Finally settled on 3850...

G

gibber

Gawd
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
759
I had an EVGA 8800GT for about a month, but returned it for two reasons:
1) Too noisy. :(
2) Seeing to many complaints about EVGA customer service recently. :confused:

I've really been wanting a decent new card to replace my aging 6600GT for a while now. But, I haven't been happy with performance I've been seeing in reviews of recent GPUs in terms of running Crysis at 1680x1050 w/AA on, so, I decided to get a "filler" card, one that I'll plan to use for a year or so until some new card comes out that will run Crysis and whatever other cool games that come out in 2008 at nice fast frame rates for $300 or less. :cool:

I will also want to buy a new card once some new kick-ass one comes out which includes excellent power saving features. I see no reason why I should operate a 3D beast which could serve as a leaf blower/home heater while simply browsing the web / doing homework, etc. If the lights in my house are going to dim, I want it to be once I load up a 3d game, not as soon as I turn on my PC. :p

I usually buy one $300 card every couple years or so when one seems to really hit the price/performance "sweet spot". The 8800GT -or- 8800GTS 512 would have been that card, if only Crysis hadn't been released to rain on it's parade.

The last card I had in that purchasing strategy was the 7900GT KO, but I don't have that anymore. Maybe I shouldn't have sold it to my friend, but, he's very happy with it now and really didn't want to spend anymore than the $100 he gave me for it. The card before that one was the 6800GT, before that was the 5900 "Golden Sample", the one before that was the 4600.

These last couple months have been the hardest time ever for me to decide what video card to buy, and I almost just stayed with my old 6600GT because it somehow manages to not drop below 120 FPS in my favorite game at 1680x1050: Urban Terror 4.1. I don't quite understand this, because last time I had this card installed I had to turn down the resolution to 1280x720, or else the FPS would drop too low and it would get choppy. For some reason, now it's running as smooth and fast as a maglev train. However, I do want to try some COD4, Bioshock, and TF2 in multiplayer at my native 1680x1050 without dipping below 60FPS (much), so...

I got this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129102

VisionTek 900206 Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

I don't know why it says GDD4, I'm pretty sure it's GDDR3. It's $10 off now and free shipping, that, and newegg gave me $25 off to apologize for the price gouging they had done on the 8800GT. I had been a very happy newegg customer until I saw that, almost made me swear off newegg, it got me so upset. I'm still a little disappointed in any company that would charge MORE than MSRP, but, newegg has been so consistantly great from the customer service angle, and, generally had great prices, I guess I have to take the $25 bribe and leave that issue behind. I will continue to recommend newegg to many people in the future and hope they continue to provide outstanding customer service.

Thank you newegg. :cool: $164 shipped for a fairly kickass card that will run basically all but one game very nicely.
 
I support the idea of you getting the 3850. It's a wonderful card, and I've seen it in person, trust me. ;)
 
Your reason makes sense. Considering neither of the cards could deliver playable frames in Crysis, why not get the one that's a hundred dollars cheaper and will still give you great frames in every other game?
 
nice. I grabbed up an 3870 myself. Not so much a filler card, but It does what i want it to do.
 
You think Visiontek is going to surpass eVGA in terms of warranty support?

There were like, three complaint threads... out of thousands and thousands of consumers...

Still, not a bad card though.
 
Arcygenical said:
You think Visiontek is going to surpass eVGA in terms of warranty support?

There were like, three complaint threads... out of thousands and thousands of consumers...

Still, not a bad card though.
Click to expand...

VisionTek doesn't offer the "Step Up" program, which, was an upsetting experience which didn't work out for me.

I don't expect to deal with customer service. It's possible I may get a defective card, but, if so, I hope that I will detect that within the first 30 days, then, I will simply deal with NewEgg, who, we all know, has outstanding customer service.

eVGA's customer service might not be all that bad, but, I expected better, I'm disappointed, if they make amends and prove themselves I'll give them another chance. But, I don't want to be stuck with an almost $300 8800GT (I had to pay that much when I got mine) which runs hot and is too noisy and possibly end up facing the same kind of annoying issues that I saw in those threads, or, having paid for the brand which offers the "Step Up" program, end up not being able to utilize it for some reason or another as happened to me last time.

"burn me twice, shame on you, burn me three times, shame on me" right?

If any of these three factors was missing:

1) 512 MB version
2) larger cooler which exhausts outside the case
3) Only $165 shipped!

I probably wouldn't have gone with the lower preforming 3850 model.

Hagrid said:
I second that. hehe

Downgrading isnt a good option....
Click to expand...

I was very close to pushing the BUY button on the 8800GTS 512 BFG card which is currently $300 after rebate on the egg.

But, aside from Crysis running better, what else would I gain, considering I'll be running games at 1680x1050, for the extra $135 (after rebate)?

Choppyferrari said:
You could have just gotten an aftermarket cooler for your 8800gt...
Click to expand...

I was going too, but the [H] was slower than molasses on a cold day in adding the S1 to their 8800GT cooler round-up, did they ever finally get that done?

Really, the lack of response to those threads by eVGA prompted me to pack it back in the box and bring it back to the store. I would have been quite happy with an 8800GT and an S1 cooler on it, otherwise. Even on my 7900GT I actually had some fun playing the Crysis demo, I could have found some nice playable setting on the 8800GT.
 
gibber said:
But, aside from Crysis running better, what else would I gain, considering I'll be running games at 1680x1050, for the extra $135 (after rebate)?
Click to expand...

Oblivion. The 8800 GTS 512MB can barely manage a good framerate with 4xAA (other settings maxed) at 1680x1050 with it, I shudder to think how the 3850 would do. Now if you're not into RPG's or don't care about AA it's not going to matter to you, but there still are other games that even the 8800 GTS 512MB can't max out yet at that resolution, much less the 3850.

The 3850 still is an awesome card for the price though. :)
 
gibber said:
VisionTek doesn't offer the "Step Up" program, which, was an upsetting experience which didn't work out for me.

I don't expect to deal with customer service. It's possible I may get a defective card, but, if so, I hope that I will detect that within the first 30 days, then, I will simply deal with NewEgg, who, we all know, has outstanding customer service.

eVGA's customer service might not be all that bad, but, I expected better, I'm disappointed, if they make amends and prove themselves I'll give them another chance. But, I don't want to be stuck with an almost $300 8800GT (I had to pay that much when I got mine) which runs hot and is too noisy and possibly end up facing the same kind of annoying issues that I saw in those threads, or, having paid for the brand which offers the "Step Up" program, end up not being able to utilize it for some reason or another as happened to me last time.

"burn me twice, shame on you, burn me three times, shame on me" right?

If any of these three factors was missing:

1) 512 MB version
2) larger cooler which exhausts outside the case
3) Only $165 shipped!

I probably wouldn't have gone with the lower preforming 3850 model.



I was very close to pushing the BUY button on the 8800GTS 512 BFG card which is currently $300 after rebate on the egg.

But, aside from Crysis running better, what else would I gain, considering I'll be running games at 1680x1050, for the extra $135 (after rebate)?



I was going too, but the [H] was slower than molasses on a cold day in adding the S1 to their 8800GT cooler round-up, did they ever finally get that done?

Really, the lack of response to those threads by eVGA prompted me to pack it back in the box and bring it back to the store. I would have been quite happy with an 8800GT and an S1 cooler on it, otherwise. Even on my 7900GT I actually had some fun playing the Crysis demo, I could have found some nice playable setting on the 8800GT.
Click to expand...

Quite a few [H] members have stated that the temps were around 40-50 load. I get about 43 when playing hellgate, with dx10 everything maxed. All I have is a 120mm fan that blows out towards the pci slots. ;)
 
farfromhome said:
Oblivion. The 8800 GTS 512MB can barely manage a good framerate with 4xAA (other settings maxed) at 1680x1050 with it, I shudder to think how the 3850 would do. Now if you're not into RPG's or don't care about AA it's not going to matter to you, but there still are other games that even the 8800 GTS 512MB can't max out yet at that resolution, much less the 3850.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm getting the 512MB version and it's faster than stock speed. What I saw in reviews about FPS in Oblivion put it at about 25 - 30 FPS @ 1600x1200 4xAA, which, should be plenty in an RPG type FPG? Not sure exactly, but, 1680x1050 should be about 10% faster than 1600x1200?

I've got another (non-widescreen) LCD which is 1280x1024 native, which, I could switch to for games like Crysis (and maybe Oblivion, if I really want 4xAA).

I do like AA, don't get me wrong, it irritates the hell out of me to see X-Box 360 / PS3 games WITHOUT AA, when, years ago, the Dreamcast had AA on the beautiful Soul Calibur?!?

But, at 1680x1050 on a not so huge LCD monitor games can look pretty good w/o AA.

Back when it was typical to run games (like Quake) at resolutions like 800x600, I think AA made a huge difference. VQuake was f'ing awesome, I had a Verite V1000 so I was one of the few l33t enthusiasts able to enjoy FPS gaming with AA back in the day.

And, like you said, even the 8800GT can't "max it out", so, better to spend $300 in 6 months to a year, depending on what it will buy me then, and go with the "cheap" card for now.

Who knows, I might even go Crossfire in 6 months, I've been avidly anti-SLI for the past few years as it has been a VERY poor price/performance proposition, but Crossfire looks like it scales better than SLI.

This is the first time since my Radeon 7000 that I've gone ATi, and I don't expect I'll be dissapointed.
 
gibber said:
Well, I'm getting the 512MB version and it's faster than stock speed. What I saw in reviews about FPS in Oblivion put it at about 25 - 30 FPS @ 1600x1200 4xAA, which, should be plenty in an RPG type FPG? Not sure exactly, but, 1680x1050 should be about 10% faster than 1600x1200?
Click to expand...

Sounds about right. With Oblivion, it's not the average frame rate that really matters (you're correct that 25-30 FPS is perfectly playable, though I prefer 35-40 FPS), it's the minimum framerate. My 8800 GTS 512MB mostly plays the game wonderfully even with 8xAA at 1680x1050...but when there's an Oblivion gate in front of me, the frame rate plummits unacceptably at anything higher than 2xAA. :p Probably just sloppy coding on Bethesda's part. So I just set it at 4xAA and run to the Oblivion gates as quick as possible, or don't face toward them if I don't want to go in one. I'm guessing you could do the same with 2xAA or no AA on a 3850, but no personal experience there.

gibber said:
And, like you said, even the 8800GT can't "max it out", so, better to spend $300 in 6 months to a year, depending on what it will buy me then, and go with the "cheap" card for now.
Click to expand...

A perfectly valid strategy. :) I was just making the point the Crysis isn't the only reason to go higher than a 3850 at this time, though it is in a whole 'nuther league than the other games in terms of being demanding with graphics cards. I believe that World in Conflict is also pretty hard to completely max out.

My plan is to try to get this to last 2 years, just like my old 7800 GT. That may be easy, as it doesn't look like Spore and Starcraft II will be especially graphics-intensive, and those are the only unreleased games that interest me at this time. If not, sell the 8800 GTS as quickly as credible rumors surface of something better that still has good bang/buck.

gibber said:
This is the first time since my Radeon 7000 that I've gone ATi, and I don't expect I'll be dissapointed.
Click to expand...

I hope you're satisfied with whatever you end up doing. :)
 
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