3850 256M vs. 3850 512M

Folks,

I'm recently looked at a sweet deal from New Egg for a Saphire 3850 w/256M for $137. I'm not a real heavy gamer, but I do want the best bang for the buck. Problem is that a 512M version appears to be almost $30 more. Does the extra performance command this price?

Thanks,

Rick

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Go for the 512MB version. many games now benefit from the extra memory even if u play @ resolutions lower than 1600x1200

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Reply to Maziar

If you are a low res gamer you won't notice much of a difference. If you are at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 it would be fine. I always opt for the 512MB but if you are trying to go cheap and don't game much and rather save $30 just get the 256MB version. Get what you can get and be happy.

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Reply to jay2tall

jay2tall wrote :

If you are a low res gamer you won't notice much of a difference. If you are at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 it would be fine. I always opt for the 512MB but if you are trying to go cheap and don't game much and rather save $30 just get the 256MB version. Get what you can get and be happy.

Hmm, I might be upgrading to a 1080p LCD. Would that be pushing it?

Thanks,

Rick

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Reply to rhorwitz

rhorwitz wrote :

Hmm, I might be upgrading to a 1080p LCD. Would that be pushing it?

Thanks,

Rick

With 256mb, yes I tihnk it would be for pretty much any game.

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Reply to LukeBird

If you want to drive a 1080P lcd that is 1900x1080. You may want the 512MB for that one. If you want to play games you will need more horsepower than the 3850 though. Well technically no but you will have to lower graphics settings a bit.

Message edited by jay2tall on 03-25-2008 at 08:27:21 PM

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Reply to jay2tall

Even if you weren't to upgrade your monitor I think you'll struggle with games released later in the year. Basically 256Mb has had it's day as the 'standard' GFx size.

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Reply to crusoe74

LOL at Crusoe's avatar. Love it!!!

1080p will be pushing it indeed. Even the 512MB 3850 will find that tough in some games. Spend that additional $30, it's well worth it.

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Reply to aevm

CAT FISH!

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Reply to jay2tall

If you are planning on 1080P gaming, I'd forget both of those. You can get an IceQ HD3870 512MB for $170. Well worth the money over a $167 512MB 3850.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161218

Or get the MSI for $5 cheaper AR and the Witcher for free.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127315

I'm kinda keen on the iceQ's myself.

Alright, another edit. The ice Q HD3850 512MB for $133 AR:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161216

Message edited by pauldh on 03-25-2008 at 09:31:50 PM

Reply to pauldh

jay2tall wrote :

CAT FISH!

Meow.

Agreed, a 3870 is the way to go @ 1920x1080 for pretty much any game, and in some games may still not be powerful enough if you like to crank up the eye candy and detail settings.

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Reply to KyleSTL

If you can wait, wait for June when the 4850, 4870 and 4870x2 arrive. That should drop prices of the 512 meg version of the 3850 if you still want it.

If you need it now, the 256 meg version looks like a steal. That way, you can buy the next gen card when you can afford without too much guilt.

The main reason for having 512 megs over 256 is it allows for higher textures to be loaded during games. Some games benefit from high textures, others do not.

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Reply to yipsl

Folks, Thanks for all the great advice. I think I'm going to put the 1080p TV and 512 Meg option on hold and in the meantime enjoy the std 256Meg 3850 on my existing 720p TV.

My postponement is based on a few reasons: 1) PC gaming is currently being affected by the game console. 2) Blue Ray drives have not budged yet on price since they won over HD DVD. 3) My 42" Toshiba LCD 720p only a year old and it's not broken yet ;-). Alas, my biggest reason is that I fell in love with this carbon bike road frame, and my current ride is over 20 years old. -I'll see what develops next year when the 8800 GTX are priced under $200.

BTW- Neccessities are always NEEDS, but toys are always WANTS.

Regards,

Rick

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Reply to rhorwitz

You'd really buy the plain 256MB HD3850 for $131 vs the His IceQ Turbo model for $133 AR (+$7 shipping)? Do you need a single slot cooler? Ice Q coolers are quiet and perform well, plus you get 512MB and higher clock speeds. I'd gladly mail in a rebate to get that iceQ 512MB for almost the same price.

Are we talking this one for $131 AR?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161211

If so it's less than $2 more and the same rebate to get a much better card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161216

Better cooler, 512MB, and much higher clock speeds out of the box.

Message edited by pauldh on 03-25-2008 at 11:37:33 PM

Reply to pauldh

rhorwitz wrote :

Alas, my biggest reason is that I fell in love with this carbon bike road frame, and my current ride is over 20 years old.

What frame? (just curious) I'm riding a '92 Schwinn that's still in excellent condition, so I'm kinda in the same boat with the old bike. It's actually pretty light for it's day (7000 series aluminum frame, Shimano components, etc).

My other bike is a '96 Raleigh M60 mountain bike, it's a beast at ~27 lbs, but hasn't let me down (yet). Alivio/STX components, Shimano v-brakes (upgraded from the factory caliper brakes), full rigid. Nice to know someone else around here digs bikes. Happy riding!

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Reply to KyleSTL

I used to be bigtime into Mt. Biking but last couple years it's been collecting dust. Mine's an old Trek ZX series 970 with all Deore XT components. It was 24.5 Lbs as purchased, but then I added Judy XC's to it and increased the weight. My dream at the time was the superlight trek 9900 OCLV Hardtail. *drool*

Message edited by pauldh on 03-26-2008 at 12:18:18 AM

Reply to pauldh

Here we go, had to google a pic (although I wanted the pro series bare Carbon)
http://www.light-bikes.com/bikegal [...] asp?id=126

Reply to pauldh

I don't think you'll have too much of a problem with 256MB VRAM with that 720p TV. ATIs cards suffer alot less with minimal VRAM than Nvidia's value-for-money offerings. OTOH, double the VRAM and the nvidia card comes out on top (talking the 8800gt 256mb vs 512mb mostly here).

Reply to randomizer

Did anyone see what ASUS is working on???

An HD3850x3!!! THREE RV670 chips on one board! WOW!

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php? [...] 8&Itemid=1

It is a neat engineering feat but it is hard to get excited about it when the R700 coming in June is projected to be anywhere from 50% to 100% faster than the current RV670 chips.

One HD4870 card may very well beat out this HD3850X3 with likely half the energy consumption.

Message edited by Rwayne on 03-26-2008 at 01:14:53 AM

Reply to Rwayne

Why bother... seriously?

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Reply to randomizer

randomizer wrote :

Why bother... seriously?

Because MORE must mean that it is BETTER!

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Reply to Rwayne

crusoe74 wrote :

Even if you weren't to upgrade your monitor I think you'll struggle with games released later in the year. Basically 256Mb has had it's day as the 'standard' GFx size.

This is true. Games like Oblivion and Crysis love more video memory due to larger textures being used even at lower resolutions. Heck I saw a mod for Oblivion that would replace the background textures with much higher quality 2560x2560(not sure if thts right res). It was suggested only for those with 256meg+ video cards as a minimum and 512+ were the best ones for it.

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Reply to jimmysmitty

Rwayne wrote :

Because MORE must mean that it is BETTER!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f44/Rwayne/jet.jpg

Do they use the cabin for passengers or as an extra fuel tank?

Reply to randomizer

Passengers are allowed as carry-on luggage to stow away a 5 gallon gas canister under the seat in front of them or in the overhead compartment as needed in the fore and aft sections of the aircraft.

The gas canisters may only be removed during flight when the pilot turns on the low fuel sign.

Message edited by Rwayne on 03-26-2008 at 01:17:04 PM

Reply to Rwayne

Thanks again for the suggestions.

As for the His IceQ Turbo 3850, the reviews indicate bugs in the firmware and quality of PCBA build (DOAs and early fails). I almost chose the Diamond Viper 3850PE3512O, but the heatsink appeared much differenct from the reference design.

As for my current bike, it is an original ST500 Cannondale '93 vintage. I'm looking at a Taiwanese built Carbon frame with a Motobecane label (Immortal?) for ~700 usd.

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Reply to rhorwitz

Just one suggestion from someone who buys many cards a month, year after year. Don't put too much faith in newegg user reviews. Sure they can prove useful, but plenty of RMA'd cards are just fine and the problem is user error or system related, not GPU related. Do what you like, it's your money. But an iceQ turbo 512MB for the cost of a plain HIS 256MB is a no brainer in my eyes. Besides, the iceQ actually has the better overall customer rating. My $0.02 anyway.

Reply to pauldh

rhorwitz wrote :

As for my current bike, it is an original ST500 Cannondale '93 vintage. I'm looking at a Taiwanese built Carbon frame with a Motobecane label (Immortal?) for ~700 usd.

Ah, the good ol' days of Cannondale, when substance in terms of design, weight and build quality ruled. I miss those days. They're so much more commercialized and gimmick-y now (as well as outrageously overpriced).

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Reply to KyleSTL

Somebody who pays $150 for a video card and $700 for a bike should be in a different forum IMO. rhorwitz, are you sure we can't interest you in a nice $600 SLI setup? That would leave $250 for a pretty decent bike

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Reply to aevm

aevm wrote :

$250 for a pretty decent bike

Obviously someone not into cycling.
LOL

Message edited by KyleSTL on 03-26-2008 at 10:17:19 PM

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Reply to KyleSTL

bike? like excite bike? $250 is far too much to pay for even the most pristine copy of Excite Bike.

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Reply to richenbals

aevm wrote :

LOL at Crusoe's avatar. Love it!!!

Thanks mate.

Reply to crusoe74

aevm wrote :

Somebody who pays $150 for a video card and $700 for a bike should be in a different forum IMO. rhorwitz, are you sure we can't interest you in a nice $600 SLI setup? That would leave $250 for a pretty decent bike

:lol:

Hey good suggestion! Here at Tom's we like look out for people and make sure they get the most for their money. For $250 he could probably find a nice 40 LB. bike. Pound for pound, that's way more bike for the money vs. an 850 gram frame for $700. :sol:

Reply to pauldh

With that kind of price I would just opt for a 8800gt instead.

384mb 8800gs isn't bad either. You can't go wrong with $110 after rebate. It can easily outperform 3850 256mb.

Message edited by marvelous211 on 03-27-2008 at 12:12:47 AM

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Reply to marvelous211

yipsl wrote :

If you can wait, wait for June when the 4850, 4870 and 4870x2 arrive. That should drop prices of the 512 meg version of the 3850 if you still want it.

If you need it now, the 256 meg version looks like a steal. That way, you can buy the next gen card when you can afford without too much guilt.

The main reason for having 512 megs over 256 is it allows for higher textures to be loaded during games. Some games benefit from high textures, others do not.

The only 2 games to choke the most seems to be Crysis and WIC especially with AA.

Message quoted 1 times

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Reply to marvelous211

rhorwitz wrote :

Thanks again for the suggestions.

As for the His IceQ Turbo 3850, the reviews indicate bugs in the firmware and quality of PCBA build (DOAs and early fails). I almost chose the Diamond Viper 3850PE3512O, but the heatsink appeared much differenct from the reference design.

As for my current bike, it is an original ST500 Cannondale '93 vintage. I'm looking at a Taiwanese built Carbon frame with a Motobecane label (Immortal?) for ~700 usd.

I think you really need to research in what you are getting with the HIS HD3850 IceQ Turbo. First off it is overclocked and in most benchmarks beats out the reference design HD3870 by 4% or better. So for the price of an HD3850 are are getting 4% greater performance than a standard HD3870.

Most of the negative reviews I have seen on newegg appear to be rookie mistakes:
- Not uninstalling the Nvidia software first
- Not understanding that you have to install the Microsoft .NET Framework programs for Catalyst to work
- Not having a strong enough power supply
- Wrong Drivers
- Not having adquate ventalation for a high performance video card

Any of these things could give a user the impression the card was dead on arrival.

I would have no hesitation picking up one of these cards. The HIS IceQ series are some of the coolest and quietest cards on the market. And Amazing 22 Dba of sound from the fan. You are not going to find another ATI card like that. It is much better than a loud Sapphire card that has toothpicks for fan blades that runs at very high speeds as exhausts hot air inside your case instead of quietly outside of your case like the HIS IceQ turbo series.

If you read the reviews of professional websites from industry 'experts' they really rave about this card.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php? [...] &Itemid=40

3DGameman.com rates the HD3870 IceQ it as a 100% KICKASS product
Watch this video review then tell me what you think:
http://www.3dgameman.com/content/view/11684/103/

Message edited by Rwayne on 03-27-2008 at 02:12:26 AM

Reply to Rwayne

The 512MB HD3850 iceQ turbo price went up. bummer.

Reply to pauldh

That is very temporary.

AMD is already planning a price cut on the HD38XX series.

Nvidia is not selling 9600GTs as well as they thought hey would because people are still going after the 8800GTs for just a little more pocket change. This should motiviate them to drop the 9600GT prices which in turn will bring the HD38XX prices down even further.

Plus you got the HD38XX A12 revisions that are coming out next month or in May which should help prices of the current A11s

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Reply to Rwayne

richenbals wrote :

bike? like excite bike? $250 is far too much to pay for even the most pristine copy of Excite Bike.

I still have my NES and Excite Bike. I loved that game, especially when you plug Game Genie into it and do a customized course and ramp all the way out the top of the screen, back to the bottom. Good times!

------------------------------ Lian-Li PC-7B | XClio Greatpower 550W | P4 3.2 Prescott SL7E5 | Scythe Ninja
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Reply to KyleSTL

Rwayne wrote :

AMD is already planning a price cut on the HD38XX series.

I'll believe it when I see it. I'm still waiting for the price cut a few months ago.

Reply to randomizer

WHAT!!! Did you miss it?

The Tuesday before the release of the GeForce 9600GT AMD dropped the MSRP of the HD3870 from $219 to $189. They even made a press release.

I kept track of the pricing and the HD3870 dropped in price by $60 with in 21 days on newegg.com from Jan to Feb.

AMD was suppose to annouce their price cut last week but it did not happen. If it does not happen today I am sure it will with in the next 2 weeks.

I checked out some benchmarks last night.
Did you know that the HD3870 beats out an x1950XTX in almost every benchmark by about 5 fraps? Considering the price and energy consumption of an HD3870 vs that of a x1950XTX I think the HD3870 is a good deal.

Message edited by Rwayne on 03-27-2008 at 11:59:52 PM

Reply to Rwayne

The His iceQ HD3870 for $169 no rebates on Newegg a few days ago was a shock to me. Price had dropped big overnight.

Reply to pauldh

RWayne, Anand's original review of the HD38x0's shows the 256MB HD3850 beating the X1950XTX.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] i=3151&p=9

Reply to pauldh

marvelous211 wrote :

The only 2 games to choke the most seems to be Crysis and WIC especially with AA.

Also, CoH seems very jerky when you've added the DX10 patch. Frame rates plummet by up to 70%.

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Reply to crusoe74

crusoe74 wrote :

Also, CoH seems very jerky when you've added the DX10 patch. Frame rates plummet by up to 70%.

Yeah Dx10 takes a huge plummet with COH which really doesn't add anything special to the graphics. Nothing is worse than trying to play Crysis or WIC with any kind of AA with 256mb card though. It literally becomes a slide show. 3850 seems to fair off better than Nvidia's 256mb cards however with Crysis at least.

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Reply to marvelous211

marvelous211 wrote :

Yeah Dx10 takes a huge plummet with COH which really doesn't add anything special to the graphics. Nothing is worse than trying to play Crysis or WIC with any kind of AA with 256mb card though. It literally becomes a slide show. 3850 seems to fair off better than Nvidia's 256mb cards however with Crysis at least.

Isn't that just because developers haven't got to grips with DX10 yet and are releasing clumsy patches coupled with the fact that current drivers haven't maximised DX10 capabilities?

Shouldn't future Gfx drivers minimize this FPS hit?

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Reply to crusoe74

crusoe74 wrote :

Isn't that just because developers haven't got to grips with DX10 yet and are releasing clumsy patches coupled with the fact that current drivers haven't maximised DX10 capabilities?

Shouldn't future Gfx drivers minimize this FPS hit?

Funny thing is ATI's 8.3 Cat drivers improved everything in Vista, took performance in XP though.

Also there is a 15% performance increase on Crysis DX10 and I can vouch for it.

So yes future GFX drivers should provide DX10 performance increases. I think CoH was another that Cat 8.3 improved by about 20%.

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Reply to jimmysmitty

Forum Graphic & Displays : ATI - 3850 256M vs. 3850 512M

Please mind

Focus On

3850 256M vs. 3850 512M

Forum Graphic & Displays : ATI - 3850 256M vs. 3850 512M

Please mind