Preliminary 3870X2 review out!

S

skadebo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
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I'm not sure if I can link it since AFAIK the NDA is in effect, but it's out there!
 
Are YOU under NDA? if not, there's no problem linking to what someone else has linked.

It's not Guru3D here :p.
 
Wounld't be suprised if it is that one ^. Not even a preview let alone a preliminary review =/
 
One thing I don't get: Why they put so much effort on 3dMark tests? Are people so intrested of 3dMark results?? I mean one could think that people would be more intrested of this cards game performance, not 3dMark
 
Looks like its as fast to faster than a geforce 8800 ultra.

If this card comes in at under $450 its a winner.

I will buy it at $400
 
cannondale06 said:
what does the chart mean that shows the card doing better under pci-e 2.0 than 1.1? :confused:
Click to expand...

it seems like the data being transfered through that pci-e bus from the two chips is to much for the 1.1 version while its enough for the 2.0

Users will see even larger performance gains from 2.0 motherboards it seems which kinda sucks but is also nice if your planing on upgrading.

If I buy this chip I will wait till the x38 board sdrop in price so I can get a good crossfire capable one with pci-e 2.0 for around $120 and I will upgrade and hopefully get better performance
 
Pretty impressive, i know its 2 gpu's but still it does get a sizable jump over the ultra in some tests.

Now 2 questions remain

1. Is the "quadfire" driver gonna be available at launch

2. Whats the performance bump like going from 2 gpu's to 4 and do any sites have 2 of these cards to test "quadfire".
 
Well, i'm a bit disappointed I was hoping for a monster, however this thing is a little better then year old tech, and not in all areas... it's all right, it's nice to see ATi get back into the swing of things; and I think the 3000 series is a definite hit. I just want more from a top dog a year later then what we're getting. Anyway, it's a foot in the right direction and I hope to own an ATi card once again some time in the future, but this won't be the card for me.
 
Well.. it should perform well because it will compete against GF 9800 GX2. If GF9800 GX2 will perform at 8800 GT 512MB SLI level it will be hard to beat (we don't know much more about GX2 than that it will have 2x128SP which would indicate 2x8800 GTS 512MB).

If it would perform at 2x8800 GT 512MB SLI level we should see this kind of advantage over 8800 Ultra (how many percent higher fps at 1920x1200 with AA & AF enabled.

Fear 50,3
CoH 49,7
Oblivion 32,4
WiC 6,6
UT3 48,5
ET:QW 23
Lost Planet 32,1
CoD4 6,4
Bioshock 30,5

If it works closer to 8800 GTS for example that CoD4 difference will jump. And 8800 ultra should be ahead of HD3870 X2 on that WiC. I mean that 8800 GTX is 77% ahead of HD3870 already.
 
Some wrong data is present in this review (like the HD 2900 XT having a 256 bit memory interface), but if these results are true, I'm highly unimpressed. It doesn't consistently beat the Ultra. It wins in 5 games and loses in 3. Only in Serious Sam 2 (which I question its use in this benchmark, since who plays it anyway...) does the X2 win by almost 50%.
This must be obviously due to driver support, which at this point, is not very good, but if the GX2 does perform much like 2 8800 GTS 512 in SLI, then the X2 does not have a chance. Considering that both cards suggested MSRP is the same ($449), ATI will need to improve their drivers a lot, in order to compete. Otherwise, only the ATI fans will buy this card.
 
hmm, i see the 680 getting whipped by a G92 GTS at 1920x1200 in Crysis, that does not make me feel the love.

my performance benchmark for a new PC includes a card capable of rendering Crysis at 1920x1200 at VHQ and still getting an average framerate of 30FPS, this does not cut the mustard by any measure.
 
As per PCOnline

Performance difference in terms of HD 3870 X2 to 8800Ultra

Bioshock 1280x1024 = 4% Slower
Bioshock 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
Bioshock 2560x1600 = 39% Faster

COJ 1280x1024 = 11% Faster
COJ 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
COJ 2560x1600 = 10% Faster

COJ 1280x1024 4AA 16AF = 13% Faster
COJ 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 23% Faster

Lost Planet 1280x1024 = 27% Slower
Lost Planet 1920x1200 = 30% Slower
Lost Planet 2560x1600 = 37% Faster

Lost Planet 1280x1024 4AA 16AF = 18% Slower
Lost Planet 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 18% Slower
Lost Planet 2560x1600 4AA 16AF = 10% Faster

Crysis 1280x1024 = 13% Slower
Crysis 1920x1200 = 2% Slower
Crysis 2560x1600 = 12% Slower

COD4 1280x1024 = 42% Faster
COD4 1920x1200 = 32% Faster
COD4 2560x1600 = 26% Faster

COD4 1280x1024 4AA 16AF = 27% Faster
COD4 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 20% Faster
COD4 2560x1600 4AA 16AF = 16% Faster

NFS:pro 1280x1024 = 32% Faster
NFS:pro 1920x1200 = 38% Faster

NFS:pro 1280x1024 4AA 16AF = 72% Slower
NFS:pro 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 67% Slower

Serious Sam 2 1280x1024 HAA 16AF = 30% Faster
Serious Sam 2 1920x1200 HAA 16AF = 45% Faster
Serious Sam 2 2560x1600 HAA 16AF = 78% Faster

UT3 1280x1024 = 7% Faster
UT3 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
UT3 2560x1600 = 37% Faster

F.E.A.R. 1600x1200 = 20% Faster
F.E.A.R. 2048x1536 = 20% Faster
 
Once again, I'm left to conclude that we need to see a few more reviews coming from some of the more well known websites, like the [H], using the latest available drivers from AMD. I can't wait till tomorrow!
 
Considering the 3870X2 is generally around 20-30% better than the Ultra, and if Klye is right about hte 9800Gx2 being ~30% faster than the Ultra, we have a real battle amongst ourselves here. :)
 
vmsein said:
Once again, I'm left to conclude that we need to see a few more reviews coming from some of the more well known websites, like the [H], using the latest available drivers from AMD. I can't wait till tomorrow!
Click to expand...

If the NDA embargo indeed expires on the 23rd, I expect to start seeing reviews from the big players in about 47 minutes...and counting.
 
snowysnowcones said:
Considering the 3870X2 is generally around 20-30% better than the Ultra, and if Klye is right about hte 9800Gx2 being ~30% faster than the Ultra, we have a real battle amongst ourselves here. :)
Click to expand...
Depends.. if it performs more like 8800 GT SLI it will be 6-50% faster than 8800 Ultra, mostly 30-40% faster. If it performs more like 8800 GTS 512 SLI what changes? Those games that gives 8800 GT 512MB SLI low scores seem to give 8800 GTS 512MB SLI a lot better scores..but where 8800 GT SLI does fine this GTS SLI won't bring much more performance.

So main difference should be that 9800 GX2 shouldn't have same problems in few games that HD3870 X2 has.
 
Niceone said:
Depends.. if it performs more like 8800 GT SLI it will be 6-50% faster than 8800 Ultra, mostly 30-40% faster. If it performs more like 8800 GTS 512 SLI what changes? Those games that gives 8800 GT 512MB SLI low scores seem to give 8800 GTS 512MB SLI a lot better scores..but where 8800 GT SLI does fine this GTS SLI won't bring much more performance.

So main difference should be that 9800 GX2 shouldn't have same problems in few games that HD3870 X2 has.
Click to expand...

the main diffrence is that the gx2 takes two physical pci-e slots for 1 card while the 3870x2 takes 1.

in my motherboad its a choice between 2 3870x2s for 1 gx2 . If performance is only 10-20% i know i'm going ati
 
gljvd said:
the main diffrence is that the gx2 takes two physical pci-e slots for 1 card while the 3870x2 takes 1.

in my motherboad its a choice between 2 3870x2s for 1 gx2 . If performance is only 10-20% i know i'm going ati
Click to expand...

I'm 99% sure that they both only have 1 pcie connector. Both of their coolers however, take up two slots.
 
well, I'm a little disappointed. The ASUS EN8800GTS TOP gives you similar performance and even better in some cases. The Asus is around $330 and they are saying the 3870X2 will go for around $600. I'm building a new system and I'm still waiting to buy a GPU. Hope we see more reviews soon.
 
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