Comment Thread for HIS Radeon HD3870 Review

[Writer]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

As for the lifetime warranty with Visiontek....that is the first I have heard of it.

I'd link to their warranty info page but I can't reach their site at the moment. I imagine they must be getting hit pretty hard today. :)

They don't state it very clearly, but they have a limited lifetime warranty on all cards above a certain level.

I found a forum post last night that made it sound like Visiontek charges a $10 fee for RMA repairs, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

For some reason Visiontek makes me think "cheaper less reliable product" but I can't remember a specific reason why I should have that opinion, could be I'm getting them mixed up with some no-name NIC maker or something.

[SKYMTL]

All of the board partners (HIS, Daimond, Visiontek, GeCube) are receiving their cards from the same production facility. They have the option of using a non-stock heatsink and overclocking them but that is about it.

[1Tanker]

Do they not have the "option" of their own spec PCB(i.e. layers)...or is it mostly for colour variation?

[Writer]

I suspect that even though they are all manufactured at the same facility (the Sapphire Technology plant in Dongguan), it's possible they could have them produced to different specifications, e.g. using a higher grade of capacitors, etc.

I don't know if this is the case however, just speculating.

[MonkeyHood]

Nice review SKYTML. I just wondering, if you still have the card, if you could overclock the card again with the aftermarket heat sink?

[Eldonko]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

Stock.

Why wouldnt you compare the cards all at the max oc? Not really fair to show how its better at max oc vs. other cards at stock. For example I could buy an E6300 and oc it to 3.2G and it will kick a stock clocked X6800's in any bench, but the max of both would be a totally different story.

Just some feedback, dont take it negatively. :)

[JD]

Impressive. Hopefully drivers will fix up the quirks.

That DuOrb is quite the cooler too, can't wait for a full review on it.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by Eldonko

Why wouldnt you compare the cards all at the max oc? Not really fair to show how its better at max oc vs. other cards at stock. For example I could buy an E6300 and oc it to 3.2G and it will kick a stock clocked X6800's in any bench, but the max of both would be a totally different story.

Just some feedback, dont take it negatively. :)

Sure it is fair. It shows better how the performance increases in relation to other cards when it is overclocked.

[Frank Encruncher]

Couldn't get 3870's,did get a pair of 3850's
Now I find out that Crossfire is SNAFU after I bought 3850's.

I've done some quick testing

A single 256Meg HD3850 is kicking the crap out my 512Meg X1900XT's in CF

3Dm06
HD3850 =7504
X1900XT=5387
CF3850 =8425
CF1900 =7737

The other one I did was was Lost Planet:Performance Test
HD3850 snow:51.1 caves:33.3
CF1900 snow:37.2 caves:32.0
CF3850 snow:50.8 caves:32.1
at least ATI is consistent, I had same corruption running Crossfire on either sets of cards in LP

Looks like some of the newer games I bought will more playable
Time to get back to playing( ...I mean testing)

Cheers

[Mindwarp]

Originally Posted by Frank Encruncher

Couldn't get 3870's,did get a pair of 3850's
Now I find out that Crossfire is SNAFU after I bought 3850's.

Where'd you get the cards so quickly?