If you are not one to add in a 3rd party heatsink, better wait for the IceQ or IceQ Turbo version. HIS HD3870 is very hot since its heatsink is very small and the fan is extremely loud...like a hairdryer. And believe me, it is indeed a hairdryer.


If you are not willing to overclock on your own, IceQ Turbo may be better but when will it arrive here is anyone's guess. Also, the pricing may not be reasonable. Should wait for R680 if you haven't decide on an upgrade.

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Added on January 13, 2008, 12:34 pmEither you overclocked too much or the fan and heatsink are not efficient.

This post has been edited by clayclws: Jan 13 2008, 12:34 PM

The Sapphire HD3850 256MB and 512MB version has different cooling. Which cooling method is better? The passive cooling or the heatsink fan one?

I got these msges from guru3d.com forum

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Added on January 13, 2008, 12:48 pm"The 8800gt is by far a superior card and heck if you like aa/af eyecandy then forget the ati it falls on it's face. Personally I think the new ati cards are garbage because of the piss poor performance when aa/af are used which for me is a must I love nice graphics."

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=248268

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Added on January 13, 2008, 12:54 pmI not looking into changing it to a 3rd party heatsink and i dont mind the small heatsink/ loud fan.
Just as long as it doesnt has any heat prob/stability then it is okay for me...


This post has been edited by TheTraffic: Jan 13 2008, 12:56 PM

Thats very bias comment, used to test 8800gt and bro test and its crap.
He himself tested asus, zotac, galaxy 8800gt and he still prefer 2900xt and 3870.

This post has been edited by DevilMan: Jan 13 2008, 04:50 PM

hi, may i know how to set the fan to 50%? i am getting more than 80oC on GPU load (Sapphire 3870)

This post has been edited by Lucas: Jan 13 2008, 04:48 PM

use ATI tool or riva tunner .

flash new BIOS

wa flash bios is not recommend to newbie .

anyhing happend u gonna kill the GC .

bang Sniper expert already he flash GC bios everday

when are you changing to new gpu. ur card 3 more 3 days old.
exceed your usage lifetime edi.

I'm not planning to change the stock cooler. so will i face the heat-prob too?

thanks, am using ATI tool now, using dynamic fan control

Above 0c = 31%
Above 70c = 39%
Above 75c = 48%
Above 80c = 57%
Above 85c = 68%
Above 90c = 79%
Above 95c = 88%
Above 100c = 100%

any comments and modifications? THanks in advance. I am using Sapphire HD3870, with stock fan.

or use ASUS SMARTDOCTOR which is provided by asus 3870 pckg

yes you will

i thought stock BIOS will fix the fan @35% no matter we force it via software @50% for example? yes? no?

erm...
by using ATi Tools, i'm fixing her @50% speed... (manually la...), besides i'm on naked casing...

no, you can always use the rivatuner to fix the fan speed.

check the link here, fan speed problem fixed bios.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33912408

But how come the reviews state that the stock cooler is sufficient?
If it is gonna cause heat prob wouldnt ATI do something on it b4 release?
That means all the owners of 3870 will have to change to 3rd party cooler? NO right?

So i guess there will be alot of heat just that we have to adjust the fan speed right?
So conclusion? no heat-PROB?

who told you it's insufficient?
3870 will not die even the load temperature reach 95C.
so basically if you don't oc, your card most likely will be fine with default bios.

He did...
Anyway TheTraffic, if you don't overclock, the stock heatsink and fan is fine. Even if you overclock, you can set the fan speed to be very high (and very noisy) and you'll still be fine. People in here are mostly enthusiasts that like to overclock and most of us like to make sure our graphic card stays a lot cooler and quiter than normal...so that's why we change the heatsink. Also, changing heatsink on a GPU is the same as CPU...you may be able to extend the limit of overclocking.

And again, wait for R680...

This post has been edited by clayclws: Jan 13 2008, 07:09 PM

its not actually called R680 as per say...

its actually 2 RV670 in a single board connected by a plex pcie bridge

i would say an R680(2x rv670) will perform comparably to pair of 3870 crossfired

My hope...is that it actually work as a SINGLE card and NOT CF...so that all motherboard without CF support can actually use it. If it is so, I would say, it is indeed R680

Oh, btw, it is officially spotted at CES2008. Refer to: http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=224402

This post has been edited by clayclws: Jan 13 2008, 07:49 PM

does anyone tried cat 8.1 BETA ? i have use it but in ATi cp showing i was using cat 7.12.. is it cat 7.12 modded driver ?

but 3dmark06 score increase a bit.