GX2 vs HD3870 X2?

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HondaCop

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
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I've been a loyal nVidia user for the longest, but I have been wondering which route should I take for my new system.

I had made up my mind to continue with nvidia and the 9800 GX2 card, but I've been reading that this new HD3870 X2 card is really awesome and has better visuals than the GX2...

What you guys think?
 
What's your monitor's resolution?
If it's less then 1600x1200, don't get either one of them.

Um, if you want pure speed, and money isn't a factor, I'd say go with Nvidia.
 
I actually just upgraded my 3870x2 to a 9800gx2 this morning. In raw benchmarks so far, my 9800 gx2 owns the 3870x2. The only game that I have like better on the 3870x2 is The Witcher. They both turn out about the FPS but the visuals on the ATI card in The Witcher were nicer. Crysis is not even close, the 9800gx2 owns and visuals are the same.
 
jonamir45nm said:
I'd go with ATI. Higher benchmark scores overall.
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Ummm... this is just flat out wrong. If you do your homework, you may find a few benches with the 3870x2 higher, but they are trivial, like 3dmark06. In actual games, you will be hard press to find benches higher on the ATI card.
 
Thanks for the input guys, but I am like wadec22... I could care less what are my scores on 3DMark and these synthetic benchmarks.. What I want is fluidness in real world applications. So please help me out with this... let's not get into what card gets the highest benchmarks... ;)
 
HondaCop said:
Thanks for the input guys, but I am like wadec22... I could care less what are my scores on 3DMark and these synthetic benchmarks.. What I want is fluidness in real world applications. So please help me out with this... let's not get into what card gets the highest benchmarks... ;)
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The 3870x2 is basically two 3870's...the 9800gx2 is basically two 8800GTs...not that they scale equally, but the 8800gt usually edges out ahead of the 3870 (the main factor in that battle was the price point at the time), and generally, the 9800gx2 edges out ahead of the 3870x2 (and outright owns it often too) so in pure speed, the nvidia solution is better.
 
I have set ups with dual X2s and dual GX2s . . .you guys can talk crap all you want. I actually HAVE both. Dude, what functionality do you want? If Crysis is your key game, the GX2s are better. If you want multi-monitor support, the X2s win. They are close in 3dmark06. The X2 is single PCB, the GX2 dual PCB. Both run hot as hell. The X2s rip COD4
 
Both will play games fairly well, but only the ATI card can contribute its spare processing power to the Folding @ Home project. ;)

www.hardfolding.com Join the [H]orde!:D
 
DarthBeavis said:
I have set ups with dual X2s and dual GX2s . . .you guys can talk crap all you want. I actually HAVE both. Dude, what functionality do you want? If Crysis is your key game, the GX2s are better. If you want multi-monitor support, the X2s win. They are close in 3dmark06. The X2 is single PCB, the GX2 dual PCB. Both run hot as hell. The X2s rip COD4
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Ok, my MAIN game will definitely be Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) and I definitely don't need multi-monitor support. I will definitely be running @ 1920x1200 though.
 
Perhaps neither. Another option is to run a pair of GTS in SLI on an SLI board, or even a pair of 9800 GTXs.
 
JackAshley said:
The 3870x2 is basically two 3870's...the 9800gx2 is basically two 8800GTs...not that they scale equally, but the 8800gt usually edges out ahead of the 3870 (the main factor in that battle was the price point at the time), and generally, the 9800gx2 edges out ahead of the 3870x2 (and outright owns it often too) so in pure speed, the nvidia solution is better.
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The 9800gx2 is two GTS cards, not GT's. Each gpu has 128 shaders. It is clocked a tad slower than the GTS, but a little rivatuner can remedy that if you'd like. :) Although I doubt it would make that much of a real world difference. Either way the GTS owns the 3870 and the gx2 owns the x2, as far as speed is concerned.
 
skadebo said:
Perhaps neither. Another option is to run a pair of GTS in SLI on an SLI board, or even a pair of 9800 GTXs.
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I think it would be more expensive to run (2) 9800GTX in SLI instead of running a GX2 for somewhat the same performance... I think, but not sure.

wadec22 said:
The 9800gx2 is two GTS cards, not GT's. Each gpu has 128 shaders. It is clocked a tad slower than the GTS, but a little rivatuner can remedy that if you'd like. :) Although I doubt it would make that much of a real world difference. Either way the GTS owns the 3870 and the gx2 owns the x2, as far as speed is concerned.
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Ok, now my next question... As far as visuals... I've read that for the most part, the HD3870 has better quality than the GX2. Is the speed gain of the GX2 enough to warrant it over the 3870 or is it not much, that one could sacrifice a few framerates and go with the 3870 for the better quality?

See, if the cards are almost equal as far as speed, then I would go for the 3870 for the better visuals.. But if the difference in speed is great, then I would go ahead and stick with the GX2.
 
JackAshley said:
The 3870x2 is basically two 3870's...the 9800gx2 is basically two 8800GTs...not that they scale equally, but the 8800gt usually edges out ahead of the 3870 (the main factor in that battle was the price point at the time), and generally, the 9800gx2 edges out ahead of the 3870x2 (and outright owns it often too) so in pure speed, the nvidia solution is better.
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Actually 9800 GX2 isn't 2x8800 GT.. it's basically 2x 8800 GTS with GT's clocks.

And yes 9800 GX2 slaughters HD3870 X2. Actually 8800 Ultra wins HD3870 X2:
http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikkelit/naytonohjaimet/nvidia-geforce-9800-gx2,3
 
Ok, now my next question... As far as visuals... I've read that for the most part, the HD3870 has better quality than the GX2. Is the speed gain of the GX2 enough to warrant it over the 3870 or is it not much, that one could sacrifice a few framerates and go with the 3870 for the better quality?
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The GX2 will rip the 3870X2 a new one as far as visuals goes, higher AA, higher AF, higher Resolutions. You just have to remember the card is alot more expensive then the X2 is going to be and I believe you also loose multi-monitor support with both cores activated.
 
Guys, you are all awesome!! Thanks a bunch for your help... It's just awesome...

Another question though... How about GX2 SLI? Is it worth it?
 
HondaCop said:
IOk, now my next question... As far as visuals... I've read that for the most part, the HD3870 has better quality than the GX2. Is the speed gain of the GX2 enough to warrant it over the 3870 or is it not much, that one could sacrifice a few framerates and go with the 3870 for the better quality?
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That was true for the DX9 cards 1950XTX and 7900GTX/7950-series. After 8800-series Nov 2006 the IQ is the same from both camps and NV always cope better when you turn on AA/AF.
 
HondaCop said:
Guys, you are all awesome!! Thanks a bunch for your help... It's just awesome...

Another question though... How about GX2 SLI? Is it worth it?
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Don't think so..Few bottlenecks are already hindering performance way too much (Like 9800 GX2 quad SLI has 512MB usable vram). It's better than single GX2..but not enough.
 
buy going by what [H] itself tested i'd jam that 3870x2 where the sun dont shine.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ4MCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

why buy a card like that if ur not DX10 gaming??

ATi no soup for you, come back one year!!

yes... i vote NO on SLi

personally, 2 chips and 2 pcb dont thrill me, when they start shipping dual-core chipped nvidia cards, thats the only way i'm gonna put more than one core.
 
wadec22 said:
The 9800gx2 is two GTS cards, not GT's. Each gpu has 128 shaders. It is clocked a tad slower than the GTS, but a little rivatuner can remedy that if you'd like. :) Although I doubt it would make that much of a real world difference. Either way the GTS owns the 3870 and the gx2 owns the x2, as far as speed is concerned.
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I have 3dmark06 scores that show they are not far apart
 
I also have a total of five 8800 GTXS . . .three in my TRI SLI rig with a QX9650 on phase


All three solutions score within about 2-3k of eachother in 3dmark06 . . .
 
Niceone said:
He was talking about game performance, not 3dMark
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yes, but to compare cards you need a common denominator. There are wider variances in real world games like Crysis and COD4 . . .problem is one does better on one but not the other. I have an IZ3D monitor which goes with the project I am doing for ATI/AMD. it works better with the CrossfireX solution. I am also doing a two projects for Nvidia. If I go 3d with them I will probably have to use the Zahlman monitor to leverage SLI. Both GPUs kick arse. it just depends on what you want to use it for. I still need to test MS flight sim , , ,problem is my Skulltrail rig with dual QX9775s will probably skew the results over the QX9650 even if they are both clocked at 4 ghz (400 fsb x 10 mult).
 
I have multi monitors so the X2 works well for me. To be honest, there isnt a game out there that I cant play with my X2 where I dont get satisfactory results.

When someone comes out with a 768mb or 1gig (each gpu) variant of the 9800GX2, then i'll consider buying it.
 
DarthBeavis said:
yes, but to compare cards you need a common denominator. There are wider variances in real world games like Crysis and COD4 . . .problem is one does better on one but not the other.
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Problem is that 3dMark is the odd one here: GX2 wins in wide array of games. There are only some rare occasions where X2 manages to pull ahead. If you look some of those sites that use time demos.. it looks like 9800 GX2 would win HD3870 X2 by like 45% on average..and those sites that use actual gameplay have wider margins.

Actually it seems that most review sites have abandoned 3dMark06 already

http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikkelit/naytonohjaimet/nvidia-geforce-9800-gx2,3
In 3dMark06 X2 manages to stay with GX2, but loses badly in all game tests
 
Niceone said:
Problem is that 3dMark is the odd one here: GX2 wins in wide array of games. There are only some rare occasions where X2 manages to pull ahead. If you look some of those sites that use time demos.. it looks like 9800 GX2 would win HD3870 X2 by like 45% on average..and those sites that use actual gameplay have wider margins.

Actually it seems that most review sites have abandoned 3dMark06 already

http://plaza.fi/muropaketti/artikkelit/naytonohjaimet/nvidia-geforce-9800-gx2,3
In 3dMark06 X2 manages to stay with GX2, but loses badly in all game tests
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Good info! I should run some time demos!
 
N3mi5is said:
Too bad 3dmark scores mean absolutely nothing :D
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World class overclockers still use it . . .Kingpin, Fugger . . .it has some merit. Granted it is not the be all and end all. But not useless. Blanket statements FTL bro.
 
DarthBeavis said:
I have 3dmark06 scores that show they are not far apart
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Problem is, 3dmark would not be a common denominator. 3dmark prefers ATI's latest cards for whatever reason. Could be the driver optimization, could be how the cards handle DirectX, doesn't really matter. A common denominator would be a benchmark that prefers neither card. In order to find one, it will have to be non-mainstream, namely one you create on your own. There are a number of reasons to still use the program; test your own overclock, check for stability, etc. Basically, it's good to bench against the SAME card you have in your system. But for comparing two ATI/Nvidia cards these days, the program is useless. Anyone who tells you different, has not done their homework.
 
HondaCop said:
Guys, you are all awesome!! Thanks a bunch for your help... It's just awesome...

Another question though... How about GX2 SLI? Is it worth it?
Click to expand...

I would say NO the card itself is limited already in certain games and with quad enabled you are gaining performance but performance worth $1200-1300? no.

World class overclockers still use it . . .Kingpin, Fugger . . .it has some merit. Granted it is not the be all and end all. But not useless. Blanket statements FTL bro.
Click to expand...

Thats a use for overclockers to show off their skills and abilities, thats not what this thread is about, the purchaser wants cards to play games not to run for a chance at becoming the lead benchmarker.
 
Trimlock said:
I would say NO the card itself is limited already in certain games and with quad enabled you are gaining performance but performance worth $1200-1300? no.

Thats a use for overclockers to show off their skills and abilities, thats not what this thread is about, the purchaser wants cards to play games not to run for a chance at becoming the lead benchmarker.
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Amen! I will not get myself a second GX2.. Definitely not worth it... Thanks to everyone who helped out with this.
 
quad sli is ok, and it runs much better in DX10, cos DX9 only has 3 frame buffers, making Tri-sli worth it for DX9, but DX10 has 2 pairs of 2, so quad sli should scale better...

problem is that hte drivers still aren't fantastic so yeh...

darth, please correct me on this if you are experiencing differently...
 
I haven't bought an ATI card in a while, but the 9800 GX2 is definately a steup from my 8800 Ultra. Actually, I just built the sig rig this weekend since I couldn't get the 9800 GX2 to work in my Acer Q6600 retail rig, and maybe the QX9650 and Vista x64 are helping a fair amount, but so far Crysis, Lost Planet and CoD4 are smoking, noticeably better performance.
 
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