HD3850 256MB slower than a x1950Pro 512mb?

[strike101]

I just sold my barely used Gecube HD3850 256mb to a friend , ( i bought a 8800GT 2 days after i got the 3850)

But now he's complaining that his old x1950Pro 512MB is performing faster than the HD3850 256mb in almost everygame he tested except for Gears of War and Bioshock , He was able to run Crysis @ 1440x900 , with High setting w/o AA on the x1950Pro , but can't get descent framerate on the 3850 even at med+high settings

his systems specs

AMD AthlonX2 3800+
Gigabyte AMD690V Board
2Gib Transcend DDR667
HEC Winpower 550w
2x300 Gb Seagate HDD

I'm thinking that the processor is a bottleneck in his system , but the HD3850 should be faster than the x1950Pro eventhough it has less memory , most review sites even shows that the HD3850 256mb is faster than a x1950XTX 512MB

The 3800+ runs @ 2.0ghz , can't overclock it cause there's not much overclocking options on the oard , will upgrading to a 4800+ @ 2.5ghz give a big performance specially in his case ?

 

[Jax Omen]

More likely he doesn't have enough GPU memory for the settings he's trying to turn on. Tell him to turn off AA, and in Crysis to turn off/down shadows.

What do BioShock and Gears have in common? He's probably using XP, and neither game allows AA in DX9. He's not filling the VRAM.

 

[Quiksilver]

His processor can't keep up with the 3850 so it's being bottlenecked.

 

[Jax Omen]

That can't be the case, if that were the case it would perform about the same as the older card.

The bottleneck is in the GPU. It's most likely the smaller frame buffer.

 

[Quiksilver]

It could be a case of both though.

 

[Avalon]

That's odd. I went from an X1950pro 512MB to a 256MB 3850 and at nearly every setting in all my games I gained about a 25% boost in framerates.

Did he update his drivers?

 

[Jax Omen]

Ooh, drivers would be a good guess.

In my experience, even when already running up-to-date drivers, you often have to reinstall them when you change GPU (Upgraded Kitty from a 7600GS to an 8800GTS 320MB... and had to reinstall the 174.74 drivers)

 

[Face2Face]

Tell your friend he needs a faster CPU. I was having the same problem. i had huge gains w/overclocking my CPU!

 

[angry hampster]

Don't try to play crysis on a single core CPU

Also, Crysis tends to crush the 3850.

 

[Sylvanas]

The 3850 is considerably faster than an X1950pro, just see AT's initial 3800 series review (and that was on what is now 'dated' drivers). Your friend needs to uninstall/wipe all old drivers from the system before installing the new card (use Guru3d Driver sweeper) then install the latest 8.4's. It could also be a case of CPU bottleneck but that's more costly to fix .

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: strike101
I just sold my barely used Gecube HD3850 256mb to a friend , ( i bought a 8800GT 2 days after i got the 3850)

But now he's complaining that his old x1950Pro 512MB is performing faster than the HD3850 256mb in almost everygame he tested except for Gears of War and Bioshock , He was able to run Crysis @ 1440x900 , with High setting w/o AA on the x1950Pro , but can't get descent framerate on the 3850 even at med+high settings

his systems specs

AMD AthlonX2 3800+
Gigabyte AMD690V Board
2Gib Transcend DDR667
HEC Winpower 550w
2x300 Gb Seagate HDD

I'm thinking that the processor is a bottleneck in his system , but the HD3850 should be faster than the x1950Pro eventhough it has less memory , most review sites even shows that the HD3850 256mb is faster than a x1950XTX 512MB

The 3800+ runs @ 2.0ghz , can't overclock it cause there's not much overclocking options on the oard , will upgrading to a 4800+ @ 2.5ghz give a big performance specially in his case ?

I also just saw the bolded part, and I'm going to have to call shens on your friend. Maybe he's just screwing with you? This is a snippet from one of my overclocking/benching excursions...

HD3850 @ 670/1660 w/ATI Cat 7.12 drivers
E2140 @ 2900Mhz, Micron d9NLH @ 363Mhz 5-5-5-15 Audigy2
1024x768 0xAA/8xAF
Crysis - (8/25.7/46)(0/15.3/33fps)(medium/high)

In game fraps run during the scene of escaping down the mountain in jeeps, with moderate combat.

I was running at 61% of his resolution...I'm pretty sure he wasn't playing at 1440x900 high settings smoothly at all.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Avalon

Originally posted by: strike101
I just sold my barely used Gecube HD3850 256mb to a friend , ( i bought a 8800GT 2 days after i got the 3850)

But now he's complaining that his old x1950Pro 512MB is performing faster than the HD3850 256mb in almost everygame he tested except for Gears of War and Bioshock , He was able to run Crysis @ 1440x900 , with High setting w/o AA on the x1950Pro , but can't get descent framerate on the 3850 even at med+high settings

his systems specs

AMD AthlonX2 3800+
Gigabyte AMD690V Board
2Gib Transcend DDR667
HEC Winpower 550w
2x300 Gb Seagate HDD

I'm thinking that the processor is a bottleneck in his system , but the HD3850 should be faster than the x1950Pro eventhough it has less memory , most review sites even shows that the HD3850 256mb is faster than a x1950XTX 512MB

The 3800+ runs @ 2.0ghz , can't overclock it cause there's not much overclocking options on the oard , will upgrading to a 4800+ @ 2.5ghz give a big performance specially in his case ?

I also just saw the bolded part, and I'm going to have to call shens on your friend. Maybe he's just screwing with you? This is a snippet from one of my overclocking/benching excursions...

HD3850 @ 670/1660 w/ATI Cat 7.12 drivers
E2140 @ 2900Mhz, Micron d9NLH @ 363Mhz 5-5-5-15 Audigy2
1024x768 0xAA/8xAF
Crysis - (8/25.7/46)(0/15.3/33fps)(medium/high)

In game fraps run during the scene of escaping down the mountain in jeeps, with moderate combat.

I was running at 61% of his resolution...I'm pretty sure he wasn't playing at 1440x900 high settings smoothly at all.

Yes, it's impossible for a x1950pro to run Crysis on High settings at 1440X900, with a playable frame rate. Maybe the ''friend" has some lying issues.