Anyone still running a Radeon HD 3870 X2 besides me?

[Pipboy3000]

4850 CF will score roughly the same as the 5770 CF tbh. I mean, afterall the 5770 isn't really that much faster than a 4850 it just has DX11 support.

Any way, good news ! I finally got everything set up on this stunning new Asus board.

And the conclusion? well, in certain things these cards just commit murder, pure and plain murder.

It's buggered in Crysis, but man, in Battlefield BC2 is just cuts throats. I found this earlier today

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...h-quality/Battlefield-Bad-Company-2,2373.html

and truly thought it was full of crap. And then I installed it. Oh.my.god. These cards just absolutely tear that game limb from limb. They poo all over my 5770s in CF. Really truly and honestly cannot believe it. And what they do in 3DM06? How about beheading a 5970?

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...charts-high-quality/3DMark06-v1.1.0,2392.html

And they absolutely ruin Batman Arkham Asylum too

 

[Super XP]

Is anybody still running the age old HD 3870 x2? What an improvement in the HD 4870 x2 and now the much better HD 5970 soon to come HD 6970

 

[Dent1]

A test system with dual 16X (X58) and a I7 930 @ 4ghz or so) and 5770 in Crossfire scored about 17,800.

4850 CF will score roughly the same as the 5770 CF tbh. I mean, afterall the 5770 isn't really that much faster than a 4850 it just has DX11 support.

Even so, you're running a i7 500MHz above my Athlon II. I ran 3D Marks 06 again and I actually scored 6 points under 18,000. Something can't be right

 

[Melvis]

I've seen some programs like Lightsmark, 3DMark 03-06 and Vantage, FurMark and a few others, any recommendations on others? I also have Far Cry 2 installed and can post results from that as well

Anything that is related to games, like Crysis benchmark, Far Cry 2 is a good one, COH, FEAR etc, game benchmarks are always better then lets say 3DMark03/5/6 etc

Is anybody still running the age old HD 3870 x2? What an improvement in the HD 4870 x2 and now the much better HD 5970 soon to come HD 6970

6870X2 (I hope) Sounds better

Even so, you're running a i7 500MHz above my Athlon II. I ran 3D Marks 06 again and I actually scored 6 points under 18,000. Something can't be right

I agree with Dent1, im getting about the same score with my main rig and everything is at Stock, so yea something isnt right

 

[chevy350]

The 6870X2 sounds good....probably run about $1200 though lol. Just gave 3DMark06 a run as well, I'll get FC2 benchmark going a bit later

 

[Dent1]

Chevy,

I get about 14,000 - 14,500 with a single 4850. So your 3870X2 = 1x4850.

 

[Pipboy3000]

Even so, you're running a i7 500MHz above my Athlon II. I ran 3D Marks 06 again and I actually scored 6 points under 18,000. Something can't be right

I ran 3dmark06 last night on quadfire 3870x2 and scored 15k. Quite on the contrary to what Tom's Hardware reakon, I should be hitting 25k.

A friend of mine ran it with Quadfire 5970 and scored about 19k. So something is definitely strange. FWIW you are scoring very well in 3dm06.

I did notice however that 3dm06 was only showing one card. Same for my friend with Quadfire 5970. So there may be a setting we need to change to get it to see and use both? no idea, but something ain't right.

 

[Dent1]

Pipboy3000, considering that the 3870X2 scores about the same as the 1x4850. I would think that 4x3870X2s would score about 22-25,000k. There is something wrong with your setup, maybe your CPU is holding your score back, fill in your full system specification.

System Specification

Edit:

Also, you are using crossfire bridges right?, in the task bar click the ATI catalyst control center, go to crossfire > and select "show crossfire icon where applicable". It will show a icon everytime crossfire is working, i.e. it should show a icon during 3Dmarks 06 is running, if you do not see a icon then crossfire is broken.

Nah. I should be hitting 25k and beating a 5970. See last post, something not being right with Quadfire ETC. I shall do some investigating

No I was trying to say a single 3870X2 = a single 4850. Obviously a 3780X2 in quadfire would be much faster than a single 4850.

 

[Pipboy3000]

Chevy,

I get about 14,000 - 14,500 with a single 4850. So your 3870X2 = 1x4850.

Nah. I should be hitting 25k and beating a 5970. See last post, something not being right with Quadfire ETC. I shall do some investigating

I did bench Battlfield this morning. And, wasn't surprised by the results.

Everything on absolute max apart from FSAA (because 8x locked up my PC, obs a bug) with HBAO on.

Frames 7016

Time (ms) 90000

Min 54

Avg 77.956

Max 95

Which is considerably better than my 5770 CF machine which is better specced in every department.

Pipboy3000, considering that the 3870X2 scores about the same as the 1x4850. I would think that 4x3870X2s would score about 22-25,000k. There is something wrong with your setup, maybe your CPU is holding your score back, fill in your full system specification.

System Specification

That spec is for my main rig. The rig with the 3870x2 CF is -

Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe WIFI
AMD Phenom 9950 (125w) stock clock
Noctua NH92 cooler with twin fans
3GB PC6400 DDR2 (2 x 512mb Patriot viper with Alienware coolers on)2x OCZ Plat PC6400 (1gb modules)
Windows 7 Professional
Seagate Baracuda 250gb
BFG Physx PPU (PCI) that enabled ups my CPU score and disabled lowers it, without touching my 3D score.
Newton 750w 80+bronze PSU
Radeon 3870x2 x2

I need to do some digging, because it seems 3DM06 is not seeing both GPUs. Infact I know it isn't, because when I go to the spec it only has one card there.

 

[Dent1]

Wait wait wait.

I think you're getting confused with the terminologies which might be leading you to think your score should be higher, your score of 15k might be normal.

Quadfire is 4 physical cards. You would need 4 physical 3870X2 for it to be quadfire - was the Tomshardware review 4 physical cards? (two GPUs on 1 board is still 1 physical card).

If you've only got 2 physical cards (hence 3870X2 in CF) then a score of 15k is normal. You'd only get 22-25k with 4 physical 3870X2s.


PS. if your AMD 9950 is still at stock your CPU score will be lower and hence reduce your overall score.

 

[Pipboy3000]

No it was for dual 3870x2.

I just checked and 3dm06 is only showing one card. Which is what I suspected. I'm not the first to have this issue either. I just went into my bios and adjusted the settings (enabling peer to peer between cards) and will see if that helps. If not? then it'll be a profile and I have an app that can force profiles.

 

[digibucc]

Lol I went from an x800 to 2x4870s ... the most amazing peformance jump I have ever seen only had to skip 3 generations to get it

Quadfire is 4 physical cards. You would need 4 physical 3870X2 for it to be quadfire

I don't think you are right about that. It goes by the number of GPUs not physical cards. (talking ATI here) I know for a fact that a single physical card with 2 gpus on it = crossfire - otherwise you are only running one of the gpus.

simple language tells me that if 2 gpus = crossfire, & 1 4870x2 + 1 4870 = tri-fire, then 4 gpus in any configuration - be it 4 single gpu cards or 2 dual gpu cards, = quadfire.

where did you get your definition from? I do not think it is correct.

 

[Dent1]

No it was for dual 3870x2.

Which is only 2 physical cards (4 logical GPUs but 2 physical PCBs)
Does this picture illsutrate what you've got? if so 15k is normal.

I just checked and 3dm06 is only showing one card.

Me too, 3D Marks 06 only recognises 1 card for me too, but the scores jumps from 14k to 18k when i enable CF so I know its working.

Lol I went from an x800 to 2x4870s ... the most amazing peformance jump I have ever seen only had to skip 3 generations to get it

I remember the x800 series they sucked, but they could tear up half life 2 like knowones business lol

simple language tells me that if 2 gpus = crossfire, & 1 4870x2 + 1 4870 = tri-fire, then 4 gpus in any configuration - be it 4 single gpu cards or 2 dual gpu cards, = quadfire.

where did you get your definition from? I do not think it is correct.

I'm going by ATI here. Although I realise that even for a single 3870X2 or a single 4870X2 one still needs to enable crossfire within the game or driver if availble, but its not crossfire in the traditional sense.

Either way, whether you want to call it crossfire or quadfire, the OP would still need 4x3870X2s to achieve 25k. - The Tomshardware might of been referring to it in the tradtional sense of 4 physical cards for quadfire, instead of 4 logical GPUs and 2 physical cards. Pipboy3000 can you post the TomsHardware link so we can check it out please.

 

[Pipboy3000]

It is yes. See pic.

Also see this pic.

So it's absolutely, 100% not right. I score as much in Vantage as I do in 06 and Vantage usually gives out about 60% of an 06 score. My friend is running a pair of 5970 with a 980x under water and he is scoring 19k. And that isn't right either, and here is why.

Note under linked display adapters it says "false"? that's because it is refusing to see the second card. And, it's the exact same issue my pal is seeing too. Why? I have absolutely no idea. But it's far from being right.

Also note it says "display device 1/1"

 

[digibucc]

It is yes. See pic.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i174/timmahtiburon/quadfire/yayforme.jpg

Also see this pic.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i174/timmahtiburon/3dmtoms.jpg

So it's absolutely, 100% not right. I score as much in Vantage as I do in 06 and Vantage usually gives out about 60% of an 06 score. My friend is running a pair of 5970 with a 980x under water and he is scoring 19k. And that isn't right either, and here is why.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i174/timmahtiburon/quadfire/false.jpg

Note under linked display adapters it says "false"? that's because it is refusing to see the second card. And, it's the exact same issue my pal is seeing too. Why? I have absolutely no idea. But it's far from being right.

Also note it says "display device 1/1"

from what i remember, not properly recognizing/using/acknowledging crossfire has been a problem with 3dmark for quite a while.
also - who cares? it's 3dmark that has the problem , and it's a useless little program that no one except those worried about their e-peen actually use. if you really want to bench the power of your machine,
there are a number of better working , well respected programs that bench individual performance vectors. and program that claims to measure the entire cumulative power is .. lying.

also, you need to put your images inside image tags for them to display.

 

[Pipboy3000]

It's probably the drivers. If I loaded on some ages old Catalysts it would probably fire. But it could also be a Win7 issue? no idea.

As you say it doesn't really matter too much

 

[Dent1]

Judging from your picture it confirms what I'm saying. Both you are Tomsharware are using the term CF and quadfire too loosely. That is a traditional crossfire setup, 2 phyiscal cards in a PCI-E slot each.

I think that Tomshardware.com has made a mistake, look carefully it says (4x512MB) which signifies that 512MB is allocated per physical card. So they must be running 4 physical cards but accidentally labeled it as CF when infact its crossfireX and hence why they're getting 25k in 3D Marks 06.

However, I agree that your scores are still slightly too low, I would think you'd get somewhere around 17-18k and it could be due to 3D Marks not detecting the card properly as you said. I just opened on 3D Marks and inspected my Direct X info page and it says "Linked Display Adapters: 2".

You say you get 15K in CF, what is your score once you disable crossfire within the driver and remove the bridge?

 

[Pipboy3000]

A 3870X2 is two physical 3870 GPUs with two lots of memory and two GPU coolers on one board, hard wired internally (crossfire). Two of them together gives me four GPUs, 4 lots of memory and in device manager four cards.

I've never heard of any one call it anything other than Quadfire. SLI? that is different. Quad SLI is (for example) a pair of 295s, GX2s or whatnot. 4 way SLI is four seperate GPUs on one of those Superboards that has drivers for the linking (as Nvidia do not support 4 way, only Quad SLI).

Any way, I don't think being pedantic about the name of something really matters.

I have now disabled Catalyst AI which will bring me down to one card (it's the easy way of running on a single card). 3Dm is running now and I will get the results in a sec. However, with AI disabled nothing looked any different in the settings. Still getting one card, still not linked ETC.

Will post the results in a mo

 

[3volvedcombat]

I love how 3870x2's make a rig look rediculas fast!

I kind of want 2x 3870x2's just for the luls of the looks



But guys, there are single card solutions, that are 200 dollars that out beat those 4 gpu's and use like 1/3 the power

with dx11

and way more optimazation, and if on the nvidia side, DRIVER SUPPORT.

I love ati, there great, but grab a 5830-5850, itll be fast, youll love it, and you wont need a 1200watt thermaltake to get the job done

Great setups though!

 

[Bo$$]

I ran 3dmark06 last night on quadfire 3870x2 and scored 15k. Quite on the contrary to what Tom's Hardware reakon, I should be hitting 25k.

A friend of mine ran it with Quadfire 5970 and scored about 19k. So something is definitely strange. FWIW you are scoring very well in 3dm06.

I did notice however that 3dm06 was only showing one card. Same for my friend with Quadfire 5970. So there may be a setting we need to change to get it to see and use both? no idea, but something ain't right.

my 9800gt's score 16-18k so something is wrong

 

[Pipboy3000]

I paid £100 for the pair. It was worth that simply for what it does in Battlefield BC2 tbh.

It poos on my 5770 Crossfire setup (as does Batman) and puts out a good 30% more frames.

The problem with the 3870x2 was never the 3870x2. It was bad driver support and the fact that game coders did not bother to code their games to use 4 GPUs. Infact, it's only been over the past six months or so that SLI and Crossfire have really begun to kick butt and scale as they do (80% or so).

Batman and BC2 are both very recent games, and, both support all four GPUs. The results depict that. So for £100 there is very little on the face of the earth that can provide results and frames like that.

Bo$$. Yeah that doesn't surprise me mate There's definitely something very wrong..

3DM06 just came back with 13k for a single 3870x2. Which is within the margin of error. Futuremark say that you should run it at least three times to get a consistent score.

 

[jpierce55]

My memory might be failing, but it seems to me some of the early 3870's (not x2's) had bad oc'ing bioses when they came out. I remember that I had to reflash mine to get it to oc..... but can't really remember the reason.

 

[Dent1]

I
It looks like a CPU bottleneck, CF is obviously working and 3DMarks is working fine as your score dropped from 15k to 13k once CF was disabled.

So basically you get a 2K improvement with CF enabled, this is normal, with my CPU at stock (2.6GHz) I only saw about a 2k improvement too, I went from about 13-14k to about 16k with my CPU overclocked to about 3.5GHz I get a healthly 18k in CF.

You could be suffering from a CPU bottleneck?

Edit:

Shit I accidentally removed my previous post, I'm retyping it:

A 3870X2 is two physical 3870 GPUs with two lots of memory and two GPU coolers on one board, hard wired internally (crossfire). Two of them together gives me four GPUs, 4 lots of memory and in device manager four cards.

From a technical standpoint you are correct. But Tomshardware might be combining the memory similarly to what the retailers and manufacturers do. Look at a box of the 3870X2 and they'll combine the total memory to 1GB total or 512MB total - They allocate the combined memory per physical board. If Tomshardware is doing the same that would mean that 4x512MB means that there is 4 physical boards and 8 GPUs. It would make perfect sense for TH to combine the memory to cater for the less technical audience.

But really who knows? I'm just making a educated guess, only Tomshardware know for sure.

 

[Pipboy3000]

My memory might be failing, but it seems to me some of the early 3870's (not x2's) had bad oc'ing bioses when they came out. I remember that I had to reflash mine to get it to oc..... but can't really remember the reason.

They did yeah. I flashed both of mine when I got them with the latest bioses on this site

Installing Dirt 2 now if it scales anywhere near as well as Batman or BC2 then that also will be getting played soley on the 3870x2 rig

 

[Pipboy3000]

Dent. If anything mate it was the manus being dishonest when they packaged the cards. I mean, that's almost as annoying as the peanuts who add together their cores and then say -

ZOMFG 8GHZ CPU !!11oneone.

Very dishonest. What they should have done was said 1gb total, and then put an asterix there or something. You could actually get them with a not as described TBH.

Mind you, you can do that with pretty much anything in the computing world today. Take my Sapphire Pure board for an example. All over the box it says SUPPORTS PHENOM & PHENOM FX CPU, all over the manual it says the same, all over the instruction booklet, on Scan's website ETC ETC. Nowhere does it say it may not support your specific model, yet, I got screwed out of £15 shipping because mine didn't work with a 9950.

Apparently Scan tell me that they don't need to tell you that you may need to update your bios ANYWHERE. Liars, and have been reported to Trading Standards.