8800GT or maybe a Radeon 3870...

[EarlGrey]

Dear Hexites, please have a quick read of this:

Nvidia's dreams of Christmas sales begin to fade

"40,000 units of the GeForce 8800GT have shipped worldwide. To put these volume numbers into perspective, other sources have stated that AMD has already fulfilled orders for 250,000 of its Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 models for its launch later this week. It was stated that an additional 150,000 will ship before year end. Prices for 3800 series cards should ship between $180-220."

If the speeds are comparable, and Nvidia simply released early to try and catch the market, without proper stock, then perhaps we should just go with ATI...

Tom's speculates that the 3870 is close to the 8800GT in terms of performance, and cheaper to boot.

SCAN, what info do you have on availability of the new ATI cards? I am getting fed up with waiting for my 8800GT which has been on preorder for over a week. Whilst I am aware that other etailers are in the same position, I am unhappy about the lies on the website, and lack of disclosure of real stock times.

If Nvidia (or other partners - EVGA, BFG, ASUS...) lied to SCAN about when they would deliver cards then please feel free to publicly declare who is at fault.

It would be nice if someone (SCAN?) would take the initiative and let the buying public know exactly who was trying to pull the wool over our eyes so that we could avoid buying from them in future.

So what do you think dear HEXUS readers... Should I cancel my preorder in frustration. Wait for ever for my 8800GT, or order a 3870 from another website...?

[Taz]

I'm in the same boat as you. It is very, very frustrating at not being able to order the card you want. I wish I had the luxury to wait a few weeks but I don't have. The irony is that the current CPU of choice, the Q6600, is widely available. The current graphics card of choice, the GT8800 isn't and the best alternative isn't even released yet!

[EarlGrey]

Well, the verdicts are in.

HEXUS manages to show a situation in which the 3870 is actually faster than an overclocked 8800GT!

HEXUS.net - Review :: AMD Radeon HD 3870: the new midrange DX10 king? : Page - 11/14

Though if you read around the web, generally the 3870 is about 20% slower, and 20% cheaper. Fair enough, but not what I'm after. The pre-order stays...

[Lucio]

I pity AMD/ATI, ever since the 8800 series came out they've been lagging behind, and with each generation of card that comes out, nVidia is dominating them.

Still, when it comes to it, you can't buy what isn't for sale, and the ATi card is good enough for most users.

[rabbid]

h__p://www.vr-zone.com/articles/AMD_Radeon_HD3850_and_HD3870_-_AMD%27s_salvation%3F/5392-3.html
(Hexus didnt accept this url so replace __ with tt)

ASUS Radeon HD 3870 512MB G-DDR4 :: TweakTown

some more reviews!

At least the prices seem reasonable and will probably fall more soon, arent the HD2650 ATi range and NV8700 range due this month?

[EarlGrey]

I think these cards could be just want ATI needed actually.

The high end cards drive mindset, so they will have to find a way of getting the message across that the 3850 and 3870 are great cards, but they do appear to be great

If you look at Valve's hardware survey (through steam) most gamers still use 1280x1024 or lower. A 3870 would be great at that resolution, and as such I would recommend one to any one with a suitable monitor.

Without a doubt it is the best bang per buck for low resolution, and as HEXUS has shown, it flies through Crysis with ease

and btw, Crysis is the best Hollywood Blockbuster of a game I have ever played. If you like your movies over the top, loud and in your face in traditional hollywood fashion, then you will love Crysis. I recommend lowering the resolution you play at in order to turn up the effects... Turn shaders and Post processing to high, then go into Crysis\Game\Config\CVarGroups open sys_spec_PostProcessing.cfg in a text editor and change the last paragraph to:

[3]
r_DepthOfField=1
r_sunshafts=1
r_MotionBlur=1
r_colorgrading=0
r_GlowScreenMultiplier = 0.2

The only change being that it turns on the sunshafts, which in some portions of the game are truly stunning

(This is a 'DX10 only effect' thus has a fair performance hit in XP under DX9, but is well worth it. And don't get me started on DX10 only... I for one am sticking with XP, now I've seen what you can 'unlock' with a little edit of some cfg files.)