ATI 3870 thoughts

[ScSiDaN]

Has anyone got comments on the Asus 3870 or just the 3870 in general. I want to know if one can flash this card’s bios. I bought it thinking that it is the ATI answer to the Geforce 8800 Ultra or at least the GTX. Has anyone got a Crossfire board and the extra 3870 card? How does it really perform? One can read the benchmarks on the net but has anyone got it working. I am thinking of finally breaking my ATI allegiance and making my next card an nVidia. Since the AMD buy out neither company has done anything to excite me. ATI used to always have an answer to nVidia but this 3870 I bought is nothing but an update from my previous card, the 2900 XT. In-fact in some games like TES Oblivion, my 2900 outperform my new card. Does anyone feel the same? ATI should give me my money back, I feel.

[Cold Storm]

Our modding thread (ttp://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=48544)
thats all you can find on moding the card right now... its a great card, I love it. Its a big difference in my 1650pro.... and you can play everything on max! but just use riva tuner...

[Xaser04]

and you can play everything on max!

Unless you play crysis or like high levels of AA. :)

[uber_cookie]

Some advanced tweaks in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. like HDR lightning and blur effects set to more then defaults the graphics card lags... while 2900 XT performs well.
3870 is a good card, keep in mind 3800's are mid range card line unlike 2900's

[Cold Storm]

Unless you play crysis or like high levels of AA. :)

nope.. no problem here... then again I have a volt mod and a bios flash. So there is a difference there... But, the link I posted shows you how to do those things... And this weekend I'll have the G core and V core mod...
Its a great card. I'm happy as can be with it..
Crysis depends on graphics yes, but also how fast your computer goes.. Mine is a 1.3gh. oc at 3.4.. Big difference there... vista ultimate loads in under a min.

[trog100]

cold storm dont mind laggy frame rates.. this has been said before.. jumping from a 1650 pro to a 3870 is bound to impress anybody.. laggy frame rates have been their world for quite some time..

sorry dude.. the 3870 is a nice card and it uses half the power a 2900 does.. but lets not pretend it plays crysis propery on high.. no singe card does.. in fact two 3870 cards dont.. i have tried em..

also my amd 6000+ played the game exactly the same as my intel system does so we can forget cpu power playing much of a part..

trog

ps.. and thats without AA..

[mikek75]

Ah yes Trog, but you sold your second 3870 before the Crysis patch which addresses Crossfire performance came out.

[Xaser04]

nope.. no problem here... then again I have a volt mod and a bios flash. So there is a difference there... But, the link I posted shows you how to do those things... And this weekend I'll have the G core and V core mod...
Its a great card. I'm happy as can be with it..
Crysis depends on graphics yes, but also how fast your computer goes.. Mine is a 1.3gh. oc at 3.4.. Big difference there... vista ultimate loads in under a min.

Crysis is heavily GPU limited (especially at high quality settings) so clocking your cpu won't do much for your framerate (if anything).

The HD3870 suffers when running AA simply due to its design (ie it has to use its shaders to perform the AA rather than dedicated hardware (MSAA) like in the 8800 GPU) - This is not to say it can't run high levels of AA it just can't do it as well as say a 8800GT.

[trog100]

Ah yes Trog, but you sold your second 3870 before the Crysis patch which addresses Crossfire performance came out.

it wasnt just the crysis factor that made me sell it.. i did sell my second card a while back u are correct..

out of curiosity.. does the patch improve things by much.. ???

trog

[mikek75]

Seems a little smoother, but I think multi GPU setups benefit the most, since they weren't supported at the start. I play on DX9 all high (not v.high) at 1440x900 and get 35FPS Average in the benchmark, seems smooth enough to me so far.....Although I'm still in the early stages cos I'm absolutely shit at games, LOL! Half the time I only buy 'em to see if they'll run, then I get bored. Sad eh?

[Cold Storm]

Crysis is heavily GPU limited (especially at high quality settings) so clocking your cpu won't do much for your framerate (if anything).

The HD3870 suffers when running AA simply due to its design (ie it has to use its shaders to perform the AA rather than dedicated hardware (MSAA) like in the 8800 GPU) - This is not to say it can't run high levels of AA it just can't do it as well as say a 8800GT.

All right I get where your coming from.. I did see a difference when running at stock core speed and oc speed... but I think its because I did everything at once... OCed the card and the core.

[jammy86]

yawn yawn yawn... crisis this, crisis that.... Fact is that the proper drivers arent actually released yet and so getting the actual performance of the card is probably not going to happen for a few more weeks. I'm not saying your going to get any FPS higher, but I think it shall have an impact on the card as a whole and should be taken into consideration.

JAmes