Diamond 3870 vs VisionTek 3870

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 01:06 AM

Which one is the one to buy?

I heard that the VisionTek card runs hot and needs a BIOS fix to properly ajust the fan speed. Has the BIOS been fixed?

All comments welcome including comments on other 3870 cards.

**kris23** · Dec 19, 2007, 01:12 AM

is there any particular reason why you'd actually want a 3870 card? the 8800GT beats them in everything at the same price-point

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

is there any particular reason why you'd actually want a 3870 card? the 8800GT beats them in everything at the same price-point

I'm looking to run them in CrossFire on an X38/X48 mobo. X38/X48 does not support SLI. I need to select a pair of 3870s.

**kris23** · Dec 19, 2007, 01:40 AM

ehh multi GPU systems are very poorly implemented.

Crossfire doesnt deliver very much of a performance boost

get a single 8800GTS 512 OC it and you pretty much have something just about as good as crossfire 3870s without all the driver issues.

**kris23** · Dec 19, 2007, 01:41 AM

what kind of monitor will you be using?

resolution?

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 01:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

what kind of monitor will you be using?

resolution?

A Samsung 215TW right now in native resolution. Might ugrade to a 24" or a 30" when I get in the mood for more screen real estate and HDTV on the computer. The Dells do look good.

I'm looking to play with two 3870s in CrossFire for a few weeks until I can see what the new batch of vid cards coming out in 1Q2008 look like. That's why I'm asking which 3870s to get and play with for a while.

**kris23** · Dec 19, 2007, 01:52 AM

the only things id look at are the 3870X2 cards coming out.

the drivers for crossfire are so poor that alot of games actually LOSE performance when enabled.

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

the only things id look at are the 3870X2 cards coming out.

the drivers for crossfire are so poor that alot of games actually LOSE performance when enabled.

3870X2 ?????

Got a link so I can see one?

**kris23** · Dec 19, 2007, 01:57 AM

AMD shows off Radeon HD 3870 X2 - The INQUIRER

crappy chip but i guess with enough of them, they can be a winner

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 02:16 AM

Thanks for the link kris23.

I googled 3870X2 and got a nice reading list to go over.

But I'm not going to wait that long to play with CrossFire. Maybe in April I'll get one or two 3870X2 cards and play with them then and add my 3870 cards to my storeroom of prior computer parts. (or maybe a 9000 series nVidia card) But right now I'm looking to add two 3870 cards to my collection and since I'm not going to buy one of each brand, I need to select the best made 3870.

Which brand of 3870 should I buy?

**kris23** · Dec 19, 2007, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by traveler

Thanks for the link kris23.

I googled 3870X2 and got a nice reading list to go over.

But I'm not going to wait that long to play with CrossFire. Maybe in April I'll get one or two 3870X2 cards and play with them then and add my 3870 cards to my storeroom of prior computer parts. (or maybe a 9000 series nVidia card) But right now I'm looking to add two 3870 cards to my collection and since I'm not going to buy one of each brand, I need to select the best made 3870.

Which brand of 3870 should I buy?

sapphire, they use the ATi original designs, no mess

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 02:22 AM

BTW

Going off subject for a bit ....

I just noticed you have an Asus Maximus Extreme with Corsair 1600 RAM. How do you like it?

I've got a Maximus Extreme selected as my next board and I'm looking at the Corsair 1800 RAM to go with it.

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

sapphire, they use the ATi original designs, no mess

Oh. What changes do the others make?

**kris23** · Dec 19, 2007, 02:37 AM

lol no... i dont have it yet man... i will get it though....

that or the upcoming RAMPAGE Extreme X48 board.

will have it for sure by the middle of january man

the other companies use their own card BIOS, some make minor board changes

notice the LOL at my hardware profile in my sig

those who didnt get the joke sometimes ask

i think ill wait for the RAMPAGE Extreme, better performance with DDR3 man

EDIT: lol theres another less believable setup in my profile

i highly suggest waiting for the X48 items, i believe they have higher multiplier settings as well as enhanced DDR3 performance

getting 4 gigs of memory is also important as all the latest games take advantage of the extra memory.

traveler · Dec 19, 2007, 04:10 AM

thanks for the inside scoop

traveler · Dec 20, 2007, 08:37 AM

Soooooooo, I found out that ...

On some of the 3870 cards the fan works and on some of the 3870 cards the fan is stuck in a fixed speed mode.

So which are the good cards out-of-the-box?

???

???

**kris23** · Dec 20, 2007, 04:10 PM

not too sure on those but honestly id go with a fixed speed card with the way these monsters pump heat......

but i think HIS and Sapphire have cards with variable speed fans

jp306 · Dec 20, 2007, 05:07 PM

You can adjust the variable fans speeds yourself and you'll most likely want to if these things are anywhere near as loud as the X1900 series fans were. Unless you can find a quite fixed fan model like Arctic Cooling Accelero line...

**kris23** · Dec 20, 2007, 05:13 PM

yea i know that some can be adjusted to full power but the thing is that the software needs to be running for the fan to be 100% and that takes CPU power

traveler · Dec 21, 2007, 05:55 AM

Isn't the fan supposed to change speeds automatically, all by itself, based on the heat load of the card?

That should be in the card's BIOS.

**kris23** · Dec 21, 2007, 06:00 AM

yea.... but some dont change untill the GPU is literally cooking itself

a big and common issue with the old 2900XT cards, the GPU would heat up over 100C because the sensor wasnt accurate and the fan was still at 40%

thats why.... i prefer a loud card to a dead one.... at least when its alive you can tell

jp306 · Dec 21, 2007, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by traveler

Isn't the fan supposed to change speeds automatically, all by itself, based on the heat load of the card?

That should be in the card's BIOS.

That's right and you can change it to what speed you want depending on the temp of the GPU in the BIOS and with the card I had going over 75% fan speed was pointless and just made it sound like a dust buster/hair dryer. It doesn't use any extra CPU power either because it's not done through software, but I always tested what speed I wanted with ATI Tray Tools before setting it in the bios.

**kris23** · Dec 21, 2007, 04:53 PM

so it saves to the cards BIOS?

jp306 · Dec 21, 2007, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kris23

so it saves to the cards BIOS?

Yes it does... You are right about manufactures having the fans speeds to low at stock to begin with and that is why I set mine manually(Before I got my Accelero). The stock cooler was still too loud for my taste.

**kris23** · Dec 21, 2007, 05:23 PM

ok, since before i noticed speed settings only take effect on certain systems once windows has booted.

bit if it actually saves to the BIOS then thats very good!

Liqourice · Jan 2, 2008, 05:01 PM

As far as I can see the prices on the different manufacturers cards are more or less the same. There's only one exception, GeCube, and they about $30-40 (or rather 200-300 SEK) cheaper than the others.

What's the difference between GeCube cards and the other HD3870's? I wanna save a few bucks and if their cards are just as good I see no reason to not go with that.

Dec 19, 2007, 01:06 AM	#1
traveler HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: South Florida Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Diamond 3870 vs VisionTek 3870 Which one is the one to buy? I heard that the VisionTek card runs hot and needs a BIOS fix to properly ajust the fan speed. Has the BIOS been fixed? All comments welcome including comments on other 3870 cards.

Dec 19, 2007, 01:12 AM	#2
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	is there any particular reason why you'd actually want a 3870 card? the 8800GT beats them in everything at the same price-point __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 19, 2007, 01:40 AM	#4
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	ehh multi GPU systems are very poorly implemented. Crossfire doesnt deliver very much of a performance boost get a single 8800GTS 512 OC it and you pretty much have something just about as good as crossfire 3870s without all the driver issues. __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 19, 2007, 01:41 AM	#5
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	what kind of monitor will you be using? resolution? __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 19, 2007, 01:52 AM	#7
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	the only things id look at are the 3870X2 cards coming out. the drivers for crossfire are so poor that alot of games actually LOSE performance when enabled. __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 19, 2007, 01:57 AM	#9
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	AMD shows off Radeon HD 3870 X2 - The INQUIRER crappy chip but i guess with enough of them, they can be a winner __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 19, 2007, 02:16 AM	Thread Starter #10
traveler HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: South Florida Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Thanks for the link kris23. I googled 3870X2 and got a nice reading list to go over. But I'm not going to wait that long to play with CrossFire. Maybe in April I'll get one or two 3870X2 cards and play with them then and add my 3870 cards to my storeroom of prior computer parts. (or maybe a 9000 series nVidia card) But right now I'm looking to add two 3870 cards to my collection and since I'm not going to buy one of each brand, I need to select the best made 3870. Which brand of 3870 should I buy?

Dec 19, 2007, 02:22 AM	Thread Starter #12
traveler HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: South Florida Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	BTW Going off subject for a bit .... I just noticed you have an Asus Maximus Extreme with Corsair 1600 RAM. How do you like it? I've got a Maximus Extreme selected as my next board and I'm looking at the Corsair 1800 RAM to go with it.

Dec 19, 2007, 02:37 AM	#14
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	lol no... i dont have it yet man... i will get it though.... that or the upcoming RAMPAGE Extreme X48 board. will have it for sure by the middle of january man the other companies use their own card BIOS, some make minor board changes notice the LOL at my hardware profile in my sig those who didnt get the joke sometimes ask i think ill wait for the RAMPAGE Extreme, better performance with DDR3 man EDIT: lol theres another less believable setup in my profile i highly suggest waiting for the X48 items, i believe they have higher multiplier settings as well as enhanced DDR3 performance getting 4 gigs of memory is also important as all the latest games take advantage of the extra memory. __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums! Last edited by kris23; Dec 19, 2007 at 03:08 AM.

Dec 19, 2007, 04:10 AM	Thread Starter #15
traveler HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: South Florida Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	thanks for the inside scoop

Dec 20, 2007, 08:37 AM	Thread Starter #16
traveler HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: South Florida Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Soooooooo, I found out that ... On some of the 3870 cards the fan works and on some of the 3870 cards the fan is stuck in a fixed speed mode. So which are the good cards out-of-the-box? ??? ???

Dec 20, 2007, 04:10 PM	#17
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	not too sure on those but honestly id go with a fixed speed card with the way these monsters pump heat...... but i think HIS and Sapphire have cards with variable speed fans __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 20, 2007, 05:07 PM	#18
jp306 DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 309 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	You can adjust the variable fans speeds yourself and you'll most likely want to if these things are anywhere near as loud as the X1900 series fans were. Unless you can find a quite fixed fan model like Arctic Cooling Accelero line... __________________ "I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous - everyone hasn't met me yet." Rodney Dangerfield.

Dec 20, 2007, 05:13 PM	#19
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	yea i know that some can be adjusted to full power but the thing is that the software needs to be running for the fan to be 100% and that takes CPU power __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 21, 2007, 05:55 AM	Thread Starter #20
traveler HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: South Florida Posts: 18 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Isn't the fan supposed to change speeds automatically, all by itself, based on the heat load of the card? That should be in the card's BIOS.

Dec 21, 2007, 06:00 AM	#21
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	yea.... but some dont change untill the GPU is literally cooking itself a big and common issue with the old 2900XT cards, the GPU would heat up over 100C because the sensor wasnt accurate and the fan was still at 40% thats why.... i prefer a loud card to a dead one.... at least when its alive you can tell __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 21, 2007, 04:53 PM	#23
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	so it saves to the cards BIOS? __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Dec 21, 2007, 05:23 PM	#25
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	ok, since before i noticed speed settings only take effect on certain systems once windows has booted. bit if it actually saves to the BIOS then thats very good! __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Jan 2, 2008, 05:01 PM	#26
Liqourice HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Stockholm Posts: 1,690 Rep Power: 98 System Specs	As far as I can see the prices on the different manufacturers cards are more or less the same. There's only one exception, GeCube, and they about $30-40 (or rather 200-300 SEK) cheaper than the others. What's the difference between GeCube cards and the other HD3870's? I wanna save a few bucks and if their cards are just as good I see no reason to not go with that.