8800gt 512 vs 3870HD

[scippy4848]

I have the choice between two video cards; just about the same price. (The difference between them being 1 dollar when including shipping). I do not have crossfire or sli, i am just upgrading from a 7600 and i need an upgrade even if it's only one card. My main and almost only concern is gaming applications. I hear 8800 gt is better for gaming but they are different on the charts and the 3870 seems to have better statistics with a Core clock of 775MHz and Stream Processors: 320, Memory Clock 2250MHz with gddr4 memory. The particular 8800 gt has Core clock: 600MHz, Stream Processors: 112, Memory Clock: 1800MHz, and the same memory (512) but gddr3. I guess my question is which one of these cards would run crysis the best. I wanna run it as high as possible on vista, whichever runs better and some idea of how much one of them is better would be nice.

 

[hawkeye21]

8800gt

 

[scippy4848]

If 8800gt 512 is better than 3870 for gaming, than why are 3870's stats better. can anyone explain this to me?

 

[hawkeye21]

you can't compare "stats" between ati and nvidia cards

 

[BlackKnight7891]

clock frequency isnt everything, the 8800gt will out perform the 3870 most of the time but the cards are similar. there are lots of factors that effect a cards performance (im not going to pretend i know them), but after benchmark tests and real world application the 8800gt has been the clear winner.

 

[teh_boxzor]

8800 gt because even though it has less shaders the shader clock is independent of the core clock which is what happens in ati's case. and each of nvidia's stream processors can do more complex calculations where as ATi has one complex calculator per 5 simpler ones.


ya dig?

 

[themyrmidon]

Real question is 8800 GS vs HD3870. The 8800GT trounces it.

 

[knotknut]

I dont know what your budget is.

You can get a HD4850 for less that $160.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102747

 

[pcgamer12]

8800GT will outperform the 3870.

The 3870 is competing with the 9600GT. The 9600GT wins with AA applied while the 3870 wins with AA off. They offer similar performance at similar price points.

The 8800GT is faster than the 9600GT.

 

[scippy4848]

So would it be worth it getting an HD4850. I have no real budget but there are two factors. I wanna get the best bang for the buck while considering when i'll have to upgrade again. I don't wanna get a nice video card and have to upgrade soon. However i don't want an overpriced video card. I guess if i get the 8800 gt i could just get a new sli motherboard. I would like to know how much better a 4850 is than an 8800 gt for gaming (especially crysis and other dx10 games like bioshock for example.) and i'm wondering if it would be worth it to wait for the 4870 to go down in price so i dont' have to upgrade my motherboard for sli in the near future.

 

[soundefx]

No one knows when the 4870 will go down, but that is a good idea because that card competes with Nvidia's best cards, the gtx280 and 260. If you can afford it, that will be the card to get in terms of P/P and you might not have to upgrade in the near future.

 

[pauldh]

If you are in the USA, I'd go with an HD4850. $155 shipped AR with Race Driver GRID is a sweet bargain for that kind of performance.

Forgot, you could get The Witcher or Alone in the Dark too instead of GRID.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000048&Description=hd4850&name=Desktop+Graphics+%2f+Video+Cards

 

[tjcinnamon]

What a coincidence I just bought both of these cards.

Here are the specs from GPU-Z

Radeon HD 3870
ROPS: 16
Shaders: 320 Unified
Pixel fillrate: 12.7
Texture fillrate: 12.7
GDDR4 256bit 512MB
75Gb/s Bandwidth
Core Clock: 800
Memory Clock: 1200


GeForce 8800GT (G92)
ROPS: 16
Shaders: 112 Unified
Pixel fillrate: 9.6
Texture fillrate: 33.6
GDDR3 256bit 512MB
58Gb/s Bandwidth
Core Clock: 600
Memory Clock: 900


The only thing that the 8800GT has on paper that is better than the 3870 is the texture fill rate.

I have checked a bunch of websites and the consensus is the 8800GT being better. Does the texture fill rate make that much of a difference? Why is the 8800 considered so much better?

I am DL'ing a trial of 3d mark to try on each computer. Assuming the computer specs won't change the score too much I can give a benchmark.

But I am still curious as to why the 8800 is so touted.

Thanks,
JOe K.

 

[efeat]

The 8800 is so touted...because it *is* better =)

I'm not going to pretend I know a great deal about graphics cards, but comparing two cards with different architectures on paper is tough to do because of that difference in architecture. For example, the 3870 has about 200 more shaders than the 8800 GT, but nvidia's shaders are far more powerful than ati's. I'm not sure what the exact math or ratio is, but I'm fairly certain 112 nvidia shaders is stronger than 320 ati shaders.

It's like having two batch of cookies to pick from - one batch has more cookies, the other one has bigger cookies. Looking at only the quantity of something tells only half the story.

 

[scippy4848]

How much more powerful is the 4850 over the 8800 gt (512) in terms of gaming. The 4850 like pauldh pointed out is only 155 with grid. I'm trying to decide between the 8800gt 4850 and 4870. Which has the best p/p and can anyone give me an idea of how much power the 4850 has compared to the 8800 gt or 4870.

 

[pauldh]

The HD4850 is like a 9800GTX or 9800GTX+. Easily better than an 8800GT.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_4850_4870_performance/page10.asp

 

[inspector71]

The HD4850 is like a 9800GTX or 9800GTX+. Easily better than an 8800GT.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_4850_4870_performance/page10.asp

yes maybe so,But! They are not not much better or even so as 8800 gtx oc 768mb.

 

[pauldh]

yes maybe so,But! They are not not much better or even so as 8800 gtx oc 768mb.

Not sure what your point is, but I agree. The 8800GTX is right up there with all those cards and a very good buy for the $150-175 price range if you can find one that cheap. SLI 8800GTX is still a beast too for anyone with a system capable of adding the second card.

 

[inspector71]

Yes it is a beast, I use only one 8800GTX and it certainly consumes some power by it self, great card but i got hung on the price because i bought it at a retail dealer 6 months ago.