Well, there's been some buzz about AMD's updated Radeon HD line. Fortunately, questions that have been surfacing around the internet and even in these forums can be answered. From [H]ard|OCP's review: The Radeon HD 3850 is really the star of the show at its price point of $179. The fact that it contains the full 320 streaming processors as the Radeon HD 3870, with simply lower clock speeds means it is one lean mean fully featured machine. We consistently saw it smacking around the 8600 GTS factory overclocked video card. The gameplay advantages weren’t small; they were night and day noticeable in many instances. The Radeon HD 3870 can be summed up as being slightly faster than a Radeon HD 2900 XT, with less power draw, but not as fast as a GeForce 8800 GT. However, at $219 the 3870 does offer a great value with the average selling price of the GeForce 8800 GT being over $290. More reviews around the web: Anandtech Hexus Hot Hardware PC Perspective Tweak Town Tech Report
Big B is the 8800GT really faster then the 3870XT? A superclocked 8800GT has: -core running at 650MHz. -512MB GDDR3 Memory running at 1900MHz. A 3870XT which is not overclocked has: -GPU running at 775MHz. -512MB GDDR4 Memory running at 2250MHz. Does that mean a 3870XT is faster or am i wrong? Plus it has more potential if you overclocked it.
Look at the performance numbers in those reviews. A higher clockspeed does not mean instantly better performance. Efficiency, number of pipelines and shader---these are what the performance is also affected by besides just the clock speed. Numbers are an indicator, but should not be the only thing in your decision. Unless the reviews are all lying, the 8800GT is faster than the 3870. On the flip side, the 8800GT is also more expensive, so it evens out. If you want the fastest, the 8800GT is a better choice. However, the priceerformance ratio is in the favor of the 3870.
