI with Multi-channel 5.1 surround audio
• Dual dual-link DVI with full resolution HDCP support
• HD video playback
• Dual 30-bpp display processors
• Catalyst software drivers
• Windows Vista 3D environment support
• HDTV support

What's in the Box
Diamond ViperRadeon HD 2900XT graphics card with 9" fansink, two DVI to VGA converters, component HDTV adapter, 9-pin VIVO adapter, ATI DVI to HDMI adapter, free Tier-1 game bundle from Valve--"The Black Box", and CrossFire Bridge Interconnect.

System Requirements
AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium 4, 512 MB of system memory--1 GB or more for best performance, optical drive for installation software (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive), a 750 watt or better power supply with two 2 x 3-pin PCIe power connectors. For optimal performance, we recommend one 2 x 3-pin and one 2 x 4-pin PCIe power connector.

Product Description

From video streaming to games, most desktop PC models aren't equipped to deliver top quality graphics. That's why it's important to add an optional video upgrade processor card. The Diamond Viper HD 2900XT has 700 million-transistors to make it a dream come true for enthusiast gamers hungry for a fast GPU. Featuring a 2nd generation unified shader architecture, massive processing power and an unprecedented 512-bit GDDR3 memory interface, the Diamond Viper HD 2900XT will deliver astonishing performance and a big ultra-high definition gaming experience up to the max. It is the future of PC gaming and high definition video display. 320 Unified Stream Processors High-speed 128-bit-HDR (High Dynamic Range) rendering Physics processing support Up to 24x Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing Native PCI Express x16 bus interface 512-bit GDDR3 memory interface High Dynamic Range (HDR) rendering Optimized for Windows Vista with comprehensive DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 support ATI Avivo HD Video and Display Technology Built-in HDMI - HDMI support through dongle Multi-channel 5.1 surround audio capability Dual-link DVI with full resolution HDCP support Dual 30-bpp display processors Catalyst Software Drivers Optimized for Windows Vista with comprehensive DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 support HDTV Support Core Clock - 740 MHz Memory Size - 512MB Memory Configuration - 8Mx32 GDDR3 Memory Interface - 512-Bit Memory Speed - 825 MHz System Requirements - AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium 4, 512MB memory (1GB or more recommended), Optical drive for installation software (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive), 750 Watt or better power supply with two 2x3-pin PCIe power connectors (one 2x3-pin and one 2x4-pin PCIe power connector recommended)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars BUYER BEWARE! The radeon HD 2900XT is flawed. AMD dropped the ball, May 28, 2007

By 

Chris "The Pink Panther" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 512 MB GDDR3 Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

I purchased two HD 2900XT cards for a crossfire setup. A HUGE MISTAKE!! I immediately noticed a low frame rate when anti-aliasing was enabled. I tested many games and actually found my old Radeon X1900XTX setup to run faster in several cases. I also noticed severe problems with image quality. Half-life 2, Oblivion and many newer games had blurry HUDs, fuzzy text, washed out textures, some artifacts, rendering errors, objects not rendered properly. To sum it up, it looks TERRIBLE. In comparison, my X1900s had a much sharper IQ. This is unacceptable.

Secondly, the Radeon HD 2900 XT does not have hardware or software HD acceleration. UVD hardware video processing was falsely advertised by AMD for this card. They totally misled customers on this one. I think this whole R600 release is a complete fiasco. I wish I had done more research before wasting $$$ on this flawed product. Don't make the same mistake.

AMD confirmed they used shaders and not ROPs (hardware) to resolve anti-aliasing on the HD 2900XT. This design flaw is causing the poor performances I've seen when enabling AA in games. Using shader AA instead of ROP AA was a poor design decision that no driver updates or patches will ever correct. This piece of hardware is flawed from the start and doomed to a quick death.

Should AMD recall their Radeon HD 2900 XT cards now and offer a replacement product to deceived customers, or better yet, refresh their product line in a couple of months and entice customers to purchase a "working" product next time? I smell Lawsuits waiting to happen....

3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please boycott this electricity hog, January 4, 2008

By 

Scott Raney (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 512 MB GDDR3 Graphics Card (Personal Computers)

According to Tom's Hardware, this is one of the most energy wasteful cards you can buy, consuming more power than the rest of the PC (including the monitor!) combined, even at idle. Please boycott this product (and the Geforce 8800 cards) until the vendors start producing cards with more reasonable power consumption. Future generations who have to live on this planet will thank you.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/21/energy-efficient_computing_options/page5.html#single_graphics_cards