Sapphire HD3870 512 MB

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

for every new driver. remember last time how people complained about me using "ancient" catalyst 7.7 ? next complete retest will probably be with catalyst 8.1 and the new nvidia whql once its out, takes me about 10 days to do the testing for all the cards

You do put in a lot of work for these benchmarks. Much love goes out to you for making consumers make the right choices.

 

[shoman24v]

I'm still confused with some of the benches. All I see are numbers but you don't reveal what settings were used. My PC can't run STALKER in all it's glory yet, with your benches STALKER runs about 300% fast with AA an AF at an ungodly resolution, something that isn't possible in DX9.

 

[W1zzard]

I'm still confused with some of the benches. All I see are numbers but you don't reveal what settings were used. My PC can't run STALKER in all it's glory yet, with your benches STALKER runs about 300% fast with AA an AF at an ungodly resolution, something that isn't possible in DX9.

all games were run at their high quality setting, except for stalker where accidentally a lower detail level was selected with static lighting. in future reviews (after the 8800 gts 512 tomorrow) i will test with the correct setting

 

[shoman24v]

all games were run at their high quality setting, except for stalker where accidentally a lower detail level was selected with static lighting. in future reviews (after the 8800 gts 512 tomorrow) i will test with the correct setting

Thanks, but you may want to note that in your tests. I chose not to play that game with my current card simply because it looks dated in DX8, and it runs slowly in DX9. Sorta the reason why I'd love to see the benches in DX9 to see how much more performance I could get with an upgrade....

 

[Ketxxx]

show me the benchmarks with res > 1024x768 where you see a cpu bottleneck?

if i bench with yorkfield the next time people will say "please use cpus real people can actually buy and afford". god this is so annoying. i spend my time to do over 1000 (ONE THOUSAND) benchmark runs total for a vga review and get such bs.

Most highend cards get bottlenecked up to around 1600*1200, especially in CF or SLi. IMO eliminating a CPU bottleneck is important for people to see just how well a card can perform, as on forums like these I doubt anybody leaves their system totally stock. Theres also not any need to "update" card results just because of new drivers. It would be better to simply compare cards roughly in the same class rather than have a bloody great list of other cards results ppl probably wont even bother looking at. eg; you test a 3850 out, wonderful, but compare it to a 3870, 8800GTS and 8800GT. People looking at a review like that are hardly interested in seeing how a 2600XT performs, if they were, they would of googled for a review of that. Just my 2c.

 

[W1zzard]

Most highend cards get bottlenecked up to around 1600*1200, especially in CF or SLi. IMO eliminating a CPU bottleneck is important for people to see just how well a card can perform, as on forums like these I doubt anybody leaves their system totally stock. Theres also not any need to "update" card results just because of new drivers.

show me your data please, numbers, not words

 

[Thermopylae_480]

show me the benchmarks with res > 1024x768 where you see a cpu bottleneck?

if i bench with yorkfield the next time people will say "please use cpus real people can actually buy and afford". god this is so annoying. i spend my time to do over 1000 (ONE THOUSAND) benchmark runs total for a vga review and get such bs.

I really appreciate the reviews you do, and the effort you put into them. They are some of the better reviews I've read. It is really hard to please everyone though. Some have unrealistic views and do not appreciate the difficulty in creating a standardized system for realistic comparison.

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Sapphire's HD 3870 is a bit shorter than the HD 2900 cards which ensures it will fit every case. The cooler follows the typical ATI style with red transparent plastic.

how long is the card exactly? (cm or mm)

 

[Thermopylae_480]

I believe 9 inches or 22.86 cm.

 

[Steevo]

Hell, i like the comparisons, and the performance for price is awesome. A review like this allows me to know that my system now sucks.

It does exactly what the manufacturers hope it will, make me want new hardware/

 

[sneekypeet]

I really like the review done here as well. Looks like it took a long time to accumulate all the info.

Personally I would love a run at 4.0 GHz just to see the difference in output from the GPU. In my eyes it seems as tho this would make testing take twice as long tho, for an already busy man. I appreciate the efforts put forward to get very equal results, but wouldnt mind seeing a balls out run on the cards at say a standard 1280X1024 no AA or AF @ high 3's or 4.0GHz.

Continue on with the great reviews tho W1z, I realy think Im just being greedy but I wouls still love to see it!!!!!

 

[Ketxxx]

show me your data please, numbers, not words

I'll do some googling when I get some spare time, may not be until just after christmas.

 

[Davidelmo]

What about new drivers from ATi? Do current drivers use all the potential of the chip?

And what about picture quality? We saw that nvidia uses bad tactics, ex. beta drivers for Crysis, total f@cked up quality, disrespect for customers!

Dunno if they use these tactics for all games (dropping quality) and that's why they get higher scores!!

Please show me "total f@cked up picture quality" in Crysis

There were TINY, absolutely minimal differences that brought huge performance increases. I know I would rather play at 30fps at the expense of a tiny bit of shading on the water or something.

Besides, it was a BETA driver. Thus it is a test. They weren't disrespecting customers at all.

 

[btarunr]

I want to experiment with 4 3850 cards before the CF-X drivers roll out. Would it work? It's the MSI 790X board with a Windsor 6400+. This CF interconnect cable arrangement I picked from the spider-platform video.

Is there no workaround?


2. Why is it that board-partners have almost given-up making their own PCBs and coolers? Everyone is using reference stuff with just a sticker here and there.

 

[Steevo]

Anyone have a idea of performance increase I would get off one of these? I have my 3800+ at 2.6Ghz right now, and am just running stock on the X1800XT as I dislike the extra noise from the fan at higher clocks.

 

[sneekypeet]

No offense Steevo but the 3870 will be bottle necked hugely by the 3800+. There will be gains to be had. The new games will run with all the pretty turned on , but say in 3D06 you will be crippled by the 3800+!

 

[Steevo]

More pretties is what I am looking for. I dislike playing games at medium settings.



From what I see a 25% boost in performance or better is what I should expect.

 

[Steevo]

After having my 3870 for a week or so, and getting one games issues sorted (Test Drive unlimited) I must say that even with this processor it really made a huge difference in gaming, and image quality.


I would really like to thank W1zz for the comparison to older cards (X1800GTO) and the X1900 series, that really helped me put the performance ratio in perspective. For me this gained a average of 50% better based off using FRAPS in game, and a few tools.


Thanks again.

 

[tkpenalty]

No offense Steevo but the 3870 will be bottle necked hugely by the 3800+. There will be gains to be had. The new games will run with all the pretty turned on , but say in 3D06 you will be crippled by the 3800+!

Who cares about 3D Marks.. jesus... why do people be so impractical these days? Don't tell me you 3D Mark more than you game... you get a better GPU for practical purposes and not benchmarking.

 

[Steevo]

To be honest I am impressed with the 3D06 score of 9000 at stock that I received. And I only have on gig of RAM installed, my 2gig kit was delivered today, but I took the afternoon off to go to my wife's first visit with our OB. We has 11week old in her tummeh.



But anyway, it works great for gaming, and is quieter than my X1800XT, and soon will be hooked up to my theater system. I love it.

 

[asb2106]

EXCELLENT REVIEW, just excellent.

Thanks

14,113 3dMark06 with my system <--

 

[tzitzibp]

Great review...... and many useful comments in this thread!!!

Soon to prepare a crossfire setup with this card....