3800's

[Imsochobo]

the ati cards are better specced than nvidia's at every point except texture something, cannot remember the name, ati had 16 while nv had 84 or somewhere around there.

 

But nvidia got better drivers, no doubt.

[green-man]

im very happy with my new 3870, to me its like an improved 1900xtx.

 

most things seem to run slightly better on the 3870 @ 1920x1200, not loads but noticable.

 

one thing i hav noticed that the image qual is better in sum games. in medivalII the 3d map is more detailed, for example the sanddunes used to look flatter & less 3d, now the are much more pronounced.

 

so far i hav found a few issues with ccc, the autotune button buggers up my OS, not sure it thats just on my 64bit OS or 32bit also?

 

the only other thing ive notaced wrong is while playing games i get funny silver looking lines where the polygons meet on walls etc. it happens in different games not just one, so hopefully it will get sorted out in the next copple of catalyst drivers.

[Imsochobo]

angry games lots means 500 NOK In usd. about 100 usd, thats like how it is in UK.

[Angry_Games]

the ati cards are better specced than nvidia's at every point except texture something, cannot remember the name, ati had 16 while nv had 84 or somewhere around there.

 

they are? Where do you get this information? Please link us so we can read it.

[custom_coms]

Just installed my new 8800GT from eVGA last night. It came stock clocked out of the box, immediately overclocked it, sitting at 700 core/1674 shaders/950 memory, with a fan speed of 74% set in rivatuner (any higher and you get that annoying whine associated with small fans), 30 minutes stable in ATITool and 2+ hours in Crysis.

 

Temps: 48-49C at idle (compared with 54 at idle with my GTS at 100% fan speed), load 70 degrees max on ATITool (compared with 74 load on my GTS overclocked to 612 core/1500 shaders/900 memory), 68 in Crysis. My cpu is also idling 2 degrees cooler, and load temps on the cpu are down 2 degrees as well. My opinion is this is a relatively cool running card if you can move enough air over it-cooler even then my crappy 6600GT.

 

Gaming: Still playing Cryis on medium settings like my 8800GTS 320mb, but I'm further into the game (where the graphics get even more ridiculous), and she is noticeably smoother. I would virtually guarantee the 8800GTS has to drop to low outside with the aliens (this is also confirmed by a hardocp review that basically states that even the 8800GT has to drop some settings to low at the final levels to keep frames playable).

 

Installation woes: My only issue is this card IS longer than a GTS-its design covers 2 of 4 SATA ports on my Ultra-D if installed in the top slot, so I have it installed in the bottom slot for the time being. The issue is I am only getting a 8x link, and the limited information I have suggests a 16x link is needed for full bandwidth and performance on this card (the 8800 series cards, and probably the HD3800 series cards, are the only ones out that appear to use every once of bandwidth you can feed them in certain applications). Looking into getting some 90 degree SATA cables to maybe snake in under there (TIGHT fit, but this card is a tight fit to begin with).

[red930]

Well my Gigabyte M61P-S3 board lost 2 memory slots (DIMMS 1&2) so I replaced it with the Infinity NF570SLI-M2 and also replaced the 36GB Raptor with a 150GB Raptor.

 

For some strange reason my 3DMark scores went way down - 3DMark06 went from 9769 to 7883.

I reinstalled the 7.11 Crysis patched drivers, reinstalled DX9 and all the updates from MS, even played around with the PCIe settings in the BIOS but no change.

 

Doesn't seem to effect Crysis though.

This afternoon I decided to see how it played on my Samsung HDTV at 1080i using the HDMI adaptor that came with the HD3850.

Awesome.

I was still showing 30+ fps at that resolution on medium settings, noAA and with the eye candy mod done in the program files.

As a matter of fact I finished the game.

 

The way it ends leaves no doubt that there will be a sequel since it just kind of leaves you hanging.

 

Now I'm gonna go back and play it all again :nod:.

 

eb

[red930]

Here's a couple of screenies I did last night.

 

Click on the picture to see full 1080i - 1920x1080 res.

 

 

 

Not bad detail for a $180 video card.

 

eb

[powsmowl]

awesome screens bill, im guess theyre both crysis?

[Guest r3d c0m3t]

I finally worked up the courage to flash the 3870's BIOS file, and all went well, although I had to force the flash....the beside the initial problem.

 

The problem being whilst I can overclock further than 865MHz without the screen going black, anything over this is anything but stable. I've tried RivaTuner's low-level overclocking and that didn't work. I've tried the normal CCC overdrive settings, and that didn't work either.

 

The farthest I can come to is 860MHz/1286MHz. I haven't bothered to overclock the memory any further, but as I see it the 010.071 version BIOS might give better OC headroom, but until such third-party software natively supports overvolting and such, flashing the BIOS is a waste.

[Guest element]

Good results people. I ended up with a 2900Pro. It's in the mail still. Went for it because I don't care about the heat/power draw. And it's marginally faster than the 3850. There was a good price drop over here (New Zealand) so it only cost me 277NZD.

[momoceio]

3870 is faster than the 2900 pro? Since when? From all the tests I've seen the 3870 comes ahead of the 2900XT so I don't see how the 2900 Pro would beat it...unless you meant the 3850 and that would be close.

[Guest element]

3870 is faster than the 2900 pro? Since when? From all the tests I've seen the 3870 comes ahead of the 2900XT so I don't see how the 2900 Pro would beat it...unless you meant the 3850 and that would be close.

 

Ah yes my bad 3850. The XT ( which most Pros exceed nicely in OC') I superior as you pile on the IQ/Rez.