3870XT

[brencat]

@ apoppin -- or anyone else with HD2900XT...have you ever tried Omega drivers as opposed to regular Catalysts? Just wondering, since I use Omega with my aging X800XL and they are noticeably faster for gaming. Same observation from several friends with different ATI cards that also have used both types of drivers.

Too early to speculate I know, but perhaps Omega might end up helping the upcoming 3870's performance a bit too?

 

[Munky]

Whether or not the rv670 can compete in performance with the 8800gt, it definitely gives AMD a die size advantage this round, and besides the obvious cost-saving benefits, AMD for once can claim to have cooler, quieter and less power-hungry products. This card might turn out to be a big winner in the OEM market, even if its performance doesn't impress the enthusiasts on this forum.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: brencat
@ apoppin -- or anyone else with HD2900XT...have you ever tried Omega drivers as opposed to regular Catalysts? Just wondering, since I use Omega with my aging X800XL and they are noticeably faster for gaming. Same observation from several friends with different ATI cards that also have used both types of drivers.

Too early to speculate I know, but perhaps Omega might end up helping the upcoming 3870's performance a bit too?

i did ... in July ... they didn't work that incredibly well for 2900xt
- i am getting sufficient performance in all my games with the regular Cats at 16x10.
[i'm not playing DX10]

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: brencat
@ apoppin -- or anyone else with HD2900XT...have you ever tried Omega drivers as opposed to regular Catalysts? Just wondering, since I use Omega with my aging X800XL and they are noticeably faster for gaming. Same observation from several friends with different ATI cards that also have used both types of drivers.

Too early to speculate I know, but perhaps Omega might end up helping the upcoming 3870's performance a bit too?

I haven't tried it with an 2900XT but I can attest to your claims as well. The Omegas worked really well with my X800XL, X800GTO2, and X1800XL.

Are there any Vista versions of the Omega drivers?

 

[betasub]

@ brencat - Omega's are working very well with my 2900pro (recognises it as 2900XT with R600 core), but I have little choice because I'm running it on a win2k system. The 7.x Catalyst installer package won't unpack in win2k, but the Omega group have done a good job of extracting all the necessary files.

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: thilan29
Are there any Vista versions of the Omega drivers?

No Vista version yet AFAIK, but I'll double check when I get home. Can't access omegadrivers.net site from work but some general google searches seem to suggest no.

This is clearly an issue for me since I'd love to give ATI the biz if the new 3870 cards are close in performance to 8800GT, but I also want to use Vista 32. No decent Vista drivers and/or being forced into Catalyst+bloatware = no sale.

 

[spittledip]

Originally posted by: brencat
@ apoppin -- or anyone else with HD2900XT...have you ever tried Omega drivers as opposed to regular Catalysts? Just wondering, since I use Omega with my aging X800XL and they are noticeably faster for gaming. Same observation from several friends with different ATI cards that also have used both types of drivers.

Too early to speculate I know, but perhaps Omega might end up helping the upcoming 3870's performance a bit too?

Brencat, what Omega driver version do you use?

 

[kknd1967]

An AMD slide posted has shown 3870 performance (I can't link picture URL and many others are on 3850 vs 2600 vs 8600):

3870 vs 2900XT 1920x1200

Company of Heroes (DX10): 30.17/28.38
Call of Juarez: 22.55/21.47
ET Quake Wars 4AA 8 AF: 37.3/38.3
HL2 4AA 8AF: 36.5/36.8
UT3 Demo: 60.29/51.33
World in Conflict DX10: 24/20

so AMD somehow fixed the World in Conflict problem. But did not fix the poor AA problem, shame

 

[Mana]

Apparently VR Zone got their hands on it and have posted some preliminary information.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=202510

Look at the temperatures, is that 30 degrees at idle?

 

[kknd1967]

3850 vs 2900XT 1600x1200

Company of Heroes (DX10): 30.67/33.87
Call of Juarez: 18.3/23.99
ET Quake Wars 4AA 8 AF: 36/41.1
HL2 4AA 8AF: 38.8/42.2
UT3 Demo: 61.61/54.28
World in Conflict DX10: 20/20

 

[novasatori]

Originally posted by: kknd1967
3850 vs 2900XT 1600x1200

Company of Heroes (DX10): 30.67/33.87
Call of Juarez: 18.3/23.99
ET Quake Wars 4AA 8 AF: 36/41.1
HL2 4AA 8AF: 38.8/42.2
UT3 Demo: 61.61/54.28
World in Conflict DX10: 20/20

hmmmm

if that's true there is still hope of the 3870 being faster than the HD2900XT

 

[spittledip]

So why does it beat the 2900xt on the UT3 demo?

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: spittledip
Brencat, what Omega driver version do you use?

For my X800XL, I'm using an older version 3.8.231 (based on Catalyst 6.3)

 

[SickBeast]

So this thing gets almost 12,000 3DMarks? That looks very good.

I only score around 9,000 with my 8800GTS 320mb, albeit with a slower CPU (Opteron 165 @ 2.5ghz).

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: betasub
@ brencat - Omega's are working very well with my 2900pro (recognises it as 2900XT with R600 core), but I have little choice because I'm running it on a win2k system. The 7.x Catalyst installer package won't unpack in win2k, but the Omega group have done a good job of extracting all the necessary files.

you should be able to dl the driver itself, just not CCC, right?

 

[Demoth]

Originally posted by: spittledip
So why does it beat the 2900xt on the UT3 demo?

It has some architecture upgrades over the 2900 series besides a simple die shrink. Even though most of these are for the bogus DX10.1 compatability, improvements should be seen across the board with heavy textures. For now, drivers are likely holding back some of the leaked numbers.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
my big problem is probably the same that many users have: I got a p35 mobo b/c that was the best board available. At the time I wasn't thinking about sli/xfire so it was nbd. Now that I might consider 2 gpus, I'm stuck either going to an inferior 680i mobo and selling my current rig or waiting a month or more for 780i to release and paying an arm and a leg to upgrade to one of them. The reverse is true on amd systems as the sli mobos are the top of the line with them. Something tells me that won't be the case with am2+...

Basically, it is one gpu or xfire only for me. If I get one gpu and 8800gt kicks 3870's a$$ for a similar price then there is only one option for me. If 3870 is significantly cheaper and close in performance then it might be fun to go xfire.

I have read that crossfire and sli boards are somehow compatible where supposedly you can run SLI on a Xfire board and vice versa with no problems whatsoever.

EDIT: "In order to use SLI, a motherboard with an nForce4, nForce 500, or nForce 600 SLI chipset must be used. Although with the use of hacks and older drivers, one can make SLI work on motherboards with Intel, ATI and ULi chipsets, NVIDIA have stated that only their own chipsets can allow SLI to function optimally, and that they will not allow SLI to work on any other vendor's chipsets. Some early SLI systems used Intel's E7525 Xeon chipset, which caused problems when NVIDIA started locking out other vendor's chipsets as it limited them to an outdated driver set. In 2007, Intel has licensed NVIDIA's SLI technology for its SkullTrail platform."

So I guess you can not run SLI on a crossfire board without getting a hack for your drivers (or running an older version of the driver) since they contain a lockout...

 

[Ruptga]

I have no idea, I've basically given up on trying to figure out this generation's cards. The 3850XT is from R600's gen, but the 3870XT is the next gen, or something like that? Forget all this naming crap, the only things worse than the constant let-downs from AMD and endless speculation over every launch are these ridiculous naming schemes. Why is a 8xxx card codenamed G92, and what the heck is up with the 38xx, not to mention the 2300 vs the 2300 HD? This is just getting stupid, I'll still keep my ears open for new news, but I'm tired of trying to figure this mess out.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon

Originally posted by: nonameo

Originally posted by: swtethan

Originally posted by: SickBeast
I'm wondering what this card is, seeing as everyone keeps saying it's "faster than a GTX" and will apparently cost around $250. So far that's about all I've heard. It apparently comes out in 2 weeks.

So...why all the fuss about this card?

honestly if they had the card beating the gtx, they would have leaked some benches or something, the silence is like.... i dunno..... a bad sign

I hate to say it, because I hate to see a one-sided fight, but QFT. I mean if AMD has something killer on the way, now is the time to let that silent but deadly loose a little.

something stinks, or nothing stinks... depending on how you want to look at it.

Maybe they are waiting for the "official" launch. This way when nvidia has its word out, ati can counter to the same potential buyers. IDK honestly, just a guess.

Well, they can think that's a good idea while they watch 8800GT's fly off the shelves.

 

[bryanW1995]

3850 is what 2950 pro was supposed to be, 3870 was going to be 2950xt. 3870 is looking like it will be 775 core/1125 gddr4 mem, while 3850 will be closer to 600/800. 3870 was originally rumored to be 825/1200, I guess that amd decided to "let" nvidia win this round, too. makes sense, let's just keep letting the other guys kick our asses until we go out of business. I swear, hector ruiz is a freakin' genius...

@taltamir: Dell, alienware, voodoopc, or somebody recently demonstrated a 680i mobo with xfire 2900xt's. I'm pretty sure that I saw the article on AT but it is possible (gasp) that it was toms. They used a custom bios to enable xfire on the sli mobo and simply shipped the unit that way to show that it could be done.

@bamacre: amd has a plan. They will wait until all 8800gt stock is completely gone, then introduce 3870 at 675/900 and rake in the dough

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995@taltamir: Dell, alienware, voodoopc, or somebody recently demonstrated a 680i mobo with xfire 2900xt's. I'm pretty sure that I saw the article on AT but it is possible (gasp) that it was toms. They used a custom bios to enable xfire on the sli mobo and simply shipped the unit that way to show that it could be done.

That is because amd, in an effort sell more cards. Opened up crossfire for intel boards.

Nvidia on the other hand made their drivers more aggressive in NOT working on the competitors board... they actually spent time money and effort making their software incompatible so that they can sell more hardware... just like apple.

Both decisions have market place justifications.

 

[Rusin]

Originally posted by: novasatori

Originally posted by: kknd1967
3850 vs 2900XT 1600x1200

Company of Heroes (DX10): 30.67/33.87
Call of Juarez: 18.3/23.99
ET Quake Wars 4AA 8 AF: 36/41.1
HL2 4AA 8AF: 38.8/42.2
UT3 Demo: 61.61/54.28
World in Conflict DX10: 20/20

hmmmm

if that's true there is still hope of the 3870 being faster than the HD2900XT

http://we.pcinlife.com/attachm...6cff852x0Ohb9r0kTL.jpg
It loses to HD2900XT when AA is turned on.

 

[dennilfloss]

How do you know it still wouldn't lose in Quake Wars or Half-Life 2 even if AA was turned off? Maybe it the games, not AA. You cannot judge for sure unless you see the same game benched with both settings.

 

[Rusin]

Ok it could be just those two games..coincidence? We have to see and hope that these two games are just exeptions, because otherwise these will be owned by 8800 GT 512MB. They are similarly priced so HD3870 won't get advantage there

 

[dennilfloss]

Those GTs have an awesome rebate.

http://www.ncix.com/products/i...ure=BFG%20Technologies

:laugh: