3870x2 reviews are here and where to buy

[happy medium]

Hot hardware:
http://www.hothardware.com/art...eon_HD_3870_X2/?page=8

Tweaktown:
http://www.tweaktown.com/revie..._3_the_card/index.html

Driverheaven:
http://www.driverheaven.net/index.php

Toms hardware:
http://www.tomshardware.com/20..._the_rage_fury_maxx_2/

Hardocp:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Pc perspective:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?type=expert&aid=512

ExtremeTech;
http://www.extremetech.com/art.../0,1697,2253049,00.asp

Firing Squad:
http://www.firingsquad.com/har...d_3870_x2_performance/

Tech Report:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/13967

Hardware Zone:
http://www.hardwarezone.com/home/

Guru of 3d
http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/490/

Hexus review:
http://www.hexus.net/

Tech powerup;
http://www.techpowerup.com/rev.../HIS/HD_3870_X2/1.html

Overclockers club;
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/ati_hd3870_x2/

Hardware Canucks:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com...870-x2-1gb-review.html

Anand's review up too.

Edit : for sale here

M-WAVE for 509.00$
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/vie....hmx?scriteria=AA72586

Frys.com for 449.00 Thanks WaTAGuMp
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5504940

Newegg:449.00$ (all flavors) thanks Bateluer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...A=0&Description=3870x2

Zip zoom fly: 499.00$
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...p?ProductCode=10007730

Tiger direct. 529.00$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...=3572148&Sku=V261-3872

NCIX - 3 models
http://www.ncix.com/products/i...=108&subminorcatid=109

In Canada:

Stock version 499.00$
http://www.extreme-pc.ca/showp...&menu2id=99&menu3id=39

Overclocked version 539.00$
http://www.extreme-pc.ca/showp...&menu2id=99&menu3id=39

442.99$ in Canada
http://www.directcanada.com/pr...1G&manufacture=DIAMOND

After a year and a half on top the 8800 series is finally beaten. After reading some reviews, I ask my self "thats it". If this is the best Amd can come up with after all this time, I'm sadly dissapointed.

The one thing I noticed in the benchmarks is the min fps were consistantly better with the 8800's which to me is more important then the max fps. I mean what good is winning with 75fps vs 70fps if you can't maintain at least 30 fps at minimum? The aa/af performance was not all that good either. I hope it just a driver issue, because when I build my new rig I was looking for more from this card. Now I think I'll wait for the 9800x2 with the 790i chipset.

Don't get me wrong, it's a hell of a card and It's a win for Amd but I just expected more.
I was exspecting a good ol 8800 ass woopen but it dosen't even win in all of the benchmarks and most importantly Crysis and Cod4.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[bharatwaja]

Jus curious... what FPS would one get in counter strike source at 1280*1024 resolution with full settings with one of these cards?

cause I am a WCG player for CSS thats why....

 

[Rusin]

On Anands test 8800 GT SLI beats HD3870 X2 in most cases..some indication on what will happen when 9800 GX2 arrives (though GX2 will have 2x128SP not 2x112SP like in this test).

 

[chewietobbacca]

Originally posted by: Rusin
On Anands test 8800 GT SLI beats HD3870 X2 in most cases..some indication on what will happen when 9800 GX2 arrives (though GX2 will have 2x128SP not 2x112SP like in this test).

It comes down to driver support from nvidia + final clocks. Rumors were that they were going to lower clocks for the 9800GX2, but they might not do that now. And as always, quad-SLI from Nvidia was terrible, so they better be willing to support this one or the 3870x2 might out do it.

 

[Rusin]

One problem in Anand's review: They are still using canned benchmarks that doesn't tell the actual gameplay performance.

 

[Syntax Error]

I guess Nvidia's G80 and the 8800GTX/Ultra were just that good that AMD barely beats it down this time. A year later.

*Sigh* Sticking with the 8800GT, price-to-performance FTW.

 

[Rusin]

Syntax Error:
It's little bit absurd..Now that Nvidia EOL'd 8800 ultra they are going bacwards in performance wise..atleast for one month until 9800 GX2

 

[Sylvanas]

Well AMD now have the High end card crown back winning practically everything, its been a while- the interesting thing I took out of it is that there doesn't appear to be any Multi-GPU 'issues' (I haven't experienced any though...) and that the R680 acts as a single card- bravo!

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: Rusin
One problem in Anand's review: They are still using canned benchmarks that doesn't tell the actual gameplay performance.

And the fact they don't bench with AA pretty much at all now. Despite high res, I still like at least 2x AA.

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: Rusin
Syntax Error:
It's little bit absurd..Now that Nvidia EOL'd 8800 ultra they are going bacwards in performance wise..atleast for one month until 9800 GX2

Yea but as we know, there's money to be made in midrange, more than at high end! With 8800 GT availability and prices dipping to $239 (if they hold), I bet they sell a LOT of cards over the next month or so. 780i is out, DDR2 is cheap, I think nV has thought this out.

Not to sound too much like a fanboy.. I really like the 3870 X2. I hope it does well.

 

[SniperDaws]

Ive just been reading that performance is better when using 8xAA than it is when using 4x or even 2x AA, is this right or is it a myth ?

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: SniperDaws
Ive just been reading that performance is better when using 8xAA than it is when using 4x or even 2x AA, is this right or is it a myth ?

I saw this aswell notably here I don't know how it's physically possible but people have posted screenshots and swear by it that it's 8xAA, however this may be a little off topic and subject to further investigation in another thread .

 

[Bateluer]

Newegg has 3870X2s for sale at MSRP right now. Tempted to pick up one of these with a Wolfdale CPU, very tempted. Need to take some measurements to make sure the card won't get in the way of anything inside my case though.

 

[dennilfloss]

AnandTech's comment about Oblivion with 4xAA makes me regret a bit that I bought my XXX 3870. It's like a virtual doubling of one's FPS at 1920x1200.

Aw well, the X2 is probably more than what I can afford anyway considering I'll have to upgrade my mobo+RAM+CPU to feed it.:laugh:

 

[Rusin]

dennifloss:
Well.. you don't need double the frame rate for cut scenes. It would have been nice if AnandTech would have tested gameplay-performance :/

 

[happy medium]

copied from newegg

System Requirements Intel Pentium 4, Celeron, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Athlon XP, Sempron or compatible
PCI Express based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
550 Watt or greater power supply with two 2x3-pin PCIe power connectors required (750 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for dual ATI CrossFireX) .
For enhanced performance with ATI Overdrive, a power supply with one 2x3- pin and one 2x4-pin PCIe power connector is required
1GB of system memory
Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
DVD playback requires DVD drive
Blu-ray / HD DVD playback requires Blu-ray / HD DVD drive
For a complete ATI CrossFireX system, a second ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per board (included) are required

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Rusin
dennifloss:
Well.. you don't need double the frame rate for cut scenes. It would have been nice if AnandTech would have tested gameplay-performance :/

Where did Anand say they benched cut scenes? And as if the results taken don't imply the real world ramifications. If you are referring to kyles' defence of the Hard OCP article chanting 'canned benches' everywhere and that it would take too long to bench more than 4 games then you really have to look at their reviews....most of the time they use different IQ settings to compare totally different cards, they use a different driver revision than the one AMD held the launch back for aswell (the one Anand used), this gives no real indication of what we want to know.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Newegg has 3870X2s for sale at MSRP right now. Tempted to pick up one of these with a Wolfdale CPU, very tempted. Need to take some measurements to make sure the card won't get in the way of anything inside my case though.

People who want one of these should go buy one now then- because if they start selling, newegg's pricing formulas will kick in and the price will go up.

I have to say I'm somewhat surprised by the reviews I've seen. There were some earlier 3870CF vs 8800GT SLi reviews that showed the CF more competitive with GT SLi than ATs review did.

Nonetheless, I like multi GPU cards (typing this on a 7950GX2) and if I were an ATi fan, this is the card I'd have.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Rollo


People who want one of these should go buy one now then- because if they start selling, newegg's pricing formulas will kick in and the price will go up.

That is true, but I won't have the funds until early Mar anyway, minor delay with my tax refund because of the IRS's processing of certain forms. By then, I'll have to evaluate Nvidia's offerings, if they've launched.

Should give availability some time to stabilize and for another revision of Catalyst to hit the wild as well.

 

[Rusin]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: Rusin
dennifloss:
Well.. you don't need double the frame rate for cut scenes. It would have been nice if AnandTech would have tested gameplay-performance :/

Where did Anand say they benched cut scenes? And as if the results taken don't imply the real world ramifications. If you are referring to kyles' defence of the Hard OCP article chanting 'canned benches' everywhere and that it would take too long to bench more than 4 games then you really have to look at their reviews....most of the time they use different IQ settings to compare totally different cards, they use a different driver revision than the one AMD held the launch back for aswell (the one Anand used), this gives no real indication of what we want to know.

Well for example COD4 test is pretty far from actual game play (smoking scene). Thing is that these scenes run differently than actual game play.. If noticed that in UT3 these cut scenes work better with my rig than actual game play.
----

Yes they are testing with different IQ settings. They are looking for best playable settings which gives better picture of what that performance difference is in real life situation.

----
Drivers:

Anandtech:
8-451-2-080123a

HardOCP:
8-451-2 + latest crysis fixes

 

[DerekWilson]

Originally posted by: Rusin
dennifloss:
Well.. you don't need double the frame rate for cut scenes. It would have been nice if AnandTech would have tested gameplay-performance :/

AnandTech does not benchmark cut scenes in any of the games tested here.

BioShock, Call of Duty 4, and Oblivion are all FRAPS benchmarks in real gameplay situations.

We do test gameplay performance in these games, and we will include real gameplay numbers in our graphics benchmarks for the foreseeable future.

It shouldn't be an issue though.

I'll still stand by the fact that it is not necessary to look at gameplay situations in order to build an accurate picture of the relative performance of a graphics card. You just have to keep in mind that it's a relativistic rank of the ability of each graphics card to playback the graphics generated by the game and not an indication of the performance you will get when you play the game.

In fact, it's not hard to make a case that timedemos and graphics only benchmarks are a better indication of relative worst case scenario performance. In a situation where graphics is the largest bottleneck in the system (which is not a rare occurrence), a graphics only or timedemo benchmark will even more accurately predict relative performance.

This is arguably the most important thing to look at anyway -- who cares if a game runs smoothly all the time at either 40fps or 50fps. I don't really notice a difference if frametimes are all nearly the same. It's when you hit a tough frame or series of frames where you want the card not to dip below a playable level. It is in graphics limited situations that you want and NEED your card to shine.

Unless the reviewer who ran the gameplay test has played the entire game and logged framerates of every scene, situation, weapon, and event and can run a test that hits all the most intense portions of the game (this is not possible in most cases) a gameplay test will be no better (and in most cases worse) than a timedemo that skips AI / sound / physics etc. that can take a better look at what happens when graphics are the most important element in rendering smooth framerates.

 

[happy medium]

Added more reviews. Enjoy.

 

[dennilfloss]

Originally posted by: Rusin
dennifloss:
Well.. you don't need double the frame rate for cut scenes. It would have been nice if AnandTech would have tested gameplay-performance :/

Oblivion is what I'm interested in and there is no ready-made benchmark for it. AT has been using their own scenes for quite a while to test this game and I trust their judgement in this regard.

 

[Rusin]

Originally posted by: DerekWilson

Originally posted by: Rusin
dennifloss:
Well.. you don't need double the frame rate for cut scenes. It would have been nice if AnandTech would have tested gameplay-performance :/

AnandTech does not benchmark cut scenes in any of the games tested here.

Quote from your review:
"A surprisingly successful FPS on the PC, Call of Duty 4 also lacks any sort of in-game benchmark so we benchmark the cut scene at the beginning of the first mission. We start the frame rate counter as soon as we're in the helicopter and stop once the man in the chair gets shot."

 

[happy medium]

After a year and a half on top the 8800 series is finally beaten. After reading some reviews, I ask my self "thats it". If this is the best Amd can come up with after all this time, I'm sadly dissapointed.

The one thing I noticed in the benchmarks is the min fps were consistantly better with the 8800's which to me is more important then the max fps. I mean what good is winning with 75fps vs 70fps if you can't maintain at least 30 fps at minimum? The aa/af performance was not all that good either. I hope it just a driver issue, because when I build my new rig I was looking for more from this card. Now I think I'll wait for the 9800x2 with the 790i chipset.

Don't get me wrong, it's a hell of a card and It's a win for Amd but I just expected more.
I was exspecting a good ol 8800 ass woopen but it dosen't even win in all of the benchmarks and most importantly Crysis and Cod4.

Just my 2 cents.:beer: