What If the HD 2900 XT Wasn’t Sub-Par?

When AMD released the ATI HD 2900 XT card two months ago, it proved lackluster for most, solely because it didn’t keep up to NVIDIA’s 8800GTX in almost every test. Newcomer DailyTech blogger and CEO of Falcon Northwest Kelt Reeves lets the world in on a little secret. There is actually a version of the 2900 XT card that can kick the 8800GTX’s ass. The problem is, AMD hasn’t mentioned anything about it, although some system builders, Falcon included, received the cards long ago.

The special cards go by the same HD 2900 XT name, still retain the 9" length and include 1024MB of GDDR4. For whatever reason, the card is so good that Crossfire 2900 XT’s actually outperformed two-fold over 8800GTX SLI under some games, in PC Magazine’s review of two Falcon systems. This all sounds great, but the biggest problem now is that the regular consumer cannot get ahold of these cards, unless you purchase it through Falcon or another boutique that carries them. I can’t wrap my head around it. AMD has cards to trump NVIDIA’s, but they keep them in ridiculously low quantities?

To graduate from unhelpful idea to shooting yourself in the foot: Make 3 different Radeon HD2900XT cards that are vastly different performers but all have the same name. Then do not publicly acknowledge the existence of the fastest card. Continue denying all knowledge of the faster card even when the press eviscerates the slower version.

Source: DailyTech