ATI HD 3800 Review Thread

[Eastcoasthandle]

^^Agreed, there is a more simpler way to determine the validity of any given reviewer. Each GPU will always scale a certain way for example when at 800x600 to 1280x1024 or from 0xAA to 4xAA. I believe it's repeatable and can weed out any bad reviews. Take a look here and familiarize yourself with how the 3870 scales with other video cards. Since the scalability of any given video card is repeatable any review of it outside of that can be treated as suspect IMO. Can drivers change that? It depends on what the drivers do to enhance or subtract from it's performance. However, if the 3870 is getting consistently lower then average results something is wrong with that review IMO.
If you look here and here you will see the difference between GDDR4 and GDDR3. If you take note (of the 2nd "here" link) you will see at the bottom of that page the 3870 takes less of a hit when AA/AF are used.

When you read this page you will notice how much of a hit the 8800GT takes when 4xAA/16xAF is applied regarding Z-pixel rate vs the 3870. Even though the 3870 is Z-pixel rate is lower, it takes less of a hit when 4xAA/16xAF is applied. IMO, better drivers can improve the Z-pixel rate of the 3870. Since we know that the PLL VIO divider set wrong for the 3870 it's going to be interesting to see what the improvements are if any.