3870X2 whose first???

MHayes · 24 Jan 2008 at 10:28

I already have a last gen card, why would I wanna buy more of them? SLI and X fire arn't worth it yet. Come on 9800GTX where are you....

stevenazari1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 10:31

are you really expecting that much of a performance boost from the 9800gtx?.... carry on lol

paradigm · 24 Jan 2008 at 10:39

MHayes said:
I already have a last gen card, why would I wanna buy more of them? SLI and X fire arn't worth it yet. Come on 9800GTX where are you....

Bullpap. After owning both a current gen Crossfire setup, and a previous gen SLi setup, I would say both are easily worth it if you have a decent enough resolution.

MHayes · 24 Jan 2008 at 10:41

This is probably the wrong thread but despite the poor performance of ATI, nVidias high end has always been 2x as fast as the previous version and I can't see them bucking that trend. With the 9800GX2 nVidia are just using up old cores just to save money and recoop R&D costs. There will be a GTX or new high end but it will just be late. I do think multi GPU will be the future but ATI are rushing it probably because they don't have a new high end core ready. Starting to resemble some of Voodoo3Ds last crazy cards before they died which isn't good. Like I said it is inevitibly the future, cpus have gone that way already but the drivers are no where near, need to be more efficient, work on all games, not waste 50% of RAM and support dual screens.

Bleek · 24 Jan 2008 at 10:50

I love all this talk of card x being a waste of money because in 3 months time card y will be released and probably outperform it... only for card z to be released another few months down the line which will slap them both in to last week.

/yawn

It's about current performance, compare the market now and stop getting hooked on future instalments, this isn't a soap opera!

MHayes · 24 Jan 2008 at 10:54

But I have 1 GT. I could buy another GT, why would I sell the GT and buy one of these monstoseties instead which is really just to cards as good as the GT stuck together. Do what you like to be honest but I know when I am being ripped off. R&D is where companies spend the money. No R&D has gone into this card. They are just milking old tech, anyway I dont't wanna winge. I am just not buying one is all.

Bleek · 24 Jan 2008 at 11:42

MHayes said:
R&D is where companies spend the money. No R&D has gone into this card. They are just milking old tech, anyway I dont't wanna winge.

That's a rather naive comment, if it were so simple why hasn't nVidia done the same yet? Well actually, they tried a while back and failed miserably.

A product of this nature that works well, at the right price point, in a well considered package (less heat and power draw than 2xSLI or 2xCF) is if anything, innovative.

Old tech, young tech, it matters not. What the consumer wants is performance at the right price in an acceptable package, if I could buy a card 25% cheaper and up to 20% faster than the best the biggest rival could offer I wouldn't give two hoots if it was running 3dfx technology! :-P

There's a tremendous amount of R&D being pumped in to the multi-gpu per card arrangements.

VortexA1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 12:34

JoeDredd said:
Same here thinking of getting the GTS and saving some money

Well on the reviews I've seen the results are soo conflicting(eg. On COJ the card owns all other cards on one site then another with no boost at all etc. The sound as loud as a train and then another it's not loud.. need I say more..) - also with this new driver; they're saying it's going to boost results . The only way to find out how it is , is once someone on here gets one they can bench it and then we can see for sure.

stevenazari1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 12:37

results are no longer valid as new drivers are to be released before the 28th making all reviews worthless.

LoadsaMoney · 24 Jan 2008 at 12:38

We don't know how good/bad it is now, or going to be, as we have no reviews to go on, and no reviews coming to go on, all invalid now.

Bugger, beaten

stevenazari1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 12:41

well we do kinda - the current reviews give us a ball park to pitch in, we can see the game struggling in some games and owning in others, I can only hope that the new drivers have a positive impact on the games that its failing on and not a negative impact on the games its doing well on.

VortexA1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 12:43

I don't agree that we have a ball park.. well a ball that's all over the place lol

stevenazari1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 13:33

we know where abouts its performing well and in those areas cant expect much of an increase in performance, where as the areas its not performing well there is a good chance these drivers will help it - but dont expect a "zomg +50fps bonzor!" - it will only be a few frames at best

MHayes · 24 Jan 2008 at 15:16

Edleake said:
That's a rather naive comment, if it were so simple why hasn't nVidia done the same yet? Well actually, they tried a while back and failed miserably.

A product of this nature that works well, at the right price point, in a well considered package (less heat and power draw than 2xSLI or 2xCF) is if anything, innovative.

Old tech, young tech, it matters not. What the consumer wants is performance at the right price in an acceptable package, if I could buy a card 25% cheaper and up to 20% faster than the best the biggest rival could offer I wouldn't give two hoots if it was running 3dfx technology!

There's a tremendous amount of R&D being pumped in to the multi-gpu per card arrangements.

It is better than nVidias attempt i admit, atleast ATI have gone for a single PCB design, ATI have no other option but nVidia know that and are takin the ****.

Anyway sorry to start this, Idon't like to critisze because I often get the urge to spend money on less than required items.

stevenazari1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 16:26

I like how nvidia are shooting themselves in the foot by sitting back and watch ati make a much better solution (multi gpu) and then their come back is by slapping 2 cards together like a bigmac and say "done it!" what a botch job hehe

lay-z-boy · 24 Jan 2008 at 17:45

stevenazari1 said:
I like how nvidia are shooting themselves in the foot by sitting back and watch ati make a much better solution (multi gpu) and then their come back is by slapping 2 cards together like a bigmac and say "done it!" what a botch job hehe

Let's be serious here, neither card is 'just two cards slapped together with some glue'

There is allot more to hardware and circuits than that.

The interesting thing about these two dual gpu cards is the software that makes them what they are, ati's xfire scales better than sli.

The current 3870 x2 previews are looking good, quad xfire should in theory, scale quite well while costing less than nvidia's quad sli which looks like it's going to be another 7950gx2 fiasco as the results are not that promising.
(Not to mention the required use of nvidia chipsets or encryption bridges)

Still, If the reviews on release day give the thumbs up, I might have to order one....or two.

stevenazari1 · 24 Jan 2008 at 17:52

oh come on.

nvidias dual gpu even looks like they've been stuck together - congrats on realising that graphics cards require circuitry to work.

ati's card is better because the 2 gpu's share the same resources - nvidias are 2 cards layered ontop of eachother. which only further exemplifies my slapstick comment.

ati will be the leader at multi gpu's because nvidia not only cant keep their heating down of a multi gpu card and all the other approaches, but until they realise their resources needs to be shared it aint going nowhere compared to ati.

YorkshirePadd26 · 24 Jan 2008 at 18:01

Did anyone really think this card was going to be wonderfully different from a pair of crossfired 3870s ? think people are asking far too much really.

RoEy said:
LOL still won't play Crysis properly though will it. Pointless getting it in my opinion if it doesnt. Hopefully the 9800's will do it some justice.

RoEy

LoadsaMoney · 24 Jan 2008 at 18:08

Its not pointless buying one at all, Crysis is just 1x single game, are you telling me if the 3870 X2 hammers through every game on the planet at 1000fps, except 1x single game that it runs at 25fps, you will not buy it as its pointless, yer having a giraffe.

We all should not have any gfx cards in that case then, as there is not 1x single card out that can run that damn game, so your saying every single gfx card that has ever been released to this day is pointless, and we all should not have bought them, oh dear, please tell me your using onboard gfx, and that you aint got an utterly pointless worthless gfx card. :eek:

Ive never read so much ***** in all me life, why the **** is everyone dismissing every damn card on the planet that hammers through every game fine except this single one pile of excrement.

lay-z-boy · 24 Jan 2008 at 18:31

stevenazari1 said:
oh come on.

nvidias dual gpu even looks like they've been stuck together - congrats on realising that graphics cards require circuitry to work.

I've got a bit tired of the constant glue stick + gpu's reference, it's getting really childish.

stevenazari1 said:
ati's card is better because the 2 gpu's share the same resources - nvidias are 2 cards layered ontop of eachother. which only further exemplifies my slapstick comment.

What on earth? :confused:

In mutli gpu systems, the cores work independently, the memory buffer is cloned across all the cards used. This is true for both xfire and sli.

stevenazari1 said:
ati will be the leader at multi gpu's because nvidia not only cant keep their heating down of a multi gpu card and all the other approaches, but until they realise their resources needs to be shared it aint going nowhere compared to ati.

What is this sharing resources stuff, never heard of it before.
'heating down of a card' ? :confused:

Ok, I admit it, you've lost me.