Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900 XT 1GB Review

The Diamond Viper HD 2900 XT 1GB is arguably the most powerful ATI GPU-based video card on the market. With it’s 1GB of fast GDDR4 memory and 512-bit memory interface, this card offers an impressive 128GB/s of peak bandwidth. Unfortunately, with an R600 clocked at 742MHz, it seems the GPU just can satisy the frame buffer’s hunger for data fast enough to significantly impact performance.

At about $499 - $530, the Diamond Viper HD 2900 XT 1GB costs about as much as a GeForce 8800 GTX, which is a much higher performing card overall. We also found the GeForces to be quieter and as out testing showed in our initial launch coverage, NVIDIA’s cards consume less power too. The Radeon does offer some more features and anti-aliasing modes, audio over HDMI, and a copy of Valve’s Orange Box, which enhances its value proposition somewhat, but at its current price point this card is a tough sell.

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