HD3870 & 3850 Reviews

Looks like there is going to be a card for everyone this christmas =)

GPU (RAM) - MSRP
8800GT (512) - $259
HD3870 (512) - $239 ($219!!?)
8800GT (256) - $199
HD3850 (256) - $179

VR-Zone - There is hope for ATI.AMD!
TweakTown - Good but not great.
LegionHardware - Another disappointment from ATI.AMD
AnandTech - Back in the game for now until Nvidia solves their pricing & availability issues.
HardwareCanucks - Good performance and excellent value but bad drivers and warranty
PC Perspective - Great addition to the mainstream GPU market
HardOCP - Highly recommended!









Edited by skyR - 15 Nov 2007 at 10:30pm

Yay, you just have to love the holiday season as a consumer.

I doubt the prices will lower when there is such a high demand for them. They are sold out everywhere =( Even EVGA has them backordered =\

I had a chance yesterday to get EVGA KO and a chance today to get Galaxy OEM but I decided to wait for EVGA SC.. now they're both sold out and I'm regretting the decision that I didn't make a purchase =(


Edited by skyR - 14 Nov 2007 at 11:18pm

Looks to me like ATI may be in a good position to give Nvidia a run for it's money this round. I read the reviews, and to me anyway, it looks like the card is so-so right now, but has tremendous untapped potential. There's a whole lot of muscle in that card waiting on a good driver set. That's what I gather from Legion Hardware's rather negative review anyway.

I think it'd be premature to count ATI out of the race. Better drivers and ATI's newfound willingness to allow it's partners to offer factory overclocked cards, may yield better performance. Availability and pricing are another point. If ATI manages to produce enough to keep up with demand, they could definately steal some of Nvidia's thunder. Finally, that last bit about the two different cards running in X-Fire...that's very cool stuff.

Overall, I hope ATI does extremely well with this card series. ATI's success is the only thing that will keep price of Nvidia's offerings low. Tight competition between the two GPU manufacturers is good for the consumer. As someone hoping to upgrade GPU's soon, I can only say:

Edited by Tyler Lowe - 15 Nov 2007 at 12:15am

seems to me the 8800GT and 8800GTX are still the better cards lol.

The HD3870 isn't bad at all. Amazing value for a card that with a decent overclock can challenge the 8800's. The HD3850 though... That's the card that needs to be in the configuration screen badly. A card for under $200 that at stock speed lays the smack down hard on an overclocked 8600GTS? Oh, yes please. The only thing that makes me a bit sad, is they 680i is Nvidia based so I couldn't run XFire if I went ATI when I upgrade. Keeping an extra ~$70 in my wallet ought to sooth any misgivings.

I saw that, but wasn't sure if that was simply drivers, or a combination of drivers and physical modification of the board.