8800GT or HD 3870

tuxify

tuxify

New Member
I thought I completely had my mind set on getting the 8800GT. I had never even considered making the switch to ATI. Then ThatGuy16 has to come along and get the 3870, and explain to me how it's so great. Heres how I see it.

8800GT
Pros: More notorious, Supposidly higher FPS, Fan takes up one slot instead of two.
Cons: $50 more than the 3870, would not be able to go SLI on a board that supported 45nm CPU, only 650MHz, GDDR3.

HD 3870
Pros: Better eye candy, $50 cheaper than the 8800GT, heftier looking than the 8800GT, would go Crossfire on a board with 45nm CPU, 775MHz, GDDR4.
Cons: 2 Slots instead of one...

So this is what I know right now. Anyone have an opinion on these two, and help me decide, if we know that I'll be using it with a 45nm CPU, and money is somewhat of an issue. I will be gaming a lot.
 
I'd go with the 8800GT; Crossfire is rarely supported anyway and if you overclock the GT (which it does very well) you'll leave the 38xx series for dead. Although the dual-slot cooler was tempting as if you don't have the best cooling ever it'll help out. (N.B. I've just purchased an 8800GT so take it with a pinch of salt if you want)
 
PabloTeK said:
I'd go with the 8800GT; Crossfire is rarely supported anyway and if you overclock the GT (which it does very well) you'll leave the 38xx series for dead. Although the dual-slot cooler was tempting as if you don't have the best cooling ever it'll help out. (N.B. I've just purchased an 8800GT so take it with a pinch of salt if you want)
Click to expand...

What do mean crossfire rarely support?
Most <$130 P35 MB support cost fire.
MSI P35 Platinum/ Neo2, GA-P35-DS3P/ DS4...
 
PabloTeK said:
I'd go with the 8800GT; Crossfire is rarely supported anyway and if you overclock the GT (which it does very well) you'll leave the 38xx series for dead. Although the dual-slot cooler was tempting as if you don't have the best cooling ever it'll help out. (N.B. I've just purchased an 8800GT so take it with a pinch of salt if you want)
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I've actually read that dual 3870's in crossfire outperform dual 8800GT's in SLI :)

I would go with the 8800GT however if you want single card performance, or 3870 if you want the newer Intel chipsets and want a multi-card setup.
 
I was in the same spot as you on deciding what to do and this is what made my mind up. I 'm going single card ( G92 GTS when available) the reason being that at the rate cards are coming out these days it is too darn expensive to try and buy two cards every time you want to upgrade. I was told that you only gain about 15% to 35% perform ace running two cards vs one and that if you overclock one good card then you should be able to make up that difference. The only other time that CF/SLI helps is if you are Benching, or running high resolutions on a monitor bigger than 22".
 
colt1911 said:
I was in the same spot as you on deciding what to do and this is what made my mind up. I 'm going single card ( G92 GTS when available) the reason being that at the rate cards are coming out these days it is too darn expensive to try and buy two cards every time you want to upgrade. I was told that you only gain about 15% to 35% perform ace running two cards vs one and that if you overclock one good card then you should be able to make up that difference. The only other time that CF/SLI helps is if you are Benching, or running high resolutions on a monitor bigger than 22".
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You gain way more then 15%, it's upwards of 80% or so.

Check out this benchmark: http://xtreview.com/review202.htm
 
The ATI one, I hear she uses less power. Sounds like the better choice to me; sounds like you're paying for the name with nVidia. But I don't know anything about video cards.
 
I'd go with the 3870, i just ordered mine. but i might be slightly biased :P

Its only 3-5 fps slower non-overclocked, overclocks better. And has a slightly better image quality over the 8800. Better cooler.. hmm anything else i can think of :confused::P

But i do plan to go dual cards, and crossfire is beating SLI GT's
 
Wow... Thanks for the speedy responses! Let's see if I can address everyone's post...

@PabloTek: I think you're thinking of a board with a nVidia chipset, where they only support SLI. Most Intel chipset boards with PCI-E 16x (x2) support CF great.

@Omega: I'm not really sure I will be going with Crossfire. I'd maybe like to have the option in the future. If the difference is really that big, I guess I'll go 8800GT.

@colt1911: I'm going to be running a monitor at 22" wide :D.

@fortyways: Power consumption isn't a very big concern to me right now...

I'll see how things are in January, but it's looking like the 8800GT still has the 3870 beat...
 
Actually only very expensive motherboards run at x16 on both channels, for example my 'Crossfire' 965 board has the second slot cut back to x8 mode. When I talk about support I mean how many programs actually use it to a decent degree, some make a 15% difference but is it worth the difference of two cards?
 
PabloTeK said:
Actually only very expensive motherboards run at x16 on both channels, for example my 'Crossfire' 965 board has the second slot cut back to x8 mode. When I talk about support I mean how many programs actually use it to a decent degree, some make a 15% difference but is it worth the difference of two cards?
Click to expand...
The P35 also only has one 16x slot and the other runs at 4x speed. Off the top of my head, the 680i and x38 have both slots running at PCI-E x16 speeds.
 
Well if I'm planning on getting the P35, I guess crossfire would be out of the question anyway. If a good board does come out that's at 16X (x2) that is in my range, I'll think about the 3870, but as of now, It's the 8800GT. Thanks guys!
 
Here is what you want to do...

MOBO
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Video Card (get 2 of these and run SLI)
EVGA 512-P3-N801-A1 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

that motherboard supports 8 gigs of ddr2 1200 ram, and has 2 true PCI-E 16X slots. that video card as almost the same specs as a first generation 8800GTX, and only costs $250. this means you could get two of these and run SLI for the price of one 8800 GTX.

it's an easy decision.
 
I ordered the 8800GT because I don't plan to get a 2nd card in the future. I just want an upgrade to my 7600GT and figured one 8800GT would be more than enough.

But heres how I see the cards:

8800GT
- Pros: better FPS, one-slot cooler, perfect for 1 card upgrade
- Cons: more expensive, a bit less eye-candy

HD3870
- Pros: better picture, cheaper (cheaper 2 card configuration)
- Cons: 2 slot cooler, a bit less FPS

:D
 
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