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3870, 8800GT or 3850?

manic111

manic111

manic111

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I need a new card to replace my 1950GT, which I only bought as a stop gap anyway. I can get a 3850 512mb for around £110, a 3870XT for around £130, or an 8800GT for around £160. Money is an issue. I will be gaming at 1400x900, and am not too fussed about AA, although it would be nice.

I know that the 3870 is outperformed by the 8800GT, but is it £30 worth of performance when money is tight? From what I have heard, ATI's drivers have improved noticeably since the reviews. I also like the fact that it is quieter than the 8800 (my card now sounds like a jet plane and I want some peace and quiet!)

So is the 8800GT worth the extra money and noise? Cheers.

EDIT: Or do I go all out for the 8800GTS?
 
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I can't sit here and tell you whether paying the extra £30 is woth it for the nvidia card or whether there is a huge performance difference between the two, what I can give you is my experiences with the 3870xt, I have had the card for a week or so now and it's nice and quiet in my case, Coolermaster ATC220.

It also has a nice performance playing Crysis at all High Settings no AA/AF on my machine at a steady 35fps @ 1366x768, the other specs are q6600 and 4gb ram and dfi 795x/g. All in all Im pretty happy with it at the price point.

I always have that trade off in my head, knowing that six months down the line its going to be old tech so price was also the deciding factor for me! If your not fussed about a few fps here and there and just want something to work with the latest and greatest games then its great.
 
These are my thoughts which follow on from a thread I did a few days ago in my search for a new GFX, it is a tough choice in this price bracket.

Firstly, what ever is bought now, will be superseded in 2-6 months by Nvidia with the 9xxx series. Now if these follow the trend of the 8xxx they will be blistering. The 9600GT could = the 8800 GTS 512 if it does what the 7600GT did to the 6800.

Thus, buy the cheapest card you can to give you enough performance to satisfy you for now, unless you’re a fps enthusiast :p.

Secondly, as far as I have established, and this is not stuff that’s usually published in the reviews, as they tend to concentrate on games, the HD abilities of the ATI 3xxx are better than the Nvidia cards inc the ability to carry the HDMI audio over the HDMI cable.

With reference to issues getting ATI to support the native TV resolutions for HD (mentioned every so often), this is down to the settings on the TV. Digging deeper, it seems people are not setting up the RGB/PC on the TV and trying to force the card to do it. For example, my LG LC56 defaults, on pc input, to a 1024x768 res and until I set it up to 1366x768 this option did not appear in the windows display or CCC of my 2400pro.

Thirdly, the actual performance of the 3870 is pretty good. A lot of the benchmarks are a bit moot, where the GT may be 20% faster but the diff is between 160fps and 190 fps, which is not in real terms going to be noticeable. And for the times the fps dips down low in the DX10 games neither the GT nor the XT are really that playable, since both show similar fps loss.

Conclusions

The GT is faster. It costs more and, since in a few months both cards will be old tech, the cheaper option is appealing. Equally it depends what res you play at. At average resolutions both cards are almost identical. For me at 1360x768 the ATI makes sense. =>

Furthermore, results may vary depending on your specs. There is so much disparity between the reviews, and hardware used, it is difficult to establish how real world performance will be.

I have just ordered an Asus 3870 Company of Heroes bundle on the above basis at a good £38 cheaper than the nearest decent 8800GT bundle. It seems to sit in a real sweet price point at the moment. One final bonus is that as the prices of the 3870 fall, and I am sure they will, and if you use the Intel chipset boards P35/X38 etc, you can add another in Xfire. This will probably work out a cheaper option than a GT SLI set up in the long run.

I have also concluded that the 8800 GT 256mb version is worth avoiding and as more benchies come out for it the lack of memory is really starting to be noticed.
 
I'd personally go for either the 8800 GT or 3870, both strong performers, the 8800 GT being the faster of the two, but obviously a little bit more. Just ask yourself if you are willing to spend a little more money for a little more performance really. Also, I'd keep in mind that we're likely to see details of new nVidia cards over the coming months so now may not be the best time to upgrade unless you really need to.

mrk1@1: Wildly off topic - but do you own the Ibanez electro-acoustic displayed in your signature? I'm looking at buying the exact same guitar because it's a gorgeous piece of work, however I can't find any shop that has it to test what it is actually like to play. How would you rate it?
 
I agree with the above, there is always bigger and better but if you make sure you dont get caught in the trap then you can get a decent performing card for not so much wedge.

120 is enough to be paying bearing in mind you will be shelling out the same cash this time next year regardless of what you buy.
 
Cheers for the help. I cant go the crossfire route due to my mobo (P35C-DS3R) which is a shame. I am tempted to wait for next month to see what happens with the 9600, although early reviews suggest that it is on a par with the 8800GS and not a great deal better than the 3850. I agree that the 3870 seems to have price/performance spot on at the moment, very tempted!
 
manic111 said:
So is the 8800GT worth the extra money and noise? Cheers.

EDIT: Or do I go all out for the 8800GTS?
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Its worth £150inc i think. (Or less second hand)

Noise isnt an issue on mine, 45% fan all the time and it quieter than my X1800XT on accellero X2 cooling. With quite a heavy overclock it idles around 50c and max load is 70c (700core 1000mem)

If you need it faster you can always crank the fan up, but then theres more noise obviously
 
MystaEB said:
mrk1@1: Wildly off topic - but do you own the Ibanez electro-acoustic displayed in your signature? I'm looking at buying the exact same guitar because it's a gorgeous piece of work, however I can't find any shop that has it to test what it is actually like to play. How would you rate it?
Click to expand...

Oh Yea, I own her and she is a fantastic guitar. :D. I had a budget of £800 to spend on an Electro Acoustic. I tried loads, took about 3 months in all and went for this one which cost me £280 ish inc case. You can get them mail order cheap from here:

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/ibanez-ew-20wne/69075

But I prefer to get my guitars from a shop and play them. I have a plethora of Ibanez dealers round here. However if you want to go mail order, I would recommend these guys as they are usually spot on, on the price, will price match and the shops is sublime.

http://www.guitarvillage.co.uk/product-list.asp?manuid=48&catid=4

They are showing as out of stock but usually Ibanez will get it to them in a few days.

Started out guitar hunting at the end of 06, went into my local guitar shop and played on one in the lighter colour (which my mate bought) Loved it but as it was at the bottom end of my budget I thought I would go try some plusher guitars. Cut to end of March, and I ended up going back and getting the Ibanez.

Basically, they play like an Ibanez electric but in an EA versions so a really nice fast easy action, no fret buzz. Has a great warm sound to it and when plugged in to a PA is great. Plenty of tonal control and no noise from the electrics.
 
mrk1@1 said:
Oh Yea, I own her and she is a fantastic guitar. :D. I had a budget of £800 to spend on an Electro Acoustic. I tried loads, took about 3 months in all and went for this one which cost me £280 ish inc case. You can get them mail order cheap from here:

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/ibanez-ew-20wne/69075

But I prefer to get my guitars from a shop and play them. I have a plethora of Ibanez dealers round here. However if you want to go mail order, I would recommend these guys as they are usually spot on, on the price, will price match and the shops is sublime.

http://www.guitarvillage.co.uk/product-list.asp?manuid=48&catid=4

They are showing as out of stock but usually Ibanez will get it to them in a few days.

Started out guitar hunting at the end of 06, went into my local guitar shop and played on one in the lighter colour (which my mate bought) Loved it but as it was at the bottom end of my budget I thought I would go try some plusher guitars. Cut to end of March, and I ended up going back and getting the Ibanez.

Basically, they play like an Ibanez electric but in an EA versions so a really nice fast easy action, no fret buzz. Has a great warm sound to it and when plugged in to a PA is great. Plenty of tonal control and no noise from the electrics.
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That's fantastic - thanks. GAK is actually the place I've been looking at the guitar on, my local dealer only stocks Ibanez electrics. I'm very much an Ibanez enthusiast though (I own 3 Ibanez electrics, including a prestige model) so there was no doubt in my mind that they would be good guitars, but it's still nice to hear a second opinion. I absolutely adore the look of the exotic wood series, a lot nicer looking than my current Takamine; so it's nice to hear it plays well too, I'll definately consider it now, especially since it has a fantastic price tag.
 
I've drawn up a spreadsheet because I too am deciding whether to get a 3850, 3870 or 8800GT.

Using the data (for 1600 x 1200) from a review site I don't believe I can link to from here, I can confirm what everyone should know:

For performance:

8800GT
3870
3850

For value for money:

3850
3870
8800GT

i.e. the 3850 gives you the most FPS for your £, the 8800GT the least.

Personally, I'm going 3850, but that's partly because hardware voltmods are easier on the ATI cards and they *really* benefit from more voltage on the core.
 
Just a comment on noise. I'm running the Gigabyte 8800GT OC 512MB which has a Zalman cooler, and I'd rate it pretty much on a par with my previous 7800GT which I seperately attached a Zalman too. Certainly not noticeable over the hum from the case fans which are pretty quiet as well (and I'm VERY picky on noise)...
 
Jimbo Mahoney said:
I've drawn up a spreadsheet because I too am deciding whether to get a 3850, 3870 or 8800GT.

Using the data (for 1600 x 1200) from a review site I don't believe I can link to from here, I can confirm what everyone should know:

For performance:

8800GT
3870
3850

For value for money:

3850
3870
8800GT

i.e. the 3850 gives you the most FPS for your £, the 8800GT the least.

Personally, I'm going 3850, but that's partly because hardware voltmods are easier on the ATI cards and they *really* benefit from more voltage on the core.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much the conclusion that I had come to, but thinking that I would go 3870 as Im not too happy voltmodding.
 
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