Upgrading to 3870

[Payner10]

I recently found out about the new ATI 3870 GPU. I was wondering if anyone thought that it would be worth selling my 2900xt, and buying the 3870. I will be getting a heatsink for my 2900xt so I can drastically over clock the card, but i'm still not sure if the the 3870 would perform much better or not.

[Spawn-Inc]

i would wait for it to come out first and see some reviews before selling your current card, i would also change to nvidia, there better hahah! IMO

[.Maleficus.]

I recently found out about the new ATI 3870 GPU. I was wondering if anyone thought that it would be worth selling my 2900xt, and buying the 3870. I will be getting a heatsink for my 2900xt so I can drastically over clock the card, but i'm still not sure if the the 3870 would perform much better or not.
I don't know if I'd say "drastically"... You'll be able to OC it, but I think you might be overestimating its overclocking capability.

It's up to you. You'll be taking a hit as far as money goes, but if you want a 3870, sell your 2900 before they come out. You'll get more money that way.

[Payner10]

According to many reviewers the 2900xt overclocks very well with the HR-03 R600. But, you're probably right about not being able to drastically overclock it.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Also remember that the 3870 will use more power than the 2900 so make sure your PSU has the right amount of juice. OCing uses more power also so be careful.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Here are the specs on the new ATI/AMD cards (click on the pics):
http://www.techpowerup.com/?43763

[Indybird]

Also remember that the 3870 will use more power than the 2900 so make sure your PSU has the right amount of juice. OCing uses more power also so be careful.

Where did you hear that? I've heard that because of the lower manufacturing process, the HD3870 should use much less power than the HD2900.

Anyways, its looking like the HD3870 is going to be one kickass card. Assuming its going to be anywhere close to the performance thats been speculated, then it would definitely be worth it to upgrade to a HD3870.

My advice to you: Sell your HD2900XT while it still has value. Use a junk card in the meantime. Wait for the ATI HD3870 and nvidia 8800GTS 512MB and see which one is comes out on top. Assuming you get some decent money on your HD2900XT ($300+), then by upgrading to either of those cards you'll only be gaining cash and performance.

Hope that helps,
Indybird

[The boy 4rm oz]

Where did you hear that? I've heard that because of the lower manufacturing process, the HD3870 should use much less power than the HD2900.

I heard it somewhere, can't remember though, probably from an unreliable source.

[Payner10]

I've also read that it will require much less power.

[Ap1thy]

yea definately sell the 2900 if you want to upgrade to a 3870 before it debuts. i hope ati gets back on top, being a fanboy

[Indybird]

Finally some benchmarks (http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?44274) have been released for the 3800s! They're looking pretty freakin awesome...

-Indybird

[The boy 4rm oz]

I saw this just then, you do realise they are comparing against an 8600GT not an 8800GT, really biased tables.

[Spawn-Inc]

there looking like **** actually, as pointed out above its a 8600GT, not 8800GT. in a 3dmark06 score with a underclocked (2ghz) quad it only got 12k. the card looks ok but it's still to early to tell anything yet, plus it matters for real game experience not 3dmarks or aquamark.

EDIT: after looking at the article thats the 3850 which is meant to compete with the 8600GTS and the 3870 is against the 8800GT

link to the 3870 3d mark test (http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=202510)

[.Maleficus.]

So basically, it still sucks.

Oh well. I was planning on an Nvidia anyways.

[Indybird]

Yeah, I took a second look at all of those graphs. Those Graphs aren't very well made, it looks like the HD3850 beat the crap out of the other cards, when in fact it only beat them by a little bit.

If these are accurate benchmarks, then I am extremely dissapointed in ATI. Unless they can redeem themselves with either the R700 or the R680, then I am going for nvidia cards from then on.

-Indybird

[Spawn-Inc]

well for the sake of competitive pricing and need to out do each other i hope at least one new ati card beats the 8800GT, or comes close with a cheaper price tag.

[Indybird]

well for the sake of competitive pricing and need to out do each other i hope at least one new ati card beats the 8800GT, or comes close with a cheaper price tag.

well, we know for sure that the HD3870 will be cheaper (~$230), but the question is: can it beat/compete with then 8800GT?

-Indybird

[The boy 4rm oz]

Here is a better review, oh and pics ;):
http://iax-tech.com/video/3870/38701.htm
This includes comparisons to the 8800GT and also 2 variations of the 3870

At the end of the last page it says from what they have seen the 8800GT performs better than the 3870 (lower model) but as most would know ATI pride themselves on picture quality and clarity and it shows through once again.

[Indybird]

Here is a better review, oh and pics ;):
http://iax-tech.com/video/3870/38701.htm
This includes comparisons to the 8800GT and also 2 variations of the 3870

At the end of the last page it says from what they have seen the 8800GT performs better than the 3870 (lower model) but as most would know ATI pride themselves on picture quality and clarity and it shows through once again.

Thats really too bad, I was hoping this card would really pull through... Do you think if I overclocked the crap out of this card it would beat the 8800GT by a decent amount?
Also do you think an overclock to 900Mhz Core, 1250Mhz memory, is possible?
Lastly, do you think the 1GB version will beat the 8800GT?

I think I'm going to go with the HD3870 since I'll be able to eventually do two of these in crossfire.

-Indybird

[Spawn-Inc]

the other one had pictures as well, also the 3870 is the higher model, 3850 is lower.

[crenn]

Good old fanboyism -.-;

[The boy 4rm oz]

About overclocking the cards, I wouldn't have a clue. Personally I would skip this release and wait for the new 8800GTS that will be coming out, it will be cheaper than my 8800GTX and probably beat it.

I never said I was a fan boy. Personally I prefer the more powerful cards and at the moment they are still Nvidia (and have been for some time). It is just known fact that ATI cards have better picture quality over Nvidia. I noticed a huge drop in picture quality when I changed from my 9550 to an 6600GT.

[Spawn-Inc]

I never said I was a fan boy. Personally I prefer the more powerful cards and at the moment they are still Nvidia (and have been for some time).

ya i think thats true for most people, i haven't been in the field/game/hobby long enough to ever see ati ahead. i started to pay attention when the amd athlon X2's came out. and then really look at things once i started searching for parts.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I really started to get interested in PC's a few years back when the ATI X800 was the top dog, ever since then Nvidia have been right on top (and basically so have Intel while I'm at it lol).

[Indybird]

I wouldn't call myself a fanboy, but I've only ever owned ATI cards:
Radeon 9200SE 128MB PCI
Radeon 9600XT 256MB AGP
Radeon X1900XTX 512MB PCI-Express
Radeon HD3870 512MB?

Except for the 9200SE, each time before buying those I was considering getting an nvidia card, but then ATI came out with a decently-priced high-performance offering and I bought ATI instead. If the new 8800GTS 512MB is everything it is supposed to be, then I might have to go for nvidia this time. The 8800s names sure would be confusing to a non-up-to-date consumer though:
8800 Ultra 768> 8800GTX 768> 8800GTS 512 > 8800GT 512 > 8800GTS 640 > 8800GTS 320

-Indybird

[Scotty]

I agree Nvidia screwed up the naming system.

But ATi cards have some nice specs in clock speeds usually, but they still lack behind, so they went and did 1GB but that did nothing except for textures, even then slower memory speeds aren't too good for that. Maybe it's because they're using low bus i.e 256bit, or the core architecture just sucks balls.

Until they have a card which has impressive specs and does what it should then we would be interested, but the fact Nvidia can have lower clock speeds less memory etc and still beats them shows something is going on with ATi cards.

It's like Intel and AMD, AMD says they have clocks to match Intel because of the architecture and stuff, but they don't really perform as well. Unless they're still comparing to P4's =/

[The boy 4rm oz]

When the new 8800GTS versions get released aren't they going to scrap the 320mb and the 640mb versions and replace them with 1gb and 512mb. They were always going to get rid of the 640mb version, have been talking about it for months now.