ATI's Forsaken Flagship: The Radeon HD 2900 XTX

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[@kbotev]

You can actually fly on that thing if you push the fan speed to 100%...

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Folks, it’s been nearly a decade since I last played Quake 4, so I didn’t realize the lighting was off. I’ll make sure to apply the proper fix for any upcoming videos. Also, I noticed some people did not like the long text transitions, so I'll make sure they are not this exaggerated moving forward. Thanks for your support 🙏

[@mbe102]

FYI, the last patch for it takes off Disc checking.

[@supabass4003]

lol I was scrolling down to see if I was crazy not remembering if Q4 had lighting or not!

[@BudgetBuildsOfficial]

Absolutely brilliant video, and loved the full on history and tech analysis of the card. I've been dealing with the 2900XT and it doesn't matter what variant of the card they released, the HD2XXX Series really doesn't seem to perform all too different... Even in titles that you'd really expect some differences. It was a bit of a shameful start to what would be one of AMD most competitive architectures. Top job.

[@TeraunceFoaloke]

Interesting Video. Budget Builds sent me here.

[@TimmyJoePCTech]

Lol @ Holly double pumper. I'm more of an Edelbrock man my self. Extremely well detailed video my dude

[@andyvan27]

Timmy you're everywhere. Lol

[@basshead.]

I thought you are a ricer. You strike me as a Prius driver.

[@cybercat1531]

Did not like the glitch effect around 2:20 and as used throughout the video. It's really visually distracting. But absolutely loved the video!

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Thanks. Someone else mentioned the same. I’ll tone it down next go round 👍.

[@jangelelcangry]

@@Face2FaceHardware It's not a bad animation it's just that it's too slow.

[@snetmotnosrorb3946]

I like the effect. but not that slow.

[@SPNG]

I love this video! Keep coming back to watch it every once in a while, it's just such an interesting look at this ultra-rare failure of a flagship. Your video style was incredibly enjoyable to watch, I really miss your content. Hope you're doing well, Mike.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Much appreciated. Everything is going great 👍

[@dorion9111]

Everyone always says quiet is better but I love when my 1080ti SCREAMS like an airplane taking off.. to me this gives me a small adrenaline rush but some of my older blower motor cards are louder and if they still had gaming power left for newer titles I would use them just to hear them take off ;)

[@virtualtools_3021]

same... SSD might be fast but they don't scream speed the same way a 8 drive raid 6 10k does

[@PorscheRacer14]

I still miss the early tessellation in the Ruby demo on my 2900XT. Too bad it was dropped in the DX10 API, but at least we got a better version of it in DX11. Cool video!

[@spacecy]

This is what a review should be like. Nice.

[@RETROHardware]

Nice card, very hard to find. And 110% review. Good job.

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

11:59 "please fasten your seatbelts we will takeoff shortly"

[@hateWinVista]

Amazing as always! Been waiting to see this baby with a more in-depth review for a long time in modern days. Never thought I'd see another one as these all seem to have disappered and been locked inside someone's collection locker.

[@philscomputerlab]

Very nice, great video :)

[@CuttingEdgeRetro]

So jelly. Glad you finally found one and its working. Also good to finally see an owner present all the know information and samples out in the wild in video format. Most other owner only do photos and the odd forum post.

[@free2play470]

Excellent video, that cooler on the XTX is monstrous! Gained yourself a sub!

[@oncameramastery]

Wow, what am amazing find! Love the little history lesson as well, great job man! 😊😊😊

[@TgumaT]

Great video. I'm glad you finally managed to test the video card that you have long wanted to get.

[@K9_Supplements]

Great video mate as I am a big AMD fan my first gpu is a radeon HD 6970 .and i love it so i am looking forward to see what you put out next and thanks for going into detail rather then just brushing over it quickly

[@PixelPipes]

Fantastic work! The 2900XTX would have been a massive disappointment, and even if it managed to hit 800MHz, it's clear it still wouldn't have matched the 8800GTX.

[@detonator620]

Didn't see your vids a while. What happened?

[@raresmacovei8382]

It couldn't even match 8800 GT. Barely managed to reach the 9600 GT.

[@FlawleZ31]

@@raresmacovei8382 It wasn't released to compete against either of those. It was meant to compete against 8800GTX which it couldn't do. It was even out gunned by 8800GTS.

[@jpmon1846]

Awesome video!! Great job man. Nice to see a classic hardware community.

[@nastassia19]

This channel has such high-quality productions and is remarkably informative to boot. Thanks a lot for all the videos.

[@JesperValentine]

This is the first video i have seen from you, and it was due to curiosity from little knowledge of this 2900xtx. Actually I remember it back from 2006, but never got any real information at the time, so thank you for enlighting me. :)

[@williamliesenberg]

Awesome video F2F!! Keep up the good work! Best regards, Will.

[@yashpashar4758]

Great video as always! I gotta say that all black cooler looks amazing

[@D3lor34n]

Very interesting video, well put together. Like your style and presentation. Subscribed.

[@exaltedb]

XTX = jet engine when under load

[@mtunayucer]

The thumbnail made me watch the video and return to my roots of collecting old flagship video cards back in the day. I was so frustrated back then because it was absolutely impossible to find 2900xtx. Heck even 2900xt is harder to find here.

[@youtubeshadowbannedmylasta2629]

it was my most desired vc of all time as well, I member reading about this back in the day and showing everyone as well.

[@Ballfade90]

Always happy to see a new video from this channel. Also seems like everyone owns at least one of those steelseries mouse pads

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Thanks and yeah, they’re pretty cheap

[@DrBreezeAir]

Great video! Very interesting and the footage of the cards was nicely shot. I hated my HD2900XT and was happy to swap it for 8800GTX. I've sold mine to a classmate and it died three months later. I've never gone with ATi since. Although I'd love to.

[@manjunathanulaganathan9152]

Bud I subscribed to your channel like a day ago, I gotta say the quality of the video you make is excellent man! You deserve a much larger audience. keep it up!

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Much appreciated sir 🍻

[@vMaxHeadroom]

Great video and brings back some nice memories...

[@stingerbold9327]

the xtx fan sounds like a jet engine into your pc

[@andrebachmann1475]

I also had a 2900XT ten years ago because I always had a weakness for slightly "quirky" hardware. On the plus side, gaming on that card noticeably raised the room temperature. The constant stream of really hot air from the cooler made sure of that. Thank you for this look in the past. :) What I slightly disliked about this video was the flickering font (for exampe beginning at 2:00) - this hurts my eyes a bit.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. I’ll tone it down next go round.

[@MunkeyChips]

That was a great video. You deserve more subs, man.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Thanks brother!

[@sublime2craig]

I still don't get how your not more popular around KZbin! Great content, great editing, great commentary and product knowledge! Keep the vids coming bro, really enjoy them!

[@Face2FaceHardware]

I no longer make videos, but thanks for the comment 🤜

[@sublime2craig]

@@Face2FaceHardware Man I hope you get back into it, really enjoyed and enjoy watching your vids!

[@njdarudedovich6126]

Real youtuber with integrity to produce a video like this. you my friend; this is an underrated channel!

[@based_will]

Damn, very cool find!!

[@FullyBuffered]

Amazing card and an amazing find. Great comparison between the fanspeed and a carburetor haha. Also see you snuck a beaver in there ;)

[@Face2FaceHardware]

I couldn’t resist 😂

[@MouahbiAyoub]

Perfect review 👍. Reminds me of the DustBuster lol .

[@Ashton000]

Excellent vid mate

[@Maxa1]

Now that is a great find. Results are a bit lol and I wouldn't push it further either, but it's a collection centerpiece for any ATI fan.

[@MaTtRoSiTy]

Thanks man, interesting find

[@Yellowswift3]

Excellent video. :)

[@SMGJohn]

Should have OC it to brink of explosion

[@Lewis360]

My favourite card is definitely the 1950XTX, the queen/king of DX9. Great video BTW.

[@SwiftMCy]

I 100% love how this card looks. If I ever get my hands on one, I would love to try to mod the cooler onto a newer card.

[@MarceloTezza]

Lol!!!! The ending was hilarious!

[@JustLoL3]

My old 8800GTS 320MB was on par with my cousins 2900XT back then. So after the awesome 1950XTX Nvidia ruled for a long time 😁

[@noth606]

MajinGeta I bought the HD2900XT 1024mb and built a AMD X2 6400BE box for it and it was complete garbage, so much so I played maybe 20hrs on it before I ditched it and went back to AGP and got X1950pro instead. It gave absolutely nothing better than my old overclocked P4 with X1950pro and it was just loud as hell, hot as hell and expensive to boot. I kept the HD2900XT as a reminder to never ever preorder anything new again, and I've kept both the card and the principle.

[@SebelasHardware]

omg i never heard that. I always like your video bro. I reviewed HD 2900XT in my channel too.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

I remember watching your video a little while ago. I thought you did a great job 👍 I’m jealous of that Stalker Edition.

[@SebelasHardware]

@@Face2FaceHardware damn I should put a subtitle to my old graphic card videos

[@ViperBenchmarks]

wow that fan power :D

[@MrKillswitch88]

A lot worked against this generation and the later Radeon 3k as it was based on much of the same hardware but we all seen the massive improvements with the Radeon 4k and 5k eras. I did mod a 3870x2 by replacing the aluminum cooler with a copper one so both gpus have copper coolers instead of the stock configuration plus it looks a bit nicer that way.

[@DJCiec]

This is the most V8 Gas Guzzling GPU ever made. My friend had the XT version and he said it was heating his room in winter :D but myself, i skipped 2000 series all together..

[@DJCiec]

@navid ahmad what i meant by this is a V8 that takes a lot of power. In times that people still had 350W power supply's.Crap performance and sucked the energy more then a whole pc :D

[@noth606]

Mayor West 83 I have the XT 1gig and it heated my living room up in autumn and was so loud it was still annoying upstairs when I ran it. I gave up on it after about 20hrs gaming, put it back in its antistatic bag and it has stayed there ever since, except for the occasional picture of 'yes I still have that toilet of a card'.

[@digitalronin7495]

Excellent video man. You continue to absolutely knock it out of the park with each video. Hell I’ll even go so far as to say it’s worth the wait between uploads 😜. Seriously though, great work.

[@metalvideos1961]

Lovely Card. my first GPU well the GPU that i bought my self. was an ATI Radeon 4870HD Toxic Sapphire Edition Vapor-X with 1GB GDDR5. First card in the world with GDDR5. great card i still own it. But nice video dude. ATI used to be good. Hope AMD can change their shit soon and make some good new GPUs. But i believe they are going to release a new line up next year. so lets see what they can cook up.

[@djmystery7235]

Bob Sagget my first card that I bought was advertised a an HD7870 that I bought for $50, it was broken and I was scammed, I also later found out it was an R9 270X

[@TokeBoisen]

I'm amazed that videocards today can draw so much more power (IIRC the 8800GTX was critisised for using around 180 Watts), but cooling solutions don't need to sound like turbines (some still do, but you get my point), even though the basic tech is still the same. After seeing this video, it's no wonder AMD went back to the drawing board for a few years. Hopefully what we're seeing today with Vega will result in a similar scenario to put them back to competitiveness.

[@bloozism]

WHOA NELLY THAT FAN SPEED WOOOOOOOO 11:52

[@OTechnology]

Dang I been looking for this lol I want it.

[@elonwong]

A jet taking off.

[@Alexlfm]

Excellent video, and great find. I personally love these types of finds where the person either mislabeled or just has no idea of what they’re actually selling. What’s rather odd to me though is the price the seller was asking. Seems way to high of price to me, even for a Mac card of that age. Did he seem to have any idea that it wasn’t what he listed it as?

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Thanks! To my knowledge, none at all.

[@BelieveNoGod]

I had 2 Radeon 2900 in crossfire once. IT was the version with red plastic casing and silver 'flames' on it. From my memory, I think they came from Sapphire. It was just awesome. Only thing is, I bought and mounted aftermarket coolers, with twin fans. There wasn't a game that didn't run with full specs on that machine.

[@forestflame172]

Wow you actually found one of these!

[@user-ir2sy9ut1e]

Beautiful Card

[@imthescatman3505]

Cards definately had some flare back then

[@Pitbull0669]

I actually have a 2900xt still laying around but it has some issue with the memory because when it warms up it artifacts but I definitely think what it is is a XTX

[@cybercat1531]

Quake 4 seems to be running with locked ambient lighting - No Shadows - HDR etc. Is that normal for this timedemo? I feel like it shouldn't be and it definetly doesn't look right for Q4 at all.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

I’ll double check, but I think you’re correct. This was just gameplay as the time demo is only 10sec long and it’s part of a benchmarking tool.

[@tehkill3r]

That fan sound. It reminded me of when i got my FX-8350 CPU, i bought it, i installed it and then when i turned the computer on; "...what is that sound?" (it sounded like i had dropped a few screws into the PSU and graphics card fans) but it turned out to "just" be the stock fan cooler, never heard such a loud sound from a computer before, so i panic ordered a better fan, a 212 EVO, that got it silent as a mouse and thank fuck for that, the stock fan would've driven me mad.

[@danksmokaz]

subbed. brosk...its techbaron

[@SlowSpyder]

I bought a 2900 Pro at a low price (at the time) and overclocked it to 850MHz. No complaints for the price I paid.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Awesome. Did you get the 256-512-or 1Gb model?

[@ereksat]

Awesome

[@Face2FaceHardware]

The Beaver!!!

[@damienadams6126]

that is so cool

[@martinkacmar2063]

Its from the time when we put pictures on gopus i guess it was a dark time for gpu desing

[@noth606]

Cool video and card! I still have my mint HD2900XT 1gb that I ran maybe 20hrs on max, it was crap and the AMD platform I had for it was just as crap if not worse so I sold the PC off without the card and went back to my P4 which I upgraded first to X1650 pro (crap) and then X1950pro (great) and kept it for a number of years, it was AGP so I never used the HD2900XT for anything after that

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Nice! The 1GB model is getting harder and harder to find, so hold onto it :)

[@noth606]

F2F Tech I will, actually I've been hunting for a second one for years just to bench in crossfire. I have a collection with a few rarer cards too, Like 7800 GT Extreme dual, and some ASUS dual ATi cards and lots of various GeForce FX and Ti cards, I think last time I counted it was about 30 cards in total. Some cards are really hard to find in working condition, I have two ASUS V8460 that both are not working for example, and 8800 Ultras that actually work in 3D seem to be hard to find. Many of my cards work in desktop but crash after artifacting in 3D, do you have that issue?

[@swuspicious]

when you showed the xtx's fan sound i said to myself "thats not bad" and then you cranked it to 100%

[@Leonard_MT]

I kind of like it at 100%

[@hoecage8781]

whats the difference between the xt and xtx? Looks like the xt isn't cutdown, theyre both 320 shaders

[@zoranzorand8529]

your quake 4 looks like on low or with an edited autoexec or cfg like on gf4mx

[@Matthewv1998]

The 5700xt, reaches down from the heavens with a mighty voice “dont worry child, i will finish what you started”

[@arranmc182]

The Mac Pro of the time officially only supported 2 x 6-Pin PCI-E Power via mini connectors from the logic board

[@matthewkinney5474]

Also what benchmarking software do you use?

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Just FRAPS for this one.

[@xfx69xilly51]

Holly crap nice jet engine.)

[@darylduran9375]

one of my dream gpu cards in 2006 .... but only limited ... I'm so very depress

[@RuruFIN]

I've only had HD 2900 GT as a R600 card, I was surprised that it ran Dirt 3 on 720p medium smoothly with its 240 shaders and 256-bit 256MB memory.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

I just got one of those for myself. Looking forward to seeing how well it performs

[@jhonnyxyz]

Back in 2007 I owned a HD2600 Pro DDR3. I reached over 1000MHz on the Core with a voltmod. Someone back then reached over 1000MHz with the HD2900 XT. Maybe HWbot can help me out to find the scores.

[@faisalhabibi6348]

This video is amusing, seriously

[@mentalplayground]

Well done video. Just one note .. text reveal transition effect is super annoying :)

[@Shouom]

I had an Asus version of the XT, it would run very hot.

[@Druze_Tito]

I don't get it. Did the card ever get to 100% fan speed?

[@MunkeyChips]

Holy shit, that fan is too much! XD

[@matthewkinney5474]

I still think the 7970 at 100% is louder than all of the cards tested.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

It’s close, but this card adds the element of bass.

[@nessotrin]

@@Face2FaceHardwareI never expected to hear that about a GPU. What the hell were they thinking ?

[@T4CFantasy]

I had a 7970 reference, i dont remember it being close

[@noth606]

I have a whole lot of cards including many old screamers and dual GPU cards and the HD2900XT is the loudest I have... the XTX is obviously quite a bit louder still...

[@ChiefKeith.]

LMFAO "dear God, this is probably the loudest card I own"

[@ihateevilbill]

Holy shit! How loud is that fukr. So awesome! lol

[@haramaschabrasir8662]

So you didn't just get a rare 2900 XTX but also an even rarer Mac edition. Wow.

[@CheffBryan]

I miss these kinds of weird looking GPUs. Everything these days are black rectangle boxes with one to three fan holes cut into them.

[@Ivan-pr7ku]

Among the multiple of issues, R600 cards were lacking any advanced power management in hardware. All power/clock controls were handled by the driver in very inconsistent manner. The heat was a problem in both load and idle operation and for my 2900XT I had to use a third party utility to clock down the GPU even more, when not running 3D apps. The card was definitely not a good match for crammed cases, like mine, with poor airflow. Here's what it looked like a decade ago: i.imgur.com/5MzIwf7.jpg -- yeah, the back plate was getting very hot and that was my silly attempt to alleviate the hot spots.

[@Face2FaceHardware]

Yeah that looks tight. Thanks for sharing.

[@dominicskywalker]

i used my Radeon HD 2099XT as a space heater for my feet in my cold dorm room

[@budgetking2591]

Radeon 9800 Pro is the ultimate nostalgia beast for me

[@MusicHavenSG]

Really sounded like a hairdryer...

[@Artas1984]

Amazing. After 12 years i finally see HD2900XTX benchmarks. I had HD2900XT in 2007 and was boasting with it like fuck, dreaming about XTX... Pathetic performance in the end.

[@ayuchanayuko]

I only had the HD2600Pro back then. No budget hahahaha My friends had GeForce 8600/8800 though. But the HD2600Pro still had a more vibrant color output that I liked.

[@jasongooden917]

nice looking design tho