HD3870 vs 1950Pro

Megatronpt · **HD3870 vs 1950Pro -** 11-20-2007, 17:26 | posts: 6 | Location: 127.0.0.1

Heya all!

There was a time when I was updated when it came to cards and which was best.

Nowadays.. I don't.. that's why I'm here. ^^

Actually I have a X1950Pro.. but I've been trying to upgrade it, but, I don't know what to buy.

I found just now the HD3870.. but no comparison between these two.

My questions are:
- Is the upgrade worth?
- Is 3870 much better than 1950?
- Below 250USD, what do you recommend ?

Reason for upgrades:
- Lineage II (next expansion)
- Linux MCE, soon.

Thank you for your input!

OS: Xp X64/Linux
CPU: AMD 64x2
RAM: 2GB Kingston ECC(4Gb as soon as I get my other 2GB from my fileserver/proxy)
HD: Over 1TB

Jelle Mees · 11-20-2007, 17:53 | posts: 2,355 | Location: Belgium -> Limburg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megatronpt

My questions are:
- Is the upgrade worth?
- Is 3870 much better than 1950?
- Below 250USD, what do you recommend ?

- Yep
- Yep, it's about 30-35% faster
- ATI 3870 or 8800GT ( but it's hard to find it for 250 or lower )

Megatronpt · 11-20-2007, 17:58 | posts: 6 | Location: 127.0.0.1

Thank you for your input.

Just a question.. I remembered..

My 1950 is from GeCube.. but the only 3870 I can find is from Sapphire... which is a manufacturer I don't know.

Is Sapphire any good? Is it last longing(2 years - 24/7)?

Jelle Mees · 11-20-2007, 18:10 | posts: 2,355 | Location: Belgium -> Limburg

Where do you live?

Megatronpt · 11-20-2007, 18:12 | posts: 6 | Location: 127.0.0.1

Portugal/Europe.

TheHunter · 11-20-2007, 18:18 | posts: 13,439 | Location: √╥²

yes sapphire is good known company for years, go for it.

Anarion · 11-20-2007, 18:21 | posts: 9,185 | Location: Finland

I dunno about Portugal but in Finland 8800 GT is cheaper than HD 3870. Club3D 8800 GT costs 209€ when ASUS HD 3870 costs 212€. Haven't found any of them at lower prices. So if the price goes like that in Portugal too, I would get the 8800 GT hands down.

Megatronpt · 11-20-2007, 18:26 | posts: 6 | Location: 127.0.0.1

Between 8800 and 3870, what I can find in Portugal, is:

ASUS GF8800GT 512MB DDR3 HDCP - EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M For 225€
SAPPHIRE HD3870 512MB GDDR4 PCI-E (11121-00-40R) - 245€

Yes, the 8800GT is cheaper... and it's from ASUS(Note: I just read the topic about Sapphire.. and got spooked!)

Is it better than the 3870?

Jelle Mees · 11-20-2007, 18:28 | posts: 2,355 | Location: Belgium -> Limburg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megatronpt

Is it better than the 3870?

Yep, it sure is. It's not normal that it's cheaper though.
Yeah, if you can buy the GT for less, go for the 8800GT

Megatronpt · 11-20-2007, 18:30 | posts: 6 | Location: 127.0.0.1

Thanks a lot everyone!

Will order it!

And finally an Asus Mobo/Graph combo! LoL!

Terrorizor · 11-20-2007, 18:42 | posts: 1,898 | Location: United States

for radeon cards, sapphire and HIS hightech are my favors. and both cards probably originally come from sapphire and will most likely continue to until AMD moves the radeon gpu line to the same in-house manufacturering as they do with thier processors.which is probably not too far away if they havnt started the process already.so if im not mistaking even built by ati cards still come from sapphire.

good pricing on that 8800gt , definately the better buy.

TheHunter · 11-20-2007, 18:56 | posts: 13,439 | Location: √╥²

Quote:

(Note: I just read the topic about Sapphire.. and got spooked!)

lol why, well i know it since 2001 that's quite old, compared to some new palit, club3d, etc..

anyway 8800gt is good but 3870 has a better cooler (less heat), has dx10.1 lol , pure hd decoder, ddr4 mem, but its only like ~700 points weaker in 3dmark2006 and 5fps slower in Crysis that is on default clocks, no need for that, if this your choice why go with 8800gt.
Don't get me wrong i'm no GT hater, its just that its a bit overhyped, but it also has some flaws that everybody seems to forget, heat issue, some strange no signal issues in some cards, noisy cooler at higher rpm, dumping heat into your cpu case, mem might become damaged in longer therm if its OCed,..
One more thing, a new 8800gts will lunch around 3rd or 11th december, with 128sp and a better dual slot cooler similar to current gts. That might be far more interesting if you're buying a new card, and wait a bit longer with your current.

Anarion · 11-20-2007, 20:03 | posts: 9,185 | Location: Finland

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiGiTaL HunTeR

lol why, well i know it since 2001 that's quite old, compared to some new palit, club3d, etc..

anyway 8800gt is good but 3870 has a better cooler (less heat), has dx10.1 lol , pure hd decoder, ddr4 mem, but its only like ~700 points weaker in 3dmark2006 and 5fps slower in Crysis that is on default clocks, no need for that, if this your choice why go with 8800gt.
Don't get me wrong i'm no GT hater, its just that its a bit overhyped, but it also has some flaws that everybody seems to forget, heat issue, some strange no signal issues in some cards, noisy cooler at higher rpm, dumping heat into your cpu case, mem might become damaged in longer therm if its OCed,..
One more thing, a new 8800gts will lunch around 3rd or 11th december, with 128sp and a better dual slot cooler similar to current gts. That might be far more interesting if you're buying a new card, and wait a bit longer with your current.

Just FYI, Club3D is 10 years old company.

But anyway, HD 3870 is not that cheap really, I do not quite get it why everyone says that 8800 GT costs so much more. I haven't seen HD 3870 cards anywhere bellow 8800 GT's price.

enessel · **3870 Cheaper in US -** 11-20-2007, 20:12 | posts: 713 | Location: NY

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anarion

Just FYI, Club3D is 10 years old company.

But anyway, HD 3870 is not that cheap really, I do not quite get it why everyone says that 8800 GT costs so much more. I haven't seen HD 3870 cards anywhere bellow 8800 GT's price.

The 3870's are cheaper in the US:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122040

Cheapest 8800GT:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122040

Anarion · 11-20-2007, 20:28 | posts: 9,185 | Location: Finland

Quote:

Originally Posted by enessel

The 3870's are cheaper in the US:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122040

Cheapest 8800GT:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814122040

That's in the US. In Europe it's different (or at least here in Finland and it looks like it in Portugal too) or HD 3870 can cost about 10€ less in some countries. But I have to say that I haven't found 8800 GT for 209€ anywhere else than in Finland. For some reason HD 3870 costs a little more here.

Terrorizor · 11-20-2007, 20:30 | posts: 1,898 | Location: United States

yeah i was gonna say the difference starts at 3870's being minimum $50+ cheaper than an 8800gt here in the states,and 3850's are 100 bux cheaper@169 er so.

Vastro_Lord · 11-20-2007, 21:44 | posts: 34

The HD 3870 offers great performance advantages over the X1950 pro,

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/h...on_hd_3870/15/

You can check the site out (it is german but oh well the numbers are the same, duh). Basically highlight the X1950 pro to see the performance increase of the HD 3870.

In the first game i posted (Company of Heroes) the HD 3870 is 226% faster than the X1950 pro @ 1280x1024 (Almost 2.5 times as much frames)

In Oblivion the HD 3870 is 255% faster @ 1280x1024.

In Rainbow six vegas the HD 3870 is 287% faster @ 1280x1024, in this game the HD 3870 outperforms all GPU's including the 8800 ULTRA! (by 12%!)

In FEAR @ 1280x1024 the HD 3870 is 205% faster.

In Stalker @ 1280x1024 it is 260% faster.

You can check the rest out yourself, i didnt include Crysis because they dont include the X1950 pro as they only test it in DX10 (which the X1950 pro doesnt have, actually the HD 3870 has DX 10.1 support, which the 8800gt lacks)

Xaser04 · 11-20-2007, 21:58 | posts: 2,866 | Location: Southwest England

Just to add firingsquads review of the 3870/3850 includes the X1950 for comparison.

Review:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...mance_preview/

Quick snippet from the review:

3870 - 97.3fps
X1950pro - 43.7fps

Quite a big performance jump.

Megatronpt · 11-21-2007, 10:26 | posts: 6 | Location: 127.0.0.1

Well Well..

Loved the german site!

Been a while since I trained it. ^^

Comparison based on the Adapter you own is excellent. ^^

Danke Schon!

easy2007 · 11-21-2007, 10:38 | posts: 1,158

in the UK the 3870 is cheaper than a 8800gt by £30-40($60-80) so its alot cheaper here.

weston · 11-21-2007, 17:42 | posts: 2,765 | Location: U.S.

the 3870 is a great buy because it is so much cheaper than the 8800. It's at least $80 which is about 25-30% less than the GT. If you can get the 8800 for less though, then do it for sure. and either one is much faster than an x1950. Close to double the speed.

Schepsel · *Last edited by Schepsel; 11-21-2007 at 22:59.*

Hehehe, The 3870 is becomming "The poormans Porsche"

I think will buy the double gpu version...

Or maby two single 3870's and CF them. With a bit of luck it will save on my energy bill....

Amilo-D · **Memory**: 2x2GB Corsair 4-4-4-11

3870 looks like a very decent card. Have proper dual-slot cooling which is quieter than 8800GT. However, beware that there is a bug in bios that lets the card heat up to 80C+ without speeding up the fan beyond 30% speed.

Wendig0 · 11-22-2007, 01:36 | posts: 697 | Location: Utah, USA

I bought a 3870 just a couple hours ago. When I get money around christmass time/my b-day ( a couple weeks after christmas) i will get another 3870 and a xfire mobo!