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3870x2 vs 6870

Tags:
  • Radeon
  • HD
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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February 23, 2011 8:26:57 PM

Hi all,

I've been benchmarking my new XFX HD 6870 gfx card against my old Sapphire HD 3870x2 gfx card and welll...

On almost all the benchmarking I've tried the HD 3870x2 can keep up and at times surpass the 6870!

I rather hoped that the 6870 would have blown the 3870x2 out of the water!

Is this right? Or is there something horribly wrong with my system?



My current setup:

Windows 7 64 Bit
Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 @ 2500mhz
MSI p35 platinum ms 7345 (mobo)
Kingston 4GB PC2-6400 RAM
AMD HD Radeon 6870 / ATI HD 3870 x2

Cheap HD, cheap DVD drive, middle of the range 560 Watt PSU,

More about : 3870x2 6870

February 23, 2011 9:23:31 PM

Sure doesn't sound right to me. After all, the 3870X2 is only around the performance of a single 4850. I'm gonna say that part of the issue may be that in the benchmarks you're running your are limited by your CPU. What benchmarks are you running and what are the results? You may want to try overclocking your CPU and seeing if it makes a difference.
February 24, 2011 7:02:07 AM

Thanks megamanx00,

Turns out it was my CPU limiting it, I overclocked from 2.5ghz to 2.7ghz and my 3dmark06 score went from 13300 to 15300 :) 

I need to buy myself a new CPU!
February 24, 2011 2:28:29 PM

Yup, CPU limited then. I would recommend overclocking your Q6600 rather than investing in an overpriced Q9000 series CPU. The 6870 also has alot of driver optimizations which cause some CPU overhead and thus may account for it being a little slower than your 3870X2 in some situations. All these optimizations really are making the files size of the catalyst drivers get out of hand in my opinion.

Speaking of which, I recommend you uninstall and then reinstall your catalyst drivers. When I went from two 3850s to one 5870 I had some strange behavior before I reinstalled the drivers. For some reason it was even crazier when I added another 5870 until I reinstalled the drivers. Now that I think about it I also had to do the same when I went from one 3850 to two of them. Oh well.
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