Need some advice on graphics card upgrade

[Bhavv]

I was originally going to wait for one of the special edition 3870 X2's from GeCube or Powercolor to hit the market before upgrading, but I just found this really nice priced original ATI branded 3870 for £124:

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Now all I really want is a decent upgrade to DX 10.1, and a bit more performance as I get below 25 FPS in Oblivion and Lord of the rings online at maximum settings, and am going to want to be ready for Age of Conan when it gets released later this year.

Also, as I have a crossfire motherboard, I could just buy one of these now and sell my X1900 xtx for approximately £80 creating a very cost effective upgrade, and then if I need extra performance just buy a second one in the future when the price goes down, which at this price point would be cheaper then a special edition 3870 X2.

So what should I do? Buy now or wait?

[Hicks12]

i believe you get a better price vs performance with the newest 3870X2, crossfire is i think 1.3x better then a single card, same with sli although crossfire tends to perform slightly better. Id recommend buying the 3870X2, 10.1 dx is useless for a single 3870, only the 8800GT and above could use it properly.

Id say, wait till november as the new 9800 series are out and apprently the GTS version will be £200 roughly, and the claims are that its 2x better then the 8800gt or something like that, wait for that.

[Bhavv]

10.1 dx is useless for a single 3870

Yea I completely forgot about that. I just really like the price on this 3870 and I havnt had an ATI branded card for ages.

From this review here on 3870 Crossfire vs 3870 X2, there is actually very little difference between the two, on average the X2 gets an extra 2-5 Fps.

HD 3870 in Crossfire vs. HD 3870 X2 :: TweakTown

Now regarding Cost vs Performance, the current 3870 X2's cost on average of £270. Considering that I believe the special editions will cost around £300 just to get a smaller version.

The ATI 3870 is currently £125. Buying two now would cost £250 and in fact be cheaper then a single 3870 X2, and buying one now then another after the price drops would be cheaper still.

I kind of would like to wait for the Geforce 9, but that £125 price tag is tempting me too much.

[Jay]

the problem I had with ATi was that their drivers are rubbish.

[Bhavv]

the problem I had with ATi was that their drivers are rubbish.

I'm not a fan of fanboyism. ATI's drivers are great, I've never had a problem using them for the last two years.

[Jay]

Well I have had an XFX 6600GT, Sapphire ATi X1900XT and a BFG 8800GT OC2 and I have to say that the nVidia Drivers where better than the ATi.

Also the I am with stupid thing is a bit harsh.

[Bhavv]

I've had a Rage Fury Pro, Geforce 2 MX, Geforce 3, 9800 XT, SLI 6800's, X1900 xtx so far, no driver problems anywhere

I'm going to try and resist buying untill Nvidia have released the Geforce 9's and the 3870 X2 prices drop, but thats a long wait and I am sooooo tempted by the price of this card.

Scan increase the price to £139 now to put me off buying please

Remembering back to the SLI 6800's, they were a waste of money as I could have gotten one 6800 ultra for less and it would have performed better.

But drivers and multi GPU support is a lot better now then when SLI first came out, and the benchmarks show crossfire 3870's working pretty well, so the buy one now, buy one later approach is a very good way of saving money and getting good performance with the 3870's.

I'm watching an X1900 xtx on Ebay. If it sells for £80 I'll upgrade now and sell mine for £80 too because I'm not going to get much for it if I wait for another range of cards to be released.

I have a Zalman VF900-CU on it that I can also sell seperately for an extra £10-20

[Betty_Swallocks]

I find the ATI drivers are fine although it would be nice if they included the HDMI audio drivers in the "full" download to prevent the unexplained PCI device being discovered on bootup.

I had a lot more trouble with Nvidia drivers. My last card was a 7900GT and that was truly appalling. After they updated the drivers for the 8 series cards the 7900 became extremely unstable ahd had horrendous levels of graphical corruption in almost every game.

That's why I upgraded to the 3870 although I do wish I had chosen the HIS card rather than Powercolor.

[Blitzen]

could just buy one of these now and sell my X1900 xtx for approximately £80 creating a very cost effective upgrade

I seriously doubt you would get £80 for that.
£40-50 at a push but definitely not £80.

[Bhavv]

I seriously doubt you would get £80 for that.
£40-50 at a push but definitely not £80.

ATI Radeon X1900 XTX Graphics card on eBay, also Graphics Video Cards, Graphics, Video TV Cards, Desktop PC Components, Computing (end time 16-Feb-08 10:34:03 GMT)

The one I was watching sold for £80 + £8.50 delivery. (Mine is the same brand)

I grab a 3870 this week and sell

My DDR1 ram sold for £70 + £5 delivery, £10 less then I wanted but still good enough.

[Blitzen]

Prices on the bay are getting mad now.

[Bhavv]

Ok I've gone and ordered it now.

I just realised I dont have the box for my Zalman cooler on my X1900 xtx, and I went and completely dismatled and trashed the stock cooler while playing aound with it for fun (ooopsie) So I will just have to sell it with the Zalman cooler on.

I'm going to try sell it for £90, plus £10 for my Arctic freezer 64 pro, so if all goes to plan it will be a £25 upgrade

Then I can either buy a second one, or ebay it and buy a next gen card later on in the year.

[Hicks12]

id just say, keep the 3870 as a single and use it to hold you out till the 9800series and ati's 4870's are out

[Bhavv]

It kind of looks like I might be able to fit some ramsinks onto the chips on this card. I've taken some copper ones of my 9800 XT and they are ready to transfer over (or sell if they wont fit XD).

I passed my 9800 XT onto my brother and its ram chips ruined after 3 years of buying the card. Now I hope that isnt because I put copper ramsinks and an arctic cooler on it o.O.

Took a couple of pics of my ramsinks because they look nice. I cleaned bits of debris off the thermal pads with cellotape and attached them onto a clean sheet of plastic wrap:



I hope they fit on the 3870 (Btw they arent actually that big).

I'm kind of exited about getting a reference designed card from ATI, no idea why. I havnt had one since the Rage Fury Pro.

[Bhavv]

Ok, I found out from my Order status that this isnt an ATI branded card, but in fact a Triplex one:

Triplex-Graphic Card Manufacturer

This one here. Does someone at scan want to update the product descriptions to say they are Triplex, as this would make finding information about the card a whole lot easier for people wanting to buy one.

[rabbid]

Looks good m8
I like those open fan arrangements, any news on the DDR4 memory speed?