HD3870, HD3850 review - Is RV670 the new mid-class DX 10?

Page 11 - Conclusions

Truth is AMD again didn't to that good. Their leading model – HD3870, was late again and in spite of the great expectations its results are lower from those of 8800GT, while being in the same price range. At the same time the AMD's drivers (at least for Vista x64) are crude and although that could be fixed soon, the weaker performance cannot be compensated .

HD3850 is a different thing. The card is aimed at 8600GTS and although we didn't have the chance to demonstrate a direct comparison between the two, from what we've seen outside of this review 8600 don't stand a chance. The price is a bit higher, but the potential for overclock is huge and even on default the price is worth it. Whether 256MB or 512MB is a thing depending sole on your budget and the use for it you have in mind. At lower resolutions and/or settings, where the volume of textures drops considerably, the difference between the two 3859 is insignificant, while the price difference between 309 leva (~155?) against 350 leva (~175?) (at the current moment), will hopefully soon diminish even more.

So we openly declare the HD3850 the bearer of the crown of middle class DirectX 10 video cards. We straightforwardly recommend the Sapphire models, the company being one of the major and most serious partners of ATI, their products a symbol of quality, and the three that we tested in their appearance and price are the best on market in Bulgaria.

Once again we thank to to our partners from Solytrade for the tons of hardware for testing they provided!

Author: Dimitar Dinchev, a.k.a Veseliq

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