This week AMD came to unveil its latest generation of ATI graphics hardware, an awaited release that without a doubt created a lot of expectations and speculation especially because of two factors:
1) The dominant player, Nvidia had just killed its whole high-end line up two weeks before, in favor of an affordable and more efficient model, the GeForce 8800GT.
2) A holiday season that has shaped up to become one of the most exciting in recent times for PC gamers, with a buttload of good titles like Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis, Call of Duty 4, World in Conflict, The Orange Box, Bioshock, Hellgate: London, and the list goes on...
So, designed to combat the GeForce 8800 GT is the Radeon HD 3870, which features a long list of very impressive specifications. Already we have learned that the Radeon HD 3870 delivers 2900XT-like performance for the most part, which is both disappointing and impressive. It is disappointing because the GeForce 8800 GT is faster than the 2900XT in a majority of titles. On the other hand this new Radeon features an attractive price tag of just $220, making it a fair bit cheaper than the 8800 GT.
What is more impressive is the fact that AMD just announced the Radeon HD 3870 and it"s already selling for just $220. For the time being, GeForce 8800 GT cards are very hard to come by and often users are forced to pay considerably more than the $250 MSRP.