2900xt or 3870x2 ?

Dicehunter · 3 Mar 2008 at 08:30

At the moment i have a 2900xt 1 gig and its overclocked and plays everything i want it to with amazing graphics, but seriously how much better is a 3870x2 than a 2900xt ?

gurusan · 3 Mar 2008 at 08:39

the 3870x2 is looaaads better....whether its worth the upgrade is another question.

skunksta · 3 Mar 2008 at 08:47

Just sold my old 2900 xt to.I got a gts in this this pc now but plan on putting this gts in the son's pc to re place the 2900 xt i sold (for £120 btw).And i am in two minds what to do GTX 2 year old tech or the X2.Seen a power cooler to the door for £250.Got to be worth a upgrade after the 2900 just runs to hot well mine did was like blow heater plus think the x2 draws just as much power as it or alittle less.I have liked playing with the GTS but tbh in game the 2900 was close to the gts level i replaced it with unless AA was turned on.

MR.B · 3 Mar 2008 at 08:49

You actually bought a Physx card? .... :eek:

But yeah the X2 is a lot faster. It's the fastest single card around, slightly outperforms a 8800 Ultra.
No point getting one if your current card does you fine though.

Personally i'm waiting for Nvidia's 9800 as it will obviously be faster, and a X2 is too small of an upgrade from my GTX..

skunksta · 3 Mar 2008 at 08:53

Well i cant see the new GTX being much better than the old one.If the old GTS and new one is anything to go by plus of cause the reviews that have been doing the rounds if you can beleave them and if you can the move from a old GTX to a new one would be just as bad a move.

Darg · 3 Mar 2008 at 09:02

I'm happy with my 2900XT for now tbh. You can take the 3870X2 as roughly equal to two 2900XTs in crossfire, that's essentially what it is though maybe the crossfire runs better with them being on the same PCB. 3870=2900XT and 3870x2 is exactly what it says.

Until a game comes out that can't run full settings in XP on my 2900XT I won't bother with upgrading though it's nice to know it's possible to get £120 off some fool for it.

skunksta · 3 Mar 2008 at 09:19

LOL .TBH i made a pc for a friend never asked for a penny but told him he would have to buy my card for £120.And yes he new of the 3870's but was saving money on the build so was happy coming from a 9800 pro and some XP amd cpu.To a c2d and the 2900.Dont think your get money like that for your's if your going to keep it much longer even if you do find a fool

.

kylew · 3 Mar 2008 at 11:51

skunksta said:
LOL .TBH i made a pc for a friend never asked for a penny but told him he would have to buy my card for £120.And yes he new of the 3870's but was saving money on the build so was happy coming from a 9800 pro and some XP amd cpu.To a c2d and the 2900.Dont think your get money like that for your's if your going to keep it much longer even if you do find a fool .

That's a bit mean to call your friend a fool

lol

J0hnb0y · 3 Mar 2008 at 12:23

i would pay 100 (disclaimer...i dont have 100

) for a 2900 xt to put in xfire with my current one. if xfire continues to develop well i think it would be £100 very well spent. granted it might be quite noisy but turn the volume up...

skunksta · 3 Mar 2008 at 12:49

kylew said:
That's a bit mean to call your friend a fool lol

well just quoting Darq and tbh hes more than happy with it.His flat is cold the blow heater helps out.

steve258 · 3 Mar 2008 at 12:57

Well if it plays everything you want at amazing graphics then I'd just stick with it. But if you just fancy a new toy then the X2 is very fast. Think there's a shorter version with PCI-E 2.0 support on the way.

Darg · 3 Mar 2008 at 14:57

J0hnb0y said:
i would pay 100 (disclaimer...i dont have 100 ) for a 2900 xt to put in xfire with my current one. if xfire continues to develop well i think it would be £100 very well spent. granted it might be quite noisy but turn the volume up...

If I had an intel mobo instead of this 650i mistake then I would too.

If you ever get £100 though let me know...

LoadsaMoney · 3 Mar 2008 at 15:25

Its about twice as fast as your 2900 XT, as its 2x of them on the one board.

Darg · 3 Mar 2008 at 16:33

LoadsaMoney said:
Its about twice as fast as your 2900 XT, as its 2x of them on the one board.

In a perfect world.

As we all know however crossfire doesn't always mean twice the performance. I'd say 60-70% increase in performance in most games, some games more, some games that are un-optimised would see hardly any benefit.

gareth170 · 3 Mar 2008 at 18:30

LoadsaMoney said:
Its about twice as fast as your 2900 XT, as its 2x of them on the one board.

nope it isn't. it's between 5% - 80% faster depending on the game.. remember it works as crossfire.... also some new release games isn't crossfire ready.

to OP what res are you gaming at?? TBH if the 2900xt is running your games very well then theres no point upgrading..

LoadsaMoney · 3 Mar 2008 at 18:37

Thats why i said should be, games that aint done for Crossfire will just make the X2 run on a single core, which is 1x 2900 XT, but games that are Crossfire, as said could be up to 80% faster.

gareth170 · 3 Mar 2008 at 18:41

also the reason why i put 5% is because the 3870 is slighty faster than a 2900xt due to higher clock

willhub · 3 Mar 2008 at 18:56

gareth170 said:
also the reason why i put 5% is because the 3870 is slighty faster than a 2900xt due to higher clock

And possibly DDR4 memory.

Lightnix · 3 Mar 2008 at 19:07

willhub said:
And possibly DDR4 memory.

Yeah, but it has half the bus-width (256-bit vs. 512-bit), negating any improvement that'd have given.

willhub · 3 Mar 2008 at 19:22

Lightnix said:
Yeah, but it has half the bus-width (256-bit vs. 512-bit), negating any improvement that'd have given.

Just goes to show the 512bit bus did not help the 2900XT. Allthough the 2900XT is actually faster than the 3870XT sometimes.