There was no large launch event, no rash of rumors anticipated its arrival. The Radeon HD 2900 PRO's release wasn't preceded by press release, fanfare, or parade. The card just sort of happened. You might have heard about it on the net, but if you weren't paying attention the card may have just slipped under the radar. Come and gone before anyone was the wiser. Priced competively against the GeForce 8800 GTS video cards, the Radeon HD 2900 PRO has a great deal in common with ATI's top-of-the-line Radeon HD 2900 XT. In fact, what most intrigued us was the fact that the Radeon HD 2900 PRO had the exact same number of stream processors as the top of the line card. - NeoSeeker

PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 PRO Video Card Review

If you were to judge by appearance alone, you could say that the Radeon HD 2900 PRO is just a Radeon HD 2900 XT in some makeup. The only thing that differentiates the appearance of our Radeon HD 2900 XT and this PRO edition are the stickers and serial numbers. We have the exact same cooler, same capacitors and same PCB down to every etch. The Radeon HD 2900 PRO has the same logic and 320 stream processors just like the XT. You almost get the impression that each Radeon HD 2900 PRO was fated to be an XT, but somehow, something happened and it just turned out to be a PRO instead.

As for under the hood, the Radeon HD 2900 PRO has a core clock of 600MHz, and the 512MB of GDDR3 memory operates at 1600MHz effectively. You can compare this to the standard Radeon HD 2900 XT speeds of 750/1650MHz. That's a fairly big gulf between the XT and the PRO, in respects to the core clock speed, but the Radeon HD 2900 PRO should be in the same performance bracket as a GeForce 8800 GTS. Pricewise, the PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 PRO retails somewhere around the $280 mark, positioning it well against the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB, which retails right around this price.

A big appeal of the Radeon HD 2900 PRO is the overclocking potential. Because the PRO looks like a XT, many gamers undoubedtly wonder if it'll perform like a XT as well. The overclocking potential greatly interested us and we guess that'll interest you too. Long past the point that we thought the PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 PRO would have crashed or caught fire, the overclock finder just kept on going. The PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 PRO settled, finally, at a extremely impressive core clock speed of 858MHz! The memory faired very well as well, as we were able to reach 1800MHz effective.

The PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 PRO is a good deal at it's standard clock speeds, but if you are inclined to bring overclocking into the picture, the Radeon HD 2900 PRO transforms into a nothing less than an exceptional deal, in comparison to other video cards on the market today. For many, it may be a bit of a toss-up between two options. On one hand, you have the GeForce 8800 GTS which offers better performance when anti-aliasing is enabled, compared to the Radeon HD 2900 PRO.  On the other hand, when anti-aliasing was disabled, the PowerColor Radeon HD 2900 PRO came out on top.

One thing to be aware of though, is that the Radeon HD 2900 PRO's won't last long in stores. Once your local retailer runs out, there is a good chance they won't be getting anymore. We've been told by reliable sources that the Radeon HD 2900 PRO is literally a limited run edition card, and once gone, you likely won't see it again. So, that being said, if you are in the market for a new video card this October and the Radeon HD 2900 PRO looks to be what you're after, you might want to act fast, as this stellar deal might vanish as quietly, and as suddenly, as it appeared.