Look what appeared on my desk at work...

[Albuquerque]

Time for some results..

Here's the general overview; I'll follow up to this post with all the pictures. All clocks are factory-stock, which is 800/1170 for the 3870's at 625/993 for the 4850's.

3DMark06
2 x 3870 Overall: 18545
SM2: 7426
SM3: 8578

2 x 4850 Overall: 19057
SM2: 7315
SM3: 9235

3DMark Vantage
2 x 3870
P9178
H5471

2 x 4850
P11726
H8005

Crysis DX10 Very High 1680x1050
2 x 3870
0xAA: 21.06 FPS
4xAA: 16.49 FPS
8xAA: 14.47 FPS

2 x 4850
0xAA: 26.585 FPS
4xAA: 22.1 FPS
8xAA: 22.945 FPS

Comments / Editorial
First, it's sorely obvious that 3DMark06 just can't scale with these cards. The SM2 score actually dropped on the newer cards, but the SM3 score very obviously went up.

Second, 3DMark Vantage is an ugly *** benchmark. Seriously, it's sad to watch But it's quite obvious that it's doing something better to take advantage of the newer hardware, even if it looks like ***.

Third, Crysis + Crossfire + RV770 = b0rked at the moment, but it works fine on the RV670's. Thus, one 4850 is performing better than my pair of 3870's were... Furthermore, look at the AA scores -- the 8xAA score is NOT an error as best I can tell. You could see AA on the tree trunks in-game, and the minimum FPS did indeed go down at that setting. Even with the dip, the average ended up pretty much the same at 4xAA as it did with 8xAA. It's ridiculous how much AA you can apply with so very little impact on performance.

I really want to start overclocking, and I will, but that will be for either this weekend or next week. Pictures to be posted shortly...

 

[Albuquerque]

Vantage results: (3870's first, 4850's second)

 

[Albuquerque]

And finally some Crysis results, along with the raw output logs if you're interested. Again, 3870 first, 4850 second...

 

[BossBorot]

rabble rabble rabble we demand more pics of the cards.

 

[Albuquerque]

No pics for you!

</pic nazi>

 

[BossBorot]

im just going through video card withdrawal. Ive had my pc sitting on the floor waiting for a new video card for almost a week now

 

[HiProfile]

Well its not really the cooler, all the coolers are references ones shown and what most people have currently. Nothing special behind them. Why some of them OC better is actually related to the bios. Some of them have the 1.2V switch in bios instead of the 1.1V (reference voltage). Hench why they will OC better than others especially without a mod.

Really?

HSF removed

If you read further into it, the vapor chaimber is Sapphire-only, but then again, they can't be sure its 100% a VC unless they cut it open as they mention.

 

[Anubis_386]

Awesome results .. thanks for taking the time to run the tests

 

[Badbonji]

My two 8800gts got around the same Graphics score at 1280x1024 (same CPU + same Clock) :S
Strange... I thought these would be better. I guess CPU bottleneck much?

 

[Albuquerque]

My two 8800gts got around the same Graphics score at 1280x1024 (same CPU + same Clock) :S
Strange... I thought these would be better. I guess CPU bottleneck much?

In which test though? I assume you're talking about 3DMark06, and if so, then CPU bottleneck is right. Believe it or not, I had better scores in 3DM06 when I had my 4.4Ghz E8400 than I get with my current 3.6Ghz Q9450. In fact, I was about 200 pts shy of 20K with my pair of 3870's if that gives you any indication of how CPU-bottlenecked it gets.

If I wanted to do a suicide run, I bet this machine could knock down the 20K barrier - but it wouldn't be 24/7 playable in that fashion.

Have you done any Vantage tests?

 

[deathman20]

Aye 06 is CPU limited with these cards... at least it really shows you easily when the CPU is limiting the OC. I know I just broke 19k with mine this morning on a run. But thats with my dual core at 4.05Ghz. For Vantage, that quad helps you nicely to get higher scores since I only sit at just under 10.2k.

 

[Standingcow]

Every day now I go into work praying to see two 4850s waiting for me, and always sad to see just my phone, keyboard, and mouse.

 

[korruptedONE]

Hehehe doh. I sent my to home but she didn't even notice the package

Indeed you'll enjoy the dualies. Only downside you'll find out is the cooling on them. Be prepared for extremly hot cards within acceptable noise levels. In the process of trying to find some way to cool them better on stock cooling myself, and just waiting for aftermarket heatsinks to push it further.

Dunno if you've tried, but give a good cleaning to the GPU and put some Arctic Silver, Vantec whatever goop (the one with the paintbrush applicator, forget the name...ZR1 or something), etc. Basically just replace the stock thermal material if you haven't. Shaved 8-10 degress C off of mine. The stock cooler is actually pretty beefy at 40-50 percent speed. Mostly depends on your tolerance for noise and what sorta noise you have in the background. I rock headphones and the central A/C is loud so you don't hear mine at all.

 

[deathman20]

Dunno if you've tried, but give a good cleaning to the GPU and put some Arctic Silver, Vantec whatever goop (the one with the paintbrush applicator, forget the name...ZR1 or something), etc. Basically just replace the stock thermal material if you haven't. Shaved 8-10 degress C off of mine. The stock cooler is actually pretty beefy at 40-50 percent speed. Mostly depends on your tolerance for noise and what sorta noise you have in the background. I rock headphones and the central A/C is loud so you don't hear mine at all.

Oh yeah I got MX-2 on the cores now idle is in mid to upper 40's with a 45-55% fan speed. Load hovers around 70C, a 15C drop from what I was getting before. 45% is acceptable for most things, desktop since my case fans add to the noise but 55% is a little loud for desktop usage withuot a game going.

BTW my temps are right now with a room in the 27C area. She be hot up in my office, damn fan doesn't blow hard enough to get up to the second floor nicely.