2900XT vs 3850

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charlie264
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2900XT vs 3850

Post by charlie264 »

I am looking into up-grading from my current to set ups, one an SLI 8600GTS and another HD2900PRO. I have found that the single ATI beats the snot out of the SLI set up and am wondering if I would be better with a 2900XT either the 1GB or the 512mb vs the newer 3800 series? I am running an SLI board so don't think that crossfire is an option so I am looking for the biggest bang for the buck in a single video card.
Thanks
Charlie
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maj0r_pawnage
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Re: 2900XT vs 3850

Post by maj0r_pawnage »

You can pick up a 3870x2 :D around $500 and itll work on sli board even tho its technically crossfire. i think 2900 would beat 3850 but not by that much but u can get a 3870 for under $200 from microcenter.(3870 beats 2900xt)
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Apoptosis
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Re: 2900XT vs 3850

Post by Apoptosis »

Legit Reviews published a review on the Radeon HD 3850 and included the 2900XT in all the benchmark results here - http://www.legitreviews.com/article/591/1/

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In most benchmarks the Radeon HD 2900XT out performs the Radeon HD 3850, which makes sense as the Radeon HD 3870 is more equal to the Radeon HD 2900 XT in raw performance. Our review with the Radeon HD 3870 includes Radeon HD 2900 XT numbers and Radeon HD 3850 numbers, so that might be a good one to look at also.
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Re: 2900XT vs 3850

Post by Kalko »

in any case the HD3850 is better than the old 2900XT because they are with new technology and less power consumption, that means less heat, that means less noise.
charlie264
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Re: 2900XT vs 3850

Post by charlie264 »

I had no idea that the 8800's were so much faster than the ATi's!! The 8600 SLI set up ran min 5.67 max11.93 and avg 10.39 with the Crysis benchmark, this is in a machine with an AMD 6000+ X2 with 4gb of 800mhz ram. I ran the 2900Pro that I have at the same settings and got Min 11.65 Max 38.73 adn Avg 26.21
Crysis benchmark
AMD 6000+ X2 with 4gb of 800mhz ram 2N-SLI Deluxe board
8600GTS Overclocked version in SLI (256mb 256bit) Min 5.67 Max 11.93 and Avg 10.39
2900Pro (512mb 256bit) Min 11.65 Max 38.73 and Avg 26.21

AMD 4200+2 with 1.5Gb or 400mhz ram Biostar SLI-NF4
2600XT (256mb 128bit) Min 10.92 Max 38.73 and Avg 26.21

Funny the lesser machine with the older hardware was faster than the newer one with upgraded equipment.

Anyone tested the 2900XT 512mb 512bit or the 1GB 512 bit in Crysis? How about the big 8800 Nvidia? Or the newer 3800's from ATI.
This is the only benchmark that I have run these cards on and it would be cool to see how they stack up to what I am looking to buy!
Thanks for all the info provided thus far
Charlie
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