HD3870 - Differences in build quality?

[Nosada]

Hello all,

I'm in the market for a set of HD3870's to Crossfire. When buying ATI, I've always bought Sapphire/Powercolor cards so far, and have had no reason to regret it. Reading up on several brands however, I've come to notice some of them have small differences, like solid state capacitors.

Is there, at the moment, any specific brand considered to be leading the pack when it comes to build quality or the use of better components?

In short: which brand is worth it's price premium over the others?

Regards,
Nos

[AphexDreamer]

While I always thougth that if you were going to get an ATI card, get one by Sapphire and if you are going to get an Nvidia card get one by Evga.

[kenkickr]

When the Asus 9800 pro was the card to get I had one. Great card til it died 1 year later. Messed with their RMA process and received another one. That died in 3 months. Now I only buy Sapphire, Visiontek, and Gecube. To me Visiontek is the best out of the 3 due to their lifetime warranty but you pay a small price increase for them.

[Jarman]

evga are good with warranty, as are BFG

[AddSub]

I can't recommend GeCube or Apollo VGA. (Same corp, different branches.) Not only do they lie when it comes to the specs of their cards, their cards are of the poorest quality, build-wise. Both GeCube and Apollo VGA have HD3870 cards on the market.

Example #1:

Apollo GeForce 6800 I bought few years ago on Newegg artifacted at stock settings. Once I looked into it I noticed it was not only a card with 128bit bus (unlike all other 6800 cards with 256bit bus) it also had some pixel pipelines locked (it had 9?! vs. normal 12).

Warning: Apollo does have a HD3870 card on Newegg. Caution advised.

Example # 2:

GeCube X800GTO I bought on Newegg few years ago had a loose capacitor out of the box and it had the same bus issues. 128bit instead of 256bit like other X800GTO cards. Also, VRAM was severely underclocked due to the fact the card used poor quality GDDR2.

Warning: GeCube does have a HD3870 floating around and several HD3850 cards on Newegg. Caution advised.

Also, you can look up customer reviews for GeCube 2600XT on Newegg, again they are selling it as a 256bit card when in fact it is 128bit, like all other 2600XT's.

evga are good with warranty, as are BFG

Don't those two make nVidia cards only?

[arctic89]

Sorry for bringing back a semi-old thread but i have to ask.
So GeCube and Apollo use crappy parts from the same place even though they're different corp. branches?

Your right gecube 2600xt listed as 256bit when even the amd hd2600 spec site says 128bit ddr2/gddr3/gddr4 - lies :wtf:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814241064

Looks can be deceiving as the cooler looks pretty nice.


Also found their 3850 pcie, 2 unlucky users or bad quality?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16814241068&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&SelectedRating=-1&PurchaseMark=&VideoOnlyMark=False&Page=2



I'm still planning on getting a hd3850 agp and was waiting for gecube with the dual slot cooler but after finding this thread i might be concerned.

So i guess i should not wait any longer for gecube, powercolor or others and get the saphhire one which is in stock atm on newegg and other e-tailers?

[ShadowFold]

HIS is my favorite ATi brand. GeCube is good, well they used to be atleast but there quality sorta deminished I guess.

[Paulieg]

HIS is my favorite ATi brand. GeCube is good, well they used to be atleast but there quality sorta deminished I guess.

As far as I'm concerned, HIS is the best in ATI cards, specifically the cards with the ICE-Q cooler. BFG, EVGA and XFX are my favorites. XFX is great because you won't void your warranty if you install after market cooling.

[DanishDevil]

As for ATi cards, and 3870s specifically, the Visionteks come with a different than reference cooler which doesn't make contact with one of the memory chips. It uses a bigger fan, and after I got rid of the shit thermal paste and applied some AS5, the puppy never ran above 70C load (vs. 90C with the stock TIM). Diamond seems to use the same cooler.

Never owned an HIS, but that's not on purpose. I'd love to own an HIS card.

Your best bet is to get a card that closely mimics the reference design. Go for one of the brands you've heard of (Apollo or GeCube aren't commonly-spoken words like Sapphire and Asus).

Bottom line, get a good deal. Go with anyone mentioned positively here, get a deal on them, and I don't think you will be disappointed.

Good luck, and let us know what you get!

[anticlutch]

I'd recommend Sapphire, and Asus for SURE. I've owned cards by both companies (x800 GTO by Sapphire and a x1950pro by Asus) and both have met, if not exceeded, my expectations. Great build quality, but I know nothing of their customer service as I've never had a problem with my cards.

[arctic89]

The first gpu i've bought was a gigabyte though i havent used it too long and didnt OC on it so im not certain. My current Asus x800pro does exceptionally well as i have unlocked it to 16 pipes @ xtpe speeds and had pencil-mod it too and its still going strong! Also maybe because i paired it with a good psu that gives it plenty of amps and clean volts.

Sapphire seems like the best choice, even though im not a fan of single slot cooler (rather have dual slot blowing hot air out vent) + i don't mind the noise too much. I'll probably get an aftermarket cooler for it later if i do get a sapphy. Thanks for being so informative guys!

[piebobs71]

ive just rma'd my powercolor 3870 as the fan doesn't seem to move ever and the card gets very hot even at idle,so i think i'll stick with sapphire from now on.

[Dop3KinG]

My GeCube 3870 X-Turbo lll oc works perfectly thank you very much:p

[casper250c]

I'm using a Gecube 3870 and it's been perfect from day 1, it overclocks as well as any other on the core and the memory overclocks better than some and scores just as well on benchmarks as any other just look in the 3850/70 3D06 thread I'm #5 in the dual cores with a measly e4500..
Long story short it's been flawless and I plan on getting a 2nd one for crossfire this weekend

[arctic89]

I ordered it yay!
If i just use the 6pin connector that my psu has instead of the 8pin that the agp version needs will it blow up or should i stick it safe and use the 2 molex adapter?

pic
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=14-102-730-07.jpg&Image=14-102-730-03.jpg%2c14-102-730-04.jpg%2c14-102-730-05.jpg%2c14-102-730-06.jpg%2c14-102-730-07.jpg%2c14-102-730-08.jpg%2c14-102-730-09.jpg%2c14-102-730-02.jpg&S7ImageFlag=0&WaterMark=1&Depa=0&Description=SAPPHIRE+Radeon+HD+3850+100228L+Video+ Card

[lemonadesoda]

9800 was a disaster "somewhere" in the fab process. I had 3x Sapphire 9800XT fail. On third return I paid a bit more and got an X800SE which was LOADS FASTER. Obviously not such a great card now, but has been 100% trouble free.

[DanishDevil]

Whether the card will work or not, I would make an adapter. It's fun! I made an adapter for my 3870X2.

Here's the overall view of the card. I use an Enermax Liberty 620W PSU that has two 6-Pin connectors.

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1048/cimg1910editmm2.jpg

I bought a molex to 8-pin adapter at Fry's for $5, and thought I'd be good to go, but got back to find that it was a molex to Xeon 8-Pin connector. That didn't stop me.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4443/cimg1911editza1.jpg

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/1141/cimg1916editst0.jpg

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3753/cimg1912editkf6.jpg

I used the molex connector and one of the ground cables to create my own adapter. The cable goes from a single molex pin to two PCI-E or Motherboard pins. I just pushed the ground pins onto the card connector and it actually fits really well. I sleeved it with UV Orange and heatshrinked it while it was attached to the card so the two pins hold their shape when not connected.

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/6205/cimg1917editbf9.jpg

:toast: DIY baby!

And yes, that second 6-Pin PCI-E connector would be sleeved, but I broke my damn pins on my tool making this connector :) And cut myself a few times trying to shave away an old PCI-E connector and join it to my 6-Pin. This way's easier and looks fine.

[Gam'ster]

Ok im confused ive seen some HD3870's with 8 pin pci-e and some with 6 pin pci-e connectors is that right ?

[sttubs]

The 3870x2 has a 6 & 8 pin connector, the single 3870's only have a 6 pin connector.

[hat]

While I always thougth that if you were going to get an ATI card, get one by Sapphire and if you are going to get an Nvidia card get one by Evga.

What about BFG, XFX, or on the ATi side Powercolor or HIS?

[largon]

To me Visiontek is the best out of the 3 due to their lifetime warranty but you pay a small price increase for them."Lifetime warranty" ends at the moment the card is EOL'ed. And since the lifetime of modern VGAs can be as short as mere months (eg. X1800)...
Lifetime warranty is a bad deal if you ask me.

[trog100]

"Lifetime warranty" ends at the moment the card is EOL'ed. And since the lifetime of modern VGAs can be as short as mere months (eg. X1800)...
Lifetime warranty is a bad deal if you ask me.

interesting definition of "life time".. ??

trog

[Paulieg]

"Lifetime warranty" ends at the moment the card is EOL'ed. And since the lifetime of modern VGAs can be as short as mere months (eg. X1800)...
Lifetime warranty is a bad deal if you ask me.

The truth issue, a lifetime warranty is almost useless to most enthusiasts, as most of us replace our graphics cards every 6 months to 2 years. So, anything over a 2 year warranty is overkill to me, and a marketing ploy.

[Paulieg]

What about BFG, XFX, or on the ATi side Powercolor or HIS?

For my money, BFG, EVGA and XFX are the best. As far as ATI goes, HIS ICE-Q is the best hands down. Sapphire has a known compatibility issue with some brands of monitors. I stay clear of them.

[freaksavior]

What about diamond cards?

[DanishDevil]

Check this (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=51253) thread out. Shows that Visiontek and Diamond both used non-reference coolers in an attempt to make a quieter and cooler 3870 (which neither were accomplished) and they neglected to cover one of the ram chips with the cooler. That alone makes me nervous.

[freaksavior]

i haven't checked mine...i should, i can't oc my mem much.