ATI 3870 vs 8800GT Early Review or nVidia Hype?

i know i talked about this already, but now am thinking... to early wait for 3-4 more reviews to come out from really great sites like [H] or tomshardware before making a final judgment on ATIs new lineup.
 
3 month old 7.9 drivers on the 3870, for what that's worth.

But keep in mind even older X1xxx and 2xxx series cards got a modest performance boost in WiC with the current 7.10 drivers, and 7.11 will have all those improvements plus possibly some RV670 tuning.
 
I'll wait for more reviews but it's not looking good so far. If the 3870 fails miserably, I'm still not buying a GT due to this price game we are seeing on the card. So both camps miss out on my dollars. It just isn't that deep for me. I was really hoping for a bit of war but what are you going to do?! You either hold steady on that wallet or give in.
 
Is the NDA lifted tomorrow? Does [H] have a review lined up?

I can't wait for [H] and Guru3d reviews myself.
 
I would not argue that ATI 3870 is faster than 8800GT, however, doubt that it is that much slower indicated in the review. Driver is a significant part of all this and the reviewer used 7.9??!! Doesn't make a lot of sense to me...
 
Can't wait for the [H] review but I can't imagine it would be much different than this one. I doubt a driver refresh will make up the 10%-20% performance difference from the 8800GT. Dang it I wanted the 3870 to compete mightily! Must... hold off... judgment... :D
 
according to this review 3870 isn't really worth it. to really take advantage of the 3870 you need to put them in crossfire as some reviews suggest. So, now it all comes down to OCP's review and I can make up my mind.
 
the temperatures also seemed to be pretty darn high :confused:

i thought the shrink to 55nm should let it run cooler...even with a quieter 'dust blower'
 
Thats because you have to give something up if you want quiet. I can't speak for NV, but out of every ATI card i've owned the stock cooler gets replaced ASAP. They are always junk, either good performance and to loud, or really quiet and shitty performance.
 
well shit....I was gonna get one of these to tie me over for the 9800GTX but if these perform as bad as the review says....I don't know what the hell I'll do. I mean shit the GT's are over priced to hell. COME ON ATI BRING SOMETHING USEFUL TO THE TABLE :mad:
 
To be fair to ATI, the card was designed to compete against the 8800 GTS cards and undercut the cost of that card. It seems that NVIDIA knew this was coming and hurried the 8800 GT into the market channel to trump ATI/AMD's move. Looks like it worked, since the 3870 has been released to a less than receptive audience with a big yawn. No mercy for second place, it seems.

As for NVIDIA, the 8800 GT has also caused some confusion. It tromps the current 8800 GTS and competes with the 8800 GTX in DX9 based applications yet it is a mid-tier product. But, if they had waited until the high end cards were released in 2008, ATI/AMD might have got a foot hold in a very profitable sector. Instead, we have the 8800 GT a little early. Good for us, good for NVIDIA but bad for ATI/AMD.
 
HeavyH20 said:
To be fair to ATI, the card was designed to compete against the 8800 GTS cards and undercut the cost of that card. It seems that NVIDIA knew this was coming and hurried the 8800 GT into the market channel to trump ATI/AMD's move. Looks like it worked, since the 3870 has been released to a less than receptive audience with a big yawn. No mercy for second place, it seems.
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Nvidia is the Cobra Kai. "Strike first! Strike hard! No mercy, sir!"

ATI just needs a Mr. Miyagi to teach them the crane kick.
 
If these benchmarks and the one from VR Zone are any indication of the 3800's performance, then I think I'm sticking to Nvidia until AMD/ATI shapes up. As much as I like their cards having used a Radeon 9700 Pro for the last 4, 5 years, I've been really looking forward to another ATI card to replace it. However, these early benchmarks are pointing me towards Nvidia's way. I only play at 12x10 resolution at 2x/4x AA, High settings in many of my 3D games. Comparing early performance numbers may be misguided or misinformed, but the card has to at least perform decently at 30 to 40 fps without hiccups at that resolution and setting.

I just recently upgraded my computer and did away with the AGP PC I had before. Currently I run an 8600 GTS and now I'm strongly considering using the EVGA Step-Up to get the 8800 GT for another $104 USD after trade-in.

The only reason I'd go for the 3850 or 3870 is the price and temperature performance of the GPU. My current 8600 GTS gets noisy after a bit and I can hear it echo through the case after playing a game. Temperatures jump to 70-plus Celsius as well. Last thing I want to do is resort to jumping the fan speed to max. -_-; I've already read on here about some users having a noisy fan with their 8800 GT, so it's making me want the ATI, but just wished it didn't perform so badly to the GT.

Hopefully more reviews from [H] and Tom's Hardware comes out soon before I decide to send this 8600 GTS to EVGA.
 
Croak said:
3 month old 7.9 drivers on the 3870, for what that's worth.

But keep in mind even older X1xxx and 2xxx series cards got a modest performance boost in WiC with the current 7.10 drivers, and 7.11 will have all those improvements plus possibly some RV670 tuning.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind the RV670 is a die shrink. You will not see large performance improvement with new drivers like we did with the 2900XT.

Sure there will probably be some improvements but we have to be realistic.

This review is probably pretty close to the final standings and should come as no surprise to anyone.
 
I get an empty page at that link. But I assume it is showing the obvious.

GTS beat 2900XT.

GT is a significant improvement over GTS. (more units higher clocks).
3800 is marginal improvement over 2900 (same units, marginal clock increase).

Obvious that GT is going to extend the lead GTS had over 2900.

How could you expect otherwise?
 
Snowdog said:
I get an empty page at that link. But I assume it is showing the obvious.

GTS beat 2900XT.

GT is a significant improvement over GTS. (more units higher clocks).
3800 is marginal improvement over 2900 (same units, marginal clock increase).

Obvious that GT is going to extend the lead GTS had over 2900.

How could you expect otherwise?
Click to expand...

There site was slowing down big time, it appears they "may" have pulled it.

Thats inclined to happen when you post a review to beat all the other sites and have every hardware enthusiast in the world trying to access your site at the same time lol.


This is what i saved

Table.png


WiC.png


UT3.png
 
Oh4Sh0 said:
dissapointing. :(
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There seems to be allot of that going around from both camps.

2007 looks to officially go down in history as 'no new speed ground was broken' from either camp.

If the 8800 Ultra is king Jan first, that would be so lame...
 
Very true, we have gained nothing this year.
8800GTX is still king.... after a year of its release?
Has that ever happened before?
 
It's a first I think....

Also the first year Nvidia had no compitition from ATI...

Wonder if thoes two facts are related...

It is all just so lame!
 
DeltaSniper203 said:
well shit....I was gonna get one of these to tie me over for the 9800GTX but if these perform as bad as the review says....I don't know what the hell I'll do. I mean shit the GT's are over priced to hell. COME ON ATI BRING SOMETHING USEFUL TO THE TABLE :mad:
Click to expand...

WAit, you have Ultra's in SLI, what are you crying about?
 
It's all a little fishy in my opinion. Although it's fitting. AMD tends to lag behind.

Bah!

I hope we can still have a decent competitor to Nvidia so Nvidia doesn't hike up prices.
 
TalonMan said:
It's a first I think....

Also the first year Nvidia had no compitition from ATI...

Wonder if thoes two facts are related...

It is all just so lame!
Click to expand...

yep...don't expect a lot of innovation when competition is weak
 
aFive said:
WAit, you have Ultra's in SLI, what are you crying about?
Click to expand...

lmao!!! just sold them for over a grand.....So I'm not crying at all, I'll have plenty to probably get two 9800GTX which will be TOTAL over kill but hey, I just sold my Ultra's for about the same price I bought them. Staying ahead of the game this time around!

I do need to get a card to replace them though, so yes if this is how the 3870 will perform I will be pissed just like everyone else... I don't want to get an overpriced GT
 
WhyYouLoveMe said:
After reading all 3 reviews it doesn't look good or bad. You get a little less performance for a little less money. :eek:
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I agree. I mean you get less performance for less money, so it's technically well worth the price...except when you use AA and the 8800 GT runs 50-100% faster in some cases, but most people won't use 1920x1200 with AA to begin with.

It's really not bad at all, except if the 8800 GT were out at its MSRP of $250 instead of at the jacked-up prices that sites charge, it would be a no-brainer.
 
The 3850 certainly looks more attractive than the 3870 when you take price into account.
 
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