HD3870 512MB or 8800GT ? (still cant decide)

Ok I'm gonna leave this decision completely down to the users on here. I see Sammorris tends to have a fair bit to say regarding the two mentioned cards, and seems to be fairly knowledgable. As do most of you on here.

So here goes.....

CPU - Intel Q6600 G0
M/B - MSI P35 Platinum
RAM - 4x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC8500 DDR2
Case - Thermaltake Soprano VB1000BWS
PSU - Corsair 620W HX V2 Series Modular PSU

Started building my new PC build bit by bit, and so far I have the CPU, M/B, RAM, case and PSU (taken my Graphics Card, HD's / Opticals from my previous build and replacing them bit by bit). I have come to the point where I am getting the new video card. I am undecided on either the 8800GT or the 3870, and have seen a few posts on here regarding them (such as this one). I have also read a few reviews as well, but still I am undecided. I am completely new to gaming on the PC as I have always stuck with consoles for gaming, and use my PC's for production work (proffessional graphic designer, video editing and music production). I tend to use Mac Pro's at work, and my home PC is getting used more and more for work ( at home!!! ( ) so I needed a new PC.

I ideally want to keep my dual monitor setup and currently have a 7300GT 256 with Dual DVI's so I can work with an extended desktop. I would also consider in the future running 2x 3870's in crossfire (as I know I can't have SLI with the M/B I have).

But I have no experience of any of the higher end graphics cards. Am I right in choosing this?.... and for what reasons?

 

3870 ftw

If you want more performance, the 8800GT (I dont think the extra $50 is worth it), if you want better picture quality, then get the 3870. They stay cooler, they arent as noisy, and they over clock A LOT higher than the GTs (if you flash to a modded BIOS)

Not to mention the fact that they're more future proof, as they offer shader 4.1 and DX10.1, so you wont have to go out and buy a new card for that stuff.

 

For what reasons is the picture quality better on the 3870's, if the performances of 8800GT's beats them? In reviews they tend to beat the 3870's by up 2-10 fps (in various games).

 

Well in Crysis, the picture on the 8800 isn't as good because when they disigned the drivers, they made them look for a program called "crysis.exe", if it was found running, then the drivers would cut the quality in the game, to make up for more fps. This can be remedied by renaming crysis.exe to something else, like cup.exe or something... There is no telling that nvidia will do this with future games though...

As you said, 2-10fps isn't that great, but in games like Crysis it does count. However, if you were to rename crysis.exe to something else, you could expect a fps drop, and the 8800GT would perform closer to the 3870.

Also, I see you have a motherboard picked out with a P35 chipset. If you decided to get the 8800GT, you would not be able to do SLi as the P35 does not support that. Only nvidia's chipsets such as the 680i do.

 

Yeah I knew that matey ;o)

I can see your point regarding the drop in FPS when running Crysis etc. Didn't know that ;o)

What my main concerns is forking out £££'s and finding out I made the wrong choice, and since graphics cards is something I have never really given a lot of time to think about, it could end up becoming a costly mistake!

What are peoples views of SLI Vs. CrossFire? Does one prevail over the other?

 

According to sammorris, both are rubbish. As both Sli and Crossfire dont give you a exact 100% boost in games, and some games aren't even compatible with multi gpu.

All in all, I would say SLi is more stable than Crossfire, as Crossfire still has some bugs to work out.

Although I have a CF rig, I wouldn't know yet to back up how good/bad CF since my rig is in pieces, but hopefully I wont have any problems.

 

More stable????

Does this mean that neither technologys are suitably stable??

 

Yup. Crossfire and Sli don't give you a 100% boost, if any at all since some games aren't optimized for that. In games that aren't compatible, the game will only run on 1 card. In crossfire, I am told that you may get some errors and stuff like that.

 

Well if neither technology is 100% stable whats the point!?

 

No, I am just saying that Crossfire and SLi aren't really worth the extra money, as you wont see that much of an improvement in games like Crysis.

Just get 1 card and go with that. Duel GPU solutions aren't worth it if you dont want to waste the extra cash.

 

It then makes you wonder why we will have setups with 3 cards for nvidia and 4 gpu's for ati. When drivers are just not there.

Personally, id go with a 3870. The 8880GT's are fast but can boil water on the surface. To keep it below 50 you will need an aftermarket cooler which will inturn make the card even more expensive. When you can easily overclock a 3870 with minimal effort. Heck, Gigbayte is realesing the 3870 with an OC of 2400Mhz from standard of 2252.

 

I'd love to see a review of that!! any urls?

 

Review of 3 way SLI?

No need my padawan, this will suffice.

 

Nah... didnt mean the 3xcard setup. Already know you can (either now or very soon) have multiple 3870's in C/F.

On the Mac Pro's I use at work you can have up to 4 cards in crossfire ;o)

This is what I meant ;o)

 

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2007/gigabyte/GV-RX387512H-B/b6a.htm



And im only going to be gaming at 1440x900 so should be seeing a good 40 fps even with aa on, not to mention running in dx9. Those demo tests are dx10.

 

I'll keep this short and to the point.
3870 better than 8800GT, because:

8800GT SLIGHTLY faster than 3870, but worse image quality
both cards perform the same in Crysis with the driver fix
The 3870 supports DX10.1, the 8800GT does not
The 3870 produces a far better quality image than the 8800GT
The 3870 is cheaper, quieter, cooler and more reliable than the 8800GT

Also note: Crysis does not support Anti-Aliasing.

 

I'm getting told a lot that the image quality on the 3870 is better, but why exactly??

Is it because of the filters? fps? resolution?

 

Heres some god links of picture quality nvidia vs Ati:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_nvidia_image_quality_showdown_august06/page4.asp

 

Bear in mind that the 3870 offers further improvements over the old ATI cards. This is a benchmark from before the 8800, let alone the 3870. Oddly, you've chosen a part of the test that's clearly in nvidia's favour there waymon, was that intentional?

 

I'm actually in the same boat as the TC. As i'm in the UK there's a good difference in price with both cards and i'm getting the impression it's not warranted considering how many people are going with the 3870 here.