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ATi Radeon HD3870 Review and Impressions!

jrodga2k5

jrodga2k5

jrodga2k5

Soldato
Joined
28 Oct 2005
Posts
9,147
Location
Scotland
Introduction

Well yes it has arrived, after a bit of confusion with the City Link chap delivering it to the wrong house, I have an HD3870 in my PC and just about to start the testing! As we all know this is ATi's latest attempt to get something out of the 2900 architecture in a new manufacturing process. So what to expect would be, Less Power, Quieter, Possibly Higher Overclocking Headroom yet Same Performance overall.
I am not expecting miracles or much if any of a performance boost but we shall see.
It is replacing my HD2900Pro for a couple of reasons both already listed....Power and Noise. The decreased use of power in the 3870 cards should now allow me to crossfire on my existing PSU which means I wont need to shell out any extra cash for a new one! Also the HD2900Pro could get noisy and that became an issue for me when I was doing Photoshop etc, plus being in a small room means the temps were higher and the fan would speed up.
Lets move onto the initial thoughts shall we.

Initial Thoughts/Installation

Well the package provided by HiS is pretty much deprived, just the basic gear for this series! Driver CD, Crossfire Dongle, DVi-VGA, DVi-HDMI etc. No games, nothing....well a selection of crappy wallpapers :p

dsc00203xz4.jpg

As we can see....the card is a plain jane

The card is lighter and smaller than the HD2900pro and only requires ONE external power from the PSU! Good times.
Below is a pic of the Card and also in comparison to the size of the Pro which there is in all honesty not too much difference, just a bit hacked off the end.

dsc00206zs9.jpg


Installation was simple and I am using the drivers supplied on the CD to begin with, they contain a driver version of 8.43 which I will then update to 7.10(current to see how it performs in comparison)
The card sits at an Idle temp of 52degrees, around 7-8 off my HD2900pro and it is completely silent :)

Test System

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 2.7Ghz
3GB Corsair Value Select DDR2 PC5300
DFi Infinity P965-S Black
Creative Audigy 2ZS
Powered by a Hiper Type R 580w PSU

Driver Version: Supplied Drivers 8.43(First set of Tests)
Catalyst 7.10(Second Set of Tests)

I will try both sets of drivers I have, the ones with the card and the 7.10's! Hopefully the 7.11's will be with us on the 15th for a bit of a better performance gauge!
 
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jrodga2k5

jrodga2k5

jrodga2k5

Soldato
OP
Joined
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Posts
9,147
Location
Scotland
Benchmarks

3D Mark 06

Disc Drivers: 8.43's
score06tu6.png

SM 2.0 Score 4447 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 5000 Marks
CPU Score 2383 Marks

So initially touching just over the 10k mark! Will be interesting to note what happens when another set is applied as a comparison! A note from the test would have to be that the card at no point was audible. This happened within around 20seconds on the pro yet complete silence here.

Catalyst Drivers: 7.10's
To be Run

3D Mark 05
Disc Drivers: 8.43's
score05xk5.png


Catalyst Drivers: 7.10's
To be Run

Crysis

Ok so we still dont have supported drivers for Crysis so the problems with the 2900's are evident again here, glitchy textures on surfaces of rocks etc. Annoying and a fix desperately needed! Using the standard Benchmark!

@1280x1024 No AA
Disc Drivers: 8.43's
Avg: 32.13 Min:19.62 Max:37.62
Not too bad and similar to the 7.10 results on my HD2900pro. Will be interesting to se the 7.10's

Catalyst Drivers: 7.10's
To be Run

Half-Life 2 Stress Test

@1280x1024 8xMSAA 16xAF
8xmsaa16xafstkn4.png


@1280x1024 4xMSAA 16xAF
4xmsaa16xafstny3.png


@1280x1024 2xMSAA 16xAF
2xmsaa16xafstwh5.png


Overall these scores were around 20-25fps faster than my Pro @ stock which goes to confirm that the HD3870 would be pretty much the same speed if the clocks were the same!

Unreal Tournament 3 Demo

@1280x1024 Max Details in Demo 16xAF
Avg: 88.967 - Min: 52 - Max: 136
Decent performance as expected as the ATi Cards Thrive in this game! Slightly quicker than my HD2900pro @ XT speeds!

Sorry about the delay guys, just trying to get the info to you as quick as I can :)

Now I havent even done the 7.10 driver test yet but one thing is pretty much certain which is why I am cutting the testing short for the card. This IS the HD2900 and clock for clock you can match them up and they will perform the same at the same speeds its that simple. So after the overclocking I will be easily able to conclude this review

Overclocking

The card clocks up to around 860core before crashing and the ram was showing artifacts after 2.6Ghz with my card and this seems very similar again to the HD2900XT's! Especially the core as that is the same limit as I found before on my 2900pro! Anyways I will launch the 7.10drivers on later to see how it does.

Conclusion

*ATM the manufacturer drivers are all we have 7.10 does not work*
Well what can I say about the card? It confirms everything we already assumed and that i assumed myself. This is the HD2900XT but probably in the way it was first intended! It runs a cooler, the stock cooler is quieter and it is smaller with less power required. It's basically the same card as before but it has improved on those departments. So existing HD2900 owners can sleep at ease the card is not faster than yours its just slightly more efficient.
Was it good enough reason to upgrade for me however? Well yes! I have a crossfire Motherboard and the fact I can now crossfire without changing my PSU also is fantastic news. The fact the fan is silent that is also great especially on those hotter times when the 2900 would speed up for a bit!
The performance is to a good standard matching the existing GTS and surpassing it also but the 8800Gt will still beat it! So if you want a boost go for the 8800GT but if like me you want to crossfire at low power and have a very silent system then dont hesitate to go for this!

Great Card, Just a shame they couldnt coax more out of it! Crossfire however should be very Impressive ;)

Pro's
LOW POWER CROSSFIRE :D
COMPLETELY SILENT/IDEAL FOR HTPC
GOOD GAMING PERFORMANCE
GOOD VALUE


Cons
IT'S ESSENTIALLY THE SAME AS THE 2900's
LACKING BUNDLE
MANUFACTURER'S DRIVERS ONLY ONES AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW
 
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