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I was going for 3870x2 until I read this

straxusii

straxusii

straxusii

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http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-radeon-hd3870-x2_19.html#sect0

I have to say I'm very disappointed by this test, in summary this reviews benchmarks a load of games and quite simply the X2 is poor apart from the showpiece games ATI new would be the main choices for reviewers :(

Out of 18 games tested at 1920x1200 (my res, not interested in anything else) the X2 was better than a GTX/GTS in 4, roughly equal in 6 and worse in the other 8.

What do you guys reckon?
 
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As far as i know we are still on the first set of drivers and crysis is deffo a lot smoother for me now than it was with my 8800GT
 
You will note that quite a few of those games are marked with *. Which according to the legend equals no crossfire optomisation or crossfire failure. Its still very early in the cards life.
 
hmm, i think the 8.2 drivers had pretty massive performance boost in company of heroes and quake wars i'm sure was listed. i think maybe lost planet was too although that might have been a driver set or two back. of the 8 benchmarks nvidia "win" 7 are ones that crossfire supposedly doesn't work well in according to the " * " , of which 2 got big boosts in the 8.2's which are out, might even have been 3 of those. Also, afaik COD4 crossfire does work pretty well in cod4 but there are some issues with some people, not sure if theres a fix, the card dropping to 2d mode/speeds randomly, going into idle for a split second basically. i had pretty poor cod4 fps with the x2 on the beta driver for release that they also used. not had rivatuner to check the clock speeds in real time, might give cod4 a go tomorrow see if i can reproduce and then fix the 2d clock issue and see if thats what killed performance for Cod4, in that case, that 4/6/8 would become 8/6/4 on the 8.2 driverset in terms of ati win/draw/lose in respectively. which would completely and utterly turn the outcome of that review on its head.
 
I notice this in another review i was reading.....

A 8800gtx looks a far better buy..

:eek:Notice how much lower the min fps are on some the HD3870x2 tests:eek:
 
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I've got an Ultra so can't be acused of being an ATI fan. I recon as pointed out.

you only running the card at single card optimisation, on some of them games.

Have that added to the next gen drivers. I think its too early to make any decisions like that. antways if you can wait. then 21st of March the 9800gx2 is out so soon after you can see back to back, pound for pound reviews on ati v nvidea. may the best card win.
 
All I can say is that some of those tests in that review are bobbins.

For example the CoD4 tests:

CrossFire technology doesn’t work right here: the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is somewhat slower than the single ATI Radeon HD 3870.
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What a load of rubbish, my X2 has run fine in CoD4 since the day I bought it, on the 8.1, 8.2beta's, and full 8.2's and is faster than my GTX was.
 
I noticed that every game it gets beaten in it wasn't using crossfire. If crossfire was enabled in them all then it would have been a clear winner.

Just as with the 2900XT it requires newer drivers to operate to its full potential and if it's anything like the 2900XT you could be looking at 50% or more performance increases across the board.
 
Richdog said:
Amazing how we've been hearing that since the X1900 days... by the time the cards drivers fully "mature" the next-gen usually arrives... :o
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2900 (R600) days as there was no problem with the X1900 what-so-ever :confused:. My m8 had the XTX from launch and I got the XT a couple months later and none of us had any problems at all. In fact we were blown away as we moved from X800XT PE's.

Also everyone please ignore this review as it's not on current drivers or even the last two by the looks of it. Chaparrel did you not read Drunkenmasters post above you as you're reply to this thread states that you haven't?. Also I thought you would know of the 3870 X2's performance and not take this old review as the way it is?.
 
Richdog said:
X1900 had OpenGL speed issues compared to NV, which was always improved upon with driver releases.
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It never affected me as I played CoD1 on it a lot and that was OpenGL and I had no problems at all, same with Doom3 (I think Doom3 is OpenGL:confused:).

This is the first I've ever heard of a complaint or an issue with the X1900 as me and my m8 had no issues at all. We both sold to m8's who are still happily run them today so you can see why I questioned what you said :). Maybe just lucky.
 
I had 3x X1900 XTX's and loved them to death... I just said they suffered in OpenGL compared to Nvidia. And they did... it was a known issue, if not a "major" one. :)
 
Richdog said:
I had 3x X1900 XTX's and loved them to death... I just said they suffered in OpenGL compared to Nvidia. And they did... it was a known issue, if not a "major" one. :)
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I just thought they done it normally and Nvidia done it exceptionally :D. So then I did know about it DOH :o. Oops.

I never had Opengl problems though so that's why I never seen it as a weakness.
 
I have been with Ati since days of 9800xt, and alltogether i am very happy with what has ati gave me, both hardware and drivers vise.

Of course there is better or worst product when compared to Nvidia.
Both cards have their own ups and downs.

Reason i am sticking with ati is frequent driver updates, and usually they do fix problems, gives me that little bit of confidence that someone actually does care about what happens once hardware has been released.

Nvidia seems to be too busy with issuing "the way its meant to be played" logos and videos to game makers when they should be working harder on their drivers, just remember how long it took them to get Vista drivers working propperly at the early days.

Will new ati drivers improve performance? I hope so.
Is performance bad at the moment? Not really, could be better tho.

Its always good when Nvidia and Ati are fighting for supremacy, somewhere down the line that is good news for us users, we do get some good hardware to play with, and lots to talk about.

If you are looking to get hardware that will work fine and no waiting for drivers to improve performance go for last gen high end card, in this case it is Nvidia, then get yourself current gen once some time has passed and drivers have been polished.

Just remember, if you are enthusiastic about hardware there are risks involved, new technology takes time to mature, if that bothers you buy tried and safe options
 
smyth said:
Give it time for the drivers to mature and you should see better results.
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**** that!! You'd have to be an idiot to buy hardware based on that assumption. What if they never get the drivers/game support sorted?

You wouldn't buy a 300bhp car for it's performance only to find that you only get 150 bhp till someone gets the right fuel sorted for it?!! :mad:
 
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