3870x2 reviews thread...

[XMAN52373]

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.


Ah, the i820 was the i840 with a SDRAM MTH added in so it would use SDRAM instead of RAMBUS and it was nothing but issues. And peopel did buy it. The i840 was a striaght RAMBUS chipset and it worked fine withot issue. The i865/i875 were the DC DDR chipsets from Intel for the P4s and the i865 had data corruption error when it first shipped. So how is that not the same?

I've owned NF1,2,3,4,and now the 680i. I have never had any issues with any of them. Although, the VIA crap USB and sometimes NIC that makers added in caused issues like you wouldn't believe. Never used the RAID features, haven't found a need to, besides the higher boards that tend to get also incuded a third party controller as well. SilImage I think is what most use and it works fine without issues. Sorry to hear you've had issues.

[fivefeet8]

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 had an Nforce2 chipset for years and it was probably the best motherboard I've had. I still use it on my 2nd rig and it's been pretty issue-less for all this time I've had it. The only issue I ever had with it was the rather buggy SW IDE drivers from Nvidia, but then I simply used the standard Windows IDE drivers and it was fine.

Anyways, this is getting a bit off topic so...

[cvearl]

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.

You mean this thread http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=107101 where I said...

"Clearly BEATS the 8800GTX - **EDIT** - Clearly meaning picked mostly if not completely unanamousely as the victor in a given game by reviewers. Not by % as it might have come across."

You probably read it before I made that change and your reaction is WHY I changed it last night at midnight my time. I realised shortly after and it would be read wrong and made the appropriate clarifications.

As for the stuttering in STALKER. Wow. I wish I could fix it. Do you play in FDL Max settings? I am and it is generally smooth as it was on the 3870 as well. Just when I look in the direction of a fire pit the frames get a stutter. Who knows why. Several drivers later. Rebuilt OS. Different computer alltogether. Not sure why you don't get it.

I am running an Intel P35E motherboard, PC2-6400RAM and eVGA Superclocked 8800GT in Windows XP. vSync ON 1680x1050 FDL Max settings.

Guess it could come down to hardware combo. But I am not making this up and I have talked to at least 3 others that have it too. /shrug

but in the end I only brought it up to illustrate a point. Neither company is 100% and bug free in every game. They both have issues.

Both cards stutter in Race 07 with graphics up high and AA and AF applied on certain tracks with enough cars in your field of view. It happens to the best of em.

Frigged up shadows in Farcry on nVidia. Never got fixed.

Borked Fog of War problem in COH (not shadows) on ATI. Still not right.

I am not saying nVidia is worse than ATI or the other way around. Just that they both have issues and neither is perfect. Period.

C.

[cvearl]

This was a double post. NM...

C.

[Riptide]

I had an Nforce2 chipset for years and it was probably the best motherboard I've had.I had a MSI Neo 2. What a POS. I would rather have a K8T800 than that thing. Constantly losing the RAID array after reboots and power cycles. PITA. Others on the MSI forum had the same issue. Wish that was the only one, there were other problems, but I try to forget nightmares. lol

[XMAN52373]

You mean this thread http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=107101 where I said...

"Clearly BEATS the 8800GTX - **EDIT** - Clearly meaning picked mostly if not completely unanamousely as the victor in a given game by reviewers. Not by % as it might have come across."

You probably read it before I made that change and your reaction is WHY I changed it last night at midnight my time. I realised shortly after and it would be read wrong and made the appropriate clarifications.

As for the stuttering in STALKER. Wow. I wish I could fix it. Do you play in FDL Max settings? I am and it is generally smooth as it was on the 3870 as well. Just when I look in the direction of a fire pit the frames get a stutter. Who knows why. Several drivers later. Rebuilt OS. Different computer alltogether. Not sure why you don't get it.

I am running an Intel P35E motherboard, PC2-6400RAM and eVGA Superclocked 8800GT in Windows XP. vSync ON 1680x1050 FDL Max settings.

Guess it could come down to hardware combo. But I am not making this up and I have talked to at least 3 others that have it too. /shrug

but in the end I only brought it up to illustrate a point. Neither company is 100% and bug free in every game. They both have issues.

Both cards stutter in Race 07 with graphics up high and AA and AF applied on certain tracks with enough cars in your field of view. It happens to the best of em.

Frigged up shadows in Farcry on nVidia. Never got fixed.

Borked Fog of War problem in COH (not shadows) on ATI. Still not right.

I am not saying nVidia is worse than ATI or the other way around. Just that they both have issues and neither is perfect. Period.

C.

As far as Stalker goes, I have the setting smaxed out even AA enabled, vsync is disabled thou.

[fivefeet8]

I had a MSI Neo 2. What a POS. I would rather have a K8T800 than that thing. Constantly losing the RAID array after reboots and power cycles. PITA. Others on the MSI forum had the same issue. Wish that was the only one, there were other problems, but I try to forget nightmares. lol

Ah. I have the Abit NF7-S Nforce2 mobo. ;) Still working good here.

[XMAN52373]

Ah. I have the Abit NF7-S Nforce2 mobo. ;) Still working good here.


Epox 8RDA+ was working great until the Caps died. Ran strong for 5 years without issues what so ever. Got 2 Asus and my eVGA boards all running strong without a single issue. Brother has an Asus 650i that runs great just doesn't OC very well.

[Amuro]

Compare them to Intel chipsets and you'll know what he means.
But you have to use a Intel CPU to pair with a Intel chipset right? It's happens now that Intel is on top but who knows what's happen in one year of two years, maybe everyone will be back using AMD chips again.

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:
That's only a problem of the nVidia reference boards though.

[cvearl]

As far as Stalker goes, I have the setting smaxed out even AA enabled, vsync is disabled thou.

AA in Stalker Full Dynamic Lighting mode? Hmmm...

Don't think that's possible.

C.

[XMAN52373]

AA in Stalker Full Dynamic Lighting mode? Hmmm...

Don't think that's possible.

C.
Is if you enable AA thru drivers and FDL in game. IN game AA + FDL wont work. Just like in Oblivion, to get AA+HDR, you have to do AA in drivers and HDR in game.

[cvearl]

Is if you enable AA thru drivers and FDL in game. IN game AA + FDL wont work. Just like in Oblivion, to get AA+HDR, you have to do AA in drivers and HDR in game.

I did that with my 8800GT and it did nothing for the jaggies. Hmmm...

I shall have to retest that...

*EDIT* Tested.

Set driver to 4xAA. AF application controlled. Game is in FDL mode. Runs like crap. On my rig I get 10 frames per second. Choppy like a MOFO. Running at 1680x1050 Maxed details in game.

I am running an eVGA Superclocked 8800GT on an Intel P35E motherboard with 2GB PC2-6400 RAM and Windows XP SP2. All latest drivers. The game is version 1.05. The area I am in is "The Garbage" for this test running around outside the gate of the Hangars with the train tracks running through it.

C.

[PeterJensen]

Got the Club3d version just for fun :)

[slaWter]

Got the Club3d version just for fun :)

Feedback, photos, benchmarks, Crysis? :p

[PeterJensen]

Feedback, photos, benchmarks, Crysis? :p

Yea yea will be in the morning mail :p

[slaWter]

Yea yea will be in the morning mail :p

Cool. Have fun with your X2!
Looking forward to see your feedback.

[PeterJensen]

So it will be that thing vs my 8800GTS/512 :p

[XMAN52373]

I did that with my 8800GT and it did nothing for the jaggies. Hmmm...

I shall have to retest that...

*EDIT* Tested.

Set driver to 4xAA. AF application controlled. Game is in FDL mode. Runs like crap. On my rig I get 10 frames per second. Choppy like a MOFO. Running at 1680x1050 Maxed details in game.

I am running an eVGA Superclocked 8800GT on an Intel P35E motherboard with 2GB PC2-6400 RAM and Windows XP SP2. All latest drivers. The game is version 1.05. The area I am in is "The Garbage" for this test running around outside the gate of the Hangars with the train tracks running through it.

C.

Not sure what CPU you use, but my rig is in my sig. When I had 1 card, I was using 2x TSAA, with 2 I use 4x TSAA. Same resolution as you thou. USing fraps, the lowest frame rate I've ever seen is 30fps.

[Blacklash]

I tried one.

The Good-

"Crysis" 1680x 8xAF DX 9 path, high; texture, object, shadow, shader, postprocessing, particles, water. Medium; physics, volumetric effects, game effects and sound.I was mid 30s to low 60s. Smooth and no chop.

I was testing with my Q6600 @ a flat 3.0GHz.

The Bad-

"The Witcher" is not as smooth as a single card and not as rough as regular Crossfire. It needs work.

The Ugly-

"Tomb Raider:Legend" with next gen @ 1680x did a little over half the FPS a single overclocked HD 3850 does. Why? It's one of those titles that doesn't work well with Crossfire and since you can't turn Crossfire off with this card you're stuck with poor performance.

Situations like these make me strongly recommend folks get a single card. If you're an nVidia fan; 8800GTS 512Mb or 8800GT 512Mb. If you're an ATi fan HD 3870.

I'll be selling mine. Sometimes I don't learn my lesson the first time around.

[XMAN52373]

I tried one.

The Good-

"Crysis" 1680x 8xAF DX 9 path, high; texture, object, shadow, shader, postprocessing, particles, water. Medium; physics, volumetric effects, game effects and sound.I was mid 30s to low 60s. Smooth and no chop.

I was testing with my Q6600 @ a flat 3.0GHz.

The Bad-

"The Witcher" is not as smooth as a single card and not as rough as regular Crossfire. It needs work.

The Ugly-

"Tomb Raider:Legend" with next gen @ 1680x did a little over half the FPS a single overclocked HD 3850 does. Why? It's one of those titles that doesn't work well with Crossfire and since you can't turn Crossfire off with this card you're stuck with poor performance.

Situations like these make me strongly recommend folks get a single card. If you're an nVidia fan; 8800GTS 512Mb or 8800GT 512Mb. If you're an ATi fan HD 3870.

I'll be selling mine. Sometimes I don't learn my lesson the first time around.

What about DX10 path for Crysis or dont you have Vista?

[Blacklash]

I did find out one useful bit of info.

If you turn off CAT AI that disables Crossfire and you are left with single HD 3870 performance. That's not so bad in titles like "TRL" where you take a wicked hit for having Crossfire on. Doesn't matter to that title if it's on a single card or separate cards.

I am sticking with single card, single GPU from here on out. I forgot myself recently and made some bad decisions. I should have just got a single 8800GT for my other comp and overclocked it.

SLi and Crossfire aren't something I'll be messing with again until they work 100% of the time. If that doesn't occur. I am sticking to a single card and to a res that a single card can manage.

[mullet]

I did find out one useful bit of info.

If you turn off CAT AI that disables Crossfire and you are left with single HD 3870 performance. That's not so bad in titles like "TRL" where you take a wicked hit for having Crossfire on. Doesn't matter to that title if it's on a single card or separate cards.

I am sticking with single card, single GPU from here on out. I forgot myself recently and made some bad decisions. I should have just got a single 8800GT for my other comp and overclocked it.

SLi and Crossfire aren't something I'll be messing with again until they work 100% of the time. If that doesn't occur. I am sticking to a single card and to a res that a single card can manage.


Thanks for your input dude. My gut was telling me to just wait till the next gen GPU's hit the market.

[MUYA]

Same here :D

[slaWter]

Single card ftw but I think I'll try at least one of those new multi-gpu cards... possibly the GX2.

[K007]

All come downs to drivers..and nvidia seems to be more reliable than ATi..not saying nvidia is the best..but they do a great job of getting those SLI profiles out, and they do make the cards work well with the games as long as it is not held back alot by the CPU,