QX9650 Air Coolded + 2 ATI 3870 - some 3DMark numbers

[Pedro Rocha]

Ricky is building me a new compact cascade with 2 big rotarys (time to say goodbye to my mini-cascade) so I decide to have some fun with air cooling and 2 unexpensive ATI 3870.

Setup
- QX9650 (not so good air OCer compared to other retails :( )
- Tuniq Tower 120
- Asus Blitz Formula - 8x + 8x 1.1 Pcie
- Corsairs 8500C5 DDR2
- 2 ATI 38700 full stock in CF - around 890-1300
- Gigabyte Odin 850W


First near 23K 2006

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/ATI3870_CF_22794_3DMark06.jpg


Second 30K 2005

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/ATI3870_CF_30067_3DMark05.jpg


Last but no least my favorite game :D

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/AT3870_82803_2001_Stock.jpg

Near 83K with air cooled chip and 2 stock 3870's no so bad

Some driver tweaking and Perf Level = 5 helps, to bad the nature is so depressing low in ATI's

Hope you like, it was fun :ROTF:

[massman]

Excellent Pedro :D

[Gautam]

Very nice Pedro.

I had hopes that they would fix the nature issues in the 3870, but it seems like instead they've just taken a step backward compared to the 2900XT. :(

[George_o/c]

Yeah that Nature is awfully bad on ATIs ... I can tell that from my experience with them ... :p:
Nevertheless the results are amazing Pedro :up:, however it would be nice seeing these two little devils performing a lot better after some modding huh ? :D Then you can bench them with the yorkie on cascade, thus we are talking about 90k 3D 01 maybe ? ... 'Cause first one is Gaidlin with a 9650 @ 5Ghz and 2 of 'em @ 877/1250 ... :confused: How can that be possible ? Are your 3870s factory o/ced ?

[eva2000]

Nice.. lovely QX9650 too :)

[Pedro Rocha]

Are your 3870s factory o/ced ?


No, no at all they are in fact most cheap 3870 sold here, it is just matter of upgrade the bios in order to avoid the "862 core limit" - check this thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166334

These ATI 3870's are very easy to OC and dont produce to much heat..

Yeh the Nature are even worst the 2900XT but the rest are good, also 2005 / 2006 seems quite nice ;)

[George_o/c]

No, no at all they are in fact most cheap 3870 sold here, it is just matter of upgrade the bios in order to avoid the "862 core limit" - check this thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166334

Aaaa of course ... For a minute I forgot this specific "limit" of the 3870 ... I've read about it in a forum here in Greece, but ... I'm trying to break 36sec 1M SPi with my Northy @ 3850MHz, and I'm kind of dizzy ... I've had several BSODs ... grrr :bsod: :hammer: :D

[nachthymnen]

What's the batch of your 9650?

Mine is similar as your:
This is with liquidcooling:
http://www.pctunerup.com/up/results/_200712/20071216202710_17834copy.jpg

With Tuniq I need around 1,63V for 4500mhz 3d'06:rolleyes:

[RockfordFosgate]

Hmm nice score.Nice Qx9650 too;)

[Pedro Rocha]

What's the batch of your 9650?

Mine is similar as your:
This is with liquidcooling:

With Tuniq I need around 1,63V for 4500mhz 3d'06:rolleyes:

Here is mine

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/QX9650PhotoCPU.jpg

My retails seems worst air cooled than yours (or I'm a bad overclocker than you).

As Hipro5 demonstrate batch numbers does not mean to much...

The only way to find a golden CPU is to use the Andre / Vince method :D

[SF3D]

Nice scores on air Pedro!

Your cpu seems to be a bit better than mine. There's only a minor difference in performance between your 3870CF and my 2900CF.

[Pedro Rocha]

Today I tested the same ATI 3870 in a Asus Maximus Extreme - X38 - DDR3

QX9650 also air cooled, of course

As you will see the gains of 2 x 16 PCIe 2.0 seems quite obvious, here are the results:

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/23104_3DMark06_3870Stock.jpg

23.104 Marks 2006 1st atempt and with less CPU speed - only 4.400Mhz compared to 4.450Mhz on Blitz Formula, the gains in in SM 2.0 and SM 3.0 tests more than compensate the lose of CPU score.

And now 2001, this result really suprise me

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/MaximusExtreme84580_2001AR.jpg

84K - Nature jump from 730 to 799 :shocked: , I think only 2x16X PCIe 2.0 (oposite to 2x8X PCIe 1.1) can explain this gain :)

I'm tempeted to put this motherboard on the mini-cascade to see how far can go the 2 3870 stock cards ;)

[loc.o]

Nice results Pedro. Nature 2001 likes 2x16 :D Same clocks/settings Commando vs Maximus gained me just over 100fps.

[Extera]

Nice scores, what are your system mem speeds and timings?

[Pedro Rocha]

Same CPU speed (4.550Mhz air cooled), same 3870's speed (stock cooler) just better tweaking, here is the result

http://pedrorocha.planetaclix.pt/ATI_3870_85698_Stock.jpg

Most of 3870 discovered, I will put CPU again on mini-cascade this weekend, let's see how far this cheap cards go ;)

[Norz]

Very nice Pedro.

I had hopes that they would fix the nature issues in the 3870, but it seems like instead they've just taken a step backward compared to the 2900XT. :(

What should be "normal" for nature at this clock????
Heres a test i did yesterday, only tweak lod +4.8

EDIT: correct pic:p:

http://bildr.no/thumb/132444.jpeg (http://bildr.no/view/132444)

[Syz`]

Great scores Pedro.

What I want to know is WHY the hell the drivers for these cards are so appauling??

My results are pretty awful at the moment - only a 2k increment from single card to Crossfire. :mad:

[VictorWang]

hmmm...I'll play watercooling qx9650+aircooling hd3870 cf tonight :D
aiming 24k 06 :D

[pinto]

hmmm...I'll play watercooling qx9650+aircooling hd3870 cf tonight :D
aiming 24k 06 :D

Easy goal Victor: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=170018 :D