ATI HD 3800 Review Thread

[mascaras]

Official reviews list

• Tweaktown (Q6600 @ 3GHz; DDR3-1066; Cats Beta)
• VR-zone (QX9650 @ 3GHz; DDR3-1333; Cats 8.43)
• LegionHardware (E6850 @ 3GHz; DDR3-1333; Cats 7.10)
• Anandtech (X6800 @ 2.93GHz; DDR2-800; Cats 7.10)
• HardwareCanucks (Q6600 @ 3.5Ghz; DDR3-1556; Cats 8.44)
• PCPerspective (X6800 @ 2.93GHz; DDR2-1066; Cats Beta)
• HotHardware (QX6850 @ 3GHz; DDR3-1333; Cats 8.43)
• Technic3D (QX6700 @ 3.1GHz; DDR2-800; Cats Beta) [German]
• ChileHardware ( X6800 @ 3.6GHz; DDR2-1000; Cats 7.10) [Spanish]
• ComputerBase (not specified; 3870 only) [German]
• FiringSquad (QX6800 @ 2.93GHz; DDR2-800; Cats 7.10 Press sample)
• Hexus (QX6850 @ 3GHz; DDR3-1066; Cats 7.11 Beta; 3870 only)
• Hardware.fr (QX6850 @ 3GHz; DDR2; Cats 7.10 beta) [French]
• Guru3D ( X6800 @ 2.93; DDR2-1142; Cats 8.43)
• Legit reviews (HD3870 Crossfire)
• Legit reviews (HD3850 Crossfire)
• Oanvoanc Review
  

Official products webpage

450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for dual ATI CrossFireX™)

Please use this thread for new ATI cards discussion. Other threads were removed to keep the forum clean.

[v_rr]

This one is very good:

[Athens[2004]]

why on the last chart [1920X1200] theres no 2900xt results? scores higher than 3870 ?

[Jamesrt2004]

seems to die at higher resolutions
not enough bandwith I guess :S???

althought for some reason it gobbles up DX10 :S??

sucks I wanted to go ATI for once guess 8800GT for me although they will be noisy =[

[S1mon-]

The 3870 does well in Call Of Juarez but that's about it... Wonder if the CF can save the deal

[Shintai]

seems to die at higher resolutions
not enough bandwith I guess :S???

althought for some reason it gobbles up DX10 :S??

sucks I wanted to go ATI for once guess 8800GT for me although they will be noisy =[

They aint noisy. And its BS in the review since 8800GT runs with idle fanspeed to 80C. And needs 90C to run at 100%.

Also all (Cept H maybe) reviews of 8800GT disapproves with the noise.

[JumpingJack]

The 3870 does well in Call Of Juarez but that's about it... Wonder if the CF can save the deal

Which is why, i suppose, it is the only game in the canned benchmark list AMD is allowing for the spider launch ...
http://www.theinquirer.net/articles/...-spider-launch

The tests that DAAMIT has authorised journalists to use are:

PCMark – Vantage
SYSMark’07 – Preview
Windows-Send2CompressedFolder – Vista32-Ultimate
WinRAR (rar-best) – 3.7

iTunes (wav2aac) – 7.4.3
MovieMaker (jpg, EuroVacation) - Vista32-Ultimate
Nero-8 Recode (avi/mpg2, portableAVC) – 8.1.1.0
Nero-8 Recode + Showtime (avi/mpg2, portableAVC) – 8.1.1.0
POV-Ray RTR – 3.7-beta22

3dMark’06 (CPU) – 1.1.0
3dMark’06 (hardware + software) – 1.1.0
Call-of-Juarez (DX-10)

Of course, this is the Inq... take with grain of salt.

[Athens[2004]]

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/AMD_...n%3F/5392.html according to vr-zone review , 3870 is slower than 2900xt ,

3870 leads on crysis & world in conflict.

2900xt leads on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Gears of War ,Unreal Tournament 3 Demo , Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare . XD

[Morais]

Well, AT LEAST the Power Consumption is lower than 2900...

[v_rr]

Well, AT LEAST the Power Consumption is lower than 2900...

And image quality:

Image Quality Comparison

Some people have complained that NVIDIA was cheating in games by leaving out certain details in games and so we decided to put the Radeon HD3870 and NVIDIA's 8800GT to the test.

Screenshots were taken in-game and crops were taken out for comparison. In the first 2 pictures, we can discern a slight difference with the HD3870 giving better tonal range in the glass and at the curved edge, we can see that slightly more detail is rendered on the HD3870 than the 8800GT. In the next set of pictures, we can't discern the differences as easily. There seems to be just that smidgen more detail in the surface of the rocks on the HD3870. In both instances, the differences are very minute and we can't say for sure that they would be noticed in gameplay or how much of a performance impact would be caused.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/AMD_Rade...F/5392-14.html

[DilTech]

And image quality:

Image Quality Comparison


http://vr-zone.com/articles/AMD_Rade...F/5392-14.html

I can definitely say the sand is different due to distance on the image. Look in the upper right hand corner on the ATi image, notice it looks just like the sand on the NVidia picture?

That's just how crysis handles LOD, and in this case the NVidia picture IS taken from further away than the ATi picture. As such, it's possible the other differences are due to the same reasoning.

[Mike EFix]

Those are omissions. . . I mean optimizations

[Leeghoofd]

Aren't those lesser images solved by renaming the exe file ?

[v_rr]

I can definitely say the sand is different due to distance on the image. Look in the upper right hand corner on the ATi image, notice it looks just like the sand on the NVidia picture?

That's just how crysis handles LOD, and in this case the NVidia picture IS taken from further away than the ATi picture. As such, it's possible the other differences are due to the same reasoning.

And what is the justification for the other?

By Vr-zone review:

In the first 2 pictures, we can discern a slight difference with the HD3870 giving better tonal range in the glass and at the curved edge, we can see that slightly more detail is rendered on the HD3870 than the 8800GT.

[takamishanoku]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=119

[DilTech]

Those are omissions. . . I mean optimizations

Not omissions, LOD caused by the distance difference, which is a normal function of pretty much any 3d game in existance. Much like how in Far Cry far away trees turned into 2d sprites? Same basic concept.

They need to do both images from identical distances to judge image quality. It's obvious the nvidia one is zoomed out further because you can see the grass start in the lower right hand corner, and it's obvious LOD is kicking in because the grass isn't rendered as anything but a green patch when anyone playing crysis can tell you nvidia cards DEFINITELY render the grass correctly.

And what is the justification for the other?

By Vr-zone review:

Slightly different coloration. That's about it. Likely caused by the sun not being in an identical spot. Remember, the game does have a day/night cycle, so getting a shot using multiple cards at the EXACT same time of day would be nearly impossible. Look at the brightness of the lighting on the image and you can see this is a possibility. Crysis is one of the toughest games to take comparison shots on due to the day-night cycle.

[v_rr]

Slightly different coloration. That's about it. Likely caused by the sun not being in an identical spot. Remember, the game does have a day/night cycle, so getting a shot using multiple cards at the EXACT same time of day would be nearly impossible. Look at the brightness of the lighting on the image and you can see this is a possibility. Crysis is one of the toughest games to take comparison shots on due to the day-night cycle.

Oh, ok there are lot of coincidences in this world
Curiously in both comparisons the image quality is better on HD 3800.... it´s just starting to have to many coincidences.

[Mike EFix]

I understand the concept of LOD I am just not convinced that is actually what it is. It could just as easily not be rendered correctly. You could be correct but I'll wait of the rest of the reviews before I make up my mind

[DilTech]

Oh, ok there are lot of coincidences in this world
Curiously in both comparisons the image quality is better on HD 3800.... it´s just starting to have to many coincidences.

I'm not saying it's impossible for the hd3800 to have better IQ, I'm saying the water shot is definitely caused by LOD, and there's not enough on the other shot to make the call, especially considering that shot isn't done from the same angle either.

I'd like to see this looked into further, if they can manage to get them at the exact same distance, at the EXACT same time of day. The latter being the difficult part to perform.

[Eastcoasthandle]

Interesting, that's with 169.09 drivers.

[OnLine]

8800GT & HD3870 ss weren't taken from the same horizontal plane, and this will cause the IQ difference.
They should have printed the screen ~0.5s later on the 8800GT, and 8800GT ss would/should have ended up looking like the HD3870 ss.
The sand, the shadows & the reflections.

This IQ compare is useless, done by noobs. Not saying there isn't a IQ difference between the cards in Crysis, but this ss compare is hm useless.

Try Crysis Benchmark_GPU yourself and watch carefully what happens the first 5 seconds!

[S1mon-]

8800GT & HD3870 ss weren't taken from the same horizontal plane, and this will cause the IQ difference.
They should have printed the screen ~0.5s later on the 8800GT, and 8800GT ss would/should have ended up looking like the HD3870 ss.
The sand, the shadows & the reflections.

This IQ compare is useless, done by noobs. Not saying there isn't a IQ difference between the cards in Crysis, but this ss compare is hm useless.

Try Crysis Benchmark_GPU yourself and watch carefully what happens the first 5 seconds!

QFT + Diltech has a point

[Zytek_Fan]

They aint noisy. And its BS in the review since 8800GT runs with idle fanspeed to 80C. And needs 90C to run at 100%.

Also all (Cept H maybe) reviews of 8800GT disapproves with the noise.

Yep. Most sites mention how horrible the 8800GT sounds at full load...of course [H] is missing from that, but they're kinda in the NVIDIA camp...


My conclusion is that the 3870 is a pretty good card for the price. It matches or is beaten by the 8800GT (mostly beaten), but remember this is 2007, almost 2008, I'd hope most of us that are gamers aren't still ape over FPS. True, FPS is important, but image quality is what really matters. I would love to see an image quality comparison from an owner of both cards here

[v_rr]

True, FPS is important, but image quality is what really matters. I would love to see an image quality comparison from an owner of both cards here

Same here.

[LowRun]

Where the hell is the other thread about 3850/3870?