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    ati mobility radeon hd 3870 x2

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by kazuma, Sep 19, 2008.

  1. kazuma

    kazuma Notebook Enthusiast

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    i'm thinking of getting one right now, is it a good purchase?
     
    kazuma, Sep 19, 2008
    #1
  2. 660hpv12

    660hpv12 Notebook Deity

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    ? the card itself? how does that work? do u have a barebone laptop that supports it? I'm not aware of a laptop that comes with mobility hd3870 x2

    link plz
     
    660hpv12, Sep 19, 2008
    #2
  3. kazuma

    kazuma Notebook Enthusiast

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    something like this

    Intel(R) Core 2 Duo T9400 (2.53Ghz/6MB/Penryn/1066/35W)
    4096MB (4GB) DDR3 1066Mhz (2x2GB)
    320GB (7200rpm) SATA
    512MB 2 x ATI HD3 870 (Crossfire) PCI Express ( Doble VGA )
    17.1" WUXGA (FullHD, 1920x1200) Widescreen
    DVD±R/RW Dual Layer SATA
    Intel 5300AGN Wireless

    would it be worth it?
     
    kazuma, Sep 19, 2008
    #3
  4. Harper2.0

    Harper2.0 Back from the dead?

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    what laptop is that?
     
    Harper2.0, Sep 19, 2008
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  5. Prydeless

    Prydeless Stupid is

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    That looks like the OCZ Whitebook, which has 2 3870s in crossfire and not the the 3870 x2. If that's the case, then it's really too early to tell if its a good buy since retailers are only taking pre-orders. It does have the potential to be a pretty sweet system though.
     
    Prydeless, Sep 19, 2008
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  6. lewdvig

    lewdvig Notebook Virtuoso

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    I have to look this up.
     
    lewdvig, Sep 19, 2008
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  7. ichime

    ichime Notebook Elder

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    Yeah, he's probably talking about the OCZ whitebook. It's really two Mobility Radeon 3870s rather than a single 3870 x2. Due to driver issues however, ATi Catalyst and other programs/applications that reads out the driver information will see it and report it as a 3870 x2.
     
    ichime, Sep 19, 2008
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  8. kazuma

    kazuma Notebook Enthusiast

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    yeah it's based on the ocz whitebook.
    is there really any difference between being two 3870 and one 3870x2 (2 gpu's in the same board)?
     
    kazuma, Sep 19, 2008
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  9. rschauby

    rschauby Superfluously Redundant

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    Yes,

    3870x2 is a single graphics card with 2 separate GPU's built on the same card.

    Two 3870's running in Crossfire are physically separate.
     
    rschauby, Sep 19, 2008
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  10. kazuma

    kazuma Notebook Enthusiast

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    yes i know but i was talking about performance wise.
    i'm guessing that the hd 3870x2 doesn't have crossfire problems since it's on the same board...it's only the two separated 3870's that have crossfire problems with some games, am i right?
     
    kazuma, Sep 19, 2008
    #10
  11. brainer

    brainer Notebook Virtuoso

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    well if you are gonna buy the GPUs, then you should be aware that ATI mobile card support is minimal, since i'm a SLI user, although Nvidia has great mobile cards support, but its barley keeping up. so with Crossfire, if you had a problem its going to take a long while to get fixed.
     
    brainer, Sep 19, 2008
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  12. kazuma

    kazuma Notebook Enthusiast

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    that's the thing, i really don't know if i should buy them.
    anyone knows how good are these boards? the mobily radeon hd 3870 is top of the line of the mobility brand of ati, it should have a good performance with two of them right?
     
    kazuma, Sep 19, 2008
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  13. narsnail

    narsnail Notebook Prophet

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    should be very similar to 9800m GT SLI if there is support. I would stay away from Nvidia for now personally.
     
    narsnail, Sep 19, 2008
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  14. Arondel

    Arondel Notebook Evangelist

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    Take a look at the tests Mark (Killernotebooks) is doing at http://guruofgaming.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2294&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
    He regularly updates the thread as he improves on the already mighty good stuff!

    Hope it helps! :)
     
    Arondel, Sep 19, 2008
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  15. brainer

    brainer Notebook Virtuoso

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    Crossfire Scales much better than SLI. but what im afraid of is because its the first time they do Crossfire on notebooks.
     
    brainer, Sep 19, 2008
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  16. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

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    Looks like a nice setup, but I'd replace the cpu with the P9500, unless the price difference is too substantial. You might as well go for the full Centrino 2 experience.

    The only concern for the mobile Crossfire setup is how motivated ATI will be with the driver support. You'll have plenty of power.
     
    Kevin, Sep 19, 2008
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  17. Harper2.0

    Harper2.0 Back from the dead?

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    Well neither ATi nor NVidia have support for mobile cards. Its all up to the manufacturers to give driver support. This is where the mobility modders come in.
     
    Harper2.0, Sep 19, 2008
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  18. kazuma

    kazuma Notebook Enthusiast

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    well, at the site i'm buying it's the same price for both the p9500 and the t9400, so that's why i went with that one.
    from what i've been told here in the forums, for gaming and regular tasks like work there's no advantage between both cpu's. but for video encoding the t9400 is superior. since they're the same price, i thought i should go with the t9400. (but the t9400 does require more power, which means less battery life).

    i'm using a laptop with an old mobility radeon x600 lol, and i have to use the official catalyst desktop drivers and then use mobility modder to have them regularly updated, because the latest drivers sony has are from 3 years ago =D
     
    kazuma, Sep 19, 2008
    #18