ATI HD3870 X2 1GB Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

Actually, I was not saying to put the power connectors on the back of the video card. They should have looked like this, just in the same positions they are on the HD3870 X2:

[sswilson]

Ok, that makes more sense.

[magictorch]

Nice review SKY

Hopefully ATI will get the driver support sorted out. Perhaps that will change the over clocking?

Anyway good to finally see the high end shaken up a bit. Hopefully there will be lots of
cards to choose from apart from "two cards bolted together" though in the next year.

Not saying this is bad though-in crossfire this will be truly amazing!!!!

[Ugly n Grey]

Well put together review with super clean photos. I like the time spent on physical characteristics as well, answers a lot of questions.
While I understand the variances in reviews from sample to sample and driver to driver, I have to say I don't think I'd pick a model and buy it until that specific model was well reviewed. There's just too much variation going on out there. AFAIK decent OC's require a BIOS flash on this unit. Still, overall not a bad product. Engineering samples are produced by Sapphire aren't they? Or is that a mistaken belief these days?

[10e]

One thing I noticed in this excellent review

In the Catalyst Control Panel there was actually nothing indicating "Crossfire" that I could see in the screenshots

I would assume that to turn off Crossfire you'd have to simply shut off/disable the A.I. Catalyst? As a current hd 3870 crossfire user I'm really excited by the possibility of CrossfireX 3 GPU configs on an x38 chipset in the near future, or maybe even trying it out on my P975 based board with 3x X16 slots.

For those wondering, the X38 and X48 will likely be certified for Crossfire X as well as the 790FX.

Regards and keep up the great work. I took a look at the other reviews (Anandtech, Tom's HardOCP) and they didn't work as hard as Sky on this one.

10e

[SKYMTL]

Thanks for the compliments.

I'll try to address your questions as well as I can.

In the Catalyst Control Panel there was actually nothing indicating "Crossfire" that I could see in the screenshots

Even though the Device Manager still picks up two cards, there is no way to enable / disable Crossfire so that option is not there.

I would assume that to turn off Crossfire you'd have to simply shut off/disable the A.I. Catalyst?

Nope. I thought this was the case when I turned it off for the WiC tests when the drivers were acting up. But, when I did the same thing in Call of Juarez I experienced better performance than a single overclocked HD3870 512MB.

As a current hd 3870 crossfire user I'm really excited by the possibility of CrossfireX 3 GPU configs on an x38 chipset in the near future, or maybe even trying it out on my P975 based board with 3x X16 slots.

Don't get too excited. CrossfireX with more than two cards looks to only work on mobos equipped with AMD chipsets. On the other hand, it looks like two HD3870 X2 cards will work on an X38 / X48 but only time will tell.

[zlojack]

The other promising thing that Tom's doesn't mention is that the 8800 Ultra has pretty much been maxed out as far as driver maturation goes, while this card is still in it's infancy.

Tom's seems to have a pro-nVidia bias going on, or at least an anti-ATI.

[Helphin]

Just wanted to comment about those power consumption numbers. Apparently the power consumption drops considerably when in idle vs other cards. Do you have any idle power numbers?

[Stix26]

Too much money

[Kosh]

Great job SKYMTL, really appreciate it! I was actually also wondering what you observed about idle power consumption?

I noticed you suggest a quality 850w PSU if you were to Crossfire two of these cards together. I don't know if I'll ever get to that point, but I am building a new box soon and have been looking at the PCPC 750W units for some extra headroom incase I decided to pop a second one in down the road. You would strongly suggest I upgrade to a good 850W (Antec Quattro?) unit over the PCPC 750W one?

Thanks and again awesome work! Oh actually just curious, did you try to put a 3870 in there with the 3870x2 just for shits and giggles to see if it'd work at all?