3870s any good now?

[Blackhawk47]

Hi guys,

So been round my mates house this weekend, we are both gamers but he has always been on the amd side till recently when i set up a quady for him. He has a Ati 3870, which from what i know about it should be a half decent card. At least better than my 8800gts. He scores around about 12k with it in 3dmark06. I score a (quite rubbish now) 9.4k in the same benchmark.

It is just the reference design and not an overclocked/special/X2 edition as far as i can.

He is thinking about upgrading his gpu, i am trying to get him the best bang for buck card, which he hasnt set a budget for, but i was thinking around 260gtxish. Running at 1440x900 as far as i know.

His games play fine for the most part, but you do notice the difference between his 3870 and the newer cards today for games like crysis and other demanding games. What you guys think upgrade wise, yay or nay? Told him about the 4870 1gb, which he seems fond off right now.

 

[arc@css]

A 260gtx 216 @ that res may be overkill. A 4830 or a 9800gt should be the minimum spec. Of course, he could buy a powerful card should he think about upgrading his gaming res in the future. A 3870 is an ok card but hey, it isn't the x2 / crossfire so if he buys a newer card then I'm sure he'll defo notice a big difference in the big titles.

 

[Monkeynut]

Most cards clock up to 850 successfully, has he tried clocking it? The cooler isn't that bad.

 

[Phil2008]

My 3870 still run all games at mid to high detail at 1280x1024

 

[EdGey]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-016-ZT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=927

cant go wrong m8, i game at 1280 x 1024 atm and i cant get some games all high with full AA, so its not overkill unless you dont care about AA.

edge

 

[mame]

Which 8800gts do you have? 320, 640 or 512? The 512 would be quite a bit better than the 3870. At a guess, the 320 and 640 would sit just either side of the 3870 but there wouldn't be much in it.

 

[Rybo89]

cant go wrong m8, i game at 1280 x 1024 atm and i cant get some games all high with full AA, so its not overkill unless you dont care about AA. edge

seriously?

what games do you struggle with at such a low res with AA?

even crysis could have that res with 4AA with 30+ fps

 

[EdGey]

seriously?

what games do you struggle with at such a low res with AA?

even crysis could have that res with 4AA with 30+ fps

Fallout 3 i get fps drops in some of the bigger scenes, same with farcry2, and ofcorse crysis.

They are all playable, but its just...just playable in some places, specially on fallout, i get some pretty big fps drops on that game for some reason, so i turn AA down abit when playing.

its a good card, defo for that money^ but i wouldnt say it was overkill.

edge

 

[Leezy]

Fallout 3 i get fps drops in some of the bigger scenes, same with farcry2, and ofcorse crysis.

They are all playable, but its just...just playable in some places, specially on fallout, i get some pretty big fps drops on that game for some reason, so i turn AA down abit when playing.

its a good card, defo for that money^ but i wouldnt say it was overkill.

edge

resolution bottleneck me thinks

 

[Rybo89]

SNIP

yea defiantly not to do with your card, will be other hardware/software

especially with fallout, as it was brilliantly optimized, at 1920x1200 with max aa and detail you card would handle with a steady 60 fps

 

[luismenendez]

I would buy a 4870 512MB for that resolution, it can be found for as little as £135!