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Thread: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

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    Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    One Moore and his law are telling us that quad core is the way to go, but what about QuadFire? Some interesting boxes have arrived - including some specially overclocked 3870 ATOMIC cards from Sapphire. Prepare to ooogle...
    Watch the show.

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    We wait to see how these babies perform under the spot light in HEXUS.labs...

    ...but, on the price side of things, am I the only person around who remembers when the 'fastest graphic card from anyone' was always around £400 ?

    Since when did it drop to ~£175 ?

    Last edited by Andrzej; 05-01-2008 at 05:21 PM.
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    boop, got your nose stevie lee's Avatar
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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    will it come with that metal case when you buy it, or is it just a promotional thing?

    and are you going to test quadfire, or are the drivers not ready yet?

    quadfire versus Tri-Sli, could be a future article thingy.

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    Senior Member Andrzej's Avatar
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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    Quote Originally Posted by stevie lee View Post
    ...metal case...
    My understanding is yes - it is 'as is' - and has more promotional goodies in the box - but the HEXUS.labs guys will reveal the detail very soon!


    Quote Originally Posted by stevie lee View Post
    ...testing...
    In addition to the cards that we have locally, we also have a team (blacked out, carrying pliers, thumbscrews and vials of sodium pentathol) shipping out to a secret location (or - at least - they have not told me specifically where it is!) as I type, on a mission to discover if there is any water in the Tri/QuadFire stories. After PR personnel have been interogated (ideally under the HEXUS.tv spotlight), all available info will be revealed !
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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    LOL !

    I like the cheap effects on the end, lets take the back of a swivel chair, and spin it around really fast

    Could be an interesting card, for ~£200

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    Quote Originally Posted by stevie lee View Post
    will it come with that metal case when you buy it, or is it just a promotional thing?

    Nope it isnt a promotional thing.

    Plus it comes with all this stuff, a paper manual, driver CD, Cyberlink PowerDVD and DVD Suite application CDs, a copy of 3DMark06, Valve's 'The Black Box' voucher, a Molex to six-pin PCI Express power adapter, a DVI to VGA adapter, an HDMI to VGA adapter, an HDMI cable, a bundle of TV-out cables and a cold cathode case light aswell as an additional £15 voucher to make use of for a future game purchase apparently. To use on Steam I think.
    www | F | T | @

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    Looks good, price sounds good, nice teaser..

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    ooh lots of stuff to play with, hooray, its something i'm adding on my complete pc upgrade list, if only i had a job or money.

    anyways the metal case will do nicely for my warhammer stuff, it looks about the right size for a chaos dragon, war mammoth, or my 40k space wolf landraider.
    if i got for quadfire i could get one box for each... plus a box to put the dice in.

    now just to think were to put the cathode lights... can you swap them with the bulb in a fridge? cheese in a blue (or whatever colour the lights are) light might look tastier.

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrzej View Post
    ...but, on the price side of things, am I the only person around who remembers when the 'fastest graphic card from anyone' was always around £400 ?
    Was the higher end FX5### series priced at £400? Despite being their flagship product, the 3870 still doesn't compete in the same class as the 8800 Ultra.

    It's a cool product, I like the cooler, but I am not but I would not pay a high premium for a shiny box unless I can find a use of it *thinks*.

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    the 3870 still doesn't compete in the same class as the 8800 Ultra.
    (Prices taken from OCUK - cheapest brand name card, that *WASNT* on a special offer)
    Leadtek GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - 329.99 (£387.74)
    Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT 512MB GDDR4 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - £134.99 (£158.61)

    At over half the price, are you REALLY expecting 8800 ultra performance out of the 3870 ?

    Would you buy a base model Focus, and expect it to drive like the Focus WRC Rally Car ?
    AMD never designed this product to compete at the highest level, coz they know it cant. Simple as...

    Dont slag off a product just coz its already been beaten, and the competitor is vastly faster.

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    'Slag off'? Are you trying to stir up something here. I have at no point commented on whether the 3870 was a good buy/bad buy. And the car analogy mean little to me, I am about as car illiterate as anyone can get.

    Andrzej seemed surprised that the 3870, which is the fastest offered by the green camp, is not priced as a typical flagship product (i.e. towards £400). I merely stated that the best from the green camp could not compete with nVidia's best this round performance wise hence it is only normal that this product, for all it's bells and whistles, is not priced at £400.

    Incidentally, it is partly true that the best from both side has dropped considerably in price. But £175 only apply for AMD. On nVidia's side, I would place the 8800 GTS Rev 2 in the same class as the Ultra. The two trade hits, though push come to shove I'd say that the Ultra is still the faster card overall. However, this is probably as close, if not closer to past £400 flagship cards comparison from each side. So for most intent and purpose I can agree that the best from both side as temporarily dropped toward £200 (this will change with the 9800 which I expect will beat the 8800 GTS by a decisive margin.. but probably cost towards £300-400 depending whether they'll make an 'Ultra' version later or not).

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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    Quote Originally Posted by TooNice View Post
    ...hence it is only normal that this product, for all it's bells and whistles, is not priced at £400...
    Point taken - just surprising (for me) that there has not been a more expensive card

    I guess it will come

    Overall, the ASP (Average Selling Price) for PCs has been falling by around £7 per month for over 10 years

    That has had an effect on the component prices - as well as people's understanding of 'value'

    That said, there is more money around these days than ever before - so I think there is (will continue to be) a market for systems costing over £1,500 where the graphics card can be as much as 20% of the whole price (i.e. £300) - maybe even more

    I wonder what the battle for this market will look like by CeBIT...
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    Re: Sapphire's Atomic 3870 engineering preps way for QuadFire

    I want to buy this card asap! and i really need y'all favor, which web has the best price listed for it and how much time will they take to deliver the product what would be the warranty criteria and stuff like that..kindly reply asap

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