Decent looking card the heatspreaders under the fan seem to have things covered.

Interesting on this quote under conclusions ..

Ignoring the spelling error seen plainly in FF without a spelling and grammar checking program ... Its almost scary the difference in results between the two systems. Also why did they only run the Palit 8800gt on the Intel system and the others on the AMD if they knew it would skew the results ?

I dont understand why the two different rigs and only use the 8800GT in the Intel system. It ruins any sort of credible results. The 3870 is close in several tests so it should have been used in the Intel system for sure to make the results more credible.

Thats what I thought too

Last I checked, the higher performing your CPU the better your scores are in almost any benchmark. At the same time I was checking that I was also checking to see if the Q6600 was kicking the dog crap out of the Phenom 9600 and it seems that it was.

I also agree that they should have at least used the other cards in the Intel machine to see how they did. But, they couldn't have done that and still said they didn't know why it ran better on the Intel machine.

So the best I can figure is that they didn't really have anything interesting to say since they ran the same benchmarks as every other review site in the most unimaginative ways possible. But the want to be different so there's nothing left to do but create a misleading set of data to draw meaningless conclusions from.

In other words, this is a review on a review site not a forum thread so what did everyone expect?

I'm curious about how reviews set their reviews up in general. The 8800GT is really an upper mid-range part. You wouldn't expect to find it in a high-end system but that's exactly where they've placed it. Top of the line CPUs, top of the line RMA, top of the line mobos and high-end hard drives.

Now I've heard the old- we're trying to eliminate anything that affects performance except the video card routine before. That's fine, show some of those test results to establish the baseline for the card.

But the results of the card on a mid-range system are totally not indicative of how it will perform on a high-end system. There are simply too many variables that can slow it down.

So here am I, a regular old consumer, trying to do some research so I can do the right thing when I upgrade my video. I look at these scores they show and think, kool, I'm going to get this card so I can do what they show.

I know that's a little simplistic but reviews really are misleading to many many people.

I would think they would at least show SOME results of cards and CPUs in a relevant system build. Here's another example: http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...or_x1300/3.htm dated July 2006.
and http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/gx1600/2.htm
and http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...x800_gto/3.htm

All of these reviews use a 3700+. So try this for yourself. Go to this page, http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/ and start clicking on video card reviews. Check the date on the review and the CPU they used. You can tell exactly when they got a new CPU because all reviews after that date use the new proc.

Now I'm not trying to fault them for not being big guys and having all the latest and greatest parts but they owe it to the people that read their site to at least MENTION that the reults they got with their (varying) high -end to mid range CPUs may not tell you what YOU will experience.

</rant>

Read through both your posts and agree especially on the results and conclusions on this review. All reviews should follow a standard baseline and why would they run the majority of the tests on the Phenom platform when the Intel CPU has been used in MANY reviews I have seen and proves solid. This is important because you are not relying on a super CPU to skew results you are using something everyone is familiar with .. correct ?

Funny you mentioned super high end systems being used for reviews and quite frankly who cares? Chaos and I were talking tonight about a cooler review I will be working on and it should be done on a midrange system. Who cares about getting 10 zillion 3dmarks the review is about cooling .. right ?

But back on topic using the Phenom setup the HD38xx series matched or even out benched the Palit 8800GT especially in 3Dmark6 as seen on this page ....

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi..._8800gt/12.htm

If the tests had been done on both systems what would the HD38xx series have done on the Intel setup ?

I'm right with you. I have requested a couple samples which should be here next week. I went out and bought a Q6600 and a 780i board.

I went ahead and opted for a Thermaltake 1200W PS. While I'm quite happy to finally get one, my wife now hates this website and has denounced computers for the last time. I commented that would leave her more time for cooking and now it seems I have more time for QW:ET. If anyone you would like to join me just add Pa to your friends list.

But I digress.

It's one thing to say it's lopsided and another to spout off on a forum. So I got the stuff and I'll run the numbers and share what I find out here.

That sounds cool and my upgrade should be done second week of Feb I am going still with the E6550 duo and of course will be running all tests at stock settings. I also have access now to a newer AMD dual core machine so might use that as well at least its a fair comparison as both have been tried and tested.

I am still planning on modding an HD3850 or HD3870 unless someone sends me one of those new HD3870x2 to play with .. I have some cooling mods in mind

while i agree that there should be a baseline of sorts I am tired of the same bla bla bla bla reviews. Im not sure what i want to do next time around but I do know the 8800GT has been reviewed to death, so ideas for something different are welcomed.

perhaps I will remove the heatsink and see how long it will take to reach thermal meltdown

Was thinking of actually including an overclocking section as well be nice to see what the card can do. I am talking both the card and the system we have seen this E6550 O/Ced stable to near 3.9G and with 4G of OCZ reaper ram @1000mhz should work well. Both the stock Intel settings and the stock AMD setting will serve as a good baseline I think.

Also 2 cards in Crossfire or SLI modded with something like the Accelero S1 might also provide a nice twist.

the S1 would be too large for SLI me thinks And besides that their Turbo module is a piece of crap, I actually turfed mine in the garbage cause it kept pissing me off and eventually one of the wires broke preventing the second fans operation. The idea was ok but the build quality left alot to be desired

Ya, wouldn't it be great a site would tell people about a card and actually have some fun with it?

Yep I agree and Chaos on the S1 I have an idea for the HD3870x2 actually using 2 of them ... on the turbo fan kit was disappointed on your feedback but I did find some nice quiet dual fans in this OCZ ram cooler that might work nicely they are very thin

A few seconds. Tried it already.

Have you been food poisoned yet?