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eta on 3870 x2?

jaykay said:
Yes but does it need a new core? No. Ati are still basically using the R600 core if you want to do it that way.
R600 vs g80 = G80 wins
R680 vs g92 = G92 wins

Just that Ati have priced it much better thats its worth considering.

And also crossfire is better than Sli so it should eliminate the AA problems that ATI have.
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Did you mean RV670? As R680 is what they've called the 3870X2
 
OK I thinks Loadsa is getting a bum deal here, I think drunkenmaster is actually referring to me. I stated that it cost "me" about 50 more for the 8800GTX setup I have. That will be mainly accounted for by the fact I got a very good price on the 8800s and 780i and paid the price for the 3870s and X38 when they were higher, therefore the total cost difference to me is about £50-60 total.

I am not just spouting benchmarks that other people have run, I am talking from personal experience of running

2900pro @ XT speed in Crossfire on an X38 with Q6600 @3.6 and 4GB RAM
3870XT in in Crossfire on an X38 with Q6600 @3.6 and 4GB RAM
8800GTX in SLI on a 780i in SLI with Q6600 @3.6 and 4GB RAM

Prior to changing to the 2900s I was running a single 8800GTX. Everything I run has been at 1920x1200 res at thats what the native res of my monitor is.

I have stated that until AA is turned on the 2900s and the 3870s run very quickly beating the single 8800GTX by a reasonable amount that being a few % with maybe even up to 30% in some cases. This thou is not the case as soon as AA of any type is enabled, even with the lowest available AA settings in games such as World in Conflict (which saw a massive performance increase using crossfire with one of the more recent drivers) the performance drops off dramatically, we are talking more than halving the average frame rate. This is not the case with the 8800GTX, obviously a performance hit is experienced but not to the same degree. The 8800GTX in SLI mean I can run just about anything at 1920x1200 with a large amount of AA and AF enabled while still keep the fram rate high.
 
So the 9800GX2 might be faster with AA than the 3870X2? See people say that with 2x 3870 there is minimal AA problem I guess thats just BS :\.
 
J.D said:
Bang on!!!!. (Are you reincarnated Kylew (very knowledgeable about certain folk hmmmm) :p)

I'm also not implying that Willhub and Loadsa are immature either though. A bit drastic at times regarding ATI but that's it and now are warming up to ATI's solution of reducing the prices and doing well with what they have. Fair play.

Psychas was a funny dude and I loved the fact he wore the ATI badge so proudly. Even if his thoughts were a little deluded at first but I think it was hard for all of us to accept the card after the successful X1900 series to work like it did with AA. I had my AMD system running with my 2900Pro and although I knew my AA experience was never going to be rich I started to enjoy my gaming without looking for/noticing the jaggies but I am happy with my move over to the dark side but I still love me some AMD and that showed when I received my GTX a few weeks ago. As soon as I received the GTX I seen a post from Gibbo saying that he had one of the new dual AMD cards in a system which led me to Marcsay's post with his crossfire results that had me thinking of selling my GTX before I even took the handle off after receiving it from the Citylink driver. Not a fanboy in anyway but I would love to see AMD in the limelight again as I've enjoyed my time with them and they stepped up the market when Intel was loving the lethargic approach. We might not have had Conroe without AMD (well not as soon).

Hopefully I can give AMD my money again but they need to raise the bar again before I will do so (CPU & GPU). This Dual GPU might do it for me but it has to hold AA performances and I've seen Jinkxy say that it won't and MArcsay say that it will. I hate time :p.
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:p I have been lurking her for about 4 years or so now (I've had to remake my account once or twice though because of email account problems):D
 
willhub said:
So the 9800GX2 might be faster with AA than the 3870X2? See people say that with 2x 3870 there is minimal AA problem I guess thats just BS :\.
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You can pretty much guarrentee that the 9800GX2 will be faster than the 3870X2, just look at 8800GTS SLi scores vs 3870 Crossfire scores.

What you have to consider is the price difference between the two.

If ATi bring the 3870X2 out for £250 and nVidia bring the 9800GX2 out for £350-400, you have to decide if that bit more performance is worth the extra £100-150.

If nVidia bring the 9800GX2 out for like £300, or ATi price their 3870X2 at £300 then ATi are in trouble.
 
HeX said:
You can pretty much guarrentee that the 9800GX2 will be faster than the 3870X2, just look at 8800GTS SLi scores vs 3870 Crossfire scores.

What you have to consider is the price difference between the two.

If ATi bring the 3870X2 out for £250 and nVidia bring the 9800GX2 out for £350-400, you have to decide if that bit more performance is worth the extra £100-150.

If nVidia bring the 9800GX2 out for like £300, or ATi price their 3870X2 at £300 then ATi are in trouble.
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Exactly, I reckon crysis is the benchmark game here seeing as its such a monster to run. So if the 3870X2 can run that at acceptable framerates at all high settings in XP 'frinstance, even if they are lower than the 9800GX2, and it sells for those prices then I know which card I'd get and I assume a lot of others will too. On top of that you've got the advantage of Xfire over sli if that works how ppl are expecting to .:)
 
Off-topic : Nvidia have so far released their gx2 style products with lesser chips, so I would be surprised if they released a 128 SP (X2) model running at 650Mhz (X2).

Back on Topic: I have a feeling AMD's offering will be cheaper though as they NEED to sell products. Then it's all down to bang for buck between the two isn't it really.

This card will be very good news for those wanting crossfire, but currently on a 16x-4x board. What I do wonder is, will you be able to have 1x 3870 and 1x 3870X2 running in Triple Crossfire? This may be the 'optimum' situation for those running a 16x-4x board.

Matthew
 
Scougar said:
Off-topic : Nvidia have so far released their gx2 style products with lesser chips, so I would be surprised if they released a 128 SP (X2) model running at 650Mhz (X2).

Back on Topic: I have a feeling AMD's offering will be cheaper though as they NEED to sell products. Then it's all down to bang for buck between the two isn't it really.

This card will be very good news for those wanting crossfire, but currently on a 16x-4x board. What I do wonder is, will you be able to have 1x 3870 and 1x 3870X2 running in Triple Crossfire? This may be the 'optimum' situation for those running a 16x-4x board.

Matthew
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It would be great if that were a possibility, but I doubt it would be due to the 3870x2 having a different crossfire bridge connector to what the 3870s have, unless it were done via pci-e, but that would be pushing it on a 4x slot right? :)
 
I'm quashing my desire to buy a new card atm to wait to see what this pans out like (currently using a 1800XT after the 2900 died). The 2 main concerns i have over this 3870X2 though is ;

A. AA Will it wont it, no one seems to give a definitive answer as to if crossfired 3870's struggle with it ( tbh i never noticed a hit in performance on the 2900 with AA on) or if its ok.

B. Will power requirements of 2 GPU's on one card equate to requiring twice as much juice as a single cored 3870 or does it use less.

Whilst I appreciate that we wont know until its out someone might have an idea ;)

LOAM
 
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Yeha you gotta think about it, if you have an SLi motherboard you can Run both options of cards, this of course is true :) What we have to remember here is ATi are packing this together as ONE CARD! It may have two GPU's etc but its still acts as ONE CARD! The drivers are being sorted just to run the card on its own and the only reason crossfire will be needed is when running TWO X2's! Well thats what I gather from what we have seen so far. Alll you need for the ATi Card to run is gonna be a nice x16 slot no crossfire or anything! Who cares, 16xslot, your good to go! (With external power of course :) )

The best thing about the ONE CARD solution is the fact you will never be limited to One Card SLi performance if unsupported. Crossfire wont necassarily be required to run with the 3870X2 as it wasn't with the Voodoo 5 5500(Yes not ATi but I love it) :D, x1950pro DUAL or the HD2600XT DUAL! Im pretty sure that was the case for all of them.

Now we go back in history with the 7950GX2 and if the game did not support SLi....what happened? You only got half the card to play with :( So performance dropped to that of a lower clocked 7900GT or something. This is my fear behind the tech of the 8900-9800 GX2 thing as when it worked before it was superb but when it didnt it was decidedly average. Now I'm not being a fanboy or anything I'm just trying to make some people aware of where the problems may lie with the new NV card! Also it kinda depends what combo they have shoved in there, I suspect 2xlower clocked 8800GT's, at least I hope it isn't any lower than a GT!

Ati have hopefully put two fully matured 3870cores in there and they will no doubt run superbly out of the box. There will no doubt be the initial driver issues as with any new card or tech but come Ati Catalyst 8.2 it will be sorted good style. The card will no doubt act as one card and that is the exciting aspect of it so far!
 
Im thinking the same thing..lets hope it is so because this will have a 3 fold advantage over having 2 3870xt`s in crossfire, 1 slot + will work even if game does not like crossfire and should work on NV motherboards.
 
Well if it did work without implementing crossfire in the drivers the x2 will be a great card no doubt, but personally, I think it still is gonna implement crossfire, and have compatibility issues.

We won't know but that's my guess.

Matthew
 
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