Driver Heaven review 3870 vs 8800GT

[trajan2050]

http://www.driverheaven.net/re...870-XXX/conclusion.php


In depth review

 

[badnewcastle]

Doesn't seem to earth shattering.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: trajan2050
http://www.driverheaven.net/re...870-XXX/conclusion.php


In depth review

Good read, thanks for the link.

 

[Munky]

After getting a 8800gt myself, I find that the default IQ settings still produce the infamous texture shimmering. I set textures to HQ mode, and this fixes the problem. While the performance hit seems to be small, I still have a bone to pick with reviewers who are too lazy/incompetent to set the IQ to the appropriate levels.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: munky
After getting a 8800gt myself, I find that the default IQ settings still produce the infamous texture shimmering. I set textures to HQ mode, and this fixes the problem. While the performance hit seems to be small, I still have a bone to pick with reviewers who are too lazy/incompetent to set the IQ to the appropriate levels.

Isnt it like 0.1~1% performance hit?

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: munky
After getting a 8800gt myself, I find that the default IQ settings still produce the infamous texture shimmering. I set textures to HQ mode, and this fixes the problem. While the performance hit seems to be small, I still have a bone to pick with reviewers who are too lazy/incompetent to set the IQ to the appropriate levels.

Do you have LOD set for Allow or Clamp?

Explanation from another forum ....

"The -LoD clamp prevents your mipmap levels going negative. This will cause mipmaps to appear "Closer". But can also result in underfiltering. On the Geforce 7 series there was under filtering that occured on the AF mipmaps. Since the mipmaps were negative. It would cause harsh mipmap transisitions due to the lack of filtering.

Not all games are designed with AF in mind and can use some very harsh -Level of Detail Bias. And it can cause AF to cause shimmering in some cases. In this case a LoD clamp forces the LoD to never go into the negative range regardless of the object. So the clamp exists for that purpose. Typically G80 filtering is optimal at a "0" mipmap level of detail. But it really depends on dev designed the game. The game your using here seems to be one of those cases where -LoD is pretty aggressive.

So clamping it will ensure that everything gets filtered properly. But you may lose a little detail in distance objects due to the mipmaps being pushed back rather than forward"

 

[Munky]

Hmm... I haven't checked the LOD clamp options, I'll give that a shot.

 

[thilanliyan]

nm

 

[ronnn]

DH is one of my favorite sites and I like their nice attitude, but their reviews are not good. Didn't even bother reading this one, as the conclusion is generally a foregone conclusion. But as I said, great site if you want off the beaten track drivers.

 

[BFG10K]

Hmm... I haven't checked the LOD clamp options, I'll give that a shot.

Yep, it's definitely LOD clamp not enabled. Some games like UT2004 use a negative LOD and will shimmer regardless of how good your AF is unless you clamp it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Hmm... I haven't checked the LOD clamp options, I'll give that a shot.

Yep, it's definitely LOD clamp not enabled. Some games like UT2004 use a negative LOD and will shimmer regardless of how good your AF is unless you clamp it.

Do ATI cards have the same setting/problem?

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: ronnn
DH is one of my favorite sites and I like their nice attitude, but their reviews are not good. Didn't even bother reading this one, as the conclusion is generally a foregone conclusion. But as I said, great site if you want off the beaten track drivers.

You hated the site in year 2005.

Computerbase review are much better , way more detailed than any review i read these day :!


DX 9 benchmark

Anno 1701 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF
HD3870 : 35,7
8800GT : 31,3
HD3850 : 30,6

Clive Barker's Jericho 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 15,6
8800GT : 5,6
HD3850 : 1,3

Colin McRae Dirt 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF
HD3870 : 15,8
8800GT : 4,5
HD3850 : 4,3

Company of heroes 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
8800GT : 64,2
HD3870 : 58,7
HD3850 : 18,6

F.E.A.R 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 40
8800GT : 40
HD3850 : 33


Gothic 3 1600x1200 16xAF:
8800GT : 37,6
HD3870 : 20,8
HD3850 : 18,0

Oblivion 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 39,7
8800GT : 35,7
HD3850 : 34,3

Prey 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 43,8
8800GT : 36,4
HD3850 : 36,9

Rainbow Six Vegas ? 1600x1200
HD3870 : 46,3
8800GT : 40,2
HD3850 : 39,7

Stalker 1600x1200 1xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 31,5
8800GT : 19,6
HD3850 : 14,0

DX10 benchmark

Bioshock 1600x1200 1xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 37,0
8800GT : 42,8
HD3850 : 31,8

Call of Juarez 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 16,8
8800GT : 10,3
HD3850 : 6,3

Company of Heroes 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF:

HD3870 : 20,1
8800GT : 16,3
HD3850 : 14,6

Crysis 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF
HD3870 : 10,6
8800GT : 7,6
HD3850 : 4,3

Lost Planet 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF Snow:
HD3870 : 18,8
8800GT : 16,3
HD3850 : 7,8

World in conflict 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF:
HD3870 : 28,4
8800GT : 37,5
HD3850 : 23,9


http://www.computerbase.de/art...adeon_hd_3850_rv670/2/

When you turn on HQ and AA , 8800GT ain't so destroyer driverheaven make it out to be.

Also driver heaven review has alot of consistency like they are on mission to destroy ATI 3870 reputation. their oblivion benchmark why aren't they using AA ? ... Also why they even benchmarked tiger wood. Why not benchmark games like Company of heores , World in conflict , Prey , Fear , Rainbow 6 Vegas ? ...

 

[superbooga]

Tuteja, are frame rates at unplayable settings all that important? I'd rather have a card that's faster at playable settings and slower at unplayable than one that's slower at playable and faster at unplayable. A better way to look at it would be:

Playable, advantage HD3870:
Oblivion 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
Rainbow Six Vegas ? 1600x1200

Playable, advantage 8800GT:
Company of heroes 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
Gothic 3 1600x1200 16xAF
World in conflict 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF

I don't consider 40 fps to be playable for Bioshock, FEAR, and Prey.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: superbooga
Tuteja, are frame rates at unplayable settings all that important? I'd rather have a card that's faster at playable settings and slower at unplayable than one that's slower at playable and faster at unplayable. A better way to look at it would be:

Playable, advantage HD3870:
Oblivion 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
Rainbow Six Vegas ? 1600x1200

Playable, advantage 8800GT:
Company of heroes 1600x1200 8xAA/16xAF
Gothic 3 1600x1200 16xAF
World in conflict 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF

I don't consider 40 fps to be playable for Bioshock, FEAR, and Prey.

Dude , i agree with you :! I was only posting the benchmark because driver heaven just seem to make 3870 look like rubbish when it is not.

Also Company of heroes , world in conflict run well on DX9 for so it is playable. Anyways , both card has it advantage and disadvantage. But sad part is that their is no single card capable of running all major games out today at 1920x1200 8xAA/8xAF @ 60FPS.

Bioshock , Prey and fear will run 1920x1200 @ 60FPS easy on both cards without AA/AF.

ATI did blew it on R600 core. What they need to do is do Nvidia route by reducing the shader and increasing Texture unit and ROP.

I think their are very few game development studio that can really tweak the game for both GPU without getting ATI and Nvidia to do major driver tweaking for the game. Epic and valve lead way in that area.

 

[trajan2050]

tuteja1986
Diamond Member

Posts: 3169
Joined: 06/01/2005

Originally posted by: ronnn
DH is one of my favorite sites and I like their nice attitude, but their reviews are not good. Didn't even bother reading this one, as the conclusion is generally a foregone conclusion. But as I said, great site if you want off the beaten track drivers.

You hated the site in year 2005.

Computerbase review are much better , way more detailed than



Of course the vast majority of widely read reviews show the the 8800 gt wiping the floor with the 3870 in every game.These Computerbase numbers don't have much validity.

 

[taltamir]

I looked at that computer base review... firstly, it is in german... secondly. Why in the blazes are they comparing a 3870 and 3850 to 8800GTS? They should be comparing them to the GT, not to obsolete hardware.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: trajan2050
tuteja1986
Diamond Member

Posts: 3169
Joined: 06/01/2005

Originally posted by: ronnn
DH is one of my favorite sites and I like their nice attitude, but their reviews are not good. Didn't even bother reading this one, as the conclusion is generally a foregone conclusion. But as I said, great site if you want off the beaten track drivers.

You hated the site in year 2005.

Computerbase review are much better , way more detailed than



Of course the vast majority of widely read reviews show the the 8800 gt wiping the floor with the 3870 in every game.These Computerbase numbers don't have much validity.

Person attack will not help you !

I think you will find most of senior member respect Computerbase review.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: taltamir
I looked at that computer base review... firstly, it is in german... secondly. Why in the blazes are they comparing a 3870 and 3850 to 8800GTS? They should be comparing them to the GT, not to obsolete hardware.

Amm , they compare 3870 to all major cards 8800GT , 8800GTX , 8800U , 8800GTS 640MB , 8800GTS 320MB.

http://www.google.com/language_tools >> Google translator tool which will convert the web page's German text into English text.

 

[Keysplayr]

"Person attack will not help you !

I think you will find most of senior member respect Computerbase review."

^ What personal attack? And not help him what, exactly?

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

"Person attack will not help you !

I think you will find most of senior member respect Computerbase review."

^ What personal attack? And not help him what, exactly?

well pointing out my username, status , post and also date i joined which is all under my avatar is away a personal attack. He trying to belittle me by using this method of personal attack.

Originally posted by: trajan2050
tuteja1986
Diamond Member

Posts: 3169
Joined: 06/01/2005

 

[taltamir]

saying "you said the exact opposite in another post" is not a personal attack... making references to lewd behavior with his mother, suggesting he belongs to a sexual orientation, suggesting he should go away to masturbate, or insulting his intelligence are personal attacks.

An excellent counter to the "thats not what you said before" argument would be "I changed my mind since then" or "you misinterpreted me"

 

[Keysplayr]

How can you take that as a personal attack, when he himself has a post count of only 27??? How does this "belittle" you without making him look "miniscule"?? Think about it.

 

[trajan2050]

Driver Heaven, a site which in the past has been very favorable to ATI products:

The 3870 would have benefited greatly from being released a few months ago. As a result of launching the 8800 GT it is hard to recommend.
In gaming the 8800 GT is the better performer every single time.
http://www.driverheaven.net/re...870-XXX/conclusion.php

Similar to many head to heads I've seen. If price is close its no contest.

 

[Stoneburner]

Has anybody seen CRYSIS benchmarks of the hd 3870 but with the crysis hotfix drivers? I have a single VT hd 3870 right now and am using the custom config from the incrysis forum to set everything to very high with dx 9 and running at 1680x1050 with no aa/af. MY FPS is usually in the 17-35 range and I have no interest in turning settings down because it looks too damn nice. I need to know how much the hotfix drivers plus crossfire could give me.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: taltamir
I looked at that computer base review... firstly, it is in german... secondly. Why in the blazes are they comparing a 3870 and 3850 to 8800GTS? They should be comparing them to the GT, not to obsolete hardware.

Its funny that a lot of NV fans have discounted the site in the past, because its German. As if English reviews are the only ones that count. Computerbase is a very good site. Also, they do compare it to the GT. GTS obsolete? Heh, thats pretty funny. Especially since there is a newer version of it out, than the GT.

Sure the 8800GT is generally faster. Not by a lot though. It also costs a good chunk of change more too.