Last edited by edp33; 14-11-2007 at 11:04 PM.
That looks good, especially in HD resolutions. And with the state of degradation of nvidia's drivers and 8800GT availability, this could turn into a top seller.
Originally Posted by Agent
If I can get the 3870 for around the £130-£140 price bracket I'll bite. I'm hoping these are gonna be good little overclockers.
Rather than do a full upgrade, I might just get one of these to replace my aging 6600GT, can still playing Crysis high at 1280x1024 and do a full upgrade when the G100s come out. It's faster than the 8800GTS 320MB which still costs more and while it's slower than the 8800GT it's going be cheaper and quieter with a HDMI slot so I can turn my old pc into a media centre when I upgrade
Certainly is a pain that they release this about a month after I've just bought a HD2900XT, oh well, hopefully the price will drop and i can go crossfire.
Looks like a very good card, good performance in games, quiet, cool, and does not consume that much power.
Ati could have a winner unless the 8800gt solves its availability issue. However, maybe with a couple of driver updates this card could surpass the 8800gt.
It's not really as close to the 8800GT as I was expecting (though certainly not far off), not as cool as I was expecting and not as quiet, but all just good enough when I consider the drivers and everything together, and it does have the edge in DX10.
I'm very tempted. If I do go for it I'll wait a month I think, let the latest drivers come together and all.
There is a slight discrepancy between the two reviews in regards to power consumption: Tweaktown shows a lower power consumption idle but higher under load for the AMD, whereas LH shows a lower power consumption all round for the AMD. Unless the AMD is priced at around 20-25% lower than the 8800GT, I don't think they've really have a winner. The situation still hasn't changed too much actually (compared to, say the X2950Pro vs 8800GTS 320MB). But the good news is that this time it didn't take them over half a year to come up with something that's.. somewhat competitive. Basically, I wouldn't say they've gained much ground, but they've not lost more.
Given that their mid-range board is comfortably faster than their high-end board, I'd say they have gained ground. nV have pushed the boat out a little further, but ATi have responded much stronger than they ever did with the 2900XT.
I can't see why it would have to be priced 20-25% lower though. It's not 20-25% slower and it's better in every other area (unless you need a single-slot card).
Legion Hardware found that on average, it is 22% slower. I'll probably do more comparisons closer to the time I need to make a decision (January-ish) to see if it is the case.
The 8800GT is what I'd call an 'upper mid' range card. 'Upper mid-range' tend to be slightly off the absolute best bang for buck curve, but many enthusiasts still go for them because the diminishing return is still nowhere as bad as flagship products.
Hence if I only cared about the performance, I wouldn't go for the 3870 unless it was less than 22% cheaper (or whatever percentage the average performance deficit @1900x1200 - my most likely to be used resolution). In fact, if 22% is the gap between the two cards, then I wouldn't consider it if it was 27% cheaper (I would be willing to pay a little 5% premium for having something that's faster).
However, I -do- care about noise, and it does appear that the 3870 is significantly better than the stock 8800GT. For the decreased noise, I am willing to pay a price premium (say, 7%, taking it up to 20%). At very most - if more sites confirm that the noise differential is significant, I may push it to 15%. But that's only because I do care about noise.
If both end up with a passive option though (and Sparkle is supposed to have a passive 8800GT due at some point), then I would once again require the 3870 to be at least 20% cheaper to be considered.
Of course, those numbers are merely how I perceive the value of those cards. If someone uttermost budget for a GFX card is £150, ideally less, then the 3870 is still a very good choice. And if the 3870 turns out to be a superb clocker (I don't think either reviews touched that aspect), then it may also affect my end opinion.
Last edited by TooNice; 15-11-2007 at 12:32 AM.
very contrasting reviews those weren't they? legion laughed it and tweaktown liked it..
i think tweaktown probably went too far into pure optimism.. they dont seem to notice that this is the same architecture as the 2900's and therefore there wont be the massive driver gains there was in the past..
iv got time, so ill wait at least a little while to see how it pans out, but i guess im going for a 800gt now
Vodka
I didn't quite expect a 8800GT 'killer', but I would've liked if the 3870 could compete on the same class (i.e. one of those 8800GT faster in game X, but 3870 faster in games Y, or the 8800GT faster without AA, but the 3870 pulling ahead with AA).
Not too bad, my plan for crossfire 3870s + 790FX + Phenom 9600 will still go ahead, but something just isnt making sense in the benchmarks.
Firstly, the huge difference between the two benchies in the links you posted above and the IAX tech one, and secondly the memory speeds on the cards. The latter is whats really confusing me, as 3870s were 'sposed to have 2.4GHz DDR4. In two of the reviews it came in at 2.25GHz (TweakTown and IAX Tech) I have seen it advertised at 2.4 most places... not a huge difference but probably jsut enough to bring it onto par with 8800gt in some tests. I think with a new driver release 3870=8800Gt
Here's another look at the card.
TG Daily - HD 3800: AMD’s Midrange Rebuttal - benchmarks
and more... guess lots will be coming out now as it's release day
[H] Enthusiast 3850/3870 review
Hexus 3870
Last edited by edp33; 15-11-2007 at 10:19 AM.
I see it's £141 which is a bit cheaper than the GT.
YOYOtech
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