3870X2 Review

TerrorFirmer

Beats 8800Ultra in a lot of tests.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=228355

Hendrix89

Yeah it's very dissapointing..

Still though, if it's price is as low as it's been rumoured to be (400e) then it might still be worth getting two of these.

I think i'm actually going to wait it out to see how the gx2 performs. Would be great if benchmarks for that would start appearing sometime soon..

papu

awesome . 2 of these will hopefully scale nicely

v nice results

PogMoThoin

Just what i wanted to hear. Decided I'm goin gettin 1. Any word on how much power it uses?

Sqaull20

Meh....

Its costs €400,its against a year old single card and its power consumption and heat insane....

It saddens me a bit that we had to wait 14 months for something to rival the G80... Oh well.If your happy with that...

papu

Sqaull20 wrote: »

[


Meh....

Its costs €400,its against a year old single card and its power consumption and heat insane....

It saddens me a bit that we had to wait 14 months for something to rival the G80... Oh well.If your happy with that...

your blatent trolling saddens me

look
Utlra = 600€

this card is 200 euros less.

Performance diffrence in terms of R680 to 8800Ultra
Bioshock 1280*1024 = 4% Slower
Bioshock 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
Bioshock 2560*1600 = 39% Faster

COJ 1280*1024 = 11% Faster
COJ 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
COJ 2560*1600 = 10% Faster

COJ 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 13% Faster
COJ 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 23% Faster

Lost Planet 1280*1024 = 27% Slower
Lost Planet 1920x1200 = 30% Slower
Lost Planet 2560*1600 = 37% Faster

Lost Planet 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 18% Slower
Lost Planet 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 18% Slower
Lost Planet 2560*1600 4AA 16AF = 10% Faster

Crysis 1280*1024 = 13% Slower
Crysis 1920x1200 = 2% Slower
Crysis 2560*1600 = 12% slower

COD4 1280*1024 = 42% Faster
COD4 1920x1200 = 32% Faster
COD4 2560*1600 = 26% Faster

COD4 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 27% Faster
COD4 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 20% Faster
COD4 2560*1600 4AA 16AF = 16% Faster

NFS: Pro 1280*1024 = 32% Faster
NFS: Pro 1920x1200 = 38% Faster

NFS: Pro 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 72% Slower
NFS: Pro 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 67% Slower

Serious Sam 2 1280*1024 HAA 16AF = 30% Faster
Serious Sam 2 1920x1200 HAA 16AF = 45% Faster
Serious Sam 2 2560*1600 HAA 16AF = 78% Faster

UT3 1280*1024 = 7% Faster
UT3 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
UT3 2560*1600 = 37% Faster

F.E.A.R. 1600*1200 = 20% Faster
F.E.A.R. 2048*1536 = 20% Faster[/B]

and it also beats the Gt by a good margin , so it beats the g92 also :rolleyes:
its also got full Uvd , so high definition encoding on chip! \0/



Temp idle = 57º (fan auto) from what ive heard . about 70 or 80 load depending in air flow

Sqaull20

You can get a 512mb gts for €270, the ultra is nothing but an overclocked gtx,which you can get for €320...

I have a gtx (overclocked) and I would like to upgrade, its 14 month old tech and this new Ati card cant even beat it outright.....

I was hoping this card would destroy my 8800gtx letting me play Crysis/Tomb Raider Legend at 1680 by 1050 pixels with everything set to max,but it cant....

You might think I am a fanboy or something.but im not, I want a next gen card, not a card that can slightly beat 14 month old tech....

Hendrix89

Sqaull20 wrote: »

You can get a 512mb gts for €270, the ultra is nothing but an overclocked gtx,which you can get for €320...

I have a gtx (overclocked) and I would like to upgrade, its 14 month old tech and this new Ati card cant even beat it outright.....

I was hoping this card would destroy my 8800gtx letting me play Crysis/Tomb Raider Legend at 1680 by 1050 pixels with everything set to max,but it cant....

You might think I am a fanboy or something.but im not, I want a next gen card, not a card that can slightly beat 14 month old tech....

It's likely going to be damn cheap though. And hopefully two of these guys in CF will create some serious horsepower.

I've had a change of heart btw so ignore my first comment of it being dissapointing:o

PogMoThoin

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Meh....

Its costs €400,its against a year old single card and its power consumption and heat insane....

It saddens me a bit that we had to wait 14 months for something to rival the G80... Oh well.If your happy with that...

:rolleyes: These fanboy arguments sicken me.

If the GTX is 14 months old, why are nVidia ripping people off & still charging 600e for it when a GTS is nearly as good at half the price? I don't care for nvidia's flagship, its the mid end options I'm lookin at & this is certainly better value than a GTX.

Sqaull20

PogMoThoin wrote: »

:rolleyes: These fanboy arguments sicken me.

If the GTX is 14 months old, why are nVidia ripping people off & still charging 600e for it when a GTS is nearly as good at half the price? I don't care for nvidia's flagship, its the mid end options I'm lookin at & this is certainly better value than a GTX.

Nvidia are ripping people off because they can, Ati havent been able to compete at the high end for over a year, until now....Thats disgraceful imo

I dont why you guys are comparing it to a Ultra anyway...thats a single card and ancient...If the 9600gt can compete with the HD3870, then Nvidia's 9800gtx series is going to have an easy time.....

Lost planet and Crysis are the two most demanding games in those tests and it gets beat...

papu

Sqaull20 wrote: »

You can get a 512mb gts for €270, the ultra is nothing but an overclocked gtx,which you can get for €320...

I have a gtx (overclocked) and I would like to upgrade, its 14 month old tech and this new Ati card cant even beat it outright.....

I was hoping this card would destroy my 8800gtx letting me play Crysis/Tomb Raider Legend at 1680 by 1050 pixels with everything set to max,but it cant....

You might think I am a fanboy or something.but im not, I want a next gen card, not a card that can slightly beat 14 month old tech....

hard luck on owning such an old card

crysis is an nvidia game , crossfire was only unlocked through a hack by some chinese or russians , and i think crossfire support was only added through the 1.1 patch , give the drivers a few months to mature.

nvidia still has to show their offerings, so i think you should wait for that to come before rushing out and buying one of these

Grim.

papu wrote: »

nvidia still has to show their offerings, so i think you should wait for that to come before rushing out and buying one of these

QFT

TerrorFirmer

Sqaull20 wrote: »

If the 9600gt can compete with the HD3870, then Nvidia's 9800gtx series is going to have an easy time.....

You keep saying that, despite the link you provided showing the 9600GT 512mb only slightly better then the 256mb Hd3850....

I do understand your argument, I'm not particularly happy with the performance either, but it's not so much the performance that irks me as much as the price - would be better at even about 350-370 euro to really entice people. 400 is too much, in my opinion, the new Nvidia card in that price range will probably easily cripple the X2, but again it's all subject to pricing. Nvidia seriously screwed up their price to performance ratio with the lower end 8 series. Hopefully that won't happen again but...Anyway, I can't see this occupying any role in or between between Nvidia's next gen in a few months, but like the 3870, it'll prob sell well just because people are too impatient to wait for the next step ups.

Nothing wrong with that though, I have a 3870 myself with a second on the way cos I couldn't get a 8800gt at Christmas, but again, I think 400 is a tad too much.

Also, a lot of the X2's and even the plain 3870's stunning victories look good on paper (screen? ) but are often due insane high resolutions, where the 3870 fares much better but both cards are still unable to produce unplayable frames. So that can be misleading. Be warned

Still though, looks like a nice card. Maybe 2 of these in crossfire...even though my second 3870 hasn't even arrived yet. Damn you dabs!

Sqaull20

Agree with that Havok...

For 8800 GTX owners, this is just another videocard not worth 'upgrading' to...

The 9800GX2 may not even be worth an upgrade when its released either :

TheThreeDegrees

When are we gonna get it into our heads that Nvidia rule the GPU market at the moment and nothing other than the GT is a sensible/clever buy at the moment and will be for the next 6 to 8 months!


The facts are Intel rule the mobo chipset wars and nvidia the gpu and we will probaly never see the day where the "ultimate system"exists.
Thats what makes this whole upgrading/building both frustrating and competitive.

In the end there are no winners or loosers just suckers like us who spend our dosh on upgrading and building!

papu

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

When are we gonna get it into our heads that Nvidia rule the GPU market at the moment and nothing other than the GT is a sensible/clever buy at the moment and will be for the next 6 to 8 months!


The facts are Intel rule the mobo chipset wars and nvidia the gpu and we will probaly never see the day where the "ultimate system"exists.
Thats what makes this whole upgrading/building both frustrating and competitive.

In the end there are no winners or loosers just suckers like us who spend our dosh on upgrading and building!

i disagree , the gt is amazing value , but a mate of mine has had his system delayed for 2 months because of the gt not coming into stock.

anyway 2x3850 > Gt

PogMoThoin

I'm having the same dilemma, first i was getting the 8800gt but since they're hard to come across I started considering the 8800gts, but now this 3870x2 looks like better value. Need 2 buy quick as I've not games in 6 months as I've only got a 256mb 7900gt (been much 2 busy anyway). Not played Crysis or COD4 yet Have both games but not installed them yet, holding out to play them in better resolution with higher settings.

BTW, looks like Assassin’s Creed PC specs give Crysis a run for its money, more here, minimum requirement 3Gb ram :eek:

TheThreeDegrees

hehe I just pity those suckers going for ddr3 thinking its the best thing since sliced bread or believing its time to jump the ddr2 ship.
their gonna get rode big time looking for 3gig!

Sqaull20

TheThreeDegrees wrote: »

When are we gonna get it into our heads that Nvidia rule the GPU market at the moment and nothing other than the GT is a sensible/clever buy at the moment and will be for the next 6 to 8 months!


The facts are Intel rule the mobo chipset wars and nvidia the gpu and we will probaly never see the day where the "ultimate system"exists.
Thats what makes this whole upgrading/building both frustrating and competitive.

In the end there are no winners or loosers just suckers like us who spend our dosh on upgrading and building!

Right on....

Another review,from tweaktown, again it's pretty unimpressive and loses out to the overclocked 8800GTS 512MB quite alot....

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1279/13/page_13_benchmarks_call_of_juarez_dx10_vista/index.html

The way its looking now, it wil be lucky if it lasts as long as the 2900XT

They look to getting very comfortable, which is bad news for ous...

papu

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Right on....

Another review,from tweaktown, again it's pretty unimpressive and loses out to the overclocked 8800GTS 512MB quite alot....

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1279/13/page_13_benchmarks_call_of_juarez_dx10_vista/index.html

those look dodgy


2.4k is a Big loss

TerrorFirmer

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Right on....

Another review,from tweaktown, again it's pretty unimpressive and loses out to the overclocked 8800GTS 512MB quite alot....

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1279/13/page_13_benchmarks_call_of_juarez_dx10_vista/index.html

The way its looking now, it wil be lucky if it lasts as long as the 2900XT

They look to getting very comfortable, which is bad news for ous...

Well, that review you quoted from gave it top marks and said, to quote

All in all, the card is pretty darn good.

Sqaull20

HavoK wrote: »

Well, that review you quoted from gave it top marks and said, to quote

It is a good card, but is not 6 months too late?

Grim.

well at least there's some strong competition from ati now to hopefully get a new gfx war going

waassy

Yeah. I hope too.

MooseJam

yeah good to see some competition, I wonder will nvidia go the 2x gpu route, id imagine a 9800x2 would obliterate all , wonder how much it would cost

PogMoThoin

MooseJam wrote: »

yeah good to see some competition, I wonder will nvidia go the 2x gpu route, id imagine a 9800x2 would obliterate all , wonder how much it would cost

Already on the cards, 9800GX2, pic here

Azza

Well I'm planning on upgrading from a Sapphire x1900xtx and was waiting on the the new Nvidia 9800 cards. While its nice to see ATI competitive again and it probably it the best single card solution on the market at this very moment I have the feeling the the 9800 cards will probably beat the 3870 with ease.

As a result I'm leaning towards waiting for Nvidia's new card but of course its all dependent on price and performance when its released.

I'm also waiting on seeing if the drivers from ATI can improve some of the games minimum frame rate issue in games like Company of Heroes and also since I opted for the Intel X38 route if CrossfireX can produce good performance. This might tempt me to stay with ATI yet again.

I still reckon even if ATI do get good performance from the 3870x2 in CrossfireX mode that it and the Nvidia 9800 series will still not be good enough to run games like Crysis and World in Conflict at the maximum (DX10) settings on resolutions like 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 and for that I will need to wait for the next round of graphics cards from either company before you get to see decent performance in those games.