HD3870 vs 8800GT in 3DSMax Viewperf 10

[sgrinavi]

With the quad system in my sig running at 3.1 , both cards with a mild OC

8800GT
# viewperfresult.txt
# test weight frames/sec
1 5.500 8.760
2 5.500 8.760
3 5.500 7.290
4 5.500 7.290
5 17.00 19.80
6 5.500 9.720
7 5.500 9.720
8 5.500 6.150
9 5.500 6.170
10 17.00 12.40
11 5.500 14.20
12 5.500 14.30
13 5.500 11.10
14 5.500 11.10
* Composite Score : 11.02



HD 3870
# viewperfresult.txt
# test weight frames/sec
1 5.500 14.30
2 5.500 14.30
3 5.500 17.30
4 5.500 17.10
5 17.00 50.10
6 5.500 17.20
7 5.500 16.70
8 5.500 14.40
9 5.500 14.60
10 17.00 32.10
11 5.500 27.20
12 5.500 27.10
13 5.500 27.30
14 5.500 27.00
* Composite Score : 24.35


That's 2.5x faster.. not bad for $180 card.



I tried to softmod it into a fireGL, but, apparantly, there is not a script that works with XP64

 

[slugg]

if you dont mind me asking... what do you get with the fireGL mod? higher precision?

 

[BassBomb]

Can 8800 turn into a Quadro?

I did notice lacking performance in viewports compared to 6600GT, well it was better but not by much to the old (AMD3200+ 6600GT)

I used D3D previously now using OGL

 

[Lord Banshee]

the last nvidia cards that could be turned into quadro were the 6xxx series and it was only some of those.

I have also noticed that ATi seems nicer with some of the features they keep enabled for the gamer cards (9800pro->x1950), glad to hear the hd3870 stays with this trend.

slugg,
firegl and quadro use the same gpu as the gamer cards but they have different drivers the normally only work on the firegl/quadro cards. These workstation card drivers have more features turn on that actually makes one hell of a difference in some CAD and DCC applications ( sometimes more than 4x the performance). But it will not help in gaming so if thats what you were hoping for it does not, it might actually hinder performance by 1-5%.

I also agree with BassBomb, DirectX in 3dsmax is so much faster than OpenGL that almost any mid-range+ gamer card with DirectX 3dsmax is very fast.

 

[firewolfsm]

I modded my 7800GT to quadro with a new bios.

 

[Lord Banshee]

firewolfsm,

Not to be rude but i do not believe you. A bios can change the name of your card and even the pci-id, but it still will not give you performance of a quadro unless it really works, which is the part i do not believe lol.

I assume you do not have a 7800GT anymore and so you can not prove it, so unless you prove me wrong and pretty much every other person i've talk to, you just "think" you modded your 7800GT to a quadro. Either way a specview benchmark and a rivatuner register printout is usually the best way to prove me wrong.

 

[evolucion8]

For some reason the R6X0 architecture is more suitable to the professional rendering than for gaming, seems that those shaders are faster in that type of workload. I've seen some reviews in the net were that architecture wipes the floor with the GeForce 8 series, seems that the complex design and high shader output wins, while in gaming the simple shader design and maximum efficiency wins (Like it happened with the Radeon 9800/X800 and GeForce FX/6 series)

 

[Lord Banshee]

evolucion8,

I believe you are right here, but it isn't shaders though. Now that it is a unified architecture they are used for both shaders and geometry (if i remember correctly). CAD applications use more geometry tasks than shader tasks. So maybe it is that the R6xx GPU design is a better "unified" approach as it can really do what ever the app wants. I think the major problem the R6xx has where the NV8x/9x GPU doesn't is that the ATI's GPUs does AA though these same 320ish units. It would be nice if ATI and Nvidia would release more documents about their hardware lol

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: slugg
if you dont mind me asking... what do you get with the fireGL mod? higher precision?

I can't get the fireGL softmod to work in XP64, I can not find a script

When someone does hack a script It will allow us to use the FireGL drivers with the HD Radeon 3800 series cards with 64 bit OS (right now it only works with the 32 bit xp driver) , which equates to faster OpenGL performance in those apps that need them. From what I have seen in some other forums I would expect to double the performance.

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
Can 8800 turn into a Quadro?

I did notice lacking performance in viewports compared to 6600GT, well it was better but not by much to the old (AMD3200+ 6600GT)

I used D3D previously now using OGL

Not since the NV45 on the 6800 series.... I still have one of the 512 MB variety, but the 3870 seems to outperform it by a good margin... maybe I'll drop it in for a test spin.


Firewolf: I had several 7800 series cards; Rivatuner could change the name of the card, but the quadro drivers do not function

 

[Cookie Monster]

RV670 cards whether fireGL or radeon does indeed perform very well in workstation environments compared to the Geforce counterparts. (i think its mainly because of the drivers)

But in the workstation market, the quadro's are overall better performers still (its really close nowadays unlike back couple of years ago). I do think however that the R6x0 architecture can flex more of its potentially untouched arithmetic power or "320 ALUs" in those fields compared to the 3d apps where other various factors come into play e.g texture.

Heres a review of the current highend workstation cards
Quadro FX5600 1.5GB vs FireGL V8650 2GB