ATi HD3800 series

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 15:38

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?&groupid=701&catid=56&subid=416&sortby=priceAsc

Oh yes. I'm liking the look of this range of cards. I've only just built my new system with an Ati X1950Pro 512MB but the word is that this range of cards will eat up the 1950 cards for breaky & some of them are very affordable. Most of the range is on pre-order but some are out. Anyone got/tried one yet? I'm thinking I could get one of these & sell my X1950 Pro.

Kobrakai · 20 Nov 2007 at 15:41

Personally I would go for a 8800GT, they are around the same price yet are much better than the X3870. Just take a look at these benchmarks comparing the two:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=6

Anksy · 20 Nov 2007 at 15:47

yeh the 8800gt is better, not by much, ive ordered a 8800gt , i suppose if you take everything into acount, the 3870 is a better for the money, but not in performance, evens out

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 15:53

What about card RAM? 512MB on an OC 8800GT (£176) costs £30 more than the 256MB (£146) card. But you can get a 512MB Power Cooler 3870XT for £152. Is the 256MB 8800GT going to be better than that?

Anksy · 20 Nov 2007 at 15:59

in a simple word. No

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:01

So the 512MB 3870XT could be the way to go then?

Gerard · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:01

Dogboy73 said:
So the 512MB 3870XT could be the way to go then?

If they ever get them in stock.

Kobrakai · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:02

Dogboy73 said:
So the 512MB 3870XT could be the way to go then?

If you don’t want to pay the extra for the 512MB 8800GT then yes.

Anksy · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:04

and i allways found Nvidea's cards lasted a hell of allot longer than ATI, my last card was a appauling 6200, BUT it played every game even things like cod4, and supreme commander, and its ATI equivelent which was Radeon X300 couldnt play any of them games

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:05

£150 is my die hard max limit on a gfx card, ever since my £250 9800Pro melted after 6 months!

So would the 256MB 8800GT bury my 512MB X1950PRO?

Gerard · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:08

Dogboy73 said:
£150 is my die hard max limit on a gfx card, ever since my £250 9800Pro melted after 6 months!

So would the 256MB 8800GT bury my 512MB X1950PRO?

It would roger it senseless. But i would reccomend a 512mb varient as some games are having hard drive thrashing problems when they eat up the vram on 256mb cards.

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:11

Gerard said:
It would roger it senseless.

Erm. Might think about the 256MB 8800GT then.

When I was ordering my last rig one or two people mentioned that the GFX card RAM wasn't a big issue. Is this the case? I noticed in that link Kobrakai posted that the comparison between the 8800GT & the HD3870 didn't mention the cards RAM.

EDIT: looks like you edited your last post to kind of answer that already!

Gerard · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:12

Dogboy73 said:
Erm. Might think about the 256MB 8800GT then.

When I was ordering my last rig one or two people mentioned that the GFX card RAM wasn't a big issue. Is this the case? I noticed in that link Kobrakai posted that the comparison between the 8800GT & the HD3870 didn't mentione hte cards RAM.

See above, some games need a card with over 400mb of ram onboard to stop the hard disk being thrashed.

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:13

Gerard said:
See above, some games need a card with over 400mb of ram onboard to stop the hard disk being thrashed.

And no doubt Crysis is one of them! So I'm looking for a 512MB card for £150 or less that will bury my 512MB X1950 Pro.

Gerard · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:15

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-086-HT#

Slightly over budget, probably best to send them a webnote asking about availability.

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:29

Gerard said:
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-086-HT#

Slightly over budget, probably best to send them a webnote asking about availability.

Full circle moment!

That's the card I was originally looking at, on the current OC home page, that prompted me to look into this & post!

mike gunnz · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:40

If you are on a budget of £150 then look no further than your original choice the 3870XT. It will handle anything you throw at it with aplomb. It will struggle on the highest settings in Crysis but so does everything else.

If it was in stock I would have got it myself, but it wasnt so I didnt.

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 16:55

mike gunnz said:
If you are on a budget of £150 then look no further than your original choice the 3870XT. It will handle anything you throw at it with aplomb. It will struggle on the highest settings in Crysis but so does everything else.

I might go for one of them when they are available. Especially if I can sell my 1 month old 512MB X1950 for around £80

This, of course, has all been brought on by Crysis

I built my new system with Crysis in mind & it does play it very well with everything on MEDIUM ......... but I want it on HIGH/VERY HIGH :mad:

I'm determined to do it on a budget though.

mike gunnz · 20 Nov 2007 at 18:01

Dogboy73 said:
I might go for one of them when they are available. Especially if I can sell my 1 month old 512MB X1950 for around £80

This, of course, has all been brought on by Crysis I built my new system with Crysis in mind & it does play it very well with everything on MEDIUM ......... but I want it on HIGH/VERY HIGH I'm determined to do it on a budget though.

If you get offered £80 for your x1950 in the current frenzied climate you should take it. Every man and his dog is trying to flog a GPU in order to finance an upgrade. Me included...

Crysis on very high, on a budget you say?! Good luck with that mate, thats some serious alchemy.

Dogboy73 · 20 Nov 2007 at 22:53

mike gunnz said:
If you get offered £80 for your x1950 in the current frenzied climate you should take it. Every man and his dog is trying to flog a GPU in order to finance an upgrade. Me included...

I looked on e-bay for an 512MB X1950 Pro. In the end I decided to just order from OC. Why? Well it most cases it seemed they were selling for more on e-bay than what OC were selling them for?! I think people just get bid happy & end up paying over the odds. I mean why bid up to more than the retail price?! Would be a lot less hassle just ordering from somewhere like OC

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=X1950

Crysis on very high, on a budget you say?! Good luck with that mate, thats some serious alchemy.

It runs very well on my current rig with everything on MEDIUM. I reckon a much improved gfx card over my current 512MB X1950Pro will make enough difference to allow me to run on HIGH with maybe some settings on VERY HIGH. Would be good to upgrade the CPU to a quad core 6600 or something. But it seems people are not getting as much benefit from quad core as Crytek lead people to believe so it's probably not worth it at this stage. I'll wait to they come down in price & then get one.