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HD3870 512MB or 8800GT ? (still cant decide)
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 13:31 |
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Ok I'm gonna leave this decision completely down to the users on here. I see Sammorris tends to have a fair bit to say regarding the two mentioned cards, and seems to be fairly knowledgable. As do most of you on here.
So here goes.....
CPU - Intel Q6600 G0
M/B - MSI P35 Platinum
RAM - 4x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC8500 DDR2
Case - Thermaltake Soprano VB1000BWS
PSU - Corsair 620W HX V2 Series Modular PSU
Started building my new PC build bit by bit, and so far I have the CPU, M/B, RAM, case and PSU (taken my Graphics Card, HD's / Opticals from my previous build and replacing them bit by bit). I have come to the point where I am getting the new video card. I am undecided on either the 8800GT or the 3870, and have seen a few posts on here regarding them (such as this one). I have also read a few reviews as well, but still I am undecided. I am completely new to gaming on the PC as I have always stuck with consoles for gaming, and use my PC's for production work (proffessional graphic designer, video editing and music production). I tend to use Mac Pro's at work, and my home PC is getting used more and more for work ( at home!!! :o( ) so I needed a new PC.
I ideally want to keep my dual monitor setup and currently have a 7300GT 256 with Dual DVI's so I can work with an extended desktop. I would also consider in the future running 2x 3870's in crossfire (as I know I can't have SLI with the M/B I have).
But I have no experience of any of the higher end graphics cards. Am I right in choosing this?.... and for what reasons?
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Senior Member
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26. December 2007 @ 13:41 |
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3870 ftw
If you want more performance, the 8800GT (I dont think the extra $50 is worth it), if you want better picture quality, then get the 3870. They stay cooler, they arent as noisy, and they over clock A LOT higher than the GTs (if you flash to a modded BIOS)
Not to mention the fact that they're more future proof, as they offer shader 4.1 and DX10.1, so you wont have to go out and buy a new card for that stuff.
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 13:48 |
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For what reasons is the picture quality better on the 3870's, if the performances of 8800GT's beats them? In reviews they tend to beat the 3870's by up 2-10 fps (in various games).
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26. December 2007 @ 14:17 |
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Well in Crysis, the picture on the 8800 isn't as good because when they disigned the drivers, they made them look for a program called "crysis.exe", if it was found running, then the drivers would cut the quality in the game, to make up for more fps. This can be remedied by renaming crysis.exe to something else, like cup.exe or something... There is no telling that nvidia will do this with future games though...
As you said, 2-10fps isn't that great, but in games like Crysis it does count. However, if you were to rename crysis.exe to something else, you could expect a fps drop, and the 8800GT would perform closer to the 3870.
Also, I see you have a motherboard picked out with a P35 chipset. If you decided to get the 8800GT, you would not be able to do SLi as the P35 does not support that. Only nvidia's chipsets such as the 680i do.
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 14:23 |
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Quote:
I would also consider in the future running 2x 3870's in crossfire (as I know I can't have SLI with the M/B I have).
Yeah I knew that matey ;o)
I can see your point regarding the drop in FPS when running Crysis etc. Didn't know that ;o)
What my main concerns is forking out £££'s and finding out I made the wrong choice, and since graphics cards is something I have never really given a lot of time to think about, it could end up becoming a costly mistake!
What are peoples views of SLI Vs. CrossFire? Does one prevail over the other?
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26. December 2007 @ 14:49 |
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According to sammorris, both are rubbish. As both Sli and Crossfire dont give you a exact 100% boost in games, and some games aren't even compatible with multi gpu.
All in all, I would say SLi is more stable than Crossfire, as Crossfire still has some bugs to work out.
Although I have a CF rig, I wouldn't know yet to back up how good/bad CF since my rig is in pieces, but hopefully I wont have any problems.
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 15:01 |
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More stable????
Does this mean that neither technologys are suitably stable??
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26. December 2007 @ 15:13 |
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Quote:
Does this mean that neither technologys are suitably stable??
Yup. Crossfire and Sli don't give you a 100% boost, if any at all since some games aren't optimized for that. In games that aren't compatible, the game will only run on 1 card. In crossfire, I am told that you may get some errors and stuff like that.
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 15:20 |
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Well if neither technology is 100% stable whats the point!?
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26. December 2007 @ 15:38 |
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No, I am just saying that Crossfire and SLi aren't really worth the extra money, as you wont see that much of an improvement in games like Crysis.
Just get 1 card and go with that. Duel GPU solutions aren't worth it if you dont want to waste the extra cash.
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He_Man
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26. December 2007 @ 15:58 |
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It then makes you wonder why we will have setups with 3 cards for nvidia and 4 gpu's for ati. When drivers are just not there.
Personally, id go with a 3870. The 8880GT's are fast but can boil water on the surface. To keep it below 50 you will need an aftermarket cooler which will inturn make the card even more expensive. When you can easily overclock a 3870 with minimal effort. Heck, Gigbayte is realesing the 3870 with an OC of 2400Mhz from standard of 2252.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26. December 2007 @ 16:02
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 16:08 |
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I'd love to see a review of that!! any urls?
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He_Man
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26. December 2007 @ 16:10 |
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Originally posted by phill2000:
I'd love to see a review of that!! any urls?
Review of 3 way SLI?
No need my padawan, this will suffice.
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 16:17 |
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Nah... didnt mean the 3xcard setup. Already know you can (either now or very soon) have multiple 3870's in C/F.
On the Mac Pro's I use at work you can have up to 4 cards in crossfire ;o)
Quote:
Gigbayte is realesing the 3870 with an OC of 2400Mhz from standard of 2252
This is what I meant ;o)
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He_Man
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26. December 2007 @ 16:27 |
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26. December 2007 @ 16:28
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AfterDawn Addict
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26. December 2007 @ 17:29 |
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I'll keep this short and to the point.
3870 better than 8800GT, because:
8800GT SLIGHTLY faster than 3870, but worse image quality
both cards perform the same in Crysis with the driver fix
The 3870 supports DX10.1, the 8800GT does not
The 3870 produces a far better quality image than the 8800GT
The 3870 is cheaper, quieter, cooler and more reliable than the 8800GT
Also note: Crysis does not support Anti-Aliasing.
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phill2000
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26. December 2007 @ 18:02 |
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I'm getting told a lot that the image quality on the 3870 is better, but why exactly??
Is it because of the filters? fps? resolution?
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26. December 2007 @ 18:30 |
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AfterDawn Addict
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27. December 2007 @ 03:45 |
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Bear in mind that the 3870 offers further improvements over the old ATI cards. This is a benchmark from before the 8800, let alone the 3870. Oddly, you've chosen a part of the test that's clearly in nvidia's favour there waymon, was that intentional?
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Junior Member
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27. December 2007 @ 09:32 |
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I'm actually in the same boat as the TC. As i'm in the UK there's a good difference in price with both cards and i'm getting the impression it's not warranted considering how many people are going with the 3870 here.
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phill2000
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27. December 2007 @ 10:13 |
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Quote:
I'll keep this short and to the point.
3870 better than 8800GT, because:
8800GT SLIGHTLY faster than 3870, but worse image quality
both cards perform the same in Crysis with the driver fix
The 3870 supports DX10.1, the 8800GT does not
The 3870 produces a far better quality image than the 8800GT
The 3870 is cheaper, quieter, cooler and more reliable than the 8800GT
Also note: Crysis does not support Anti-Aliasing.
Nice to have your input Sam. However you say herr it is more reliable than the 8800, and in another of your recent posts you also say the WD Raptor 150 isn't that reliable.
Care to share your "reliability" resources? Is it another online forum? I have been with storagereview for years and (no disrespect intended) but the wd raptors are one of the most reliable drives ever built (adfd versions).
I must say though, that if there was a site which gave purely reliability ratings for devices (where people could actually rate their own current / previous hardware) that would be beneficial for all! Does anyone agree??
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27. December 2007 @ 10:14
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AfterDawn Addict
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27. December 2007 @ 11:44 |
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Rhamhoy: Just so you know, I'm from the UK too.
Phill: Sure thing. As you know the 8800GT uses a small single slot cooler like older graphics cards, possibly to try and prove that the new G92 architecture uses less power than the GTX and GTS of old. Whilst that's certainly true, the cards still use a LOT of power and get very hot. Too hot in fact. Large numbers of early 8800GTs failed due to overheating because the tiny heatsink and fan couldn't keep up with the heat being produced. Certain manufacturers like EVGA have since increased the fan size on the cooler. I'm unsure of how effective that's been but if I were buying an 8800GT (which I wouldn't, for other reasons) I'd want to stick a proper cooler like an HR-03GT on it right away.
As for the 150GB Raptor, I'm not entirely sure why they're not very reliable. A few people I know use them and most of them have had problems. I can only guess at the cause of the issues (they are certainly not heat related, one of my friends had two of them fail and he runs them in an Antec 900 with all the fans on high - the RACKET! lol) but suffice to say I've seen substantial evidence that they're not that trustworthy. Even Tom's Hardware removed them from their test bed as they wouldn't play ball with other hardware... Doesn't that tell you something?
Several people including myself use the 37GB Raptors, and even though they're all old, they all still work fine and have proven a very reliable drive, but the 150s? I'm not convinced.
As for a reliability rating site it would be useful, but would probably be filled by the plebs that rack up all the 1 star reviews on newegg just because they're idiots and have no idea how to use the hardware.
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He_Man
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27. December 2007 @ 11:55 |
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27. December 2007 @ 11:57
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AfterDawn Addict
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27. December 2007 @ 12:00 |
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92C is still a bit on the hot side. Granted, it's about nominal for a powerful graphics card (with the stock cooler my X1900XT reached 91C at full load), but since these tests are usually conducted in an unrealistic test-bed environment and not in a real PC case, your average PC will probably get the 8800GT to loads of 95 or higher, and that's when you start encountering problems. Certainly, people who just bung the card in their HP Pavilion are going to have huge issues with one 92mm fan cooling the whole system...
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He_Man
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27. December 2007 @ 12:04 |
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My HP had 2 fans. ;)
And yeah the temps it reaches are ridiculous. I mean this youtube guy tests new games(crysis, cod4) with crossfire 3870's and overclocks slightly. His GPU temps never go over 40 in a crap case with little cooling.
Check him out Sam,
http://youtube.com/user/jayjaybwoyxx
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27. December 2007 @ 12:05
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