Published in Reviews

Overclocked MSI R3870 X2 tested

by on07 February 2008

Index



Testbed:

Motherboard:
EVGA 680i SLI (Supplied by EVGA)

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6800 Extreme edition (Supplied by Intel)

Memory:
OCZ FlexXLC PC2 9200 5-5-5-18  (Supplied by OCZ)
        while testing CL5-5-5-15-CR2T 1066MHz at 2.2V

PSU:
OCZ Silencer 750 Quad Black ( Supplied by OCZ)

Hard disk:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATA (Supplied by Seagate)

CPU-Cooler:
Freezer 7 Pro (Supplied by Artic Cooling)

Case Fans:
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 12 PWM
Artic Cooling - Artic Fan 8 PWM

ATI Driver:

Sample-R680_xp_vista_8-451-2-080108a
8-1_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_57717

Nvidia Driver:

169.21_forceware_winxp_32bit_english_whql 


Futuremarks

MSI R3870 X2 runs at 860MHz core, which is 35MHz more than reference speed. However, the memory was left intact and runs at 900MHz, but inexperienced users are given an easy option to overclock their card using D.O.T. tool (Dynamic Overclocking Technology) within Catalyst Control center. Still, this kind of overclocking will only let you overclock your memory up to 955MHz and the core to 878MHz. We compared MSI R3870 X2 card with the reference HD 3870 X2 and have seen a slight performance increase. You can see the difference in the tables below.

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Radeon HD 3870 X2 is a very powerful card, and that's obvious from 3DMark results. This card is currently the undisputed king of 3DMarks, but in gaming it beats the best Nvidia card only by a small margin. Two RV670 on a single card run great, and since MSI overclocked them we see slightly better results compared to a reference HD 3870 X2. Except for F.E.A.R., we decided not to use the results when the card was overclocked to 878MHz. The main reason is that this overclocking doesn’t seem to bear significant results, so we’re hoping that the new driver will set this straight.

Image

In Company of Heroes, AMD HD 3870 X2 card beats 8800 Ultra. With antialiasing on, dual chip card beats single HD 3870 by 50%, whereas without antialiasing, the difference is 32%.

Image

Image

In F.E.A.R., ATI beats Nvidia’s Ultra without breaking a sweat, and we see that HD 3870 X2 is faster than Ultra by up to 32%. Overclocked MSI R3870 X2 card beats reference HD 3870 X2 by 4% to 7%.

Image

After two good results, HD 3870 X2 met its match in Crysis. At 1600x1200 the game is playable, but only without FSAA and Aniso filters. The main reason for this are the drivers, and although there are drivers that can fix this, they’re exclusive to Vista.

Conclusion

We tested this exceptional R3870 X2 card, and it really packs some muscle. Two RV670 chips run on a single card in CrossFire mode, and as soon as CrossFireX driver comes, we’ll be able to chain two of HD 3870 X2’s and harness their power.

Basically, you’ll get the same performance using an HD 3870 X2 or two HD 3870 X2 in CrossFire. MSI overclocked their card to 860MHz and left the memory intact at 900MHz but you can push it up to 878MHz core and 955MHz memory using MSI’s D.O.T. tool, that’s quite suitable for inexperienced users.

D.O.T. would most definitely benefit from some additional polishing, but all in all it seems like a very good and user-friendly tool. This card has potential and we’re confident that it’ll gain on popularity as the drivers get better. If you want ATI’s high-end card priced under €400, MSI R3870 is definitely a good choice.

 

 


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Last modified on 11 February 2008
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