New Drivers Cause HD3870 to Beat 8800GT with High RES & AA

[Fothsn]

lets not forget the main reason for the die shrink, large reduction in power consumption.
the 2900 sucked up a lot more power than the gtx yet still performed a lot slower than the gtx.

the 3870 has a far more reasonable power consumption rate, its around equal to the 8800gt, but lets not forget that the 8800gt still manages to outperform the 3870 by around 15% while still sucking up the same amount of juice as the 3870. ati still haven;t got it right when it comes to performance per watt.

but this is not new to me at all, the last guy used to do exactly what soul rider is doing and try and find reviews and other material that showed the 2900 to be quicker than the 8800gtx. and that guy eventually ended up looking the fool of the forums when he switched over to a gtx.

guess its true what they say, nvidia users are looking forwards to new games, ati users are looking forwards to the next catalyst driver release......

Wait until the 3870X2 and the Nvidia guys in here will soon be switching over, ironic really. So the last statement is false

 

[queamin]

Who cares if it runs well/better at a ultra high res when 99% of the people run at a lower res and it is at the lower res upto 19by12 they need to fix not higher.
To me if i was to buy a new card i look at the res i play at and buy the best card for that res,the bandwidth with the GT is fine up to 19 by 12 and that where 99% of the people play.
Almost everyone who got a new GT/GTS are very happy with it and that says a lot.

 

[willhub]

Wait until the 3870X2 and the Nvidia guys in here will soon be switching over, ironic really. So the last statement is false

They only switching over because they want the best performance at the time obviously, I might be switching but if performance is not 50+% better accross the board I aint touching it.

Who cares if it runs well/better at a ultra high res when 99% of the people run at a lower res and it is at the lower res upto 19by12 they need to fix not higher.
To me if i was to buy a new card i look at the res i play at and buy the best card for that res,the bandwidth with the GT is fine up to 19 by 12 and that where 99% of the people play.
Almost everyone who got a new GT/GTS are very happy with it and that says a lot.

If people can afford a screen that runs at such high res they wont have a single 3870XT

 

[Cyber-Mav]

only reason to get a 3870x2 is if you don;t have dual slot pci-e board to run sli or crossfire. i really doubt that the 3870x2 is going to be using its 2 gpus in parallel to act as a single card, its most likley going to be a crossfire solution similar to nvidias dual 6600gt on a single pcb 3 years ago. in games that don;t support crossfire its gonna be single card performance.

anyway not long to find out about this now.

 

[queamin]

They only switching over because they want the best performance at the time obviously, I might be switching but if performance is not 50+% better accross the board I aint touching it.




If people can afford a screen that runs at such high res they wont have a single 3870XT

Agreed the 3870 is brought to be played at the lower res so they needed to fix that first, that if they can.

 

[Fothsn]

only reason to get a 3870x2 is if you don;t have dual slot pci-e board to run sli or crossfire. i really doubt that the 3870x2 is going to be using its 2 gpus in parallel to act as a single card, its most likley going to be a crossfire solution similar to nvidias dual 6600gt on a single pcb 3 years ago. in games that don;t support crossfire its gonna be single card performance.

anyway not long to find out about this now.

That’s true, but the it’s the way the market is going multi GPU's and buy the looks of crossfire’s scalability to SLI ATi have the clear winner in my eyes.


What’s the general price difference between the 8800GT & 3870 btw?


Edit/ Less than I thought nvm

 

[willhub]

What’s the general price difference between the 8800GT & 3870 btw?

Bout 20 quid?

 

[queamin]

Bout 20 quid?

Yes the gt prices are dropping now

 

[Cyber-Mav]

i just hate to see the waste in dual gpu setups, especially the memory, a card with 1gig vram will have split 512mb for each core and overall memory available for your apps and games is still only 512mb not the advertised 1gig.

add to that you never get a 2 fold increase in speed with multi card setups, and then add on top of that compatability issues with some apps/games and then i start to wonder.......
multi gpu may be the future but its still got a long way to go in the efficiency stakes.

 

[stevenazari1]

actually Im buying 2 3870's for the performance boost. Ati have stated that there will be no high end card from them this year after this, nvidia have their next series to come out.

 

[queamin]

Talking about drivers ( 3 out of 4 last cards have been ATI ) i like the (almost)monthly update of ati drivers to nvidia style ( when they can be bothered) first few months were bad with my 8800 320 until 2900 came out.
So i hope they sort out/improve the drivers for the 3870 2900 and the 3870x2 and crossfire aswell.

 

[Soul Rider]

- I have made some stupid comments and I have not actually read a single word Soul Rider has posted, but have instead jumped to completely the wrong conclusions in my own head and am trying to pass that off as what Soul Rider has said because I just love to troll.....

Have you read a single post i've made? - The answer to that is obviously a resounding no.

Particuarly the one where i posted:

I AM NOT SAYING THE 3870 IS BETTER, OR EVEN AS AGOOD AS, THE 8800GT.

THE GT PEE'S FROM A GREAT HEIGHT ON THE 3870.
WHAT I AM SAYING IS AT 2500x1600 RES WITH 8xAA, THEY ARE FINALLY SORTING OUT THE AA ON THE ATI CHIPS. ATI DO THIS SORT OF THING REGUARLY THROUGH SOFTWARE UPDATES.

Stop trolling my thread, read it, make constructive comments and see what happens. Do not try and tell me I am singing and dancing about ATI, I am not. I have made a very simple point, that you don't agree with, so I'm some sort of fanboy? Get your head out of your ass, I am only interested in VFM

 

[J.D]

Will, if the 8800GT or the HD3850/70 are just die shrinks then every single component would be the same other than the new core. That's why it's not just a die shrink. If you don't believe me then go and look at the specs of both cards as the proof is in the pudding and I'm getting tired of saying it to you now.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

have you read a single post i've made?

Particuarly the one where i posted:



STOP TROLLING MY THREAD READ IT THEN COMMENT, DON'T TRY AND START CHILDISH FLAME WARS AND PUT WORDS INTO MY MOUTH.

you knew very well what your were doing when you created this thread based on dodgey information at best. you were the one trying to accomplish 2 things with this, you were either trying to create a flame war, or you were trying to create a fool of yourself. either way you succeed.

 

[luismenendez]

I wont touch another ATI card after going to Nvidia and a 8800GT, best card ever ATI are way to small to compete with NV now, Nvidia have most publishers/developers in their pockets so games are always going to be optimised better for Nvidia hardware. AMD/ATI are on the slide, don't back a dead horse.

so you would be happy with a monopoly? I hope you have big pockets

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Will, if the 8800GT or the HD3850/70 are just die shrinks then every single component would be the same other than the new core. That's why it's not just a die shrink. If you don't believe me then go and look at the specs of both cards as the proof is in the pudding and I'm getting tired of saying it to you now.

your right in that its not just a die shrink, the number of transistors on die are different compared to the 2900's.

 

[RavenXXX2]

ATI are scrapping the barrel with the 3870x2, they cant afford to invest in redesigning their flawed current technology so instead bang two GPU's on one board and then call it high end, those that go to ATI for this card are the biggest mug's ever. IMO the card will not be that good either, not all games scale well in XFIRE ' will still suck with AA ' and Nvidia's SLI IMO is still better and improves with every driver release.

 

[willhub]

He's only voicing his opinions no need to put caps on to show you are having a tantrum...

J.D the 3870 hasent had any performance enhancments tho. Maybe it can enhance a gamers performance by not making there ears bleed with the sound of a whining dyson strapped onto a 2900.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I know how to read, what i dont get is, you have 2x 2900's, both run the new drivers, yet only 1x of those cards gets a good boost in frames and an AA improvement from them over the old drivers, the other 2900 doesn't get a boost at all, it stays the same as it did on the old drivers, how ?

The 3870 is a 2900, they are the same architecture, if the 3870 is getting boosted by the drivers, then the 2900 should also.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

He's only voicing his opinions no need to put caps on to show you are having a tantrum...

exactly, its just personal opinion, why the op is getting peed i dont know.