3870x2 reviews thread...

[slaWter]

Latest nvidia drivers support AA in UE3 games too .. what are you getting at ? :p
(MoH:Airborne , UT3 , Bioshock .. etc)

Sure, but ATI finally can do the same thing. It was just a news post, nothing else.

[SH64]

Sure, but ATI finally can do the same thing. It was just a news post, nothing else.
Oh ok then .. Forgiven! :p

[cvearl]

Ok but how come other SLI systems or the 7950GX2 didnt suffer the same issue ? (i.e. extreme minimum framerate)
the 7950GX2 wasnt a real 1GB card too.

Um because Gears of War was not used to test the 7950GX2?

A blip while loading a texture into memory is not all that big a deal. I mean if we are going to bitch about hitching, why does my 8800GT and others I have tested studder when you look into fires?

I mean. Wow. Does ATI have to have the perfect card? nVidia sure as hell don't.

C.

[SH64]

Um because Gears of War was not used to test the 7950GX2?

But the 7950GX2 was tested in FEAR
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_radeon_hd_3870_x2_performance/page4.asp

& i tested it myself.
(& for the record i've got a min of 46fps @1600x1200,4xAA,16xAF in FEAR on the 7950GX2 back then)

[fivefeet8]

But the 7950GX2 was tested in FEAR
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_radeon_hd_3870_x2_performance/page4.asp

& i tested it myself.
(& for the record i've got a min of 46fps @1600x1200,4xAA,16xAF in FEAR on the 7950GX2 back then)

Looking at those FEAR min results, even ATi's Crossfire cards suffer the same very low FPS. But most reviews have stated that those low mins in FEAR are from the ingame benchmark near the end with the large explosion. Nvidia cards seem to handle that effect better.

[SH64]

Nvidia cards seem to handle that effect better.
Much better actually .. we are talking about more than double the framerate of their ATi counterparts.
same goes for CoH DX9. Oblivion OTOH seems to be the exception!

[fivefeet8]

Much better actually .. we are talking about more than double the framerate of their ATi counterparts.
same goes for CoH DX9. Oblivion OTOH seems to be the exception!

Yeah, I think the strange behavior with the low min FPS has some reviewers cautioning the purchase of the card. At least until the drivers are worked out a bit more and we see a leveling off of performance a bit.

[mtl]

it’s not something that I can recommend over Nvidia’s current flagship GeForce 8800 Ultra and 8800 GTX cards because it’s only as strong as its weakest link.


Ultimately, the long term success of this card is going to come down to AMD’s driver and developer relations teams and how well it gets supported in this year’s crop of new releases. I’m all for faster graphics cards using multiple GPUs, but there needs to be transparency for the gamer to really harness a multi-GPU card’s potential. In the scenarios where the support is there, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 performs very well and it can be looked upon as a match for Nvidia’s now nine-month old GeForce 8800 Ultra, but in the scenarios where there isn’t support, you end up with a card that isn’t even as fast as something that’s nearly half the price.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/01/29/amd_ati_radeon_hd_3870_x2/14

[fivefeet8]

Ultimately, the long term success of this card is going to come down to AMD’s driver and developer relations teams and how well it gets supported in this year’s crop of new releases. I’m all for faster graphics cards using multiple GPUs, but there needs to be transparency for the gamer to really harness a multi-GPU card’s potential. In the scenarios where the support is there, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 performs very well and it can be looked upon as a match for Nvidia’s now nine-month old GeForce 8800 Ultra, but in the scenarios where there isn’t support, you end up with a card that isn’t even as fast as something that’s nearly half the price.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/01/29/amd_ati_radeon_hd_3870_x2/14

I think that scenario from Bit-tech has been the norm ever since the R6xx was released. Without proper developer support of it's hardware, it ends up in less than expected performance situations. ATi's driver team can only do so much and it's shown up in more than one situation and it's going to get more and more pronounced. It's also aggrevated by the architecture which is far more sensitive to shader dependencies than it's rivals.

[cvearl]

I think that scenario from Bit-tech has been the norm ever since the R6xx was released. Without proper developer support of it's hardware, it ends up in less than expected performance situations. ATi's driver team can only do so much and it's shown up in more than one situation and it's going to get more and more pronounced. It's also aggrevated by the architecture which is far more sensitive to shader dependencies than it's rivals.

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=107101

Looks like it's doing pretty good to me.

C.

[cvearl]

Looking at those FEAR min results, even ATi's Crossfire cards suffer the same very low FPS. But most reviews have stated that those low mins in FEAR are from the ingame benchmark near the end with the large explosion. Nvidia cards seem to handle that effect better.

But no reviewers meantion the Stutter on nVidia when you stare into fire pits in STALKER in FDR mode that people complain about in the STALKER forums and that I have tested on 2 nVidia cards across 3 platforms.

Or how about my 7800GT, 6600GT and my 8800GT on 3 motherboards from XP to VISTA having borked shadows in Farcry.

Oh. But that must not matter.

I mean really. It's tit for tat. Give me a driver bug in one and I'll show you one in the other. IQ and driver quality wise they are so close now. I run both brands all the time. It's really now all about Bang for the buck. The rest is fear mongering.

Winning in 14 games across all the reviews against the GTX/GTS's and tieing 4 and just barely losing in 6. It's the best game in town at $450 unless someone finds a glaring problem. I have not seen it written up yet myself.

C.

[mullet]

If I had to buy a card right now this very instant I would get the 3870x2.

[fivefeet8]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=107101

Looks like it's doing pretty good to me.

C.

I don't believe I questioned whether it did pretty good or not. I'm simply stating that there are situations where the poor devRel shows itself to be the achilles heal of their hardware. And I'm not talking specifically about the 3870x2 either.

But no reviewers meantion the Stutter on nVidia when you stare into fire pits in STALKER in FDR mode that people complain about in the STALKER forums and that I have tested on 2 nVidia cards across 3 platforms.

Or how about my 7800GT, 6600GT and my 8800GT on 3 motherboards from XP to VISTA having borked shadows in Farcry.

Oh. But that must not matter.

I mean really. It's tit for tat. Give me a driver bug in one and I'll show you one in the other. IQ and driver quality wise they are so close now. I run both brands all the time. It's really now all about Bang for the buck. The rest is fear mongering.

Winning in 14 games across all the reviews against the GTX/GTS's and tieing 4 and just barely losing in 6. It's the best game in town at $450 unless someone finds a glaring problem. I have not seen it written up yet myself.

C.

Take a step back and understand my post you quoted. I'm talking specifically why there were low mins in the FEAR benchmark and explained that it's been mentioned that the explosion effect in the last few seconds of the ingame benchmark slows the ATi cards down a lot more than their Nvidia counterparts. The explanation is actually in the 3870x2's favor.

You're welcome to go off on some strange driver tangent, but I'm not going to go along with you. :p

[XMAN52373]

But no reviewers meantion the Stutter on nVidia when you stare into fire pits in STALKER in FDR mode that people complain about in the STALKER forums and that I have tested on 2 nVidia cards across 3 platforms.

Or how about my 7800GT, 6600GT and my 8800GT on 3 motherboards from XP to VISTA having borked shadows in Farcry.

Oh. But that must not matter.

I mean really. It's tit for tat. Give me a driver bug in one and I'll show you one in the other. IQ and driver quality wise they are so close now. I run both brands all the time. It's really now all about Bang for the buck. The rest is fear mongering.

Winning in 14 games across all the reviews against the GTX/GTS's and tieing 4 and just barely losing in 6. It's the best game in town at $450 unless someone finds a glaring problem. I have not seen it written up yet myself.

C.

I read your layout in the thread you started. I find it wierd that "clearly wins" to you can be as low as 5fps, but l"oses by a bit" can be as high as 10fps. fanATIc much?

And I'd like to know about this "stutter" issue you say is in Stalker. I have the game and have never had it stutter when I play it on my 8800GTS(96sp). Look to sig for more info, but it never stuttered when I had a single card or when I went SLI.

[Razor1]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=107101

Looks like it's doing pretty good to me.

C.

Hmm its got 4 times the theoretical shader power and it edges out the Ultra :headexplode:

[XMAN52373]

That would need an nVidia chipset :thumbdwn:


Drop your soap box dude, nothing wrong with Nvidia chipsets, far better than ATIs.

[slaWter]

Drop your soap box dude, nothing wrong with Nvidia chipsets, far better than ATIs.

Compare them to Intel chipsets and you'll know what he means.

[Blacklash]

thats just bull

You wouldn't feel that way if more reviewers used 8xAA to test in titles that supported it.

[XMAN52373]

Compare them to Intel chipsets and you'll know what he means.

Hey I'll be the first to agree that Intel chipsets can't be beat, but for the guy to try and pass off all Nvidia chipsets are junk is pure BS. Specially when alot of it comes down to the individual makers, how they make the board and what components they use.

[LordJuanlo]

Yep, tell it to the people who lost its data when the oh so awesome 680i was released with the famous SATA data corruption bug. Sure it was Gigabyte, Asus and EVGA's fault ;)

nVidia chipset no thanks :thumbdwn:

[XMAN52373]

Yep, tell it to the people who lost its data when the oh so awesome 680i was released with the famous SATA data corruption bug. Sure it was Gigabyte, Asus and EVGA's fault ;)

nVidia chipset no thanks :thumbdwn:

Yeah because we all know how good the i820 was dont we? Or how even a good number of i865 board had data corruption bugs when first release aswell. Give me a break dude.

[mullet]

I would take a VIA chipset over Nvidia.

[Riptide]

I liked the K8T800 series.

[LordJuanlo]

Yeah because we all know how good the i820 was dont we? Or how even a good number of i865 board had data corruption bugs when first release aswell. Give me a break dude.

A RAMBUS chipset that nobody bought and the i820 problems aren't comparable. All nVidia chipset, nForce, nForce2, nForce3 and nForce4 have been plagued with issues. I still can't enable RAID on my brothers's Asus nForce 4 computer after RMAing the board, updating BIOS, trying different disks, formatting, reinstalling... it was a nightmare.

I'm glad you are happy with your board dude, but my experience with nVidia chipsets has been so painfull that I won't try again. And I'm not the only one on this forum.

[XMAN52373]

I would take a VIA chipset over Nvidia.

You couldn't pay me to take a VIA based machine for all the problems they have. Hell, any and all nforce chipset are better then they ever were. Even SiS makes better chipsets then they do.