ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (R680) 1GB First Full Review Posted

[Xaser04]

Originally Posted by Darkmag

Hope this helps



















Performance diffrence in terms of R680 to 8800Ultra
Bioshock 1280*1024 = 4% Slower
Bioshock 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
Bioshock 2560*1600 = 39% Faster

COJ 1280*1024 = 11% Faster
COJ 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
COJ 2560*1600 = 10% Faster

COJ 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 13% Faster
COJ 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 23% Faster

Lost Planet 1280*1024 = 27% Slower
Lost Planet 1920x1200 = 30% Slower
Lost Planet 2560*1600 = 37% Faster

Lost Planet 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 18% Slower
Lost Planet 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 18% Slower
Lost Planet 2560*1600 4AA 16AF = 10% Faster

Crysis 1280*1024 = 13% Slower
Crysis 1920x1200 = 2% Slower
Crysis 2560*1600 = 12% slower

COD4 1280*1024 = 42% Faster
COD4 1920x1200 = 32% Faster
COD4 2560*1600 = 26% Faster

COD4 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 27% Faster
COD4 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 20% Faster
COD4 2560*1600 4AA 16AF = 16% Faster

NFS:Pro 1280*1024 = 32% Faster
NFS:Pro 1920x1200 = 38% Faster

NFS:Pro 1280*1024 4AA 16AF = 72% Slower
NFS:Pro 1920x1200 4AA 16AF = 67% Slower

Serious Sam 2 1280*1024 HAA 16AF = 30% Faster
Serious Sam 2 1920x1200 HAA 16AF = 45% Faster
Serious Sam 2 2560*1600 HAA 16AF = 78% Faster

UT3 1280*1024 = 7% Faster
UT3 1920x1200 = 24% Faster
UT3 2560*1600 = 37% Faster

F.E.A.R. 1600*1200 = 20% Faster
F.E.A.R. 2048*1536 = 20% Faster

Brilliant Thanks for that

[UnXpectedError]

card looks like it will be awesome once it gets some proper drivers

[laszlo]

"Attack of the clones" or "The Empire strikes back" ?

[btarunr]

I can already predict this card to lose to the GeForce 9800 GX2. Okay, they've compared this card to the 8800 Ultra and the 8800 Ultra loses but give the 8800 Ultra's scores a 35% increment and you can pretty much figure out how a 9800 GX2 performs and how it compares to this Radeon HD3870 X2.

[SiCk]

Originally Posted by laszlo

"Attack of the clones" or "The Empire strikes back" ?

Return of the ati maybe

[Mussels]

if its an attack of clones... why did they clone joined twins? :P

[Xaser04]

Originally Posted by btarunr

I can already predict this card to lose to the GeForce 9800 GX2. Okay, they've compared this card to the 8800 Ultra and the 8800 Ultra loses but give the 8800 Ultra's scores a 35% increment and you can pretty much figure out how a 9800 GX2 performs and how it compares to this Radeon HD3870 X2.

It would have been useful if they had included results from a pair of 8800GTS (G92) in SLI as this would have been roughly representative of the performance of the 9800GX2.

EDIT: Did they include any SLI results? (sorry for the question but I can't load the website so I don't know)

[TooFast]

yes! ati is back.........

[unsmart]

Crysis shouldn't even be benched it's so bias,just like Doom3. If it is benched they should call it "Nvidia presents Crysis".

[OrbitzXT]

Originally Posted by Wile E

This card is also much cheaper than an Ultra. It's supposed to retail around the price of a GTX.

Supposed to...we all know how these things work, it'll be available for $450ish on NewEgg for all of 15 seconds until they're sold out, then the next batch will go up in price to 500 something. I'm guessing the R680 needs better drivers considering its still behind the Ultra in a number of games, but does very well on the 3dMark benchmark. I must have said this in 15 or so posts, but I wish ATI would fix little things in their drivers, like Image Scaling. Its such an annoying issue to me that I just simply won't buy anymore of their cards until its working as it should. I love my older games but games with 4:3 resolutions stretched to 16:10 look nasty. Even if this R680 outperforms nVidia's 9800 GX2 I'll still go with nVidia on the simple issue of drivers.

[ShinyG]

Wow, finally something high-end from ATi!
Performance will hopefully go up as new drivers emerge.
People want to see this go head-to-head to a couple of 8800GTS'... Even if those would be faster, the price of two 8800GTS' would be a lot more, plus that not everybody wants to fill their case with 2 graphics cards, some people actually need those PCI and PCI-E 1x slots.
As far as the 9800GX2, I'm sure it's going to be better than ATi's offer, but also more expensive and probably hard as hell to find.
Hard to find seems to be the word for decently priced nVidia products lately!

[Airbrushkid]

The same can be said about Ati. Look at some of the games when they start up and the splash screen is Ati. Isn't Fear one of those bias to ati? Why didn't they use World of Conflict game it's a Dx10 game. It takes Ati to produce a card that needs 2 GPU's to catch up with Nivida.

Originally Posted by unsmart

Crysis shouldn't even be benched it's so bias,just like Doom3. If it is benched they should call it "Nvidia presents Crysis".

[OrbitzXT]

Originally Posted by ShinyG

People want to see this go head-to-head to a couple of 8800GTS'... Even if those would be faster, the price of two 8800GTS' would be a lot more, plus that not everybody wants to fill their case with 2 graphics cards

They want to see 2 GTS's because they hypothesize that those will perform similarly to the 9800 GX2 (Whether they're right or wrong). So cost and space really isn't an issue.

[Xaser04]

Originally Posted by OrbitzXT

They want to see 2 GTS's because they hypothesize that those will perform similarly to the 9800 GX2 (Whether they're right or wrong). So cost and space really isn't an issue.

This is the main reason I want to see it against 2 GTS cards. In theory 2 GTS's should perform roughly equivilant to the 9800GX2 judging by the technical specs being identical and the fact that the GX2 relies on SLI just like 2 GTS's do.

[ShinyG]

@Airbrushkid:
They can put as may GPUs as they want one one card. As long as performance is high and dimensions+power consumption is ok, I don't see a problem, especially when the price is right! (Hopefully it will, or people will flame me like crazy...)
@OrbitzXT:
Oh, I wasn't paying attention there, sorry!

[Edito]

Humm, well done ATI\AMD its impressive but i was expecting for more since the 8800Ultra its kinda Old after all maybe with time the gap between them will increase but i still prefere nvidia all the way...

Good for the ppl who like ATI\AMD :-)

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Originally Posted by Blacklash

I am going to hold onto my money for now. Hopefully someone will deliver a single GPU that can beat my GTX well soon. .

thats not happening for the next 12 mths

[OrbitzXT]

Originally Posted by Edito

Humm, well done ATI\AMD its impressive but i was expecting for more since the 8800Ultra its kinda Old after all maybe with time the gap between them will increase but i still prefere nvidia all the way...

Good for the ppl who like ATI\AMD :-)

The nVidia fans said the same exact thing that they're expecting more of the 9800 GX2, which was stated as being "30% faster than the ultra", which they love to point out is getting old as well. I suspect the 9800 will be around the neighborhood of where the R680 is now.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by OrbitzXT

Supposed to...we all know how these things work, it'll be available for $450ish on NewEgg for all of 15 seconds until they're sold out, then the next batch will go up in price to 500 something. I'm guessing the R680 needs better drivers considering its still behind the Ultra in a number of games, but does very well on the 3dMark benchmark. I must have said this in 15 or so posts, but I wish ATI would fix little things in their drivers, like Image Scaling. Its such an annoying issue to me that I just simply won't buy anymore of their cards until its working as it should. I love my older games but games with 4:3 resolutions stretched to 16:10 look nasty. Even if this R680 outperforms nVidia's 9800 GX2 I'll still go with nVidia on the simple issue of drivers.

i've been complaining about the lack of scaling for a long time. Every time i do, some nugget comes along and says his games work jsut great in widescreen, so i'm making it up/Nv fanboi.

[SK-1]

Originally Posted by WildCat87

All I see is a brand new high-end dual-GPU video card that barely cracks 40 FPS at a low resolution with NO AA.

Weak. lol

Not been around Graphics card tech much??? You need to know the GTX series gained 10-15% in its benchies after the FIRST driver update. This is VERY normal for pre-release drivers to be no where near the card's potential performance. It is all part of a cards evolution.
Basic stuff here WildCat.

[unsmart]

Originally Posted by Airbrushkid

The same can be said about Ati. Look at some of the games when they start up and the splash screen is Ati. Isn't Fear one of those bias to ati? Why didn't they use World of Conflict game it's a Dx10 game. It takes Ati to produce a card that needs 2 GPU's to catch up with Nivida.

F.E.A.R is actually a Nvidia game,HL2 is a ATI game and it does favor ATI a bit but not to this level. What I'm talking about is a 30% difference between two cards that perform close in most other game/benches. If you recall the ATI patch someone made for DOOM3 that put ATI cards on level with Nvidia with no loss of image quality. Thats something I think ID should have done not a end user.
I just don't care for anything that favors one brand over the other due to marketing. They should try to optimize for both brands cards and CPUs. It's not like it's impossible to have a patch loaded for each brands card when recognized. We get screwed by the best when played on crap from both sides and I think it's time we demand the game producers start trying to make it the best for what ever brand you chose. What if HBO was "best if viewed on Sony TVs" I don't think that would last to long.

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by SK-1

Not been around Graphics card tech much??? You need to know the GTX series gained 10-15% in its benchies after the FIRST driver update. This is VERY normal for pre-release drivers to be no where near the card's potential performance. It is all part of a cards evolution.
Basic stuff here WildCat.

Yeah.. thats true and all... but 10-15% for this card is still not very impressive, considering the Ultra is practically ancient tech, and its still in the same playing field. All that means is that this won't be the 'performance crown' for very long... maybe 1-2 months before the GX2 and 98XX series comes out - but hey, i could be dead wrong, - they could give it some volts (like the 2900 series) and overclock the pants off of it (1GHz core anyone?), and then improve drivers, which could, altogether, give it up to a 50% increase in performance from these benchmarks... not to mention quadfire (i think my PSU just started crying).

[PVTCaboose1337]

YA!!! Hopefully this will bring back AMD from the bad.

[Judas]

Well done ...AMD/ATI


EDIT: I tried to read the full story but could not make heads nor tails of it

[jydie]

WOW... great performance for the price!!

If they can keep the supply greater then the demand, then AMD/ATI might do well with this card. I would love to put this in my system and "test" it out. But it is out of my price range, so I will just have to read the reviews and keep dreaming.