ati 3870 512mb vs 8800gt

[disruptfam]

Hey guy's

How much slower is the 3870 compared to the 8800gt?

I want to purchase one for a htpc for light gaming...

I see the 3870 is cheaper...

Cheers guys!

[Zytek_Fan]

The 3870 is supposed to have an edge in image quality, and it doesn't have the awful screamer fan. 3870 also runs cooler, due to it's dual slot cooling.

The 8800GT does have an FPS lead, but overall, the market is starting to shift from the "uber FPS" obsession to image quality.

It's really up to you and how much you want to spend.

[tbone8ty]

I want to purchase one for a htpc for light gaming...

you answered your own question. hd3870 is a perfect choice for what your looking for. 8800gt doesnt even compare.

[zanzabar]

the 3870 is faster than the gt when its oced compared to a gt thats oced, and in crossfire its better in stock and oced + dx10.1 support for future computability

[Sparky]

Now the question is... can you find either of them

[hstuehmeyer2000]

the 3870 is faster than the gt when its oced compared to a gt thats oced, and in crossfire its better in stock and oced + dx10.1 support for future computability

the hd3870 is not as fast as the 8800gt when oced but it is still a good card

[Rollo]

The 3870 is supposed to have an edge in image quality, and it doesn't have the awful screamer fan. 3870 also runs cooler, due to it's dual slot cooling.

The 8800GT does have an FPS lead, but overall, the market is starting to shift from the "uber FPS" obsession to image quality.

It's really up to you and how much you want to spend.

Care to tell me how the 3870 can have an edge in image quality when:
1. The AF on the 3870 is not angle independent, and the AF on the 8800GT is?
2. The 8800GT has better AA modes? (i.e. no blur inducing "tent" modes) Not to mention the 8800GT is faster, so it's more likely a user will be able to use more AA.

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/3870-XXX/index.php

The other factor to consider here is the 3870s have gone up in price, so now you can get a 8800GT for less, and it will outperform the 3870 in almost every game and offer better IQ while doing so.

[Scubar]

I would wait until the 256MB 8800GT is released. Its alot cheaper and absolutely crushes the 3850Pro in performance. I havent seen it compared against the 3870XT but im pretty certain it will be extremely close to it in terms of performance.

[disruptfam]

cheers fellaz....

The due to high demand of the 8800gt the price has gone way up!!

The 3870 is about $80 cheaper...so i'ma go with the 3870

Should go well with my e6750 and abit ab9 pro

[BOBDOLER]

It's not only the high demand pushing the 8800GT way up it's the fact that it's rumored to only be produced about an 1/8 as much as the 3800's this year due to Nvidia production problems.

Most of the 3800's though will be the 50's, never the less the 3870's should be 2 to 3 times more available this year.

[Rollo]

cheers fellaz....

The due to high demand of the 8800gt the price has gone way up!!

The 3870 is about $80 cheaper...so i'ma go with the 3870

Should go well with my e6750 and abit ab9 pro

This isn't true. MSRP on the 8800GT is $250. At newegg, they have eight 8800GTs within $50 of MSRP, and two within $20.. Note one brand is in stock.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...me=Video+Cards

For 3870s, they have six, all out of stock, all priced $50 over what they were a week ago at $269.. (they were $219) There's little difference in the pricing, and the 8800GTs offer higher performance and image quality.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...me=Video+Cards

[Rollo]

It's not only the high demand pushing the 8800GT way up it's the fact that it's rumored to only be produced about an 1/8 as much as the 3800's this year due to Nvidia production problems.

Most of the 3800's though will be the 50's, never the less the 3870's should be 2 to 3 times more available this year.

I'm a member of NVIDIA's focus group, I know of no production problems, only high demand.

The 3870 actually had a production defect though:
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/13685

Instead, an industry source tells us the cards are hard to come by because of a supply problem with Radeon HD 3870 boards stemming from a bad resistor. If all goes as expected, the issue should be resolved early next week, at which point Radeon HD 3870 cards should become available in volume once again.

So, buyer beware on 3870s.

[ChaosMinionX]

I'm a member of NVIDIA's focus group, I know of no production problems, only high demand.

The 3870 actually had a production defect though:
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/13685


So, buyer beware on 3870s.

No problems here on 3870s, first report I have seen of a bad resistor though...

[disruptfam]

This isn't true. MSRP on the 8800GT is $250. At newegg, they have eight 8800GTs within $50 of MSRP, and two within $20.. Note one brand is in stock.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...me=Video+Cards

For 3870s, they have six, all out of stock, all priced $50 over what they were a week ago at $269.. (they were $219) There's little difference in the pricing, and the 8800GTs offer higher performance and image quality.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...me=Video+Cards

Mate i don't know where you live but i live in Australia and obviously pricing may defer maybe i should of mentioned that but it is in my avatar...

The 3870 is up $80-$100 cheaper than the gt in Aus

[Rollo]

Mate i don't know where you live but i live in Australia and obviously pricing may defer maybe i should of mentioned that but it is in my avatar...

The 3870 is up $80-$100 cheaper than the gt in Aus

Ah, didn't notice. You're right, I live in the US, where pricing on these cards is similar even though performance isn't.

[disruptfam]

Ah, didn't notice. You're right, I live in the US, where pricing on these cards is similar even though performance isn't.

no worries mate...

I have ordered a his 3870 for $350aud not to bad

cheers all

[malvindo]

Mate i don't know where you live but i live in Australia and obviously pricing may defer maybe i should of mentioned that but it is in my avatar...

The 3870 is up $80-$100 cheaper than the gt in Aus

nice
what brand u bought?
overclock report n temp pls
heard that 3870 hot when overclock, hopefully urs can achieve 870-890

[Inteleron]

Dont forget the Gaymonda chips on the 8800GT suck for Oc'ing

[Rollo]

Dont forget the Gaymonda chips on the 8800GT suck for Oc'ing

1. Gaymonda? What's that?
2. GT cores OC well:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...nce/page18.asp
600>694 is a decent OC for a video card, IMO.
3. A stock GT is pretty much on par with an OCd 3870, so you're still better off.
4. you can buy several kinds of factory OCd GTs, which are warranted OCs- always better that way.


I don't get your post- if the 3870 can't compete with the GT, "better OCing" is kind of a moot point.

[Sniper]

Why do most guys with a NVidia shirt on fail to realize that we dont take it too seriously when they claim superiority of a NVidia product over ATI

[disruptfam]

I got the HIS brand

[AFG34]

if your gonna do light gamming, then i suggest the 3850

[Rollo]

if your gonna do light gamming, then i suggest the 3850

Wise buyers will hold out for two weeks and buy 256MB 8800GTs, which slaughter 3850s in performance, and are on par with 3870s for the most part.

http://en.expreview.com/?p=64

This is the reason AMD is announcing price cuts on the 3850s and 3870s-
it's the only way they can sell cards with the 8800GTs as competition.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/d...0_Pricing.html

So the question becomes:
Do you want the card they have to slash the price of to sell, or the better card?

You get what you pay for.

[malvindo]

Why do most guys with a NVidia shirt on fail to realize that we dont take it too seriously when they claim superiority of a NVidia product over ATI

meaning???

i just moved from nvidia to ATI, the most significant improvement was Image Quality

so most ppl said was true abt the image quality thing
very noticeable from my eye point of view (i am not sensitive 1, but still very noticeable difference in image quality)

[BOBDOLER]

lmao rollo you fanboys are a sad bunch, since you brought up Expreview as a source though how about mentioning the

8800GT SLI vs 3870 Cross were the 3870's came out on top

AMD dropping the prices? Are you joking? Word is AMD has actually raised the prices for the next coming batches of 3800's, rumor has it Nvidia isn't going to be able to produce as nearly as many of the G92's this year as ATI

click here

QUOTE "The funny thing about launch events is that now you have reps from companies that ship both Nvidia and ATI parts and those partners are openly stating where problems lie. It is pretty interesting to hear about very poor allocations for one of the top Graphzilla manufacturers, where the available numbers of parts were 8 to 1 in ATI's favour.

AMD plans to ship around 500,000 units of Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 by the year's end, with the accent on single-slot 3850. According to orders, there should also be a substantial number of 3850s combined with 512MB of memory."




And I have to say I don't even know why 256mb cards in in the discussion as clearly if you are a PC Gamer 256 MBs is really a huge bottle neck even for older games like Oblivion on high (not even including the FAR better texture packs) use more then 256mb's

512 is really a requirement for any gamer interested in the best bang for their buck.

And SLI/Crossfire of two 256mb cards doesn't make much sense either as all of the newer games (within the last 2 years really) will use even more then 512mb's with the high resolutions and AA you get daul GPU's for..


I'd also like to add that when your benchmarking 256mb cards at setting that obviously use more then 256 mbs of ram and you don't list the minimum frames (or better yet some time charts) your benchmarks aren't very useful as while that 256 mb 8800GT looks really good there it doesn't take into account the massive frame dips you get when you go over your vram limit.