Radeon HD 3870 vs Geforce 8800GT (2 New Reviews!)

[qmalik]

Tweaktown: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1222/1/page_1_introduction/index.html
VR-Zone: http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/AMD_Radeon_HD3850_and_HD3870_-_AMD%27s_salvation%3F/5392.html
Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151

*Does his Nvidia dance*

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

again... bad drivers. Srry

 

[qmalik]

again... bad drivers. Srry

on some of those benchies the 8800GT has a lead of about 30% or so...I really don't think a driver can close that GAP that much...but who knows...

EDIT: did you notice the AA 4x and AF 16x Test? The 8800GT destroys it...by 30%...

 

[mactronix]

Same thing as the 2900. It seems that my fears for DX9 were founded. In DX10 its a solid alternative giving the 8800GT a good fight but DX9 forget it.
I know you cant stop progress but it seems ATI are looking at the big picture rather than keeping the bigest consumer base happy for now they are building for the future, I wouldnt be surprised to see th e3870 have about a 25% lead on the GT in DX10 after a few driver updates.
Mactronix

 

[MooseMuffin]

They seem alright to me. Not as quick as the 8800gt, but cheaper and quieter.

 

[pidesd]

Same thing as the 2900. It seems that my fears for DX9 were founded. In DX10 its a solid alternative giving the 8800GT a good fight but DX9 forget it.
I know you cant stop progress but it seems ATI are looking at the big picture rather than keeping the bigest consumer base happy for now they are building for the future, I wouldnt be surprised to see th e3870 have about a 25% lead on the GT in DX10 after a few driver updates.
Mactronix

that is also my point of view regarding strategies

 

[qmalik]

that is also my point of view regarding strategies

the question is should you really be looking that forward at this stage? a lot of us are using DX9 right now...and DX10 needs more powerful card than a 3850....

 

[tipoo]

doesnt seem to be doing bad at all for the price.

 

[pidesd]

the question is should you really be looking that forth at this stage? a lot of us are using DX9 right now...and DX10 needs more powerful card than a 3850....

that is a good question indeed. i think the 38** should be looked at closely by those who want to keep their cards until maybe not the next gen but the one after. and imagine a game with the same beauty/hardware requirements ratio as half life 2 popping up in the near future. the 8800 s might be caught with their pants down if can say.

 

[qmalik]

doesnt seem to be doing bad at all for the price.

are u guys smoking crack or in denial? seriously...unless the 3870 is $200 or less...the 8800GT will just trump it..I have a feeling the 3870 is only going to be $30 less....and the 8800Gt will fall in price over time.

*dont hurt me*

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

*hits qmalik* drivers make a big difference man

 

[qmalik]

*hits qmalik* drivers make a big difference man

tru. but as of now - i have so little expectations that I do not see it gettgin closer than 20% gap vs Nvidia. But hey, I might be wrong..time will tell...

 

[Seikent]

copy paste from my last post

I just read the reviews at vr-zone, tweaktown and legion hardware.

At legion hardware I don't know why they used the 7.9 catalyst, but the review wasn't very complete, there was a lack of info in some parts.

At vr-zone they said that they used the ATI 8.43 drivers (linux drivers??), not good results for the 3870 nor the 3850 (you aren't supposed to use a 256mb card at 1920x1200 and higher res).

And at tweaktown they used some beta drivers included in the package (they didn't mention the version) and in that review the things were better for the 3870, much tigher results (the 8800gt still wins at most benchmarks).

Well, that gives me the hope that with the next drivers the 3000 series will have a nice performance boost.

I still want to see the real prices of the cards.

(I'm not a fanboy xD, just want that ATI gives a fight for the sake of the consumers)

 

[mactronix]

DX 10 needs a more powerfull card than we have available at the min full stop if you want to play to the full potential of the games. Sure you can turn down the detail and settings but its not the same is it?
ATI seem to be going headlong implementing anything MS throw at them(DX10.1) Which the CEO of Crytec said he couldnt care less about, so no update/support for it in Crysis.
Personally i dont care for DX10 and you would have thought they would get the currant tec right before moving on,things move on apace in the GPU sector i know but its getting daft whats next ? DX10.2 with the next set of cards anyone!
Mactronix

 

[Valdis]

v-r zone shows how better the image quality is on radeons. i think that nvidia is cheating with drivers

 

[mactronix]

They claim its a bad optimisation and who are we to say they are not telling us the truth
Mactronix

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

well everyone needs excuses

 

[soloman02]

The new fan is fantastic, it’s extremely quiet.

I don't know what the guys at tweaktown are smoking, but 64dB is NOT quiet.
For comparison, a Normal Conversation 1ft away is 60dB. Average office noise is 50dB.

 

[Scaj]

First off I don't trust those sites to provide reliable benchmarks. Are the driver settings set for image quality or high performance? Nvidia is well known for optimizing their drivers for fps and not image quality. Honestly I could care less, still using a GTX anyhow but I would prefer ATI to release a faster video card than the GTX which will no doubt offer better image quality than the Nvidia product.

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

VR-ZONE and TWEAKTOWN??? they are good

 

[monsterrocks]

are u guys smoking crack or in denial? seriously...unless the 3870 is $200 or less...the 8800GT will just trump it..I have a feeling the 3870 is only going to be $30 less....and the 8800Gt will fall in price over time.

*dont hurt me*

Your the one in denial dude. Prices won't drop on the 8800gt for a long time. 40,000 units shipped with no greater supply in sight. Meanwhile, ATi has 250,000 units ready and will have another 150,000 by Christmas. Enjoy your ~$300 8800gt; I will go for my ~$225 HD 3870 and OC the living hell out of it.

 

[mactronix]

VR-ZONE and TWEAKTOWN??? they are good

Couldnt coment on VR-ZONE but have found TWEAKTOWN to be reliable in the past
Mactronix

 

[cruiseoveride]

Your the one in denial dude. Prices won't drop on the 8800gt for a long time. 40,000 units shipped with no greater supply in sight. Meanwhile, ATi has 250,000 units ready and will have another 150,000 by Christmas. Enjoy your ~$300 8800gt; I will go for my ~$225 HD 3870 and OC the living hell out of it.

im gonna 2nd that, but the 8800gt 512mb is going for about $250 in Canada. about US$270.00

i like the idea of the ati 3870 it has a lot going for it

Pros
-------
1. 10% Cheaper than 8800gt (not sure about this, but so far the pricing i'm seeing agree)
2. dx10.1 support
3. better picture quality

Cons
--------
1. 10% slower than 8800gt
2. **** drivers and notorious ati customer support

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

On the plus side, it looks like they've fixed their image quality issues, looked slightly better than the GT

 

[monsterrocks]

2. **** drivers and notorious ati customer support

Ay, true, very true. But ATi looks like it has been getting a lot better about driver recently, so hopefully they won't slip back into the old habit of terrible support. I mean, the drivers aren't perfect, but they are a heck of a lot better about releasing good, helpful drivers than they where before. I really want to see toms update the graphics charts with latest driver from both ATI and nVidia. ATi would still lose to nVidia for the most part, but they would do a lot better then they are currently in the charts.