Hardware Sapphire Radeon HD 3870

no rush dude, just wondering if its something that effects them all or if its something specific to my combination of hardware/software

 

Whop. This review makes me so happy. Just bought this card (black box and all), and it should arrive on friday. Thanks alot tim.

Btw, since this is almost a reference card, any chance on seeing a crossfire review? Cause that would probably be my next upgrade ;P

 

Hi Danzki, do you mind me asking where you bought your one from?

 

Hi Danzki, welcome to the forums. Our original reference card review covered CrossFire performance - the only game that showed us really worrying performance was Crysis... however, there is a patch coming very soon that will apparently fix this and we'll be doing a follow up with Crysis/CrossFire once the patch is released.

 

i heard sumwhere that they are planning on releasing a dual gpu crossfired single card?

any1 else got some more info on this?

 

Crap, I just ordered the -20R thinking it came with the Black Box! Tim, can you confirm the part number of the card you reviewed?

Thanks!

 

"666 million transistors"

A devilish card

 

I got the friggin -20R as an xmas present and I only wished for the damn card over the 8800GT because of the black box bundle.
Damn do I ever feel like having drawn the shortest straw.

This is so incredibly unfair. I've been looking forward to playing Portal and Team Fortress II for 2 months only to open the box and find the voucher wasn't there.

Edit: Of course I'm overly happy and thankful for the present I'm just disappointed by Sapphire shipping the 50R as PR and 20R to the rest of us... or whatever.

 

Yeah, I am not a huge fan of this marketing tactic used by Sapphire

One of the key points of all the reviews of their cards has been the inclusion of the black box but the SKU that includes is impossible to find.

 

now they changed the design to take up just 1 slot instead of using that extra one for cooling.



i bought the one that takes up two and it dont matter to me that they changed it but one thing that i didnt realize the card didnt have is video input. i thought all new cards had video input. someone please tell me im wrong and that it can accept video input. or that there is a version of the 3870 that does and i can pair it with my sapphire one.

 

ATI Radeon HD3870X2 (R680) (/ HD3890... unofficially)

Here's a pair of 'em in Crossfire: (long or what!!)

 

I noticed the left side of the sticker (on this 3870 pictured in the review) has a haze/distorted color to it on the left side.

My Sapphire 3870 also has this. Do you think they did that intentional? Or is it a defect in the sticker? I think it makes the card look cheap like that. Mine seems to have become worse once it was used, like the heat caused it or something.

 

Nevermind, I checked other sites, and in every review, the sticker has that hazy look on the left side. Although I don't know if its intentional to look like smoke or just a defect.

 

As written above I expected to receive the retail package as reviewed here on bit-tech and instead I (after opening the box of course) recieved a cheaty little bugger retail pack that did not include the Valve black box.
After having opened the box and researched the fact I found that the box that bit-tech reviewed is almost impossible (or was at least at the time) to come by.
And the great difference between the two retail versions is so indistinguishable that I find it a screw over. I'd gladly have paid the extra 10 quid to get the other retail box. But ha ha funnily that was too late seeing I had to open the box to figure out the voucher was missing.
Oh yeah and there was some other great software with the other box as well.
The "retail" box they sold me was definitely not "retail" but rather OEM in a box looking at what came along with it.

I think it's to screw over customers to release two visually almost identical retail boxes and making sure that reviewers recieve the premium while ordinary customers not aware of this will find themselves screwed after opening the box.

And so you might ask "why didn't I take it back if it was possible?"
Simply because I had waited so long to finally start gaming in high quality (had an old graphics adapter prior) and secondly I'm not sure I could bring it back since I had opened the box and not sure I would since it was a present.
But I had been looking forward to the black box for about a month so I was rather disappointed.

Of course it was a generous present to receive no matter what, but it felt like receiving a beautiful sweater only to find a large hole in one of the sleaves after having used it a couple days.

The card itself is great and works a treat. But hadn't it been for the freaking Black Box voucher (that I never saw) I would have gotten an Nvidia Geforce 8800GT instead.

So to me this was all a win-win situation turned into a big minus towards ATI and Sapphire.
If they will sell me a black box voucher for the 10 quid then we're even otherwise I think they can go ***** themselves. Honestly. That is just a dishonest way to promote a product.

 

Oh and yeah I know it may sound like I'm a spoiled brat for not being completely happy with a present but that's just completely beside the point. As I'm trying hard to convey I'm very grateful for the present.

Another analogy would be: You really wish for that new "Space Port 2001" box of lego so you can start building that cool space port you saw someone else build from the kit but once you receive the "Space Port 2001" box only half the legos needed are there...
Oh well.... don't know if any of you righteous people see my point but it still leaves me a sad experience richer.

 

that sucks dude. I've passed this onto Sapphire - hopefully they'll either come back to me or they'll sign up to answer your concerns directly.

 

Thanks Tim!

I actually searched their site(s) for some contact info after I got the card but all I could find was phone numbers for support in far away countries (I'm in Denmark) (and RMA and Tech support email in the US but I would like to speak/mail to someone relevant) so I kinda gave up on it there as I don't think trying to argument my way through endless lines of supporters and vice executives that would be short curcuited by the first supporter thinking "well too bad. Face facts kid!" all the while in my non native language and at long distance rates.

So thank you for following up and caring.
I hope to hear from you or Sapphire soon then.
If they want to get hold of me I'll PM you my direct contact info.

Cheers mate!

 

Whilst I can sympathise with your position I don't see how Sapphire have done anything wrong. They have multiple SKU's and you bought/were given a different one to what you had your eyes on. Sapphire may well arrange something as a good will gesture, but you can't blame them for your mistake.

 

Oh so whatever marketing and product multiplicity with no greater explanation regarding content being spit out is good karma in your book?
I'm not trying to blame them for my mistake. I'm hoping they'll be somewhat acknowledging to the problems following not clearly differentiating closely identical products and perhaps even acknowledge that it's a good idea to not release the same GPU/board/model in two not clearly labeled retail packages in case they want non-internet über techies to be able to order their products without researching online for unknown possible problematic scenarios.
Or at least do something to make sure reviewers are aware that there exists two identically titled boxes and they are reviewing the premium. Or is that too much to ask?

But you're right. I mistakenly assumed that RETAIL meant "with included software" and not just OEM in a box. And I mistakenly believed that bit-tech reviewed THE Sapphire Radeon 3870 Retail box. And I mistakenly ordered the only available Sapphire Radeon 3870 Retail box from danish online hardware stores according to the largest price index in my country (edbpriser.dk).

It wasn't until I received the box and looked inside it that I started searching online for some confirmation of this. And then only two places had direct mention of it. One was a comment to the bit-tech review and the other on (I think) some smaller british hardware review site. The product code from the smaller site then helped me find the full retail via google at a danish online store that I had never heard of before...

But yeah from now on I'll never order anything without triple checking product codes and eventual SKUs. I've learnt that I should not expect clear speech from any hardware manufacturer as I should never expect a shovel to be a shovel but to make sure that it has the correct shovel for shoveling product code.

 

I guess the last 5-6 posts should probably be moved to this thread: Sapphire Radeon HD 3870

In this thread there are 2 other users posting (link) concerning the confusion surrounding that product launch and naming. Just to point out I wasn't the only one who apparently found Sapphires naming unclear.