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

[asb2106]

I'm not going to jump in the middle of this, and yet I agree with you BUT...Companies like ATI and NVIDIA purposely build brand loyalty to keep life long customers. It is there goal, and nearly every companies goal. Wether we like it or not, brand loyalty does and will always exist until the end of the consumer age.

I agreed 110%, brand loyalty with graphics is no different than with cars, look at all the people that wont buy anything but ford, or any other company for that matter

 

[erocker]

I 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.

 

[asb2106]

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.

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

 

[Mussels]

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.

 

[asb2106]

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.

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

 

[erocker]

Why not just go crossfire?

 

[asb2106]

Why 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!

 

[Mussels]

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.

 

[Ravenas]

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!

 

[Mussels]

you just made people skip my long post scroll up folks!

 

[asb2106]

???

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?

 

[Ravenas]

Those are the r700 wafers.

 

[Mussels]

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.

 

[asb2106]

Those are the r700 wafers.

oohhh sweet! Are they gonna use the 55nm tech? u know?

 

[asb2106]

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.

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

 

[Mussels]

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

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??

 

[asb2106]

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??

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

 

[erocker]

I run Crysis *at 1920x1200

You need another card. Or the X2.

 

[Ravenas]

oohhh sweet! Are they gonna use the 55nm tech? u know?

45nm as far as I know.

 

[asb2106]

45nm as far as I know.

exciting, and Id like to get a second 3870, but not for Crysis, already beat it and have no intentions of playin it anymore

 

[btarunr]

I 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).

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.

 

[Scrizz]

EDIT: nvm

 

[pentastar111]

Absolutely. 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!

 

[TooFast]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/23/ati_r680_the_rage_fury_maxx_2/page19.html


AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2
The fastest card today, once again, carries an AMD label, after long term domination by NVIDIA

 

[btarunr]

LOL:

Good ol' Tom's Hardware

First review from a good reviewer: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/23/ati_r680_the_rage_fury_maxx_2/index.html

Whoa:

*Respect for ATI grows*