We all know that, after a certain amount of time since the best model is presented to the consumer market, a newer version arrives, more or less weaker, and takes up a spot in the slightly lower price range. A product such as this usually appears discretely, with no hype at all, and becomes generally accepted and praised for its price performance ratio. If we only take a glance back at the past two generations, we can see how Radeon X1950 PRO and Radeon X800 GTO2 sneaked onto the global market and became very popular in no time. When we received the Radeon X1950 PRO's inheritor, the Radeon HD 2900 PRO, no one ever even mentioned how great it supposed to be. - InsideHW

HIS Radeon HD 2900 PRO Limited Video Card Review

In a modestly looking box, we found a graphics card identical to any Radeon HD 2900 XT model, with the addition of standard equipment like basic cables, driver disk, a game disk with the full version of Dungeon Siege and six other demo games and the standard coupon for activating your free Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch games. What is a little confusing is that the price of this card is supposed to be under the psychological mark of $250. We looked at the specifications to find out what the trick was, but fruitlessly. Everything is the same as with the Radeon HD 2900 XT, which is significantly more expensive.

All of the stream processors are there, the 512-bit memory bus is there, even the 8-pin and 6-pin power connectors. And yes, the memory timings are the same. Naturally, this means only one thing, so this is a straight downclocked version of the Radeon HD 2900 XT. Like we said, the chip is the R600 with 320 stream processors. Aand yes, a CrossFire cable is in the bundle, and we are certain that two of these will make wonders if paired and supplied with enough power. The apparently silent fan turns into a hair dryer as soon as a 3D application is run, but this can be easily tweaked with programs such as RivaTuner.

The Radeon HD 2900 PRO is stronger than the overclocked GeForce 8800 GTS even at its default frequencies. Also, the card can be well overclocked, which means great potential for the braver ones. The GeForce 8800 GTS card is a very good, high quality product, but it simply bites the dust when compared to the fantastic Radeon HD 2900 PRO graphics card. And now we'll just sit here and wait to see what happens next.