Tuesday, January 22nd 2008

ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (R680) 1GB First Full Review Posted

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The guys over at PConline.com.cn have managed again to be the first to post a full review of a graphics card that should be available later next month, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB (R680). First thing you'll notice is that the card beats NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 Ultra in every Futuremark benchmark and almost every game by quite a margin. Have a good time reading the full story here.
Source: PConline.com.cn

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144 Comments on ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (R680) 1GB First Full Review Posted

#101
erocker
*
asb2106I really was excited about getting the 3870 x 2 but now that I hear the r700's are so close to release im thinking of holding back till they come out.... what y'all think?
If you are able to keep a backup video card on hand, I would get the 3870X2. If R700 tuns out to be a wonderful, magical chip, you can always sell it, and get that. Now, I know you may be thinking that R700 is going to drive 3870x2 cards down, and that may be, but those "in the know" will know how good R700 is going to be long before it's released. Hence, the backup card. I guess it's just a good way of looking at it, to have the "latest" stuff and not be careless with your money.
Posted on Reply
#102
asb2106
erockerIf you are able to keep a backup video card on hand, I would get the 3870X2. If R700 tuns out to be a wonderful, magical chip, you can always sell it, and get that. Now, I know you may be thinking that R700 is going to drive 3870x2 cards down, and that may be, but those "in the know" will know how good R700 is going to be long before it's released. Hence, the backup card. I guess it's just a good way of looking at it, to have the "latest" stuff and not be careless with your money.
true, I have a 3870 now thats been pretty good to me, Im almost looking at it as my "backup" card.

For some reason though im not really feeling like the r700 is gonna be that great, ATI has been alittle disapointing lately
Posted on Reply
#103
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
with the exception of the 9700/9800pro and 8800GTX, few cards have ever lived up to the pre-release hype.

If you can wait, wait. If not, grab the best value now.

Yes i have an 8800GTX - but i'm just as happy with my 'backup' 8800GT in my media PC, for less than half the price.
Posted on Reply
#104
asb2106
Musselswith the exception of the 9700/9800pro and 8800GTX, few cards have ever lived up to the pre-release hype.

If you can wait, wait. If not, grab the best value now.

Yes i have an 8800GTX - but i'm just as happy with my 'backup' 8800GT in my media PC, for less than half the price.
its almost funny when you can call a 8800gt a backup, I give that card alot of credit, I think the 8800gt surpased its pre-release hype, I think g92 has really shown a good side, with a great future for Nvidia, but I feel the same way about the 55nm tech that ATI has started on, I think it will have a good future
Posted on Reply
#105
erocker
*
Why not just go crossfire?
Posted on Reply
#106
asb2106
erockerWhy not just go crossfire?
The day I see a 3870 for <200 (which I think will be soon) Im gonna pick up one to hold off for the r700, thats been my thoughts today actually! :D
Posted on Reply
#107
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
I wont go crossfire, or ATI for one reason - the broken scaling.

I got so pissed when i was on ATI with my widescreen because i could not stop 4:3 games from stretching - games like BF2 do not support wide and never will, because EA suck balls.

Nvidia and ATI both have options to fix it, its just that ATI's doesnt work and i wont spend $2K on a dell screen that does it itself.

Just so people know, ATI has an option for 'centered timings' that claims to add the black bars to maintain aspect ratio. Stupidly, its broken to ONLY work on the monitors original ratio.

16:10 screen, 1680x1050 resolution: full screen, no blur
same screen at 1440x900: fills the screen but blurry. Both ATI and Nv scaling works here, adds black bars top AND bottom, but removes blur

Use a 4:3 res say... 1280x1024 (BF2, older games, 3dmarks) and you get the following
Nvidia: black bars on the sides, tiny black bar on top - no blur, everythings peachy.
ATi: Full screen stretching. horrible blur. ATI's response (if you get one) "Buy a screen with inbuilt scaling"

Its been this way since the X1k series, and now they're in X3k without fixing it. ATI are ignoring a simple driver issue thats making a lot of people angry.
Posted on Reply
#108
Ravenas
asb2106The day I see a 3870 for <200 (which I think will be soon) Im gonna pick up one to hold off for the r700, thats been my thoughts today actually! :D
Posted on Reply
#109
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
you just made people skip my long post :P scroll up folks!
Posted on Reply
#110
asb2106
Ravenas
???

and @mussels

Odd, ive never had a problem like that with my 1950pro xfire setup. when i had those 2 in CF I had them on my 19" 1440x900 but the only games I really played were FEAR, Ghost Recon 1 & 2, and B&W 2. Didnt really get into any other games then and I dont remember ever seeing issues like that. weird?

Any articles you could point me to that I could read about that?
Posted on Reply
#112
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
not any articles, and i've ditched ATI here so i cant take photos...
(the games you listed all support widescreen to some extent, except maybe B&W2)


The blurring is monitor related, but i challenge anyone on ATI with a widescreen monitor to run a game at a 4:3 resolution and NOT have it stretch to fill the screen.

The best i could manage would be to show the scaling on Nvidia with photos and have someone on ATI do the same. Any ATI users out there with a digital camera, PM me and we can work up an article with pics on this.
Posted on Reply
#113
asb2106
RavenasThose are the r700 wafers.
oohhh sweet! Are they gonna use the 55nm tech? u know?
Posted on Reply
#114
asb2106
Musselsnot any articles, and i've ditched ATI here so i cant take photos...
(the games you listed all support widescreen to some extent, except maybe B&W2)


The blurring is monitor related, but i challenge anyone on ATI with a widescreen monitor to run a game at a 4:3 resolution and NOT have it stretch to fill the screen.

The best i could manage would be to show the scaling on Nvidia with photos and have someone on ATI do the same. Any ATI users out there with a digital camera, PM me and we can work up an article with pics on this.
OOOHhh a 4:3 on a widescreen, I understand, but that would only be a problem with older games right, because most new games run widescreen.

And couldnt you just run the game windowed? I have done that with my emulators because it looked like crap running widescreen when i had crossfire
Posted on Reply
#115
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
asb2106OOOHhh a 4:3 on a widescreen, I understand, but that would only be a problem with older games right, because most new games run widescreen.

And couldnt you just run the game windowed? I have done that with my emulators because it looked like crap running widescreen when i had crossfire
you COULD run the games/programs windowed... but thats crap. Quite often moving the mouse out of the window in an RTS results the game minimising or otherwise going stupid.

Its not just a problem with older games, as many MODERN games dont properly suppot widescreen.

Widescreen comes in two flavours vert- or hor+
Verical -, gives you the same horizontal view as a 4:3 image, but cuts the top off - you get LESS image than a 4:3 user would.

hor+ gives you the same vertical view, with more on the sides (real widescreen)

If i have a game with vert- (such as Bioshock on first release) i would rather play at 1280x1024, than lose part of the graphics.

Also... even with a GTX and a quad, there are the odd game that i cant max out (crysis cough) Why the hell should i run in a window, if i cant run at max res? how do people with 1080p screens handle this kind of thing on ATI??
Posted on Reply
#116
asb2106
Musselsyou COULD run the games/programs windowed... but thats crap. Quite often moving the mouse out of the window in an RTS results the game minimising or otherwise going stupid.

Its not just a problem with older games, as many MODERN games dont properly suppot widescreen.

Widescreen comes in two flavours vert- or hor+
Verical -, gives you the same horizontal view as a 4:3 image, but cuts the top off - you get LESS image than a 4:3 user would.

hor+ gives you the same vertical view, with more on the sides (real widescreen)

If i have a game with vert- (such as Bioshock on first release) i would rather play at 1280x1024, than lose part of the graphics.

Also... even with a GTX and a quad, there are the odd game that i cant max out (crysis cough) Why the hell should i run in a window, if i cant run at max res? how do people with 1080p screens handle this kind of thing on ATI??
OK, i can agree with windowing and the mouse issue, I run Crysis on my 1920x1200 on medium with like 2 on high and I get about 25FPS. My card is OCed pretty high and it looks pretty good. to some 25fps sucks but i can deal, I dont care to much Id like to get 40+ but beggers cant be choosers
Posted on Reply
#117
erocker
*
asb2106I run Crysis *at 1920x1200
You need another card.:p Or the X2.
Posted on Reply
#118
Ravenas
asb2106oohhh sweet! Are they gonna use the 55nm tech? u know?
45nm as far as I know. :toast:
Posted on Reply
#119
asb2106
Ravenas45nm as far as I know. :toast:
exciting, and Id like to get a second 3870, but not for Crysis, already beat it and have no intentions of playin it anymore
Posted on Reply
#120
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
EastCoasthandleI would ignore the Crysis results. From what I read in another post Crysis can't use more than 128 shaders which means it's not using all of 3870's shaders. 2 GTs in SLI is still 2*128.

Lets not forget

Absolutely. It's something like Half-Life 2 benches favouring ATI cards (at least they used to).
WildCat87

Weak.
Yeah right. The R680 cards will be priced $400~$500. The 8800 Ultra cards are priced $600~$700. You're losing 4 fps while saving $100~$200.
Posted on Reply
#122
pentastar111
btarunrAbsolutely. It's something like Half-Life 2 benches favouring ATI cards (at least they used to).



Yeah right. The R680 cards will be priced $400~$500. The 8800 Ultra cards are priced $600~$700. You're losing 4 fps while saving $100~$200.
Good point!:toast:
Posted on Reply
#125
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
ah i love toms... first they write an article about how the phenom is a failure and doesnt work on any AM2 boards (only asus and gigabyte AM2, otherwise need AM2+)... then a week later an article about phenom, how great it is and why its so awesome that it works on every AM2 board....

Toms has some issues, possibly with th writers themselves.


edit: that link says R700 was delayed til 2009. Ouch.


another edit cause i like them: this seems a quality review. Very good for toms.
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