Hi, I just got my 2900xt delivered yesterday, and I just wanted to make certain that all is working fine.
Here are some of the questions I do have regarding it:
 
 
1. Is everything ok with the card, its cooler? I eard that the fan supposed to spin up loud during boot, but it does not, its quit(barely audiable), my 4 year old 80mm case fans are much much louder than the card's fan, is this the same with other 2900xt cards? If the hsf should be really thqat quiet, im very pleasantly amazed.
 
2. What should be the temps, in idl/load , and fan %'es? I am unable to check it with ATI Tool, it just does not recognize the card, nor can I download Fanspeed (app)
 
3. During idle I can barely hear it, and during about 15th minute of gameplay it gets audiable (but still quiet) im not comkplaining, since my last card was the x850xt , and that was loud as a hairdryyer, thats why I am concerned.
 
4. This is the 3rd time i rebooted the pc/turned it on , and when i do so the c/program files/ati,opens up, and nothing is there, but i think i installed the whole catalyst/drivers/WDM pack there) that 34 mb one, is this normal?
Did maby somethign get installed incorrectly?
 
Im just worried that somethign might be wrong with the card.
Thank You for all replies, comments.
 

Your card seems to be working just fine. Also you will need ATI Tool 0.27 Beta to detect the card. What version are you using? As far as temps go, mine idles at ~68 C and hits 78 C under load. I have a Diamond 3-heat pipe version. Some early HSF's only had 2 heat pipes. Also make sure you have the newest Catalyst 7.8's installed. All in all your card seems fine. Its not as loud as everybody made it out to be is it?
 
The only complaint I have about it is that the video playback is not as good as Nvidia's PureVideo playback. Of course I payed $50 for all that PureVideo stuff so it damn well better have been superior to the competition's! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I've enjoyed mine though. Keep us updated on any findings or questions you may have.

Hi, thank you for the information. I used the ATI Tool 0.26 so thats why it did not work,( and showed only a memory of 13Hz), i thought that was teh newest one http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/Tweaking/ATITool/
I guess I was mistaken.  I have a Sapphire HD 2900xt with 3 heat pipes, so I guess teh cooling is improved there (compared to the 2 pipe version) I installed the catalyst 7.8 drivers which came out on monday(2 days ago)
btw I use a tv wonder 650 and I have to say that the video playback is much improved, or maby my old card was dying on me, since with the old card some movies began to look weird which ewatching them, the faces seemed to look like a game rendering which had bad shadowing, and now all looks fine, as it did when I build the pc.(or maby my old ups wasnt giving out enough power)
 
I will run some game tests, and see how it goes framerate wise and such.
btw I have yet to register the black box that came with the card, but I was wondering how does steam work? I never used it before, is it a secure software to use? just out of curiosity since I may download HL2 lost coast, and Day of defeat, I was wondering how are those game? are they worth downloading?(since they are a bit dated, if im not mistaken)
 
Thank You

Sound like its working fine. CCC can be a pain to get working if you have had a card with other drivers installed before. If you can be bothered the best thing to do is format and reinstall windows so that there are no possible driver conflicts.

^ I used the instructions on uninstalling the old drivers, so I hoped it all worked finr, the weird thing si taht the ccc did not even place in icon on the desktop, nor I have anything else than a "uninstall ATI software" option in the control panels/add/uninstall options, which seems a bit odd to me, is this normal?
 
btw I was just curious what game demos are out there that I could play and check out the new cards performance?  since really the newest game that I do have is Medieval 2, and I was thinking about checking out some nicely looking fps game, lol since the last time i playd atythign was using a SM 2.0 gpu

Right click on the desktop and there should be CCC there. If not it hasnt installed properly. Had that problem more times than I care to remember. If it isnt their use the ATI remove tool. Then remove anything left manually. If that doesnt work a format will do the trick.  
 
CCC is usefull for getting to the features of the card. Without it your losing out.
 
If you really want to push it I think the Bioshock demo just came out. That will have it on its knees in no time.

^ hi, the ccc is there when i right click on the desktop, so I guess its all working then ,  btw for those that are interested teh power consumption of the card with a e6600, 2 gig of ram, a tv tuner card, and a asus p5w dh deluxe, is 0.285Kw, so i guess thats 285W...is that correct? It seems not so much.
 
I just finished playing Medival 2 had all settings maxed out(highest possible setigns  aax16 and 8x, on a 1280x1024 rezolution(thats teh max my lcd supports) and im not certain but only shader model 2 is supported in game, not sm3...which is quite odd, since the game came out not so long ago.
I got average of 32fps...is it me or is this quite low? I honestly expected more, btw there were a bit over 2100 units on screan(2 armies)
 
btw thx for the bioshock info, will check it out.

Set CCC to maximum performance then set the highest settings in the game. That might make a difference.  
 
Medival 2 is a more cpu intensive game than gpu. So its not the best game to try it with. I expected the power to be higher than that. Where did you get those figures from?
 
Although SM3 has been out for a long time its not that widely supported yet because their are still a lot ppl without SM3 capable cards. Dont worry though the 2900xt has you covered till SM4.

For the black box it's quite easy :
(first you must be connected to internet)
 
1. DL steam from www.steampowered.com (~900kb)
2. You will have to create an account and log in.
3. On this window click on games->activate a product on Steam

4. A window will pop out. Just click next then agree (you can read the user agreement if you absolutely want to ...). When you're there just enter your CD-Key.

5. Now I don't remember if the game install itself right away or if you need to do it manually after. Just look at the image from point 3. If it's in the installed section it's installed/dling/updating. If it's in the Not installed section just right click on it and click on install game.
 
It's secure. I bought many games using my credit card and I never had a single problem.
 
As for the games it depends on people. Many ppl think they're great games. Some don't like them. But you can rarely go wrong with HL2 and it's mods.
 
Note on Steam : do not let it startup with windows because it's very long to load sometimes ... like right now when I'm trying to get you some screenshots.  
 
Sorry if I forgot anything.

 
Hi, o.ok thx, I thought i couldn not see the sm 3 option just because i used my old gpu last ime, and now i was just plain confused in medieval e 2 about it  
 
btw to Your question,I got those power usage readings from the display of my UPS, that was its output, and whileplaying Company of Heroes , I did max all options,  with x8 anistrophic and x16AA, the framerates were going down to 43fps in heavy combat spots, and surprizingy the power needed wa 245 W(0.245KW), same rezolution  

HyperBlade ST Thank You very much for teh explanation, it helped a lot, since I never tried steam. I will probably get lost coast, since it came free (black box promotion), btw after i registar that promotional key, I just need to wait till the game is out(black box, with ep2, team fortress2, and portal?), but I can get those 2 games right away, is that correct? thank you again.

btw I touchec the back grills of the psu, as well as teh gpu, lol almost got burned by it, so now I eally need to find a newer version of the ATI Tool to check if the temperatures are right.

CORRECTION!!!!  
 
I Idle at ~58 C not 68 C. Dang that was a BIG TYPO!

^ lol then that means that teh hsf really does the job nicely.
 
btw does anyone know whats the site for the black box?
on the spromotional card it is stated: steamgames.com  
but on other places it said steampowered.com
what is the difference? does it matter?  
 
btw I forgot , I checked teh ccc and it states that my Core is set at 507, and the Memory is at 514, is this correct?
Is there a way to check the temperature of the card in the ccc?

 
You've never used Steam?  Have you been living under a rock for the past five years or more?  I can't believe it, this is blasphemy, blasphemy I tell you!!  Yes they are fun games, yes Steam is secure, and yes they are definitely worth downloading.  

^ i never had a use for steam, since their prices really never were so comprtitive to me, I could always go get a game for the same price they offered, in retail, and besides I always prefared to have that cd/dvd in a box, rather be dependant upon some online service. And now that i got the black box(code) I will try it out, since I wanted to play team fortress2, and portal anyways.  

Yes you can play Lost Coast (and Day of Defeat) right away but I'm afraid you need to wait until the other are released to play them.
 
About the downloading vs owning the CD/DVD :
You buy the game in store (retail), enter the cd-key and then download it without using your CD/DVD (so you can keep them in backup). OR you can download the game then use Steam to backup the game and burn it on a CD/DVD.
 
steamgames.com and steampowered.com are identical so no it doesn't matter at all.
 
BTW : if you ever want HL2, CSS, Day of Defeat Source or multiple Source game have a look at their pack :
http://www.steampowered.com/v/inde [...] d=80&cc=CA
 or
http://www.steampowered.com/v/inde [...] d=42&cc=CA  
 
You might save a few $.
 
Have fun.

^ thank You for the info, I never knew that I could use a retail copy's cd key to download it threw steam(as a backup)....good to know, so does this work with all the games they sell on their site, or only the ones developed by valve? So if I would lets say get  quake 4(or another game) which i purchased in a retail store, and then entered its cd key into steam allow me to have its backup, later on in case i would damage th cd/dvd? if yes thats awsome, never really came across anythign like that, i alwasy thought that steam just allows for game downloads, and as long as one has the account active, one can download the same (purchased) game later on, but I always thought it had to be purchased threw steam first.