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Thread: Serious question about the 3870

  1. #1
    Ultimate Member fizur2002's Avatar
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    Serious question about the 3870

    I recently sold my 8800GTX because i needed the money to pay for bills, so i went and purchased a Diamond HD 3870. 3 months later i was at a LAN and won a Visiontek HD 3870. I have yet to find a side by side comparison, but i would like to know which one has the overall higher quality card. The diamond card has a larger fan on it like the older 2900XT cards and the visiontek is the newer slimmer shrouding. I really need some hard input as to which card i should go with, even if they are clocked remotely different, i need to know everything. All the help is much appreciated.
    AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.41GHZ : Asus M3A78-T : 8GB DDR2 800 : Acer 23" 1080P Widescreen : ATi Radeon HD 4870 : OCZ GameXtremE 850 Watt PSU

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    Ultimate Member MadPistol's Avatar
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    8800 GTX > HD 3870 > 2900 XT.

    the 8800 GTX is still one of the fastest cards on the market.
    Core 2 Duo E6600 | eVGA 680i SLI | eVGA 8800 GTX | Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum | Corsair XMS2 2GB PC2-6400 800mhz @ 4-4-4-12 | Western Digital 500GB Caviar HDD | OCZ GameXStream 700-watt PSU | 24" Acer X241W LCD

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    Ultimate Member fizur2002's Avatar
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    thats not what my question was my friend. Im choosing between the two 3870's.
    AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.41GHZ : Asus M3A78-T : 8GB DDR2 800 : Acer 23" 1080P Widescreen : ATi Radeon HD 4870 : OCZ GameXtremE 850 Watt PSU

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    Senior Member Lgbpop's Avatar
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    You're going to have some extreme heat situations to overcome, that 3870 runs HOT no matter what's done to attempt to cool them. Some run so hot they throttle down or burn out and they're not worth using.

    At least you'll never hear them flame out, because they run so loud they'll wake the dead.

    Other than those two problems, that's supposed to be a heck of a card. I have no experience with them first-hand, the above info is from a few disgruntled former owners. You might take it with a grain of salt. Then again, I haven't met any gruntled former owners, either.
    Last edited by Lgbpop; 03-21-2008 at 02:46 PM.
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  5. #5
    Ultimate Member fizur2002's Avatar
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    i like my 3870, its almost as good as the 8800GTX i had, just cooler.
    AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.41GHZ : Asus M3A78-T : 8GB DDR2 800 : Acer 23" 1080P Widescreen : ATi Radeon HD 4870 : OCZ GameXtremE 850 Watt PSU

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    Administrator Steve R Jones's Avatar
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    fizur2002 - have you looked at the specs of both cards? Are there any differences?
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  7. #7
    Ultimate Member fizur2002's Avatar
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    on the box no there isnt. When you plug them in, thats a different story. The visiontek when idle runs at half core speed and has a reference design cooler, and runs hot. the Diamond when idle runs at stock speed and has a larger cooler and runs pretty cool.
    AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.41GHZ : Asus M3A78-T : 8GB DDR2 800 : Acer 23" 1080P Widescreen : ATi Radeon HD 4870 : OCZ GameXtremE 850 Watt PSU

  8. #8
    Registered User BadDriver's Avatar
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    I'd most likely keep the diamond card then. Better cooler and higher speeds.

    If you can't figure it out, send them both to me and I'll send the better card back.

  9. #9
    Ultimate Member fizur2002's Avatar
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    hehe, im sure you would.
    AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.41GHZ : Asus M3A78-T : 8GB DDR2 800 : Acer 23" 1080P Widescreen : ATi Radeon HD 4870 : OCZ GameXtremE 850 Watt PSU

  10. #10
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
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    diamond is generally a better brand. Visiontek left the temp sensor off of some models, which disabled overdrive.

  11. #11
    Ultimate Member fizur2002's Avatar
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    then im glad i purchased my Diamond card and only won the visiontek.
    AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.41GHZ : Asus M3A78-T : 8GB DDR2 800 : Acer 23" 1080P Widescreen : ATi Radeon HD 4870 : OCZ GameXtremE 850 Watt PSU

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lgbpop
    You're going to have some extreme heat situations to overcome, that 3870 runs HOT no matter what's done to attempt to cool them. Some run so hot they throttle down or burn out and they're not worth using.

    At least you'll never hear them flame out, because they run so loud they'll wake the dead.

    Other than those two problems, that's supposed to be a heck of a card. I have no experience with them first-hand, the above info is from a few disgruntled former owners. You might take it with a grain of salt. Then again, I haven't met any gruntled former owners, either.
    This is the first I've heard of such issues on the 3870's. I know the HD 2900 XT ran very hot like you say, but not the 3870's. Got any links to backup those clams? I've always heard pretty good things about the card, like I said, this is the first I've heard of these issues and I've read quite a few reviews from both users and review sites as well.

  13. #13
    Senior Member Lgbpop's Avatar
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    I could very well be thinking of the 2900, and if I'm mistaken I stand corrected. I just temember all sorts of complaints last year about the new-generation ATi cards.
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  14. #14
    Senior Member pandaz3's Avatar
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    I have an MSI 3870 OC and the bios has the Fan run at 80% (Leaf Blower Loud) on that model. I immeadiately put a Zalman VF-900 cooler on it and It is now a quiet 80%. Pretty happy with mine.
    Rig 1, MSI K9A2 Platinum, 6400 Blackie, 2 X 2048 AData, MSI 3870; Rig 2, MSI K9A2 CF, 5000 Blackie, 2 X 1024 Patriot PC6400, ATI X1900 XT, Rig 3, Abit AN8 Fatal1ty, Opteron 185, 2 X 1024 Corsair PC3200C2PT ATI X1950 XTX Rig 4 Abit UL8 3800 X850 Pro

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