HD 3870 Reviews

It's funny how different results different sites get, I mean in other places 3870 has actually been bit powerhungrier during load than GT

 

Those other sites are using 3dmark06(most likely on defualt settings/1280x1024).

Tech report used Bioshock on DX10, 2560x1600, max in game settings. Now tell me which is a more accurate representation of power draw on load?

 

I find it funny that people measure the power of the whole system when testing the consumption of a card. Totally off.

 

Your point would be valid if the systems were different.

 

Though not perfect, it is still accurate because it involves only 1 variable.

 

How? The systems are the exact same, therefore when you change one component that one component is going to be what effects the results...

 

Actually, they are different. The system used for testing NV cards uses the rather power-hungry 680 chipset, whereas the system for ATi cards uses the X38 chipset.

I've fallen into the same trap when using Tech Report power consumption numbers comparing NV cards to ATi cards in the past. I understand why they do it (to enable SLI and Crossfire) but for single card comparisons they really should use the same mobo.

 

Suppose the drivers on one card use more CPU time, boosting the power needed by the CPU? Suppose one card chucks more heat into the case meaning fans speed up, or PSUs become less power efficient?

If you want to measure the power used by the card in this way, you need to be sure that nothing else changes at all, including several other components that dynamically change their power requirements.

Preferably, you need to measure the power coming from the PCIe slot and the PCIe power connectors.

 

The problem with Tech-Report's power consumption results is that they picked a test where the 8800GT is substantially faster.

That means the video card, CPU, RAM, chipsets, etc. are all doing 25% more work. Not exactly a fair comparison. This is odd because TR is pretty thorough about this aspect when doing power consumption tests with CPUs.

For idle power, however, it's pretty unanimous that the 3870 consumes less. I personally think that's more important as long as your system doesn't crash under load. Peak power is more of an academic curiosity for gaming machines.

 

This is shameful article for B3D! Not only does author made some ridiculous assumptions (noise level of HD3850 card) at the end he's forwarding us to some more ridiculous reviews! TR's review is another disappointment! That bloody writing is so shallow, and it's clear it was more important for author to run bunch of cards in ridiculous high resolutions for this mid-range class, then trying to explain reasons, ways and implications of RV670 design…
BTW
HD3850 is death silent card!

 

Any sites testing XP with these? It still seems to be the gamers OS-o-choice.

 

hmm just found a 3870 for £139 inc VAT, compared to cheapest 512mb 8800GT of a decent brand of £170, £31 saving is well worth the performance difference for a Crossfire board owner (the £12 difference on OCUK isn't though)

 

Price, availability, performance near enough... I'm really tempted by the HD 3870. The current prices on 8800GT's have made me really shy to pull the purchase trigger, so the 3870 is a really tempting product.

 

Well if you're thinking of getting an 8800GT, I would seriously get one soon. Methinks they're gonna be awful hard to find in the not too far distant future.

I really liked the 3870, that new tweaker utility they have for it is really sweet and the performance/price ratio is right there for me. The lower power consumption is just sort of blowing my mind, you can really get away with crossfiring a pair on like a 550w PSU easy.

 

I don't recall seeing this posted

HD 3870 X2

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/593/1/

 

Yeah it was posted earlier somewhere around here. Looks sexy.

 

Well Digi, the thing is, is that I wasn't even sure I needed a 8800GT. I know, shocker! I'm pretty damn happy with my X1950 Pro to be honest, and the way my gaming has been going lately I could honestly care less and less about graphics. That's probably why the HD 3870 is looking so attractive to me right now though, it's at a really great price point.

 

What I find most interesting with the current releases is the constant mention that Multimonitor while Crossfire is enabled will be available in drivers in the near future.

Now, if they also come up with a more elegant solution to multi-GPU rendering (just the though of the latency involved in 4 card AFR makes me shudder) and I just might think about trying Crossfire again.

If HD 3850 manages to drop to 150 USD in December, 2 of those in crossfire would certainly be tempting.

My god, I can't believe I actually just said that Crossfire is tempting. Someone kill me already.

Regards,
SB

 

Lots of places selling the 3870 at 219 dollars while the gt is out of stock and selling abovr mrsp.

 

Hehe, that's what lower prices do to the mind-set!