Radeon HD Launch Change

The formal announcement of AMD's forthcoming Radeon HD 2900 have been moved up, according to sources familiar with the company's plans. Previously set for May 14th, the 2900 XT will launch on May 2nd and has had its price set at $399, placing the card in direct competition with the 640MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS that AMD hopes to outperform. The 740MHz core clock speed and 1.65GHz effective memory outlined in earlier leaks should remain in place, the sources said.

The change will mean that the release may become a "soft launch" where official details are published before availability; however, the cards and the mainstream HD 2600 and 2400 versions should be available by the originally scheduled May 14th introduction.

However, questions are already being raised about the performance of its successor, the flagship HD 2900 XTX. Now known to have slightly faster GDDR4 memory versus the GGDR3 of the XT, the card will only be clocked slightly higher at 750MHz core and 2GHz memory.

This could pose genuine problems for its competition agains the months-old GeForce 8800 GTX, say those who have tested the card early. In early benchmarks of strenuous games such as Company of Heroes and Oblivion, the card was dramatically outpaced by an overclocked GeForce 8800 running at slower clock speeds -- in some cases by 30 percent or more, the results showed.

The results have reportedly made some computer resellers rethink plans to include the device with their systems, citing little gain over the more readily available and less expensive 2900 XT. AMD has not suggested that it will cancel the XTX, which is still slated for a release by June. [via VR-Zone and DailyTech]

By Electronista Staff