darkowl72
Regular
311 messages
joined Oct 2015
The Sapphire HD 3870 is hands down the best ATI card I've ever put through its paces. It actually holds its own against the 8800GTS 640MB, though in my book, that card still misses the mark of being truly elite. This card did extremely well in 3DMark06, consistently beating the 8800GTS across every resolution—and the gap only widened as the resolution climbed. Honestly, I haven't seen a GPU perform this well at high resolutions before. In the 1680 x1050 setting, the Sapphire HD 3870 never dipped below 46 FPS during gaming tests. What really surprised me was the thermals; it sat at a cool 48 Celsius while idling and only hit 60 Celsius under 100% load. Even when pushed to the limit, I couldn't hear the HD 3870 over my CPU cooler. I did notice that right when I power up the PC, the card's fan spins like crazy for about a second, making a loud noise. It didn't bother me one bit, though. A moderator from The Sapphire forums told us it’s totally normal—just a quick Power-On Self-Test. Taking the card apart was a breeze, and swapping in my own thermal paste was even easier. That’s a huge plus if you're planning on slapping an aftermarket cooler on it. Usually, installing the display drivers for ATI has been a headache for me, but I didn't run into a single hiccup with this one. Plus, The Catalyst Control Center remains a solid tool for tweaking performance. With HDMI, DirectX 10, and HD support, this card covers all the bases, and at a $219.99 retail price, the value is insane. Definitely put this Sapphire HD 3870 on your Christmas sale wish list; it handles high resolutions like a champ and supports all the latest tech without breaking the bank.
Overclockers Club. Look, if this card is supposedly in the same league as the 8800 GTS, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to run every Call of Duty title out of the box. People keep telling me it isn't actually a loud card either—apparently, the fan only screams at 100% during the initial boot-up, but once you're actually gaming, it stays cool and the fan is barely even audible.
So, here’s what we can take away from all that:
Maybe you just got a dud that keeps pinning the fan at 100%. Try fixing that through The Catalyst Control Center or SpeedFan to get those RPMs down. Just keep an eye on your temps—use the numbers mentioned above as your baseline. If your temperatures start spiking wildly once you dial back the fan speed, let me know.
Either they shoved some refurbished card down your throat from a pile of returns where the fan's already dying and making a racket...
Look, here’s how you handle it: if the PC is still under warranty, just take it back to the shop and tell them it suddenly started making a ton of noise. Don't mention that it's been loud since day one. Just get them to swap out the GPU for you. If the warranty is expired, you've basically got two moves: either buy a new card or just fix the cooling on the one you have. Honestly, any decent cooling kit is going to cost way less than a whole new graphics card. If your current card is still performing well enough for you, upgrading the cooler is probably the smartest way to go.
If you're looking to swap out that GPU, the HD 4670 is technically an option since it’s stronger, but I wouldn't suggest it. Honestly, you should go for the HD 4830 instead. It sits right in that same price bracket—you can find it at Best Buy—and it's a significantly better card. The memory bandwidth is way higher thanks to that 256-bit bus, so you won't run into any issues running whatever games you throw at it. Plus, it runs cool and quiet. I actually picked one up for my son recently and I'm pretty happy with it. For the cash you're spending, it's easily the best bang for your buck, even if it isn't exactly top-of-the-line cutting edge stuff. I can't find anything using that search engine link. It looks like it's broken or just isn't pulling up any results.
Look, just to be safe, you should probably list out your specs first: what CPU are you running, how much RAM do you have, what kind of power supply are we talking about, and what resolution are you playing at? Before you make any final decisions, give me those details—it could totally change my recommendation.
And look, at the end of the day, you probably haven't even fixed your case airflow yet. It’d be smart to just slap a 120mm intake fan in the front and a 120mm exhaust in the back. That’ll seriously help the airflow and stabilize your temps if they actually are an issue—though I don't think they are right now. If you've got the rig sitting out on the desk with the side panel open, the fans should have already dialed back their RPMs. But hey, just something to keep in mind for later...
