[Compare] HD3870 Crossfire vs 8800GT SLI [Archive]

cookerjc

11-24-2007, 09:31 AM

To read each game/benchmark's detail pls visit here. (http://www.expreview.com/review/2007-11-24/1195902778d7055_11.html)
english short version here (http://en.expreview.com/?p=53)

SLI vs Crossfire:

http://www.expreview.com/img/review/3870cfvs88gtsli/cfsli1.png
http://www.expreview.com/img/review/3870cfvs88gtsli/cfsli2.png

Dual vs Single:

http://www.expreview.com/img/review/3870cfvs88gtsli/slicom1.png
http://www.expreview.com/img/review/3870cfvs88gtsli/slicom2.png

http://www.expreview.com/img/review/3870cfvs88gtsli/cfcom1.png
http://www.expreview.com/img/review/3870cfvs88gtsli/cfcom2.png

Bigchrome

11-24-2007, 10:29 AM

One of the best comparisons I've ever seen!

v_rr

11-24-2007, 10:33 AM

Crossfire-X onfire :D

Where is Shintai? :p

DTU_XaVier

11-24-2007, 10:34 AM

Interesting to say the least... To sum up, Crossfire scales a lot better with the 38xx-cards than SLi does with the GT... But 8800 still has better AA-support... Good news for people looking for a relatively cheap but powerful system on both sides of the fence...

Best Regards :toast:

AliG

11-24-2007, 10:44 AM

agreed, this makes me think there may be hope for the 3870x2 to outperform the dual g92 card

andre X_X

11-24-2007, 10:50 AM

nice test....

Fixxxer

11-24-2007, 11:28 AM

Absolutely excellent!:up:

Nautilius

11-24-2007, 11:43 AM

Excellent compare! Hoorah for ATI! :woot:

Machinus

11-24-2007, 02:31 PM

Thank you!!!

nosboost300

11-24-2007, 03:07 PM

exactly what i've been looking for, thanks for the info :)

my friends in the market of buying 8800gt's or 3870's and this should definitely help him out

vengance_01

11-24-2007, 03:36 PM

That looks very nice. I hope ATI's new R680 is as good as two 3870's in Crossfire or even better:)

Demo

11-24-2007, 06:00 PM

Looks very nice, hopefull this will bring out another graphics price wars!!

victory for consumers!

ReverendMaynard

11-24-2007, 06:19 PM

Brilliant comparisons man.

Omastar

11-24-2007, 07:00 PM

3870 CF looks pretty badass. And wow, imagine that, CF does a lot better in Call of Juarez than SLI. :rolleyes: Not that the designers of COJ has a direct partnership with AMD/ATI (see the "plays best on ATI" label on the game box if you don't believe me). I guess COJ is AMD's little "pet" game that shows Spyder's prowess in the canned benchmark arena.

ReverendMaynard

11-24-2007, 07:21 PM

so I guess it's the same for the Lost Planet "canned" benchmarks?

S1mon-

11-24-2007, 08:56 PM

Crossfire is indeed impressive, but since I can't afford SLI or Crossfire, I am happy with my single 8800GT :)

cloned

11-24-2007, 09:59 PM

i noticed the 3870 takes a huge hit in AA performance compared to the 8800 GT. while the 8800 GT suffers a bit more at higher resolutions than the 3870 when AA is off

if it wasn't for the AA performance i would say it kills the 8800 GT when considering the MSRP

cky2k6

11-24-2007, 10:05 PM

made my 3870cf decision so much easier. i'd wait for the r680, but i already sold my parts, lol...

metro.cl

11-24-2007, 10:05 PM

OS Vista

Mobo X38 vs NF680i

zanzabar

11-24-2007, 10:29 PM

this clearly shows that ati is well on the path to win this round and since they are on intel chipset they can oc with a quad making them the defacto winer

and since both lost planet and COJ are way one sided if u ignore those those cards are dead even, and how dose ati win on QW i though that thats a shader limiting game thats amazing performance from ati

LagunaX

11-24-2007, 11:49 PM

Cookerjc: did you see this thread? It seems so easy to do. Oh well, I already ordered my 8800gt from dell today...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166908

The0men

11-25-2007, 12:51 AM

Crossfire certainly has potential, and scales far more efficiently than SLI. Crossfire clearly has the win, although I think in terms of single cards the GT would win.

cstkl1

11-25-2007, 01:07 AM

hmm when u guys do a 8800gt sli
i have some issue with it..

its different from the g80 core sli.

The Nemesis

11-25-2007, 05:27 PM

Awesome comparison. Though I do plan to go crossfire since no nvidia offer will likely handle overclocking a Quad core or higher, again I'd like to point out the the operating system used was windows vista. As most of you know, 3DMark06 scores significantly lower in Vista than XP with Nvidia. Not sure about ATI. I'd like to see results ran on win xp. Especially since it's rumored that winxp sp3 has performance boosts.

Scimitar

11-26-2007, 05:46 AM

Totally sweet comparison!!! Thanks a lot man. It looks like Nvidia is the way to go for single card and ATI for multi card.

newls1

11-26-2007, 05:55 AM

Jon Boy Deluxe

11-26-2007, 06:15 AM

cookerjc you are my new hero :) ok, maybe a touch o.t.t but that is interesting information.

I've been torn between keeping my GT or getting CF, this pretty much swayed me as I'm finally moving to vista in the near future and the cards are pretty even.

Now where to find 3870's in stock and not overpriced...

Turrican

11-27-2007, 10:20 AM

nice comparison, thx :toast:

malik22

11-27-2007, 10:46 AM

How about in crysis does crossfire also scale better?

vengance_01

11-28-2007, 04:55 PM

Great review, I would love to see some O/Ced 3850's match the stock 3870's. At 179$ for two it would be a steal. Also would be great to throw in a single 8800Ultra as well.

hstuehmeyer2000

11-28-2007, 06:07 PM

Aivas47a

11-28-2007, 06:21 PM

Great review bro, thanks! :up:

I'm really excited to see cf performing so nicely as I am NEVER buying another Nvidia chipset.

GAR

11-28-2007, 07:39 PM

I tried a single 3870 and boy was this card crap, my 8800GT trounced it in every game.....cant speak for crossfire as i havn't tried it yet.

EvilBellyLint

11-28-2007, 09:19 PM

I tried a single 3870 and boy was this card crap, my 8800GT trounced it in every game.....cant speak for crossfire as i havn't tried it yet.

LMFAO,,, wow bro. Don't think I've ever seen anyone so
emotionally attached to defending his video card choice
as you have been since these 38XX's arrived.

You must really be fighting that feeling of buyer's remorse
each time you see a tiny bit more of the huge untapped
potential these ATI cards have :rofl: :ROTF: :rofl:

EBL

malik22

11-30-2007, 08:44 AM

Ati scales very well in crossfire how about at a lower res will it scale there too?

cepoi

11-30-2007, 08:54 AM

nice test. thanks for ur info m8

Bobsama

11-30-2007, 09:41 AM

I'd like to see 8800GT 256 in SLI v. HD3850 CF. That would also be interesting.

Anyways--nice review.

cookerjc

11-30-2007, 06:43 PM

sorry guys no crysis comparison is because at first we run a small test and find out there's about 20% boost with 8800GTX SLI.

http://en.expreview.com/?p=19
here is the 20% boost :(

But while we runing this comparison in both SLI and CF there is not boost at all. We can not figure out it is a game/hardware/driver problem so we just drop this game.

cky2k6

12-01-2007, 10:03 AM

hmm... thats unfortunate. hopefully with patches/new drivers, cf and sli will work. do you know if cf works with 2900xt? if it does, then maybe its a driver issue.

Sam__

12-01-2007, 10:17 AM

wow....great comparison....didnt think they'd be that close

MrWizard6600

12-01-2007, 06:37 PM

Looks very nice, hopefull this will bring out another graphics price wars!!

victory for consumers!

you know it wont. This is just unfortunatly going to be seen by us insiders :(, unless of course ATI makes this into a big lathering deal (which they should), but they wont.

MrWizard6600

12-01-2007, 06:47 PM

Im actually impressed with AMD/ATi! I think I will purchase 2 3870's and a maximus formula motherboard to have them both @ 16x speeds, and still retain my DDR2...... Should be a nice improvement from my single 8800GTS 640

yeah! well i mean Im thinkin the same thing.

I love my 680i board (edit: sorry at [H] my system specs are in sig but not here, so here they are: EVGA 680i A1, E6300 @ 3.52GHz, 2 Gigs DDR2 ballistix @ 1006Mhz, 8800GTS 640mb) but the heat management is REALLY becoming an issue! Im sure thins thing can do 2050 FSB stable (it posts under 2150 for christs sake!) except for the simply MASSIVE amount of heat the NB puts off when I run those speeds at the voltages needed! fook! I really wanna WC cept for the $$$ needed! (edit: also im runnig P29... i cant find a mofoin new floppy to run the damn bios flasher... and the softwares horribad, like hell ima use that).

X38/P35 looks to be able to put out simply insane speeds, while running that memory controller [nb] at a reasonable temp. that, coupled with the fact that the HD 3870 performs on par with my 8800GTS 640mb (yeah I know I havn't looked at it that way but I should) and comes at a much lower price point means I could jump to X38, and two HD3870s with minimal cost included. I would get the higher OC, and more GPU performance!

Should I pull the trigger? what do you guys think, as an X-mas present to myself: Water Cooling or swap for a P35 (I DONT like this whole 4 and 16 pcie crossfire but asus has that crosslinx) or X38 and two HD 3870s?

Spoudazo

12-01-2007, 08:46 PM

a single 3870 is an improvement over an 8800gts

If you don't like anti-aliasing. :p:

MrWizard6600

12-02-2007, 01:31 AM

yo cookerjc

your not some raving ATI fanboy are you? because Im still shell shocked by this.

malik22

12-02-2007, 03:36 AM

cookerjc could you do crysis on all high and all veryhigh to see which cards scale better in this game.

Jon Boy Deluxe

12-02-2007, 05:00 AM

You might want to read the driverheaven review (http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/3870-XXX/cfbad.php) if you are contemplating using CF... Pay special attention to 'The Bad' and 'The Ugly' section - usual driver issues with multi gpu configurations.

A single GT will deliver consistent performance and is better than the 3870 (but costs a little more).

Crossfire doesn't seem to be as supported as sli. I cancelled my 3870's, I want hassle free gaming without having to wait for drivers to take advantage of CF...

Both decent cards it really depends on your needs.

Roll on '08 and the D9E...

L7R

12-02-2007, 06:46 AM

cookerjc,
Could you test crysis crossfire performance on XP with Crysis hotfix drivers (uninstall previous cat's first!) and retail crysis? There should be big boost compared to single card setup or SLI according to this: http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/showpost.php?p=7637670&postcount=1255

lazy

12-05-2007, 11:07 AM

Nice review CookerJc,

this answers alot of the questions i had when i purchased these cards..
you just made me feel good bout my 3870 x 2 purchase =)

cookerjc

12-05-2007, 06:02 PM

HKPolice

12-05-2007, 11:17 PM

Was this tested in Vista or XP? There are serious issues with SLI and CF in vista....

LaMpiR

12-07-2007, 11:58 AM

One of the best comparisons ever :)

This 3870 in Crossfire rulz :)

Hoping for new results of 8800GTS G92 to possibly replace my 8800GTS 320MB but as i look, probably will go for dual 3870 :)

LaMpiR

12-07-2007, 12:00 PM

Was this tested in Vista or XP? There are serious issues with SLI and CF in vista....

There are serious issues with everything in Vista :)

labs23

12-08-2007, 02:18 AM

By theory, x-fire has better scalability than SLI... For scalability to work, we need good cards and drivers. And its evident, an 8800GT in single card, outperforms a 3870, but SLI'd 8800GT is behind x-fired 3870...=(

mouawad

12-08-2007, 11:17 PM

i think it's funny how emo attached GT fanboys get so cut up now that they realise their card isn't so mighty after all.

the 38xx series have alot of aces up their sleeves and the performance difference is minimal to none existant at times.

crossfire 3870 is doing me ok ..here's my 20404 06 run in Vista X64

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=4094406

The Nemesis

12-09-2007, 02:00 AM

3870 Crossfire is far superior than any Nvidia SLI offering below the 8800 GTX's, but only when running windows vista. Vista's performance seems lower than xp's when running the same hardware, so most gamers haven't made the switch. Again, I'd like to see a winXP comparison as I'm not sold on grabbing a couple of 3870's just this yet. ;)

Spoudazo

12-09-2007, 06:02 AM

February '08 = Nvidia D9E
:D

Jakko

12-11-2007, 03:04 AM

February '08 = Nvidia D9E
:D

What does that have to do with this thread?

Spoudazo

12-11-2007, 06:22 AM

People comparing a card that's over a year old to a new card from ATI. :p:

jimmyz

12-11-2007, 06:37 AM

People comparing a card that's over a year old to a new card from ATI. :p:

8800 gt was launched the 29 th of october. the 3870 was launched the nov. 15th. that is why they are being compared. quit clogging up the threads with your b.s.

Spoudazo

12-11-2007, 07:47 AM

The 8800gt is a simply refresh of the G80-series, as Nvidia unfortunately has had no reason to release anything better.

IcY18

12-11-2007, 02:23 PM

Same goes with the current 3xxx's they are simply a refresh of the 2xxxx Series to 55nm, ATi just decided to call them a new generation.

Lestat

12-11-2007, 03:02 PM

Same goes with the current 3xxx's they are simply a refresh of the 2xxxx Series to 55nm, ATi just decided to call them a new generation.

a refresh of the cards is not what they are doing.

if they can take a lesser, or supposedly lesser card and make it run nearly neck and neck with their top tier card,, thats a helluva lot more than a refresh of the core.

Spoudazo

12-11-2007, 08:04 PM

And my point still stands, as the 2900xt is a relatively new card as well.

LaMpiR

12-12-2007, 11:44 AM

So, what's it gonna be?
2x3870 or 8800GTS 512?

187(V)URD@

12-12-2007, 03:20 PM

So, what's it gonna be?
2x3870 or 8800GTS 512?

Depends on what resolution you gonna play your games in.

In anandtech review a 8800GT 512MB matches the 8800GTS 512MB in 1900*1200 4xAA resolution. So no point for paying an extra 100$ if you play in 1900*1200 4AA.

So still think the 2x3870 wins in 1900*1200 vs 8800GTS 512MB.

LiViD

12-12-2007, 03:28 PM

It's not just a matter of resolution, it's also a matter of what games the user wants to play. I'm not going to try and blow smoke up anyones' arse, but I see a lot of games being tailored towards Nvidia and SLI. If you are a CoD4 player, I'd recommend the GTS 512MB. CoD4 doesn't take advantage of CrossFire and I learned that the hard way. Research your games first before making the final purchase.

187(V)URD@

12-13-2007, 03:14 AM

I am not gonna buy 400$ cards because of one stupid game :).
For me its resolution that counts.

mouawad

12-13-2007, 03:39 PM

So, what's it gonna be?
2x3870 or 8800GTS 512?

no competition in crossfire supported titles.

Wallboy

12-13-2007, 04:47 PM

So is the verdict that if one wants to go with a dual card setup that dual 3870's are better than dual 8800GT's? Any other benchmarks confirming this?

LiViD

12-13-2007, 06:07 PM

I am not gonna buy 400$ cards because of one stupid game :).
For me its resolution that counts.

Quite the ignorant comment, but however....

It's not just one game, it's a lot of games. MOH: Airborne, Crysis, UT3, Bioshock.. all these games are tailored towards Nvidia.

Fush

12-14-2007, 01:14 AM

zanzabar

12-14-2007, 02:10 AM

Quite the ignorant comment, but however....

It's not just one game, it's a lot of games. MOH: Airborne, Crysis, UT3, Bioshock.. all these games are tailored towards Nvidia.

if it keeps getting too tailored nv will have a lawsuit again like with doom3, but crossfire works in those games and it dose in COD4 since ati put some drivers out, but nv gets sli out quick for new games since they get to code well before ati dose but then again this will also lead to a lawsuit also if it gets out of hand

also as nv unlocks shaders with on those paid off devs games the ati cards will get better frames as they use all of the shaders like in COJ

Fush

12-14-2007, 02:17 AM

anyone got some cod4 bench scores? my google skills are lacking

Newblar

12-14-2007, 02:26 AM

had no idea the 3870's in xfire were even comparable to an SLI gt setup
O_O

The Nemesis

12-14-2007, 02:45 AM

had no idea the 3870's in xfire were even comparable to an SLI gt setup
O_O

In windows vista. Windows xp is a differnt story however.

zanzabar

12-14-2007, 03:02 AM

why do u guys still bother with xp its a dx10 card it should be tested on vista

1st cod 4 bench i found was on toms, but its 975 v680 so the ati cards are at a slight disadvantage and its on toms who gets nv money for their ads but ill keep looking, its within 1-2% so ati wins the price to performance and x38 they should win
http://www.tomshardware.com/de/HD3850-HD3870-8800GT-Crossfire-SLI,testberichte-239891-8.html

Fush

12-14-2007, 04:11 AM

i will be running at 1920x1200, so the gt is kicking ass..

i wonder just how much bus speed difference will affect the outcome on a x38

Wallboy

12-14-2007, 11:27 AM

In windows vista. Windows xp is a differnt story however.

Really? In what way?

LiViD

12-16-2007, 12:19 AM

whats this? i plan on playing alot of cod and i was going to get 2x hd3870.

What source did you get your info from???

My source is my personal experience with having a GTX and 2 x 3870's. The GTX was able to play CoD4 at 1680x1050 16x/16x with no hesitation. The 3870's in Crossfire caused me to reduce my resolution to 1024/1280 before it was playable. I am hoping that this problem is taken care of in Catalyst 7.12. I just recently installed the Multi-GPU patch from M$ and haven't had time to play CoD4. If that fixes the problem, I'll let you know.

DazzXP

12-16-2007, 06:53 AM

tictac

12-19-2007, 09:25 AM

Best review comparison! Thanks... :up:

mouawad

12-25-2007, 09:35 PM

My source is my personal experience with having a GTX and 2 x 3870's. The GTX was able to play CoD4 at 1680x1050 16x/16x with no hesitation. The 3870's in Crossfire caused me to reduce my resolution to 1024/1280 before it was playable. I am hoping that this problem is taken care of in Catalyst 7.12. I just recently installed the Multi-GPU patch from M$ and haven't had time to play CoD4. If that fixes the problem, I'll let you know.

i'm getting avg of 83fps in COD4 4xaa/16xaf 1920x1200 with my 3870's, try the 7.12's they're nice for me in Vista64

malik22

12-27-2007, 01:13 AM

i'm getting avg of 83fps in COD4 4xaa/16xaf 1920x1200 with my 3870's, try the 7.12's they're nice for me in Vista64

Are you using SP1 rc in vista 64?

Blacklash

12-27-2007, 01:20 AM

Good post.

Crossfire works great in my BX2 rig under Vista x64. Also HD 3850s are down to 144usd @ BB in the US.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8636657&st=visiontek&type=product&id=1194053242019

They have HD 3870s for 193usd and they are always OOS. So are the 3850s now :p:

Personally, I really wish Intel had bought ATi instead of AMD.

toddm27

12-27-2007, 05:53 AM

very nice comparison, very well laid out :)

KTE

12-27-2007, 08:23 AM

Very nice, thank you! Just what I was looking for and best of all, excellently laid out for our table searching eyes. :D

All good, especially Xfire scaling and nV AA/AF perf, but this ATi core with AA/AF really does take a monstrous hit. They need these issues resolved and its definitely something integral to the core itself if it hasn't been since R600. I mean -20FPS by 8800GT SLI and nearly -80FPS by 3870 CF!? That is seriously an area needing attention.

Trox

01-04-2008, 01:44 PM

Would be nice if someone compare 3870 with cats 1.12 vs 8800GT lastest drivers.

initialised

01-09-2008, 05:31 AM

Great review bro, thanks! :up:

I'm really excited to see cf performing so nicely as I am NEVER buying another Nvidia chipset.nVidia has shot themselves in the foot by limiting SLi to their motherboards. Having said that, the firing squad (http://firingsquad.com/hardware/nvidia_3-way_sli_performance/page4.asp) show that in some cases SLi can scale close to 100% per card and that the only way to play crysis at 1600x1200 on very high at 30fps is three ultra's.

What I want to know is if xfire wil scale as well with 3 and 4 cards and if there will be x38/x48 boards with xfire(4) capability or if AMD are going to keep it to spider to try and shift phenoms.

lukas69

01-09-2008, 06:31 AM

interesting comparison and also good test

Apokalipse

01-13-2008, 06:46 PM

In windows vista. Windows xp is a differnt story however.I can tell you it's not.
I'm the owner of crossfired 3870's, and I refuse to use Vista.

I've used XP 32 and now on x64 with these cards, and yes, crossfire does make a big difference. You just need to use drivers other than the ones on the CD.

Right now, the crysis hotfix drivers work very well. Even in games other than crysis.

Penguin463

01-22-2008, 01:08 AM

This comparison rocks :D

Should definitely help anyone building a new rig anytime soon

WeStSiDePLaYa

01-23-2008, 10:20 AM

Hmmm.... Kinda makes me consider dropping my 590SLI board and dual 88GT's for the new 790 board and dual 3870's.

chris.y2k.r1

02-13-2008, 12:55 PM

Hmmm.... Kinda makes me consider dropping my 590SLI board and dual 88GT's for the new 790 board and dual 3870's.

THis thread makes me wonder something similar as well..

Newegg has a review of the ASUS L1N64 SLI WS where the reviewer states that he/she put in a crossfire setup and it worked. I didn't think Xfire would work, especially in an Nvidia chipset motherboard... So, is it correct to say that in certain motherboards you can run SLI or Crossfire? Has anyone done this successfully here at site - that anyone knows of?

I would suspect that if it can be done, Asus would be likely to be one of the board makers that support both - intentionally or unintentionally. Anyway, I've always like Nvidia products but I'm a big AMD fan.... Maybe it's time to look at the AMD Chipset boards.