Hi folks, thanks to the fuzzy and warm CooperXS I am now the proud owner of a 3870, and wanted to share how my first night has been with my new partner.
Oh, sure, both me and the Radeon have been around a bit, we're not exactly 'virgins', but i like to think of us as both having experience and knowing what our roles are....
My 7600GT, currently waiting for some future home (like a media centre? not sure yet) did well 2 ish years ago and does in fact play Crysis, albeit at 1024 x 768 with most settings on low and a couple on medium. Battlefield 2 (still a favorite) ran nicely, CIV 4 worked perfectly (until the very end stages), and i've enjoyed Bioshock and Oblivion too. Trackmania is also worth a download via Steam, it's free and legal, and good for throwaway fun with mates.
I swapped in the 3870 last night (a proper dual slot thing, which i'm quite happy to see ventilates air out of the back rather than recycling it inside) and after 5 minutes of panic (no working machine, then remembered that i'd unplugged the 4 pin extra power connector) it booted, and 10 more minutes of slightly fussy driver installs.
First of all, Crysis.
Wow.
I can now play this at 1680 x 1050, with most settings medium and about 4 on high. And it's silky smooth. And it's looks great. (Although the game still gets rubbish once you get to the alien floaty lair).
Battlefield 2 - well, i can now run all the settings on the very highest settings, but in truth nothing really is that different. A bit prettier.
Trackmania Nations - hmm, i turned the settings up but then found some juddering. Need to experiment more with this.
Guild Wars - Exactly the same. Probably a higher frame rate?
That's it so far with games, i might add to this post over the next day or so.
In terms of anything else, Windows of course works exactly the same, havent booted into Ubuntu yet.
It's a bit noisier though - i certainly wouldnt call it loud, but in my Antec P180 case, going from a Zalman VF900-CU to a stock cooler is noticeable.
Regrets? None. I'm a happy bunny, although am actually glad that i didnt spend more money on a 4000 series, since i now have 'enough' power.![]()


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