Diamond Viper ATI Radeon HD 3870 PCIE 512MB GDDR4 Video Card

List Price: $192.99 Discount Price: $159.99

Features:

• 512MB memory size, 256-bit memory interface GDDR4 memory configuration
• Support for Microsoft Direct X 10.1 / Shader Model 4.1, OpenGL 2.0
• Up to 24X Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing
• High-speed 128-bit-HDR (High Dynamic Range) rendering
• Built-in HDMI and 5.1 surround sound

Customer Reviews:

Super Quality Awesome Video Card [Posted on 2008-03-25]
Ok, I wanted to receive and use the actual card before actually writing any kind of review for this puppy.
I play 2 games ALOT - "Eve-Online", X2 "The Threat" and X3 "The Reunion" (egosoft.com)
First thing is first: I ordered this card on a Monday and received the card
the very next day on Tuesday morning at 9-am sharp, UPS knocking at my door with their usual.
"It's UPS !" as the girl yells out, and me so happy and surprised at the quality of delivery of the product from AMAZON.com trying to wake up and run to the door. - Thank you AMAZON :)

You open the box to find this rather large gorgeous red card inside, I had a grin
from ear to ear and taking in the view of this beautiful card.
She is a Bulky Gorgeous thing but it fits perfect into any ATX case.
Believe it or not I even smelled the card, I love it...

Ok, now to the important stuff. This card has many options to connect to external sources and has plenty of extra connectors.
I passed through the manual and one thing broke my heart.
It does not explain in detail about having to connect the power supply directly to the card. This card needs to be directly connected to the power supply in order for it to work properly.

Look for a BLACK Connector on the back-side of the card. thats where it goes. The cable for this black connector is in the box "go get it"...

But the manual does not mention that. Also the manual looks kinda dingy and they need to make a colorful booklet with (detail) discription on what to do, with color pictures.
putting a very high quality card like this with a horrifying manual booklet that looks like it was made on 1982 is just horrible and
with a very scarce information in it, is just plain wrong,
And in insult to the card.

I installed the card, mind you its a really big card, she is a big girl.
When I installed the card and installed the CD for the driver installation,
I would see a ATI logo in my Icon-Tray at bottom right after installation.
I click on it and would see RV680.
I was very confused as to why it would not mention anything about Radeon HD-3870. - well to find out later RV680 is my onboard motherboard video card and NOT the Radeon Card.

Well, here it goes - The drivers supplied by the manufacturer is very old version and for some reason not recognized by Vista Ultimate 64 bit OS.
first you need to download this driver which is perfect for this card,
(I'll explain in a bit) - but here is the link for the proper driver for this puppy.
ATI Catalyst v8.3 for Windows Vista (64-bit)
http://www.gamershell.com/download_23595.shtml

Install this driver from ATI and you would will thank me for it.

I installed this driver from Gamershell which is the only site that actually has v8.3.
ATI website themselfs has only v8.2, why is that I have no clue.
But its pretty upsetting that ATI would not have v8.3 and only have 8.2 and another website would beat ATI in their own game.
So I installed the driver from Gamershell website and BANG !!!
The card came alive. !! I got a pop up saying ATI Radeon was alive...

The card sounded like it was going to take off and sounded like I was
standing behind a F-17 Raptor Jet Engine.

My system went into over drive and my monitor got clearer.
The system boosted to faster speed and everything over all got faster.

ONE BAD THING THOUGH:
The fan to this big girl only works at 25% of speed, and you need to find a software to speed the fan up to 50% speed.
Because this big girl does get hot when used alot on 3D gaming.

I did several Benchmarks with several softwares and my Benchmark Rating is:
132 fps - This is my system.

AMD Phenom 64bit 9600 - Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe WIFI AM2+ - ATI Radeon HD-3870 - Vista Ultimate 64bit w/SP1
Kingston HyperX-DDR2 2gig x4 (8gig Ram) - WD SATA Raptor 150-X (x4) - Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Fatality Platinum
Antec P182 Advanced Super Mid Tower ATX case - LiteOn-SATA DVD-RW Drives (x2) - Vantec - MRK-250ST (x2)


FINAL TAKE: A Must Get Video Card for Gaming, Video Editing, Sound Editing.

compatability [Posted on 2008-04-23]
It is worth noting that you must have a motherboard that supports PCIe 2. A lot of other video cards still work with PCIe 1.1 but this one won't. I don't think there's much warning of it so look up your motherboard specs and be sure you're compatible.

PS. I wish there was an n/a rating as I can't really speak for how it performs.

Performance/Price/Quiet [Posted on 2008-05-15]
A year ago this card would have cost $500. For $175 (current pricing) its a steal. For $350 you can get crossfire up and running.

I had a X1600 Pro crossfire with a X1650 sapphire and the HD3870 single unit blows those 2 away.

It tripled my performance on many games including TF2, WIC, FEAR, Assasin Creed, Six Vegas, COD4.

The only downside is the Crysis still blows...and is not playable at anything above 1280x1024.

1 other huge bonus....super quiet!! Almost no heat or sound coming from this card.

AWESOME!!!!! [Posted on 2008-06-14]
I STARTED OUT WITH JUST ONE OF THESE CARDS ON A HIGH END GAMING MOTHERBOARD AND WAS VERY IMPRESSED WITH THE RESULTS . THEN I ADDED
A SECOND 3870 PCIE CARD SET IN THE CROSSFIRE AND CAN'T BELIEVE THE
RESULTS . A HIGHLY RECOMENDED PACKAGE . THE ONLY COMPLAINT THAT I
HAVE IS IN RUNNING SOME OF THE OLDER GAMES AND THIS COULD JUST BE
AN ADJUSTMENT ISSUE , BUT GAMES THAT I COULD RUN IN VISTA [ON MY
LAPTOP ] WILL NOT RUN AT ALL WITH THIS CARD ALSO IN VISTA . ALSO
KEEP IN MIND THAT WITH TWO OR MORE OF THESE CARDS YOU WILL PROBABLY
NEED TO INCREASE YOUR POWER SUPPLY AND OF COURSE ,THE BETTER THE REST
OF YOUR EQUIPMENT IS THE BETTER THESE CARDS WILL PERFORM . TOM C.

Solid ATI/AMD Product [Posted on 2008-06-28]
Great Product from AMD/ATI, Others have hit allot of the Good points and also the Sparse Documentation, Just go to AMD's site there is better info on the card, and a PDF manual with More Information.

Notice:

This Card Will Work With PCI Express 1.1 and 2.0, To Clear up the poster that said it will not work with 1.1 based Motherboards.

PCI Express 2.0 Spec is Backward Compatible with All existing PCI Express Spec's 1.1 .

To make it clear, All Motherboards will except this Card 1.1 and 2..0 Alike. There is no need to update your Computer or motherboard to use this card, The Nice thing is when you do, you can use it in your new 2.0 spec board also.

If you need more information on PCI Express, Please Google it, it will explain all the Confusion some are having, i am running this card in a 1.1 Pci Express Mainboard with No Problems.

Hope this helps.

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