Page 16 - The Verdict

The Verdict

So then; Jetway is delivering as promised. This product is 100% based of the reference product and clocked to the MHz precisely the same. It also overclocks the same, makes just as much noise and gives you exactly the same performance. And hey, that's really good. But to get noticed, Jetway needs to address one issue; they need to differentiate themselves from the rest. Right now this card will be 100% the same as the rest .. differentiation is really important as only then you get noticed. Insert a free mouse or something; do something weird to get noticed ! :)

That being said ... I find Jetway's retail product to be very complete. In fact it was an honour to test their graphics cards for a change. You receive everything needed with the bundle. Cables, dongles, drivers, HDMI connector, 6-pin power adapters ... Really, there's nothing that isn't in there. So again, very good. Also Jetway opted to include the Black Box bundle; that's serious bang for your bucks. Again, very good.

Now not only is the entire package good, the price is really good as well. Right now you can purchase this kit for 360 EUR here in Europe and that's just an awesome price for what you get. I do have to mention though, you receive only one year of Warranty; and this is something a lot of companies play around with lately. Longer warranty is definitely good, right?

The two downsides of the card (actually this goes for any reference based card) are volume levels, they're just very noticeable. Secondly, power consumption is rather excessive for the performance you receive. When you are gaming this card can peak towards 215 Watts alone, which is a lot. Please keep in mind that if you would like to overclock you'll need a PSU with a 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-Express graphics adapter power connectors.

CrossFire; okay so it's like this. The noise levels really are simply ridiculous. I have included a little movie on that, just to make you aware of this. Fact is, some of you just don't care ... I however do, and the noise level alone is scratching HD 2900 XT Crossfire as an option on the list for me, personally. You could be on the lookout for some water-cooling though ... Hmmm?

However performance wise; it surely did not suck now, did it? Two Jetway HD 2900 XT cards will set you down 720 EUR which still is cheaper than one GeForce 8800 Ultra (Oeltra). Yet the performance is a tad bit better. The thing with Crossfire however is simple, if a game is not properly supported, you might end up in disaster; today we have shown that War Front was such a title.

Then we need to weigh in the fact that you'll probably need an expensive PSU upgrade to be able to pull all that rendering madness off. But it's only fair to say; with the exception of War Front, a good number of games where showing great performance with CrossFire.

Back to the Jetway card. If you are in the market for a Radeon HD 2900 XT, there's quite honestly nothing negative to say compared to other board partners. Jetway will offer you an extensive package with everything you need. You'll receive a card that is performing in the high-end range, you get to have full HDMI/HDCP support, HD media playback, the Black Box game bundle and all that for a really terrific price.

A nice job done Jetway; may there be many more cards for a review to follow. If you live in Europe and would like to purchase this card then you can do so at Dollarshops.eu, pricing right now is 360 EUR and that includes VAT.

Thanks go out to Jetway for providing us this sample.

Jetway Radeon HD 2900 XT (X29XT-EN-512Q)
Price: 360 EUR
Manufacturer: Jetway