3870 X2 Reviews

[Eastcoasthandle]

Reviews in alphabetical order

Anandtech
EVGA nForce 780i SLI QX9650 @ 3.00GHz
CAT: 8-451-2-080123a
Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Bit-Tech
ATI Test System Maximus Formula, Nvidia Asus Striker II Formula 780i Q6600 3.0/C2D 6750???
Cat 8-451-2-080121a
Windows Vista Ultimate x86

Chile Hardware (Spanish/español) AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 9600 Black Edition
Catalyst 8.451.2.080123a
Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Computer Base (German/Deutsch) Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (overclocked at 3.46 GHz
Striker Asus Extreme (Nvidia nForce 680i) main-board test
Cat 8-451-2-080123a
Windows x86 Vista Build 6000

Driver Heaven
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38) Intel QX9770 (3.2Ghz – 1600fsb)
Catalyst 8.451 230108
Vista Ultimate

Extreme Tech
Intel D975 XBX (Intel 975X) Intel Core 2 Quad QX6800 @ 2.93GHz
Catalyst 8.2
Vista Ultimate

Firing Squad
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38) Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
Cat 8.451.2_080123a-058649E
Vista 64-bit w/Service Pack 1 RC Refresh

Guru3d
nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (eVGA) Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme
8-451-2-080108a beta
Vista Business Edition

Hardware Canucks
Asus Blitz Extreme (P35) Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.5Ghz
Cat 8.451.2-080
Vista Ultimate x64

Hardware.fr (French/français)
nForce 680i SLI EVGA Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
Catalyst 8.1 beta.
Windows Vista

Hartware.net (German/Deutsch) Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2,93 GHz)
Intel D975XBX (Intel 975X)
Catalyst 8.1
XP Professionell (Service Pack 2)

Hexus
ATI benchmark MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R), Nvidia benchmarkseVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz)
CATALYST 8.2 beta
Vista Business, 64-bit, Windows XP SP2 32-bit (X2 and GTX)

Hot Hardware
ATI benchmarks Asus P5E3 Deluxe, Nvidia benchmarks EVGA nForce 680i SLI Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3GHz)
Cat ATI Catalyst Bets v8.451
Vista Ultimate

Legit Review
Gigabyte X38-DQ6 Core 2 Quad QX9650
CATALYST 8.1 driver
Windows Vista Ultimate

MadBox PC (Spanish)
ASUS P5E (Intel X38) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3Ghz - 333x9)
Catalyst 8-451-2-080121a
Windows XP Service Pack 2 32bits

OC-Lab2 (Slovenian)
Abit IX38 QuadGT Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550@3850MHz (450x8.5)
Catalyst 8.451 230108
Windows XP SP2

PCPOP (Chinese)
ASUS Maximus Formula (X38) Intel QX9770 four core core, 3.2GHz
Cat 8.1 (no indication of updated drivers)
Vista Ultimate 32Bit version 6000

PC Prospective
EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
AMD Catalyst R680 Beta
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

TechPowerUp
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Intel P35 Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33 GHz
Catalyst 8.12 v8.451.2
Windows XP SP2

Tech Report
ATI benchmarked using Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Nvidia benchmarked using XFX nForce 680i SLI Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
Cat 8.451.2-080116a-057935E
Vista Ultimate x86 Edition

Tom's Hardware
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (Quad-core 3 GHz)
Cat 8-451-2-080108a
XP??





Reviews by chipset

780i
Anandtech
EVGA nForce 780i SLI
CAT: 8-451-2-080123a



680i
Computer Base
Striker Asus Extreme (Nvidia nForce 680i) main-board test
Cat 8-451-2-080123a

Guru3d
nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (eVGA)
CAT: 8-451-2-080108a beta

Hardware.fr
nForce 680i SLI EVGA
Catalyst 8.1 beta.

Hot Hardware
EVGA nForce 680i SLI
Catalyst Bets v8.451

PC Prospective
EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard
AMD Catalyst R680 Beta


975
Extreme Tech
Intel D975 XBX (Intel 975X)
Catalyst 8.2

Hartware.net
Intel D975XBX (Intel 975X)
Catalyst 8.1




P35
Hardware Canucks
Asus Blitz Extreme (P35)
Cat 8.451.2-080

TechPowerUp
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Intel P35
Catalyst 8.12 v8.451.2



X38
Bit-Tech
ATI Test System Maximus Formula, Nvidia Asus Striker II Formula 780i
Cat 8-451-2-080121a

Driver Heaven
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38)

Firing Squad
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38)
Cat 8.451.2_080123a-058649E

Legit Review
Gigabyte X38-DQ6
CATALYST 8.1 driver

MadBox PC
ASUS P5E (Intel X38)
Catalyst 8-451-2-080121a

OC-Lab2
Abit IX38 QuadGT
Catalyst 8.451 230108

PCPOP
ASUS Maximus Formula (X38)
Cat 8.1 (no indication of updated drivers)

Tech Report
Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6
Cat 8.451.2-080116a-057935E

Tom's Hardware
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38)
Cat 8-451-2-080108a



X48
Hexus
MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R)
CATALYST 8.2 beta


790FX
Chile Hardware
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 9600 Black Edition
Catalyst 8.451.2.080123a






Review by CPU

Driver Heaven
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38) Intel QX9770 (3.2Ghz – 1600fsb)
Catalyst 8.451 230108
Vista Ultimate

PCPOP (Chinese)
ASUS Maximus Formula (X38) Intel QX9770 four core core, 3.2GHz
Cat 8.1 (no indication of updated drivers)
Vista Ultimate 32Bit version 6000


OC-Lab2 (Slovenian)
Abit IX38 QuadGT Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550@3850MHz (450x8.5)
Catalyst 8.451 230108
Windows XP SP2

Legit Review
Gigabyte X38-DQ6 Core 2 Quad QX9650
CATALYST 8.1 driver
Windows Vista Ultimate


Anandtech
EVGA nForce 780i SLI QX9650 @ 3.00GHz
CAT: 8-451-2-080123a
Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Hardware Canucks
Asus Blitz Extreme (P35) Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.5Ghz
Cat 8.451.2-080
Vista Ultimate x64

Hardware.fr (French/français)
nForce 680i SLI EVGA Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
Catalyst 8.1 beta.
Windows Vista

Hexus
ATI benchmark MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R), Nvidia benchmarkseVGA NF68 (nForce 680i SLI) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA775 (3.0GHz)
CATALYST 8.2 beta
Vista Business, 64-bit, Windows XP SP2 32-bit (X2 and GTX)

Hot Hardware
ATI benchmarks Asus P5E3 Deluxe, Nvidia benchmarks EVGA nForce 680i SLI Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3GHz)
Cat ATI Catalyst Bets v8.451
Vista Ultimate

MadBox PC (Spanish)
ASUS P5E (Intel X38) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (3Ghz - 333x9)
Catalyst 8-451-2-080121a
Windows XP Service Pack 2 32bits

Tom's Hardware
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (Quad-core 3 GHz)
Cat 8-451-2-080108a
XP??

Computer Base (German/Deutsch) Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (overclocked at 3.46 GHz
Striker Asus Extreme (Nvidia nForce 680i) main-board test
Cat 8-451-2-080123a
Windows x86 Vista Build 6000


Extreme Tech
Intel D975 XBX (Intel 975X) Intel Core 2 Quad QX6800 @ 2.93GHz
Catalyst 8.2
Vista Ultimate

Firing Squad
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38) Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
Cat 8.451.2_080123a-058649E
Vista 64-bit w/Service Pack 1 RC Refresh

Guru3d
nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (eVGA) Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme
8-451-2-080108a beta
Vista Business Edition

PC Prospective
EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
AMD Catalyst R680 Beta
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Tech Report
ATI benchmarked using Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Nvidia benchmarked using XFX nForce 680i SLI Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz
Cat 8.451.2-080116a-057935E
Vista Ultimate x86 Edition

Hartware.net (German/Deutsch) Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2,93 GHz)
Intel D975XBX (Intel 975X)
Catalyst 8.1
XP Professionell (Service Pack 2)


TechPowerUp
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Intel P35 Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33 GHz
Catalyst 8.12 v8.451.2
Windows XP SP2




Separated from list
Chile Hardware (Spanish/español) AMD Phenom 9600 Black Edition
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 9600 Black Edition
Catalyst 8.451.2.080123a
Vista Ultimate 32-bit
Not sure of the performance at this time

Bit-Tech
ATI Test System Maximus Formula, Nvidia Asus Striker II Formula 780i Q6600 3.0/C2D 6750???
Cat 8-451-2-080121a
CPU used?
Windows Vista Ultimate x86

[Speederlander]

Beat you to the Anand review by 1 minute.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=174987

[Eastcoasthandle]

Beat you to the Anand review by 1 minute.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=174987

Actually that's just one review I want to incorporate all of them into one thread. People also need to know the MB used as well as which Cat was used.

[Zytek_Fan]

I'm waiting for the Bit-Tech and Guru3D reviews

[MuffinFlavored]

I'm waiting for the Bit-Tech and Guru3D reviews

I am satisfied with the Anandtech review, except it did not include 8800GTS 512mb SLI results in the benchmarks.

[Marioace]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...e_fury_maxx_2/

[DaMulta]

Wiz said in his review that they are not PCI-E 2.0 cards. So it doesn't matter if it is on a 2.0 slot or not.

[Zytek_Fan]

Wiz said in his review that they are not PCI-E 2.0 cards. So it doesn't matter if it is on a 2.0 slot or not.

Until they get the new PLX bridge chip that does allow PCI-e 2.0
...if they choose to use it...

[Eastcoasthandle]

Fill rate
CF vs X2

[LordEC911]

I am satisfied with the Anandtech review, except it did not include 8800GTS 512mb SLI results in the benchmarks.

Something funny going on with those GT SLI results...

Fill rate
CF vs X2

Interesting.

Until they get the new PLX bridge chip that does allow PCI-e 2.0
...if they choose to use it...

Too expensive and adds latency...
Also no need to buy too many PLX chips since they are working on their own.

[Zytek_Fan]

Something funny going on with those GT SLI results...
.

Yeah, it almost looks as if they just threw out some numbers that would "sound reasonable"

Which is exactly why I said I'll wait until the Guru3D and Bit-Tech reviews, because they are honest reviewers

[Eastcoasthandle]

I think we're seeing an extreme version of LinkBoost in action here, with the 780i SPP simply being a 680i SPP whose 16-lane PCIe 1.1 link has been coaxed into running at 4.5GT/s and validated at that speed.

source

[Rock&Roll]

I have to agree. The Anandtech numbers seem pretty wierd

[Eastcoasthandle]

Wait, I am reading something about Cat 8.1
-1.2v
-1.3v
I haven't found any reviews using 1.3v. Is this a real driver?

[btdvox]

I dno there are SO MANY mixups. I like HardOCP reviews always as there ingame and not canned benchies but there benchmarks show the 3870X2 doing not very good compard to a 8800 GTX. But more over which is interesting there frames come close to what i thought as its what I see most people get with 2 3870's in CF. If not a bit better with the 3870X2.


More over- Tech Reports to me seem to be the most far fetched. They get worse frame rates with there 8800 ultra than ive seen any other reviewer use And they all use a 8800 GTX not an ultra but still get better marks.

All the drivers seem to be the same.. 8.45.12

All I can say is the card is definitely no 8800 GTX or Ultra killer.

And my speculation which is what i cared about is if a 2 - 3870X2's in CF vs 2- 8800 Ultras in SLI would win.

And i can say for now- the ultras would. Obv its speculation but seein gthe numbers.. I dont have any hope for optimized QUAD GPU drivers lol.

[malik22]

So do you use 1gb with this card or 512 like crossfired 3870?

[Epsilon84]

Now this is interesting - according to [H] the 3870 X2 can't even beat a 8800GTX in 'real world gaming'.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

Of course [H] has a unique way of benching, they run FRAPS across real game levels instead of relying on timedemos and built in benchmarks... could be it that the 3870 X2 is *ahem* tuned for benchmarks but not actual gaming?!

[Eastcoasthandle]

Now this is interesting - according to [H] the 3870 X2 can't even beat a 8800GTX in 'real world gaming'.

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

Of course [H] has a unique way of benching, they run FRAPS across real game levels instead of relying on timedemos and built in benchmarks... could be it that the 3870 X2 is *ahem* tuned for benchmarks but not actual gaming?!

I only see 1 resolution benchmarked for the 4 games tested. Also, please read the conclusion, they didn't include the updated drivers from ATI.

[Epsilon84]

I only see 1 resolution benchmarked for the 4 games tested. Also, please read the conclusion, they didn't include the updated drivers from ATI.

I suggest you read a few more [H] reviews to see why they bench using only 1 res... it's their 'max playable' style benching, many don't like it, I don't mind it as it's something different to the other hardware sites who basically all use the same testing methodology.

As for the drivers...

During our evaluation processes AMD made some breakthroughs in Crysis with the 3870 X2 driver. We are using one of those driver builds they provided for us in our testing, which smoothed out performance compared to the driver build we had started with. A couple of days ago AMD came to us with yet another new driver build that further improves 3870 X2 performance, however that driver did not make it into our evaluation. AMD had noted Crysis improvements up to ~60% on the built-in GPU test, but going back and spot checking this in real world gameplay, we saw at best a 2 fps improvement at times. No other games we were using to evaluate were noted as having improvements, so we moved on with the previous driver as noted.

So basically the new driver affects Crysis performance and not much else.

[LordEC911]

So basically the new driver affects Crysis performance and not much else.

Except that is NOT true...

• Company of Heroes DX10 – AA now working on R680. Up to 70% faster at 2560x1600 4xAA
• Crysis DX10 – Improves up to ~60% on R680 and up to ~9% on RV670 on Island GPU test up to 1920x1200.
• Lost Planet DX10 – 16xAF scores on R680 improved ~20% and more. AF scores were horribly low before and should have been very close to no AF scores
• Oblivion – fixed random texture flashing
• COJ – no longer randomly goes to blackscreen after the DX10 benchmark run
• World in Conflict - 2560x1600x32 0xAA 16xAF quality=high we get 77% increase
• Fixed random WIC random crashing to desktop
• Fixed CF scaling for Colin McRae Dirt, Tiger Woods 08, and Blazing Angels2
• Fixed WIC DX9 having smearable text

[Epsilon84]

Except that is NOT true...

I should have added 'in the games they tested'.

Apart from Crysis I don't think the newer driver would have affected the scores of the other games tested by [H].

[GoThr3k]

nice card, at this point it completely destroys any nvidia single-card

[realsmasher]

computerbase review is with
"Asus Striker Extreme (Nvidia nForce 680i) "

p5wdh is only used for 2 card setups, but these are not present in this review, therefore it is not used at all.

also they are NOT using old "8-451-2" driver, they used new 8-452-2, they also did a compare between both : only crysis faster, but 30-40% !

[Syn.]

I only see 1 resolution benchmarked for the 4 games tested. Also, please read the conclusion, they didn't include the updated drivers from ATI.

They stated they used latest drivers which is why the review was held back by AMD.

We are using the latest drivers for both video cards, for the 8800 GTX that is 169.28 beta driver, and for the 3870 X2 it is an ATI Catalyst provided driver with the latest Crysis performance fixes for CrossFire.

When we started our evaluation had an earlier build of a driver for the 3870 X2 that allowed CrossFire in Crysis. However, our experiences with that driver in Crysis left a lot to be desired. We experienced very inconsistent performance; it was as if the second GPU on the 3870 X2 wasn’t doing much. During our evaluation ATI made a “breakthrough” in their drivers with patch 1.1 that resulted in much higher performance on the 3870 X2 in Crysis. We then went back and re-tested Crysis with this new driver that they provided to us and indeed we can give a thumbs up on this driver. We experienced much more consistent performance throughout Crysis, which resulted in smooth gameplay.

From we can see X2 is around GTX level which is fine to be honest.

[SKYMTL]

also they are NOT using old "8-451-2" driver, they used new 8-452-2, they also did a compare between both : only crysis faster, but 30-40% !

Actually, I hate to tell you but that is plain wrong. The 8-451-2-080108 driver is NEWER than the 8-452-2 driver.