ATI HD3850 Review

Tourniquet135

So i took the word of a few people on here and sorry to say, but i made a mistake. The card actually was good until i got to Unreal Tournament 3. The game was going to make or break that card. I have a 7600GT and it runs from 30 - 60 fps on medium settings "3's", but the ATI 3850 got really choppy every time i turned the corner or even changed my gun. I had the settings all the way to 1 before i could get it to run smooth. Good thing i was allowed to send it back for the full refund.

Good thing was that it ran COD4 with 50fps with everything maxed out which i was so stunned and it looked good too, but i still say that the drivers bring ATI to their knees.

I will never buy ATI products ever again.

Dyre Straits

Well, as I stated in that thread,

HD 3850 256MB or 8600GTS 512MB

the choice should have gone to the HD3870.

And, since both cards are brand spanking new, it will likely take a few versions of the drivers to get them working to their potential.

But, I wouldn't have picked the 3850 under any circumstances with the 3870 so close in price and so much better performance-wise.

But, if you're happy, I'm tickled to death.

Gregix

@Tourniquet135
yea and nvidia is so cool...
on 5 drivers 1 works properly with all games i got...and noone work good with cod4 on my 7900gs

btw - im on nvidia now, but i had radeon 9800pro@xt since 2005 till december 2006, and honestly, i never got similiar problems
other thing...i never used reference drivers, i always was on omega/dna/xg warcats due IQ modifications, ant afterall they run almost all games perfectly

before r9800 had nvidia fx5200...man, that was a crap, and i dont mean performance, IQ was sucka#%^
sry 4 english

Mousey

I bought a HD3850 and i'm dying to try it out but my PSU won't start with it in, im' just waiting for my friend to bring me down one with more juice on it.
What resolution were you trying to run UT3 at?

Tourniquet135

I was running it at 1024x768 and i don't run any games above that. Seems that i have no luck with ATI.

@ Gregix so you have a 7900GS and it doesn't run COD4? Yet i can run it on Extra high quality without putting on the xAA on getting 40 - 91 fps. Seems pretty odd. Might be the card itself.

I have never had a problem with Nvidia drivers personally. In my old PC i had a ATI 9250 PCI card and once i updated the drivers the thing never worked ever again. Never tried Omega drivers though, but i'll try them next time. If there is a next time

Dyre Straits

Actually, running the games at 1024x768 on an ATI could be the problem. For ATI cards, the higher you go in the resolution, the better they perform. That's the truth! It's been that way since....well, as long as I've used ATI cards and that's over a dozen years and about 20 iterations of video cards at least.

Also, when you installed the ATI card, did you do a new Windows installation? That's a crucial step in making sure the new card gets recognized and configured properly. Even just a Repair installation does wonders.

But....if there ever is a next time....try to remember these things.

In the meantime, enjoy your new card and game on!!

Tourniquet135

Ah..Didn't think resolution should matter. Odd....

kris23

your nvidia drivers are all cleaned out right?

The_Neon_Cowboy

Well @ 1680X1050 I get a good 30+ to 40+ fps with the graphics cranked up and no
aa/af its fluid and quite playable and this is with a mere 2600XT an X3850 would
do much better.

Also it not just your graphics card as you need a good dual core and 2gb + ram as well...
what are your specs???

Dyre Straits

This is what was listed in the other thread:

PC spec:
AMD x2 4200 "2.2ghz"
MSI K8N Platinum/SLI
450W Sunbeam PSU
160GB Hard Drive
1.5GB of DDR 400 PC3200

kris23

dont some older SLi motherboards have issues with ATi cards or something? something where the board rapes the performance so bad that the card runs poorly or not at all?

but it could also be the combination of his memory bandwidth and the fact that DX10 rips life out of GPUs and system performance.

The_Neon_Cowboy

puting cutting edge cards in a old or outdated system is going to hold it back alot .


lets see bottle necks ...

*memory bandwidth/memory bank amount/mismatch
*older/value motherboard
*PCIe 1X on board vs the 2.0 the card is


possible problems:

*PSU unit with something overall poor review rating *when reviewed on retailers
like newegg a like $20 psu ...a good PSU is VERY IMPORTANT

*Motherboard might not supply enough/proper power though PCIe
as newer cards draw alot. Leading to issues...


Nforce 3 and higher are tweaked for NV cards, which can slightly effect performance
of other branded cards. Compatibility varies from board to board as well as chip-set
and can be firmware related (bios updates needed) which are neglected as a board
ages the maker ignores it and spends that time on the new products.

Yea DX10 is hardly playable yet even on top even systems unless its a DX9 game
with DX10 enhancements.

Dan Elliott

I agree, I did a lot of research before I built the system I have now (which I put together two weeks ago). One thing I was never really certain on was how a crossfire setup would run on a chipset that doesn't support two lanes at a full 16x (I was definitely going dual). Toms Hardware answered that this week, I am glad I went with the X38 chipset over the P35.

Right now I Play COD4, WiC, Stalker, BF2, Titan Quest and DS2 all in 1680x1050 max detail with no complaints...and doing it on what would be considered a midrange gaming rig. I would admit the 3850 as the reference design would not be my first choice if the card was mio solo. But couple them and price/performance, and that fact drivers are still in their infancy I think this card shows some promise. I have run some benchmarks on a few games, as well as use fraps. During my stability testing I did not that the set up at default settings scores 12667 3DMarks.

Dan Elliott

What doesn't make sense about your disappointment in UT3 is that I don't care what site you go to to look at the reviews and benches for the 38 series cards they actually are impressed with its performance in specifically ut3. Look at HOCP, Anands or Tom's.

Direct Quote from Mark Warner (Hard OCP)
"Overall, we think that the Radeon HD 3850 is the best value for playing Unreal Tournament III, other games notwithstanding. If you are a UT nut (and we know you're out there), you will simply not find a better bang for your buck than the ATI Radeon HD 3850."

[H] Enthusiast - Unreal Tournament 3 Gameplay Performance and IQ

Tom's Harware Conclusion excerpt:
"First and foremost, it poses as the card that allows you to play decently at the lowest price, since the previous most powerful mainstream card, the 8600 GTS is highly surpassed (65% in 1280 x 1024, 74% in 1600 x 1200) and for a price barely more expensive."
And those percentages are base on a "series" of benchmarks.

AMD Radeon HD 3800: ATI Strikes Back | Tom's Hardware

Anandtech during bencmarks in their 38 series review:
"Until NVIDIA actually releases a 8800 GT 256MB at $179, the closest competitor to the Radeon HD 3850 is actually the GeForce 8600 GTS. We don't need to show you too many numbers for you to understand the magnitude of this massacre"

AnandTech: ATI Radeon HD 3870 & 3850: A Return to Competition

Don't think theres much more to say. Can pull pieces from reviews at Tweaktown, etc. but they are all the same and pretty much contradict what your saying?

nookadum

Pretty damn weird for you man. I have a GeCube HD3850 and I've maxed out ALL my settings (except Hardware Physics, of course) on my crap system:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (1.9GHz, Brisbane, not O/C'd)
ASRock ALiveNFG6-VSTA (nForce 6/MCP61)
Corsair XMS2 1GB*2 (CM2X1024-6400 * 2)
GeCube HD3850 256MB/256-bit (not O/C'd)

And I almost never get a slowdown. :P Check your stuff!

Blacklash

I am skeptical a 7600GT runs UT3 better than a HD 3850.

I've heard no users or reviewers back that up.

If you think nVidia hardware and drivers are trouble free you need to spend more time @ NvNews or perhaps the official Evga forums.

I am far more skeptical than I use to be because there are viral marketers with many forum identities across the internet that get free nVidia hardware doing these sort of posts.
Nvidia "Community Outreach" - Beyond3D Forum

Besides talking up nVidia hardware they slander ATi and try to lend weight to it by appearing to be an average forum or hardware user.

The official line from the publicly acknowledged ones involved is they are doing beta correlation however in the past they were reporting to a viral marketing firm that boasted about their abiltiy to "Manage online communities" and "Create positive buzz". They also used phrases like "Strategic seeding [of] viral assets to ensure they are spread far and wide".

I could show you the website and it has prudently been pulled-
http://www.aeginfo.com/

For fellows that supposed to be beta testing nVidia hardware for nVidia and provide feedback from enthusiasts using the same, they spend a large amount of time haunting ATi forums|sub forums attacking ATi hardware. Go see Rage3d. They can't stay out of the "General ATi Radeon Discussion" and frequently take time to run down AMD in the "General AMD" section as well.