Legit Reviews

I have seen many reviews comparing 3870 X2 against Nvidia's best single cards. On the review from LegitReviews, I saw that one 3870X2 beats an ultra most of the time. But now I would like to know if 8800 GTS G92 on SLI mode beats a 3870X2 on average in most of the most demanding games.
Yes, I know this both setups are not on the same price range. But still I want to know how can this new ATI card compares against one of Nvidia`s best SLI setups.

Thanks in advance.

8800gts(sli) will destroy the 3870x2

It's just a simple manner of $$/performance

an 8800gts alone is ~350 bucks

not as good as the 3870 alone which is ~450 bucks

which isn't nearly as good as 2 8800gts which is ~700 bucks

I typically stick with one videocard setups but I gotta admit that the 8800gt in SLI config is a really good price/performance deal.

elkmanwsu wrote:It's just a simple manner of $$/performance

an 8800gts alone is ~350 bucks

not as good as the 3870 alone which is ~450 bucks

which isn't nearly as good as 2 8800gts which is ~700 bucks

I typically stick with one videocard setups but I gotta admit that the 8800gt in SLI config is a really good price/performance deal.

3870x2= 380 @ microcenter

maj0r_pawnage wrote:

elkmanwsu wrote:It's just a simple manner of $$/performance

an 8800gts alone is ~350 bucks

not as good as the 3870 alone which is ~450 bucks

which isn't nearly as good as 2 8800gts which is ~700 bucks

I typically stick with one videocard setups but I gotta admit that the 8800gt in SLI config is a really good price/performance deal.

3870x2= 380 @ microcenter

Excuse me? What do you exactly mean by 380 @ microcenter?

At the end, it's all about price/performance ratio... I invite you all to sneak a peek to this link:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/ ... X2/23.html
where the video cards are ordered according to this ratio. Judging alone the last image of the link, we can see that 8800 GTS G92 has a long way better ratio than the 3870 X2, meaning you get more performance with the former for what you pay. Now, I don't know where would the 8800 GTS G92 SLI be on this list. But I think this would depend on how well does SLI scales. Since SLI doesn't scale as well as crossfire on average, perhaps maybe these SLI setup provides worse price/performance ratio than its individual modality?

This ratio is really the most important one IMO.

elkmanwsu wrote:It's just a simple manner of $$/performance

an 8800gts alone is ~350 bucks

not as good as the 3870 alone which is ~450 bucks

which isn't nearly as good as 2 8800gts which is ~700 bucks

I typically stick with one videocard setups but I gotta admit that the 8800gt in SLI config is a really good price/performance deal.

What about (2) 8800GT's in SLI? Paid $209 each for mine, which comes out to be less than the 3870's $450. A lot of reviews online run cards in crossfire for their benchmarks, but very few ever show Nvidia cards in SLI.

JustSomeone wrote:

elkmanwsu wrote:It's just a simple manner of $$/performance

an 8800gts alone is ~350 bucks

not as good as the 3870 alone which is ~450 bucks

which isn't nearly as good as 2 8800gts which is ~700 bucks

I typically stick with one videocard setups but I gotta admit that the 8800gt in SLI config is a really good price/performance deal.

What about (2) 8800GT's in SLI? Paid $209 each for mine, which comes out to be less than the 3870's $450. A lot of reviews online run cards in crossfire for their benchmarks, but very few ever show Nvidia cards in SLI.

This is exactly the review you are looking for:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3209&p=1

If you paid for the 8800 GT's less than what a 3870 X2, then you did a great deal there. Two 8800 GT's SLI outperform a single 3870 X2 on every benchmark (according to anandtech of course...)
Nice Job.

Oh boy, 2 reasonable options from 2 competing companies at the same price point!

let the price drops commence!!!

I would have to echo what some others have said about the issue of pricing. In general, anytime you pit a higher priced product, in this case 8800GTS in SLI, against something that is much cheaper, the 3870X2, the higher priced product will win out because it was designed to win out. It's pretty rare for a company to make something that is cheaper AND better (only the 8800GT @ MSRP comes to mind) than its current competitors.

In any case, I don't think you could go wrong with either one of these setups. It all depends on how deep your pockets are and how much you care about more AA and AF.

I haven't owned an ATI video card for a few years, but this one looks like a winner to me.

awwww man!!!! microcenter was selling their for $383 yesterday! I even talked to customer support to confirm but I didn't have enough time to sell my 8800GTS and buy it .
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0281494

Personally I would say that the two Geforce 8800 GTS' G92 core ones will destroy the HD3870x2. The ATI HD3870x2 card barely beats the Ultra if you compare the results but if you compare the ultra to two GTS' then you will find out that the GTS outperforms the Ultra by a bunch. Its more expensive, but better performance.

I can't wait until CrossfireX is complete and I can run 2 of those bad boys!!

won't r700 be just around the corner by then, i think 3870x2 is just something to hold people over and was never meant to be part of the next gen thing but a part of the 3000series.

I don't know if the new generation cards are on schedule or not but I wouldn't yank a 3870 X2 out of my case for eating crackers. That is of course given good functional drivers and support. Nvidea did a 7950 dual gpu and it was one of the biggest disasters they've had in years. Buggy drivers, lack of product support, short duration. If they do the drivers right and it works as advertised I'd go with a dual gpu solution with a single slot connector. SLI and Crossfire have turned out to be such a pain in the neck that the uber money you spend for cards to run it, by the time they get it straightened out they'll be a couple of generations old. If I were gaming at ultra high resolutions on a monster screen 22-24 inch it might be worth it. But I don't game to have to sit there and fight a couple of video cards for a few hours a week. I'm lucky to get a few hours a week to blast pixelated aliens.

So far it seems that there hasn't been any reports of driver problems yet for the 3870x2. Once Crossfire X is fully operational (ie works well in most games) then maybe this will bring some completion back to the high end. I for one would like to see two 3870x2s running. If for no other reason than to get nVidia to kick something out that is even better =)

There are advantages to having both chips on a card instead of running 2 cards in SLI.

1) You only need 1 slot.
2) The Bridge chip is on the 3870X2 and it runs right out of the box. The only thing you need worry about is driver support for it to maximize its potential.
3) It is more power efficient to run a single 2 GPU card then 2 cards in SLI.
4) Crossfire X is a possibility, running 2 3870X2s together.

We need take note that the drivers for the X2 are still immature and further improvements in performance can yet be achieved. Of cause we all eagerly await Nvidia's 2GPU card solution.