A look at 3870 X2 · DIGIT-ARC

While making our way through various exhibits at CES, Dave and I got a chance to get hands on time with AMD's upcoming ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card. As we mentioned in our initial coverage of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series back in November, the 3870 X2 is a dual-GPU powered card that leverages ATI's CrossFire technology.
We can't disclose any specifications just yet, but can say that the 3870 X2 has a pair of R670 GPUs on single PCB coupled together via a PCI Express fanout switch from PLX. Frame Buffer memory configurations are likely to be similar to existing Radeon HD 3870 cards - per GPU - but representatives from ATI informed us that board parters are likely to design cards with up to 2GB frame buffers. As for power and performance, once again, we can't give specifics for now. However, think less power than a 2900 XT with performance on par or better than a Radeon HD 3870 CrossFire configuration.

read on:
*www.hothardware.com/News/ATI_Radeon_HD_3870_X2_R680_at_CES/
*www.legitreviews.com/article/593/1/

Holy cow... :shock:

look at those cards. Even a single 3870 is powerful than 8800GTS 640MB. And they say the X2 version is better than 2*3870in crossfire.
Even a single 3870 has massive 320 shader units and if some is optimised for ATI, then its gonna be 2x better in 3870 than 8800. Unfortunately all games nowadays are optimised for nvidia. Still 3870 kicks hard nd outperforms 8800GTS 640.
Now consider 2*3870GX2 in crossfire. Total of 320*4=1280 shader units!!
There gonna be tough competition soon:
3870 vs 9600
3870 X2 2GB vs 9800

^^ Yes. Though ATI Manufactures better cards, They do not get enough support from Game designers and moreover, they are under-advertised.

Remember, for some of the latest games, we see the logo of nvidia with a caption "Best played on nVidia cards". This is something that should be corrected like putting nvidia and ATI logos together.

There were once many games which had ATI logos at starting. They were financially gud at that time. Now they dun have enuf bucks to give away to developers to put their logo in starting.

Intel nd nvidia is spending millions for advertising in every way possible. And they even make developers to relese patches to improve performance on their cards more often.

ATI's 3870 despite having 320 shader units, no game engines are not using even half of it, all due to non optimisation.

This truly is a really bad time for AMD.

Buggy and under performing processors
Minimal acceptance of AMD's DX10 cards.
Not enough funds for marketing campaign.

Let's hope they recover after 2010. One good product can bring them back into the race.

BTW, they are DX 10.1 cards.
Currently HD 3850 nd 3870 are very cheap. They are for 170$ nd 240$.
3850 outperforms 8800TS 320 nd costs only 170$[bout 6.5k]
But unfortunately they r not available in India directly on stores.

^^Are you sure about the price of HD3850? :shock:

see here
*www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129101
*www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161211
They have HDMI adapter bundled

hell, nice card ....*farm3.static.flickr.com/2374/2107304572_b5f0b2191d_o.png

H

Would really like to see its 3DMark 06 scores in cross fire with a QX9750.

HD 3xxx series cards ll benefit from bout 30~35% performance boost in 3D rendering if used in Spider platform. So i think 3870 X2 performs best in Spider than in Intel's QX9xxx platform.

More images:
*www.xbitlabs.com/gallery/ces2008/ati_r680_ces2008/

If ATi provided better drivers for linux, I would have gone for that instead of buying the 8600GT. They should invest more on advertising too!

@phreak0ut
as of now, ATI dun even haf enf funds for research even. So advertising is otaa qn.
Well, theyll be back in action if HD 3000 series get some gud sales.

nvidia is reducing prices[like 8800GT] only due to the competion in market by ATI. If ATI is wiped out, nvidia can shoot the price as everyone wud have no choice than nvidia.
So ATI to be alive in market is as important as nvidia.

^^This is bad...
Intel and nvidia are together killing AMD-ATI

Intel is on its way to Monopoly. We have to support AMD.
I encourage all my friends who want to get a new PC (low budget) to get a AMD based one instead of crying out "INTEL INTEL".

Once they kill AMD-ATI, they will kill us

by overpricing

Im an AMD supporter and a fan. Intel maybe good these days, but AMD is far better....

^^ Don't be a fanboy dude.
Intel is way ahead of AMD but AMD is better when it comes to Budget VFM configs.

8800 was way too costly and had less vfm till now until nvidia were forced to release the 8800GT with lower costs nd better vfm. They were forced due to the release of HD 3800 series.

^^They all want to kill AMD and have monopoly over the market

We are the ultimate sufferers with very little or no price cuts

Guys, got this month's CHIP today.
3850 nd 3870 being 55nmGPU, are highly overclocking friendly. Almost 55% boost in Crysis@1600*1200
*img514.imageshack.us/img514/1040/10023101co3.th.jpg

^^Because of AMD-ATI's lack of publicity, nobody knows the true potential of these cards

3850 oc is better than 3870 stock. That is a 170$ card oced can compete 8800!!! and beat even 8800 640MB. !!!!

Heard tha 8800GT has only limited ocing with a max of 60~70Mhz in core nd some 100Mhz on memory.

^^170$*gigasmilies.googlepages.com/13a.gif
Thats a killer price... Is it available in India?

people buy nvidia as the games are usually tweaked for nvidia graphics cards , since AMD is being beaten in both ends , if they don't come up with something good this year , say good bye to AMD but i got to say hats off to both nvidia & intel marketing managers both of them did a great job also they are following a great stratgy first by destroying the AMD with full force then they can do whatever they like...only us customers have to pay if AMD shuts down right now...

So you guys hold the key , decide what you want..

if we buy one Ati-AMD and another nvidia-intel product alternately... we'll be profited in the end

for now i just wanna ask..

WHEN WILL 3850 REACH THE MARKET AT AFFORDABLE PRICES??... THATS GONNA BE THE GFX CARD OF MY NEW PC..

H

You can buy it at the ITwares i think they have quoted the price as 12k.

IMHO, If AMD gets the architecture right for processor and GPU's, they can integrate them into fusion and that will turn the tables in AMD's favour. But, when????? Looks like they got the right architecture now for GPU in 3700 series. Waiting for a good processor architecture.

N

isnt the news about 3870X2 ?i dont think its the same as 3870 which is available in india.coz its not a X2.so why r u posting everything related to it?
also that plain 3870 is nowhere near 8800GT.u might achieve 55% overclocking boost with it as written in chip but its still inferior to 8800GT in terms of fps.

^^It might be inferior, but there is a super value for money

N

^ true.but check the full review in Chip and see the conclusion.3870 (not X2) is priced just like 8800GT.so who will spend the same for a inferior card.X2 might be a good card but its not available.and none of us have seen its reviews.so why buy it just bcoz its by AMD?

EDIT:--OK here is a review *www.legitreviews.com/article/593/1/

Are you sure its priced like 8800GT? Isnt it 170$?? See post #23

N

^ not at all.as stated on that review webpage 3870X2 means 2*3870s.3870 costs around 14000 as on theitwares.3870X2 is considered to be like 8800GTS but no tests have been done yet.so i will wait to say something abt it.though simple 3870 lags way behind 8800gt in every way.
*img265.imageshack.us/img265/1292/41046806jz5.png

In India, HD series is monsterously overpriced[dun know why].
In newegg, even the cheapest 8800GT is for 270$ . And they even dun come with HDMI adapter.
If we buy HD3xxx now from India, then 8800GT makes more sense, as 8800GT dun haf very much diff in price than US.

Anybody know why HD3xxx's price shoot up like hell in here than US. Other ATI cards likr 190 or 1950 is damn cheap here now[even though not as cheap as US], so availability may not be the full reason.

N

^ on newegg Asus 8800GT costs 214$ which i think comes to 8500 rupees..other versions are around 250-280$
*www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=8800gT
thats way way cheaper than india.
now the HD 3870 non x2-
*www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=HD+3870
it costs 250-280$

even the motherboards cost less in the US.processors too.at least cheaper than india if not much.

S

AMD will pawn all when it comes out with fusion.
i will buy 2 HD3870's in crossfire for my bro in feb end or march.
I hope they dont turn out to be disappointing like many other ATI cards.
the dx10.1 compatibility and 55nm tech beats nvidia in some aspects but still a games's choice wil always be nvidia

the 8800GT @ 214$ is 256MB version dude. Itll be highly bottleneck at higher resolution or games with more textures.
All 512 is for 260$+.

H

+ It has lower memory clocks.

N

right and the result is a mixup.see-
*firingsquad.com/hardware/xfx_geforce_8800_gt_256mb_xxx_review/images/cod41600.gif

*firingsquad.com/hardware/xfx_geforce_8800_gt_256mb_xxx_review/images/aacod41600.gif

*firingsquad.com/hardware/xfx_geforce_8800_gt_256mb_xxx_review/images/cry1600.gif

*firingsquad.com/hardware/xfx_geforce_8800_gt_256mb_xxx_review/images/aacry1600.gif

*img145.imageshack.us/img145/9596/00mh9.png

Hi dude, where did ya get those benchs? nice
and its an 8800GT 256 oc, nd 3870 or 3850jas not even oved. They oc for almost 50% boost, due to 55nm GPU.
And 8800GT is ab 80nm GPU.

N

^ well OCing was done by Chip.i cant scan the magazine though..wait i can..

well the sad part is they benchmarked on Call Of Juarez.. crysis and fear were also done but it should rather have been a much more deeper review.coz from the stats except crysis 3870>8800.but still they gotta say it lags.yea its true it lags but their stats dont prove that.by the way those earlier images i posted are from tom's hardware and 8800GT XXX 256mb is the only Overclocked card in it. .
now here's Chip review-
*img340.imageshack.us/img340/5815/57375676vc7.th.jpg *img340.imageshack.us/img340/5295/87308647kw5.th.jpg *img254.imageshack.us/img254/6107/55896262ql7.th.jpg

^^Thanks for posting the pics of the mag

Now i dont have to purchase it from the news stand

BTW, did ya scan it? coz its too early for a pdf?
nd it dun seems to be scanned, as they are perfectly cropped. Im too eager to know where did ya get it?
If there's an easy way then i wudn't haf spend 125/-.

Here are more benchs

*www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/472/1
now i think 3870 has edge over 8800GT even in Crysis as per benchs from guru3D, nd they ve said that the 8800GT512 they included was a massively oced version while all others are at stock.

and the verdict:
*www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/472/15/
and
*www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/472/16/

N

^ scanned them

@dOm1naTOr thanks for the links

Hi, one of our forum member has two 3850 in crossfire in a system with Q6600.
his bench results in another thread
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=721715&postcount=32

from this thread:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61571

Its not an oced score. Hope he 'll soon post oced benchs

Any news on HD3900?

more ATI/AMD news
AMD brings DirectX 10.1 to notebooks with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series
*www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35498/122/

H

The 8800GS is out for $169 US from XFX.

wow, thats gr8.
Anyones got benchs of it?
I think itll be better than older 8800GTS 320.

H

XFX said that it'll match the 8800GTS 640MB.

8800GS sounds gr8!! just 4 d price of HD3850!!

hey take a look guys...*www.guru3d.com/news.html#6332

ok guys tell me a card to buy that will atlest giv me 4 years (im using fx5200 256 now) and it should available in india and should be pocket friendly

iMav said:
ok guys tell me a card to buy that will atlest giv me 4 years (im using fx5200 256 now) and it should available in india and should be pocket friendly

nearly impossible, a card now lasts for 1 year on an avg.

get a console

well i will get 4 years out of it .... the fragin problem is tha i have decided to go for the 8800gt and as of now itsnot available with my vendor and now iv been reading this for some days which is making me question my choice

iMav said:
well i will get 4 years out of it .... the fragin problem is tha i have decided to go for the 8800gt and as of now itsnot available with my vendor and now iv been reading this for some days which is making me question my choice

get 9600GT or above that

wait for it, its worth waiting

Yup, 9600GT ll be gud, abd so is GD 3850 512Mb version. Its some 190$ and i think theyll come to India with or before 9 series.
9600GT and 3850 512 is equally future proof and ll perform similar. Both are DX 10.1 cards and have PCIE 2. interface.

As u said the card should be able to serve u upto 4yrs, getting a DX10 card makes no sense, since 10.1 cards are already out. And Microsoft crearly says that 10.1 will be the last extension in DX 10.

But 9600GT too uses same 80nm fabrication which ll make them comsume more power like 8800GT[comparing with 3850 nd 3870], and limited overclocking. But 3850 nd 3870 are based on 55nm fabrication process, which allow them to work at far greater clocks than nvidia counterparts. And moreover in home entertainment field, they are best and they are providing
An HDMI adapter and the signal has audio integrated into it, while none of the nvidia models[some 8800 has HDMI, but costly] come with an audio integrated HDMI. And whats the point in getting an HDMI w/o audio. DVI can do just fine compared to it. The greatest advantage of HDMI is that it has video+audio with quality of DVI[or greater] and optical audio together. But nvidia misses something here.

And lastly, those RED Ferraries look damn SEXY !!!! It wud be a treat to have then in a windowed cabby :twisted:

dOm1naTOr said:
Yup, 9600GT ll be gud, abd so is GD 3850 512Mb version. Its some 190$ and i think theyll come to India with or before 9 series.
9600GT and 3850 512 is equally future proof and ll perform similar. Both are DX 10.1 cards and have PCIE 2. interface.

As u said the card should be able to serve u upto 4yrs, getting a DX10 card makes no sense, since 10.1 cards are already out. And Microsoft crearly says that 10.1 will be the last extension in DX 10.

But 9600GT too uses same 80nm fabrication which ll make them comsume more power like 8800GT[comparing with 3850 nd 3870], and limited overclocking. But 3850 nd 3870 are based on 55nm fabrication process, which allow them to work at far greater clocks than nvidia counterparts. And moreover in home entertainment field, they are best and they are providing
An HDMI adapter and the signal has audio integrated into it, while none of the nvidia models[some 8800 has HDMI, but costly] come with an audio integrated HDMI. And whats the point in getting an HDMI w/o audio. DVI can do just fine compared to it. The greatest advantage of HDMI is that it has video+audio with quality of DVI[or greater] and optical audio together. But nvidia misses something here.

And lastly, those RED Ferraries look damn SEXY !!!! It wud be a treat to have then in a windowed cabby

honestly i would love to try ATI/AMD cards after having 2 Nvidia cards

But the price should be reasonable and support counts too.

@dom1: performance charts mein 8800gt 512 version is neck & neck with 9600 and 3870 aint close

^ Most games are nvidia optimized so you won't be seeing ATi cards leading in performance , but HD3870 can overclocked to some level so it ain't a bad choice.

Also like i mentioned in my old post if we keep looking the charts & buy nvidia products , AMD/ATi will die , after that we customers will have to pay high prices since without competition , Nvidia will stop making great Price/Perfomance ration products like 8800 GT so buying an AMD/ATi card is good choice, since those who buy ATi cards at least help ATi to stand in the competition.

righly said, bro

°

@dOm1natOr
I got a dealer here who said he could arrange a HD 3870 for Rs 6000/-. What do you think?

wow.....this insane. Even in US, its around 9k. Are u sure he can get one for 6k?
its hell of the best deal yaar. If its true, u dun have to think nymore. Go get it

°

Even i couldn't believe it. Then i asked him and confirmed if it was 3870. Later i asked him for the box, but he said he didn't have it currently and again i asked him if it was the HD 3870. Yup i heard it right.

so going for ati is only a sentimental or emotional issue more than a rational and sane 1 :?:

H

Will see how the 9800GX2 performs.If it does not perform on par with the 3870X2 which it definitely won't then everyone will buy a 3870X2 since it has already been stated that the 9800GX2 will only increase the performance to a 30%.Seems nvidia is assuming that all GFX owners are idiots and will shift to nvidia if they see "THE WAY IT MEANT TO BE PLAYED" logo on a game.

Moreover if a game does not properly support SLI then most probably will run like crap on the GX2

N

well yea right said.

H

That link you gave has some objectionable materials at the bottom...I think maybe.

N

oh damn i didnt see it earlier.those are the idots who posted those comments.link removed

here's a comparison of 3870 (not X2) and 3850 with Nvidias--
*www.hardspell.com/pic/article/2008/1/18/5598da15-b8f8-4a24-a91c-313369c55ecb.png

Hey, whats that bottom tab in that pic? Cud it be the avg score? or some game name?

W

If 3870 is avail for under 12K then it's hell of a value for money. 88GT sells for 16K, dosent it?

*www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=416

BTW, how are the after sales srvc for ATi?

H

^In india 3870 is selling for Rs 14k.Only XFX 8800GT sells for a max of 16k otherwise the 8800GT from POV costs as less as exactly 14k.

°

The scoreboard above shows that the 8800GT is as good as (sometimes better than) the Radeon 3870 and they both cost exactly the same. But i think people should go with the HD Radeon 3870 as it had DX 10.1 support.

N

dOm1naTOr said:
Hey, whats that bottom tab in that pic? Cud it be the avg score? or some game name?

seems to me a chinese game.nothing written on the webpage though

W

definately the Radeon., still morons dont know who ATi is as they dont know what liunx is as they only know "nokia is the best"

°

W i d e S c r e e N said:
definately the Radeon., still morons dont know who ATi is as they dont know what liunx is as they only know "nokia is the best"

Err what's nokia doing here?

its a metaphor

HD 3870 X2 cooler
a quick view
*www.techpowerup.com/index.php?50226

HD 3870 X2 yuotube videos:
*youtube.com/watch?v=0-cbF8lJHW0

And 9500+ score on 3DM 06 @ 2560*1600
*my.ocworkbench.com/bbs/showthread.php?p=425431

And more pics:
*my.ocworkbench.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=70084

most of the game names are on Chineese ,
now nyone here knows chineese?

dOm1naTOr said:
HD 3870 X2 cooler
a quick view
*www.techpowerup.com/index.php?50226

ya , HD3870 X2 has a gud cooler compared to ATi's earlier equivalents....

H

Copy + paste so please forgive me
Source

ATI Radeon HD 3450/70 & 3650 series launched
Posted by Hilbert Hagedoorn, January 23, 2008 - 11:43 PM 0 Comments

Guru3D.com ImageNow Guru3D had this whole new high-end graphics cards (geez guess) article prepared for today, yet AMD yesterday decided to agitate reporters around the globe and delay that product launch towards upcoming Monday. They however are releasing theit new budget cards tpday (which we did not review just yet). The two lower segment products being announced today are the sub 150 USD ATI Radeon HD 3450 and Radeon HD 3650. These two product obviously are going to replace the HD 2400 & HD 2600 line-up. The Radeon HD 3650 is a 79-99 USD full DX 10 class, full HD ready graphics adapter based on a 128-bit memory controller. Expect core frequencies of 725 MHz and up-to 800 MHz gDDR3 clock frequencies for the memory. This card is going to replace the HD 2600 Pro/XT series and is intended as competition against the GeForce 8600 GT. While I am not going deep into these two mainstream cards at this point, I will say that in the near future we'll make sure to review them for you.

When we slow down the card a notch more we spot the Radeon HD 3450. A budget card yet still with some pretty decent features in the form of DX10, PCI-Express 2.0, Full HD (1080p) HD decoding and Dolby Digital & DTS audio through HDMI. In fact this is the stuff for desktop usage, power consumption and .. Home Theater PCs. Armed with a price point below 50 USD this might be quite an interesting card. The card will make use of a 64-bit memory interface with the memory clocked up-to 950 MHz. Core frequency is between 800 & 600 MHz depending on the cooling (active/passive). Obviously in the near future we'll take a look at both these mainstream cards.

AMD today announced the introduction and availability of the ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 and ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 series, the leading-edge entry-level and mainstream graphics processors (GPU) in the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 series. Ranging in price from USD $49-$65 suggested e-tail pricing (SEP) for the ATI Radeon HD 3400 series and USD $79-$99 SEP for the ATI Radeon HD 3600 series, the new graphics solutions deliver unmatched value to the consumer. Both series continue to advance AMD’s leadership by delivering display connectivity through DisplayPort™ integrated into the GPU[ii], allowing AMD to exceed current manufacturing expectations in the industry. As part of the first family of graphics cards built using 55nm process technology[iii], both series provide exceptional performance-per-watt for a quiet and power-efficient experience at unbelievable price points.

Blu-ray or HD DVD disc playback can be enjoyed in full HD glory (1080p)[iv] thanks to AMD’s proprietary unified video decoder (UVD) technology found on the ATI Radeon HD 3400 and ATI Radeon HD 3600 series, ensuring movies play back smoothly and with incredible detail. Immersive home theater environments can be created using the built-in support for six channel (5.1) Dolby Digital® surround audio transmission through HDMI. In addition, the ATI Radeon™ HD 3450 will support fully silent (passive) cooling, delivering the ideal solution for home theater PCs.

“With the ATI Radeon HD 3400 and ATI Radeon HD 3600 series, AMD is delivering outstanding graphics performance to the mainstream,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Graphics Products Group. “AMD is leading the industry by delivering top-to-bottom DirectX® 10.1 support with modular graphics capabilities for easy upgradeability. It’s part of our commitment to deliver The Ultimate Visual Experience™ to more users than ever before.”

AMD continues its display leadership with both series by offering the world’s first GPUs with integrated DisplayPort support. DisplayPort offers twice the bandwidth of DVI, and is poised to deliver low-cost high resolution and bit-depth panels.

“Dell and AMD have been leaders in driving the DisplayPort standard since its inception”, said Bruce Montag, office of the CTO, Dell. “AMD is demonstrating its technology leadership with the introduction of dual integrated DisplayPort capability in the ATI Radeon HD 3400 and ATI Radeon HD 3600 series graphics.”

Gamers looking for graphics processors that allow for further scalability will find that both series boast ATI CrossFireX™, which delivers the option of multi-GPU upgradability. ATI Hybrid Graphics will allow users to combine an ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 GPU with a compatible AMD 7-Series chipset to provide exceptional 3D performance as part of AMD’s upcoming mainstream high-definition desktop platform, adding further value to the gaming experience. With support for Microsoft® DirectX 10.1 support, gamers can play the top HD games with life-like 3D graphics, stunning realism, and great shading effects. Full support for PCI Express® 2.0 technology allows for twice the throughput of current PCI Express cards[v], which means gamers will be ready for demanding graphic applications.

SEP stands for suggested e-tail price. Manufacturers may sell products at different e-tail prices to accommodate their current demand and supply. Please check manufacturer Web site for more details.
[ii] The ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 and ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 series have full support for DisplayPort™ as it is built into the processor itself; availability in consumer products is determined by the specific solution provider (board partner, PC manufacturer or notebook vendor).
[iii] The first family of graphics built using 55nm process technology is the next-generation ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 series.
[iv] An HD monitor is required to experience Blu-ray or HD DVD disc playback with the ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 and ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 series.
[v] The peak throughput of PCI Express 2.0 is 5 Gbps per lane in each direction, vs. 2.5 Gbps per lane in each direction for PCI Express 1.1.

*www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1279/1/page_1_introduction/index.html

The 9800GX2 will be head to head up with the 3870X2

N

ASUS EAH 3870X2

*forums.erodov.com/showthread.php?t=4500

Dual fans,4 DVI Outputs

g8r links dudes

°

nish_higher said:
ASUS EAH 3870X2

*forums.erodov.com/showthread.php?t=4500

Dual fans,4 DVI Outputs

That card is LOOKING SUPERBBBBB!!

Can anyone point me to its review?

Also can anyone gimme a countdown for NVIDIA 9600 GT?

H

The 9800GX2 won't be falling behind either.
I came to know of this yesterday.

°

What do you mean by falling behind ? Are you talking of performance wise or the release date?

S

when is 3870 X2 xoming to India?
i am planning of buying a AMD SPIDER based PC very soon.
So,should i go for HD3870 X2 or HD3870 crossfire??

T

Sunny1211993 said:
when is 3870 X2 xoming to India?
i am planning of buying a AMD SPIDER based PC very soon.
So,should i go for HD3870 X2 or HD3870 crossfire??

You already have a decent Rig.. no need to upgrade right now...

As of now, the performance is not stable coz of drivers. There are no gud drivers especially for 3870X2. There are random high/low scores for many games.
Just wait for a stable gud driver with balanced performace.

A single 3870 is much cheaper nd also consumes much less power than 3870 crossfire setup. But i wud say get 2*3850 512 in crossfire. Much cheaper and near to 3870X2 performance. And its gud oc friendly too. And get dual slot cards with 512MB for better cooling in crossfire setup and greater memory[1G total].

S

I am going to buy a AMD Spider Based Rig very soon.
So plz tell me which gfx solution would be the best??
3870 X2,3870 crossfire or 3850 crossfire??
i also heard that 3870 X2 heats up too much.

No dude, i read somewhere that the individual GPUs run much cooler on X2 than on single 3870.

S

^^
SO,when is 3870 X2 coming to India (delhi) and what will be the cost??
Plz help guyz,this is important for me

I think AMD Cards are good, and so is Phenom, and A Spider PC wil definitely perform better than a C2Q 8800GT PC. But It won't happen unless programers and developers optimize their stuff for AMD too. The Phenom has a better architecture than Core2(and a much better name too), but it looses out due to the fact that everything is optimised for Core2, like using its exessive L2 Cache. AMD's optimisation solution of making the system use less L2 and evenly distribute L3, L2 and L1 handling is hardly used. And most importantly, AMD is not FOSS friendly, unlike Intel, which gains a huge userbase due to its foss friendliness(releasing source code of drivers, enabling optimisations in the Linux Kernel itself by default, etc) Imagine what would happen if all Linux/BSD/Solaris users switched to AMD. Intel would loose a lot. But thanks to AMD's adament nature, intel stands to gain all now.

And most importantly, AMD's Pricing and availabliy in India is a concern. Phenom retails at ~17K in India, and Radeon cards are ultra rare.

card benchmarks for crysis matches 8800 :shock:

*www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/01/crysis-1280vh-bar.jpg

engadget said:
Holy Teraflops gamers, AMD just launched the Radeon HD 3870 X2. Their new flagship card previously known by its R680 codename features a pair of RV670 GPUs with CrossFireX built-in to a single card. According to HotHardware's performance testing, The 3870 X2 was "usually the highest performing single-card in the group." Yes, that group includes the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX. Here's the rub though, according to HotHardWare: the X2's performance is determined by how well the card's drivers scale in a particular game -- a new game without appropriate support renders the card's performance to that of a single-GPU HD 3870. A problem initially demonstrated during their Crysis testing and later solved with a new set of AMD drivers. Still, as PCPer sums-up, the ~$449 3870 X2 meets or beats NVIDIA's best in today's most demanding DX9 and DX10 titles and should be on your "short list" if searching for the ultimate performance graphics card.

Source

I knew it. Ever since AMD bought ATi, I suspected/hoped that just like how the entry of the X2 Processors was sudden, miraculous, unexpected and they turned out to be the best among the best, now AMD has done its Chaal with ATi too. I wish they make sure that their Linux drivers are good. Then they will be unbeatable.

I hope AMD-ATI makes a strong comeback .......... they need more performance to be in competition ......... Monopoly is of no good for us consumers .......

N

they need to bring this card before Nvidia 9 series and at a good price.

S

some one help this poor kid too plzzzzzzzzz

The prices of HD 3850 nd 3870 in itwares has been reduces:
the 3850 512 DDR3 is fir 11750/-
and 3870 512 DDR4 is for 14400/-
Hopes HD 3870 X2 will be sub 20k.

S

^^
any news on when is 3870 X2 coming to india????

AMD Plans to Release ATI RV770 Graphics Chips in Mid-2008
*www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/displa...rack_with_Next_Generation_Graphics_Chips.html

even HD 3870X2 has not reached India, nd they are planning for another one?? I think they dun produce much but just release some 100~200 nd release newer ones

Here are more benches with newer catalyst nd now it has got a big boost in performance.
*www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/490/

*images.tomshardware.com/2008/01/28/ati_r680_the_rage_fury_maxx_2/r680_geometry_engine.jpg

*www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/28/ati_r680_the_rage_fury_maxx_2/index.html

just read the tom hardware review, it says 9800 GX2 will beat 3870 X2 as it is only 7% fater than 8800 ultra, so like i told you earlier 3870 X2 will end up in high med segment till this november, also stop doing the "OMG" stuff , 8800 ultra is 7 months old & AMD brought out a card when Nvidia is launching G92 well its not good for markating but we will see after the relase of G92s.

Holy Mother Of God !!!!! :shock:

This card weighs over 1 Kg..... :shock:

Guess what... from now on graphics cards would be sold like $449 per kg..

N

3870X2 Review by Legitreviews
*www.legitreviews.com/article/656/1/
Priced at US $449 which is 17,680.26 INR
and price of XFX 8800GTX=449$ on newegg
Both cards are in same category and deliver some alike performance..

@smith
dude, read the full review @ tomshardware..........

@domi

gr8 work man, 3870 X2 is the best.It beats 8800 Ultra at higher resolutions and when full eye candy is turned on

.........ATi wins over nVidia for VFM and performance

.

rockthegod said:
Holy Mother Of God !!!!! This card weighs over 1 Kg.....
Guess what... from now on graphics cards would be sold like $449 per kg..

1 kg????

Which card??

3850?

rockthegod said:
Holy Mother Of God !!!!! This card weighs over 1 Kg.....
Guess what... from now on graphics cards would be sold like $449 per kg..

it wud be soon like customers go to shop nd ask " give a gud cheap card with 1Kg copper on half a meter PCB with as much big fan on it".

S

j1n M@tt said:
@smith
dude, read the full review @ tomshardware..........

@domi

gr8 work man, 3870 X2 is the best.It beats 8800 Ultra at higher resolutions and when full eye candy is turned on .........ATi wins over nVidia for VFM and performance .

go ATi go!

nvidia8800 said:
1 kg???? Which card?? 3850?

This card.. this behemoth 3870 X2....!!! It is there in the Tomshardware article !!!!

^^OMG! Is it more powerful than 8800GTX?

N

^ read the review.at high resolutions=yes
and exactly similar at lower resolutions.by lower i mean 1200*900

I don't believe that you guys got impressed , i mean 8800 GTX is year & 4 months old while 8800 ultra is 9 months old , & 3870 X2 is just 7%-12% faster than them...this is not impressive in anyway , the truth is that 9800 GX2 will crush this card, this the truth , i mean how can you actually get impressed with this card ...i bet 9800 GX (single) will be faster than this X2 cards & they will costs same as this ones...no offense but i mean look at you guys go 'OMG' for beating a 9 months old card...sure it costs less but 8800 GTS/GT in SLI can beat this card with ease while cost of both cards being on par.

Amazing Card!!
Will it be available in India? For what price?

C

Its already Available in India for 25900/- See here!!

N

^ it has been put today.it wasnt there yesterday.lets see if i can get a glimpse of it

its a very well priced card.cheaper than 88ooGTX

C

^^Ya i know just updated the site with it.

There's a Deal too -

Combos

Actual Price - Rs 28050/-
Combo Price - Rs 26900/-
and get a Corsair Voyager 8GB with the purchase

For those who are gonna buy a PSU with it , heres another fabulous deal

Actual Price - Rs 32900/-
Combo Price - Rs 29900/- with a Tagan BZ 700 Modular PSU with the purchase

Also 8800GT MSI 512MB DDR3 Oc Edition Price Reduced - 13500/-

Now the 8800GT will become more affordable...

N

cooldude1 said:
^^Ya i know just updated the site with it.

There's a Deal too -

Combos

Actual Price - Rs 28050/-
Combo Price - Rs 26900/-
and get a Corsair Voyager 8GB with the purchase

For those who are gonna buy a PSU with it , heres another fabulous deal

Actual Price - Rs 32900/-
Combo Price - Rs 29900/- with a Tagan BZ 700 Modular PSU with the purchase

Also 8800GT MSI 512MB DDR3 Oc Edition Price Reduced - 13500/-

oh so its your website..!

good!
that PSU offer seems awesome.and i know somebody around me will buy it if cash is not a problem

C

Ya Cash is no prob where are you from?

H

@cooldude1 are you the one whom i talked to when i purchased the CM EP 600W.Remember we had a bit of problem with the bank transfer.

N

cooldude1 said:
Ya Cash is no prob where are you from?

no no i m short of it :))

will get one soon though..
lets see tomorrow's schedule--
1.wake up
2.rob a bank

3.get a card....no 2 cards..well 4 will do

C

^^ I don't remember

H

The reason i am not buying this card is because its dual GPU.

N

^ so u mean like it will cause some trouble?

H

Yes,single GPU is way better than Dual GPU.If 9800GTX has something better to offer i'll go for that,dual GPU for me is a waste of money and i have already wasted a lot.

BTW Rahul I am Harshvardhan.I bought Cooler Master Extreme Power 600w and Artic Cooling's MX-2 compound from you.CM EP 600w will be dumped as soon as i set SLI with on my other system with another 8800GT which i might buy from you as its cheaper on your site+i get the bill mailed though that would be just another dual GPU system not for wasting my previous 8800GT.

N

ahh ! u changed my decision

when is 9800gtx coming?

H

9800GTX in March/April confirmed.

@cooldude1
how did ya know the offers from itwares? its not listed on the site. thnx

H

He's Rahul Verma the admin for itwares .Goto *www.erodov.com/ and you'll find the offer.

C

Oh yes I do remember you!!

The 8800GT price has now gone down to 13500/- so let me know if any of u ppl need one.

@cooldude1
Is there any 256 DDR3 version of HD 3850 available ? It wud be cheaper than 512 nd maybe i can afford the 256.

C

^^We also have MSI RX3850-T2D512E 512MB DDR3 - 10400/- the only diffrence between The GeCube is that Gecube is an Overclocked version and this one is not.

If just check the MSI GeCube Websites if u find something that you like PM me Once i get 3-4 pcs i'll get those too in India.

thnx for into. ill let u know as soon as i get the money for it. And we will get warranty for those card na?
And is there ny ATI cards with 3yr warranty?

C

All these come with 3 Yrs All India Warranty

@cooldude

hey, will the spider platform mobos(ATi 7xx chipsets) come to India soon?? or can u make an offer to buy these mobos + HD3xxx gfx cards as combo??

C

tell me the Model Nos. from MSI website and i'll get back to you

H

Have a look at these from the MSI site
*global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodpage2&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=171

@cooldude

can u specify at wat cost u can get MSI K9A2 CF OR K9A2 Platinum mobos??

Also can u list at wat prices Asus AM2+ socket mobos can be made available?.....the models r as shown in Asus site:*www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149

I think the new M2N VM HDMI has AM2+, dun know correctly.
And the mobo is for 4.5k
And M2A VM HDMI too has AM2+ nd is for 4.4k

^^ ya M2N-VM DVI has AM2+, but it has only 630a chipset with 7050PV and does not belong to the spider platform......

M2A VM DVI has only AM2 nd only their HDMI versions has AM2+ as per Asus site.
And on the box of M2A VM DVI also says only AM2 nd no sign of AM2+.
And only M2N VM HDMI supports DDR2 1066 nd the DVI version supports only DDR 800

I heard from a nearby retailer that the spider platform graphic card(one 10.1 grafix card) can be arranged for Rs. 6k. It has similar performance(supposedly) to 9600GT. Is it worth it ? Because spider crossfire vs dual core is a topic to discuss when it comes to performance.

@domi

sry pal, I really meant M2N-VM HDMI not DVI.

BTW....u too may be feeling sleepy *gigasmilies.googlepages.com/28.gif.....u mentioned M2A-VM DVI instead of M2N-VM DVI and according to Asus site new M2A-VM DVI and HDMI supports AM2+..........

@Metalhead

MetalheadGautham said:
I heard from a nearby retailer that the spider platform graphic card(one 10.1 grafix card) can be arranged for Rs. 6k. It has similar performance(supposedly) to 9600GT. Is it worth it ? Because spider crossfire vs dual core is a topic to discuss when it comes to performance.

dude, when did AMD and ATi launched Spider Platform grfx cards???!!!

Spider Platform is a combination of Phenom+ATi 7xx chipset+HD3xxx series GPU. This platform features AM2+ socket,HT3.0 and PCIe 2.0........and there is no such Spider platform gfx card!!!

;and it has nothing to do with "Spider Crossfire vs. Dual core" <-- BTW.....wat do u mean by this?? and watz this Spider crossfire?? and wat does it hav to do with dual core CPUs :shock:

!!!

this solves everything
*au.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101
I have a hard time loading asus india page, so the above one is asus australia.

@metalhead
for 6k, it might be new HD 36xx series nd id cant match 9600,coz they are meant to replace HD 2600 series nd will outperform 8600GTS due to much higher clocks then 2600.
And HD 3xxx series performs better on spider mobos[bout 30%boost].

SO if MSI K9A2 CF is a cheaper one, then
MSI K9A2 CF + HD 3850 + Phenom 9500 will be a gr8 combo.
Phenom 9500 is for 9.6k on deltapage nd HD 3850 256 will be some 9k, as 3850 512 is now 10.4k.
*www.deltapage.com/

C

The AM2+ Mobo's are available

MSI K9A2 CF - 6000/-

MSI K9A2 Platinum - 9650/-

^^thanx

BTW wat abt Asus mobos??

@cooldude1: Will the Am2+ motherboards support AM2 socket processors?

C

We dnt have the Asus one's yet

@ nvidia8800 - Yes it does

^^Cool! Do they support DDR3?

C

^^No it does'nt

Is this the same with Intel motherboards? Are they backward compatible? I mean do the latest motherboards from Intel support the LGA775 processors?

^^ya they do.....latest mobos for Intel still uses LGA775

cooldude1 said:
^^No it does'nt

Doesnt support DDR3?

^^ nope

That MSI mobo with 6k price is tempting. Thnx Rahul for the prices
BTW why dun u update the gfx crds page with MSI HD 3850 512 @ 10400/-? nd this new MSI mobo too?

C

Have updated it now!!

^^Updated where?

N

^ theitwares.com

^^Is he Rahul Verma?? The admin of itwares?

nvidia8800 said:
^^Is he Rahul Verma?? The admin of itwares?

yes dear ..

N

@ nvidia8800 check his yahoo id

Man i almost missed this thred. Seems like the Spider platform may be AMD's ray of hope against Intel. also The MSI K9A2 CF seems good vfm.

^^ ATi fans like ma frnd dOm1naTOr and I thought like dat.....but initial benchmarks for Spider is not up to our expectation

. Its mainly b'coz Phenom is not a gud performer as everyone thought....and it can't be overclocked much, even the Black edition Phenom

.

But ATi HD cards hav 30% improvement in Spider platform and can beat easily any other nVidia or Intel platform in d case of grfx performance

.

What are the special features in the Spider platform?

C

Hey Guys BTW some prices are dropped just check

MSI 8800GT 512MB DDR3 OC Edition - 12900/-

3870X2 1GB - 22500/-

MSI 3850 512MB DDR3 - 10400/-

^^Cool! The 3850 is almost equal to that of 8800GT in terms of performance right?

hi,
the HD 3807 X2's performance gr8ly improved with tha latest 8.1 XP nd 8.4 vista catalyst.
ATI cards rely much on drivers and their performance is limited largely due to drivers nd gets on improving with new ones
the X2 even beats 8800GT SLI in most cases.
*www.techspot.com/review/86-ati-radeon-hd-3870-x2/

^^Its almost equal to the 8800GT. You can beat it if you OC it..

and the power consumption, temps and cost is much lower than 8800GT 512 SLI.

^^Yeah...
Go AMD-ATI.....

i missed this thread . . i think my next upgrade will be this as soon as price comes down

. 22 is too much for me

^^The prices of ATI cards may come down al little once the 9 Series cards are out.

am waiting

Why shud ATI bring down price?[though a price cut is appreciable] Even 8800GT sli is no match for 3870 X2 and 9 series doesnt support DX 10.1.

As u know 9800GX2 is two 8800GT cores in SLI in one PCB with lower clocks.
SO 8800GT sli > 9800GX2
and 9800GX2 is sure gonna cost more than 22k. And here also 3870X2 wins hands down in performance, price nd future proof.

9 series will have been much better if they were too DX 10.1

^^ya ya nVidia guys a cheating folks playing tricks to make 9series from 8series

leaked news bout upcoming ATI's HD 4xxx series about to be released on this June
And GDDR5 first time on fire
*www.nordichardware.com/news,7356.html

*www.driverheaven.net/ati-grap...es-leaked.html

*forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?p=8170494
*forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=238481

also see the rewarmed version of HD 3870 X2
*www.nordichardware.com/news,7423.html