3870 with new drivers > 8800 GT?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

jevon

Distinguished
Jun 6, 2004
416
0
18,790
Except we've already seen shots of the 3870x2 in Crossfire :)

What we don't know just yet is if when Crossfiring with a single 3870, will the 3870x2 scale itself down in memory/GPU speed to match the single 3870, or if it'll show up essentially 3 cards in crossfire.

Part of this confusing comes from lots of rumours and no official answers about CrossfireX and how each card in crossfire no longer scales itself down to the 'slower' card. Unfortunately nobody has tested this and ATi isn't answering questions on their forums or via email from what I've heard. Would be nice to know either way though!
 

spoonboy

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2007
1,053
0
19,280


It kind of happened and kind of didnt. Compare 2900xt benchmarks using 7.11/7.12 with launch benchmarks. Its not an easy task as many sites have changed the games they test with and sometimes the cpu aswell, but to say the 2900 gained about 30% all round since launch is not an understatement. In that respect it happened. I have a 2900pro btw so yes I have trawled the benchmarks lol. Its still a shade slower than the 640mb gts with AA & AF on, instead of way way behind with the launch drivers, but never grew to beat the g80 gts all round, which i had expected it to eventually do, so in that respect it didnt happen. I would say there isnt much more to come from the 2900, 3870 & 3850 overall in dx9, but judging by what i have seen soo far, dx10 performance will edge forward for some time to come. Plus since ati is not on the case as far as getting game developers on board goes, as nvidia is, the radeons benefit a fair bit from driver revisions as they get to grips with newer titles. (I mean, in not soo many words, performance tends to grow in games a month or two after games have come out as drivers are tweaked for them, since they dont have access to the majority of titles during development as nvidia seem to do)

The crysis patch analysis on techspot:

http://www.techspot.com/article/83-crysis-patch-performance-multigpu/

...shows that probably chopping shadows, effects and particles to medium would make high quality in dx9 and dx10 playabale at 1400x900. I have crysis too btw and this is what i game at, but my pro only copes with this at its stock speeds at 1152x864, although at 35-40fps pre patch with cat 7.12 (i cant check the patch as im away from home for at least another 4 weeks).
 

homerdog

Distinguished
Apr 16, 2007
1,700
0
19,780
The 2900 has seen marked increases with driver updates since its release. It was a gradual process though, with each new driver bringing a little bit more. I'm all for driver improvements, but I also like to see a card perform like it's supposed to out of the gate. In that respect Nvidia is a little better. Not great mind you, but better.

Oh and thanks for the link. I see that DX10 remains noticeably slower than DX9. Maybe the up and coming 170 Forceware drivers will fix this.
 

chuckshissle

Splendid
Feb 2, 2006
4,579
0
22,780
Just hope ATI can deliver a driver that can fully utilize and use the HD3850 and HD3870's potential. But at $240, the HD3870 is a great value and delivers good performance on todays games. I have played Crysis using the HD3870 on Med-High settings (1280x1024) and I got a smooth performance through out the game. I couldn't ask for more, it's a money well spent.
 

spoonboy

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2007
1,053
0
19,280
I think the 3870 is good value, and with crysis you just got to know how to play with the settings, if you can manage 1152x864 with all on medium and physics and shader on high, that looks like 80% as good as all high (dx9 high) and alot of modern cards can handle that.
 

yipsl

Distinguished
Jul 8, 2006
1,666
0
19,780


My wife swears by ATI image quality over Nvidia, but since she's the artist and modder in the family, I trust her judgment. I never noticed much visual difference between her old X1650 Pro and my the 7600GS.

I was going to get a 512 meg 3850 for $199, but I saw a 3870 for $229 at Newegg. The problem is, it has DDR3 (same as the 3850), instead of the DD4 of the $249 version. Maybe I should just spring for the faster RAM? I know I won't get the 256 meg version, 512 seems to be necessary for high textures these days.

I only went up to $250 for a card once before, when I got an AIW Radeon 9800 Pro. Before and since, I've spent between $100 and $150. Now, it's time to spend a bit more. The way AMD is nowadays, R700 probably won't arrive until May 2009.



I agree with that mainly because of AVIVO. It comes with ATI cards, whereas you have to pay something like $50 for Pure Cinema. At any rate, when we watch movies on the X1650 Pro system and not the one with a 7600GS.

We really need new video cards...



Anyone remember the classic ad in PC Gamer for Battlecruiser 3000? A buggy game, but eventually patched and available for free via the developer. Well, the ad showed a cute girl in a nightie trying to get her husband or boyfriend to stop gaming and come to bed. He was rattling off a litany of ship to ship combat troubles. The ad was a keeper, and I think I have the issue in a box somewhere.

 

saikamaldoss

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2008
9
0
18,510
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4691&Itemid=40&limit=1&limitstart=1

check this out....

3870 is very close to 8800GT.. and in most of the test.. nvdia uses 169 or 163 driver... which has a bug... the bug favors nvdia cards... coz the bug is it produces dead cell.. so it reduces the texture load by 13%... and gets more FPS... hmm... i want some 3870 user to check crysis at ultra hi 16qX @1440x900... and tell me what FPS they get..
Pls check that on a vista x64 with 4GB DDR2 and a phenom 9500 if psbl... lol

Coz my friend get only --- FPS AVG and on a PCI-e 2 slot he ges --- or ---.. so.. if some one can say what they get.. i can decide which one to buy

the -- will be filled later geting the result from a 3870 user... [;)]

Coz me no fanboy... just want a good card for a good price.. and i also need DX10.1.. coz i work for microsoft and i know what it dose... so i dont need anyone tellin me about DX10.1... k dx10.1 is super and i will give a simple info for guys who want to know about it...

DX10.1 is not made for Graphics improvement .. G imp was additional.. the DX10.1 is designed for a different purpose... that y we need a different mechanism to make it work...

For example..

IF a game is designed in DX10 and if it is giving (75FPS on 8800GT & 65FPS on 3870)

The same game if it is designed in DX10.1.. it will give 73FPS on 8800GT and will give 85FPS on 3870...

Reason is... DX10.1 will use streaming processors..

it u r able to understand this.. fine...

If u don't.. just forget it... k

 

Well that goes some way to explaining why Fista is a dog egg. :lol:
 

saikamaldoss

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2008
9
0
18,510
Fista may be aa dog but vista is good right... lol

M8... vista is good for users who have 4GB of ram and... for guys who have 2 or 3 gb... xp is better with the /3GB switch... lol

y do u say.. vista not good... coz u get low FPS... but did ever check what the ram usage is... ha...

Check and then tell me... play crysis on a XP x64 with 4 gb and try the same on vista 64...

system should have 4GB DDR2 800Mhz Ram and should have x2 or x4 processor...

then tell me which is better... [:)]

Do u know how many hours we spend doing reserch... ha...

Any way...

Understand this.. xp has limit.. vista dont...

K... try this and tell me.... ok ;)

Till then byee...
 

saikamaldoss

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2008
9
0
18,510
hardware requirement is more... thats all

vista will not use ur graphics card... it even cuts aero off when u play game... its always the processor and ram that lets down vista....

try it if u don't believe me...k

 

L1qu1d

Splendid
Sep 29, 2007
4,615
0
22,790
All I have to say about the 3870> 8800 GT....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAH

What is more likely is 8800 GT>3870>9600 GT

Thats pretty much what it is now (With AA off, the 3870 Drops with it on)

I don't see any new drivers helping it much, it has been out for a while now. I'm more interested in the 3870 X2 performance increase and or Quad.

Also the 9800 GX2's Quad SLI performance Increase.

As for the 3870, its still a budget card that doesn't come close to match the 8800 GT.


 

SpinachEater

Distinguished
Oct 10, 2007
1,769
0
19,810
@ saikamaldoss: Whachu talkin bout Willis? Cut the shenanigans and show some results if you want to make factual claims. BTW, what is it exactly that you are claiming? 4GB of RAM has Vista surpassing XP in FPS or that Vista just uses more RAM?
 

saikamaldoss

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2008
9
0
18,510
wait till 30th of this month... i will get my 3870x2 and then i will show u some proof..k

or if u have X64 xp and x64vista with x4 processor and 4GB ram...
i dont have to prove.... u urself can see it... just try installing Vista x64... m8.....

I don't ****...
if i say something... its out of my research....
 

LukeBird

Distinguished
Nov 14, 2007
654
0
18,980

Can you type out a message properly please?
I can't read your responses with all the "...... lol ..... lol" in it.
The 3Gb switch in XP is a waste of time, it only allows programs to allocate more RAM, but no current game is going to sap more than 2.5Gb of RAM anyway (which is I believe how much any one program can have without the 3Gb switch).
Oh and where exactly do you work in MS?
 

SpinachEater

Distinguished
Oct 10, 2007
1,769
0
19,810



Well with all due respect, when someone says that research supports something they need to provide data to prove it. I will be watching for your posts on the 30th then. ;) I don't have an 64-bit OS yet, soon I will, but I can't test it out. I plan to get both XP and Vista just to experiment though when I get my new system running ( with 4 GB of RAM ).

@Lukebird: If his native language isn't English then he probably learned most of it from the internet...hence the strange 1337 .
 

LukeBird

Distinguished
Nov 14, 2007
654
0
18,980

Indeed, I feel quite foolish for making such a comment before asking....
I had assumed that using slang english, he would indeed have knowledge of english, but it was all an assumption so I apologise :D
 

saikamaldoss

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2008
9
0
18,510
i was in bangalore.. but now i am in chennai(INDIA)...... ya.. what u say is right about the 3GB switch...

But vista 64 is good... it can address 4GB... and more........:)

Talking about vista.. the sp1 integrated vista is realy good.. but if you use RTM and then install SP1.. the performance is slugish....
 

saikamaldoss

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2008
9
0
18,510
Hmm..... sorry for using slang... i will not use it, if you are not able to follow.

Anyway.. i was with Microsoft Bangalore.. but now working as a trainer for microsoft.. in chennai...

And about the /3GB... you are right M8