ATI Radeon HD 3870 & 3850

Zitat

Without a doubt, AMD is back in the graphics game. When the Radeon HD 2900 XT launched, we couldn't be more surprised at how poorly the product did. The lack of competition allowed NVIDIA to sit back and relax as the orders for more 8800-based product kept on flowing in. While the Radeon HD 3870 isn't faster than the GeForce 8800 GT, if AMD can hit its price point, it is a viable alternative if you're looking to save money.

AMD is in a lot of trouble however if the 8800 GT pricing/availability problem does get worked out; the 8800 GT does offer better performance-per-watt and better performance in general, at the same price the decision is clear, but luckily for AMD the two don't appear to be selling at the same price.

The Radeon HD 3850 is a bit slower than its more expensive sibling and as such ends up being tremendous competition for current mid-range cards like the GeForce 8600 GTS or Radeon HD 2600 XT. We only compared it to the 8600 GTS in this review, but the 3850 similarly obsoletes the 2600 XT.

Both cards from AMD are quite competitive today, but the balance of competition could easily shift depending on pricing and availability of either these cards or their competition. If AMD can't deliver on the prices it is so adamant about meeting, it loses serious cool points. Similarly, if NVIDIA can get enough 8800 GTs in the market, or if the 256MB version actually hits at $179 - $199, AMD would be in a lot of trouble.

Zitat

Both the ATI Radeon HD3850 and the HD3870 come in at a price significantly lower than their older brother, the Radeon HD2900XT. At US$179 and US$239 MSRP for the HD3850 and HD3870 respectively, the HD3870 will costs a good USD$60 dollars less than the NVIDIA 8800GT!. At about the same price, the HD3850 is delivering slightly better performance than can be expected of the 8600GTS which is a good sign for ATI. However, the HD3870, targetted at the 8800GT is just falling short of the latter's performance at this point in time, but the 60 dollar difference might just be the deciding factor for th enthusiast to grab a HD3870 over the 8800GT instead.

As the drivers for the HD3000 series are still immature, we might see the cards getting a performance boost once newer, optimized Catalyst drivers are released, which has been evident with the past few generations of ATI cards released.. Just like the 29XT, the RV670s both come with 5.1 sound onboard and are all-in-one HDMI solutions, something that cannot be found on Nvidia's cards.

It is also important to note that both cards have greatly reduced power consumption and heat production as compared to the HD2900XT. In the case of the Radeon HD3850, ATI has managed to cool it without the use of heatpipes unlike NVIDIA's 8800GT despite both cards having a similar power draw and a single slot cooling solution.

In all respect, ATI has demonstrated the advantage in moving to the 55nm process. That the HD3870's gaming performance generally matches, if not surpasses the HD2900XT is further proof of the advantages of moving to the new fabrication process. Added to that, ATI is pushing for CrossFireX which not only allows for more than 2 cards to be used in CrossFire configuration, it also allows for mixed-cards Crossfire abilities. With this, ATI is starting show positive signs in the direction they are taking, especially with the fantastic price point of the two cards, significantly lower than what their rivals are offering.

» Beitrag diskutieren (72 Kommentare)